By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
ScareFest Weekend returns to the Central Bank Center in Lexington this weekend, October 18-20. This year marks 16 years for the fan favorite convention that celebrates everything scary in film, print, and pretty much every other conceivable medium that delivers chills and the best sorts of night terrors. There will be photo ops, meet and greets, panels, and special events such as a whiskey tasting event with actor Matthew Lillard. And of course, vendors with popular and rare horror memorabilia.
Wes Forsythe, media manager and the ‘Face of ScareFest’ due in part to the extremely popular ScareFest Television Content Network, said that ScareFest is always working toward making the fan experience better. The convention has grown over the years and has built a reputation for booking great celebrities and celebrity ‘reunions’, where multiple actors from a popular movie or television franchise show up and give fans a group photo op. This year multiple celebrities from the movies Fright Night, Scream, Phantasm, and Children of the Corn will appear.
ScareFest also boasts rare appearances such as this year’s appearance by bestselling horror author Clive Barker, whose works of course are the basis for the popular Hellraiser movies. This year also brings together the three cast members of The Blair Witch Project, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leaonard, and Michael Williams. John Kassir, aka The Crypt Keeper, will be available all weekend as will Johnathan Breck, the Creeper from Jeepers Creepers. There will even be a celebrity ghost hunt with Dave Schrader and Rob Thompson.
“We never considered ourselves as just a convention,” Forsythe said of ScareFest. “We always wanted to be a vacation destination. And to do that, you have to give people something to do while they are there.”
“We have seminars, panels, and film festivals during the day,” he continued. “But after the convention doors close, we have entertainment like the Casual Friday live podcast with Kane Hodder, Felicia Rose, and Tiffany Shepis. Another podcast, Talk Scary to Me with Scout Taylor Compton and Danielle Harris and a dinner with Greg Nicotero. And the celebrity Ghost Hunt is a returning event everyone is excited about.”
Forsythe said that the Matthew Lillard whiskey tasting event this year has had a phenomenal response.
“Lillard contacted us well after he was booked to appear and asked about having a whiskey tasting,” Forsythe said.
Lillard, along with Justin Ware and Tim Sparapani, founded a whiskey company, and the actor wanted to share his whiskey with ScareFest fans.
“It’s another chance for his fans to meet Lillard, this time in a more personal setting with a limited crowd,” Forsythe added.
Over the past four years, especially, Forsythe said that ScareFest has grown to become one of, if not the, largest horror themed conventions in the country. He credits that in large part to having a phenomenal group of volunteers who work tirelessly to keep all of the convention’s moving parts working together and managing the organized chaos that all public events of that size share.
“We want you to have the best time, we want you to meet your favorite celebrities, and we want you to be able to browse through all the cool stuff our vendors have to offer,” Forsythe said. “So, we work really hard to make sure you don’t see any of the chaos. That’s our job. Yours is to have a really great weekend.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
