By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Scarefest Weekend returns to Lexington, October 17-19, filling the Central Bank Center with all things terrifying on the big and small screen. The popular horror convention is one of the largest in the country, and this year marks seventeen years bringing fans of horror and the paranormal together. This year fans can look forward to seeing Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Englund, as well as celebrities from other popular movies such as The Lost Boys and Grimm.
Scarefest Media Director Wes Forsythe has been with the show since the beginning, and said Scarefest keeps growing every year.
“I’m not going to stick my neck out and say we are the biggest horror convention,” Forsythe said of the Scarefest Weekend. “But I am fully confident in saying we are in the top five.”
Forsythe also offered a little insight into why people seem to be so fascinated with horror and other things macabre.
“Going to horror conventions like Scarefest or going to a haunted house is no different than going on a rollercoaster,” Forsythe said. “We (humans) are on the top of the food chain, and there aren’t many things that keep us on our toes. Fear isn’t programmed into us anymore, so we seek out that emotion because most of us don’t experience it every day.”
Experiencing fear vicariously through horror movies and horror television shows lets us experience the emotion of fear and the accompanying adrenaline rush from the safety of the movie theater or our own comfortable homes, Forsythe said. And people love to come to horror conventions because there is the added benefit of being able to peek behind the mask of popular horror characters like Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre or see the real face of the actor under the special effects makeup of Freddy Kruger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies.
“You get to step back and remember that these are actors on the screen,” Forsythe said. “Some of them might be better suited to be the villain in a horror movie, although that could be hype as well.” Forsythe said that horror actors seem to really love their fans no matter how violent and ‘evil’ their on-screen characters happen to be, and genuinely bond with them.
The attraction of horror conventions, Scarefest Weekend in particular, goes beyond movie and television celebrities, however. There are a lot of things to do and see beyond meeting your favorite actor or paranormal personality. Cosplay – fans dressing up as characters from film and other media – is an extremely popular aspect of the weekend, Forsythe said.
“Cosplay is a great byproduct of the fan convention. Everyone loves Halloween,” he said. “And horror conventions give you a chance even if it isn’t close to Halloween like Scarefest, to celebrate your favorite holiday.”
“You get to be someone else,” Forsythe said. “Everyone enjoys that once in a while. And there are some people that really enjoy the attention cosplay gives them. And that goes from someone who chooses a simple costume to those who go all out. They like people to notice who they are portraying, and they love for people to stop them and ask to take pictures with them. If I had to put my finger on my favorite part of conventions, it would be seeing what people come up with.”
Another popular thing with horror convention fans are special effects, Forsythe said.
“And a really interesting thing is that most horror fans overall prefer what you would call practical effects over special effects.”
Fans, he said, will love movies that might not be stellar simply because the practical effects like makeup are really good.
“They want the monster to be ‘in the room’,” he said. “They want the alien there even if it has to be lifted by strings or moved by boards. They want to be fooled, but they don’t want to be fooled by a computer.”
There are a lot of amazing CGI effects in movies, but he said that most horror fans are more willing to ‘suspend disbelief’ with a physically manipulated actor or object.
“I can’t think of a single horror movie that has reached ‘cult classic’ status that was based on CGI,” Forsythe said. “But there are practical effects movies people have loved for generations.”
Some of those movies and television series, Forsythe said, have been loved by fans over multiple generations – it’s common for parents to introduce their own children to their favorite movies – and are well represented at Scarefest Weekend. Multiple cast members from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies such as Robert Englund, Amanda Wyss, Brooke Bundy, and Brooke Theiss will be there. Friday the 13th is also well represented, with actors Kane Hodder, Barbara Bingham, Jensen Daggett, VC Dupree, Scott Reeves, and Tim Mirkovich. For a full list of actors and the movies and series they represent, visit scarefestweekend.com.
The Scarefest Weekend also has a lot of side events and after-hours events that fans love to attend. “One thing we have this year that is special, and we are the last stop on the tour, and supposedly this tour ends with us, is the Warren Occult Museum,” Forsythe said. “The Warren Museum of course is tied to the famous couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren. They were paranormal investigators, and the Conjuring movies were based on them. And that’s what you would consider a crossover event. Because the paranormal fans want to be there to try and see if the items are really haunted. And the movie fans, who might not believe at all, want to be there just to see what inspired the movies they fell in love with.”
Tours of the Warren Museum are during the day, but actual structured ghost hunts will take place in the museum area Friday and Saturday nights, Forsythe said. There will also be an additional ghost hunt led by members of the paranormal group, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers. In addition to these, there will also be Talk Scary to Me, a live podcast hosted by Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton.
Wrestler, actor, and rock musician Chris Jericho will be having a special event on Friday night. Kane Hodder, Felissa Rose, RA Mihailoff, and Steve Nappe will be hosting a bourbon tasting event on Thursday at Lexington Brewing Company. And for those interested in some of the skills behind the effects that go into making horror movies, there will be an advanced makeup and prosthetics class on Sunday between 1:30 and 4:30 pm. Rob Whelan and Hollywood effects artist Joe Castro will be showing fans step by step techniques.
Scarefest Weekend has something for everyone to enjoy, Forsythe said. A full list of celebrities, vendors, and events can be found on their website.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
