​My first ever Texas Frightmare Weekend happened this month and speaking as someone who attends multiple cons per year, this was easily one of the best. The list of guests, specifically the unreal amount of headlining celebrities, pretty much sealed my purchase of a weekend pass a good 8 months prior to the event. My ultimate person to meet was Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead 1&2, Army of Darkness, Ash vs. Evil Dead) having failed to attend any convention where he was making an appearance before this, I already knew what prints I was bringing for him to sign while anxiously imagining what he might say to me. Some other huge appearances for me were Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs from Re-Animator, Tim Curry, Elvira, Robert Englund and Heather Lagenkamp from Nightmare on Elm Street, Sam and Ted Raimi and a ton of Halloween people including Nick Castle. Just the sheer amount of waiting in line paired with the amount of time and money each day ensured it would be impossible to meet them all. I would have to prioritize and inevitably miss out on some of the actors in order to get to others. Such is life at a horror convention. Plus when I got there, I realized other celebrities showed up I wasn't even aware were attending and I just couldn't pass up missing them in that moment. I've learned to strategize horror conventions as much as I can, especially when I didn't opt for VIP tickets or line skip passes. I would have to rely on my cunning wit and power walking skills, which is tough to do among hordes of horror fans all foaming at the mouth to get in the doors.
 
So here was my gameplan for the weekend with the guest announcements I knew of (admittedly I missed a bunch leading up to the event and re-prioritized as needed):
 
Friday:
Nick Castle
Barbara Crampton
Jeffrey Combs
 
Saturday:
Elvira
Bruce Campbell
 
Sunday:
Let's see how much money I have left 
 
This plan didn't include any merch shopping or unexpected must-haves. Having met Robert Englund previously I knew I would have to miss him this time. Saturday would be devoted to Bruce Campbell. Same with Tim Curry, I knew there wouldn't be enough time. Many of the bigger headliners weren't showing up until Saturday and Friday nights tend to be a little less crowded for that reason. You can really clean up with autographs and shopping early in the weekend. I skipped out on photo-ops as those cost extra and take up a lot of time. Plus i'm just not big into pictures of myself with people. I'd much rather have an autographed print and a little time to interact. Those photo-ops are robotic and head-spinningly fast and what if the pic comes out weird? You're usually out of luck.
 
So here is how the weekend actually turned out:
 
Friday:
Nick Castle
Barbara Crampton
Jeffrey Combs
Tom Savini
 
Saturday:
Elvira 
Bruce Campbell
 
Sunday:
Meg Foster

​This was by far the most autographs and meetings I have ever had at a convention mostly due to lining up at the door early everyday, knowing exactly where I was going and having 3 days to do it. Most cons I've been to, I've had none of these advantages. Get a map of where all the vendors and signings are gonna be if you have a lot you want to do. The way the floors were set up Friday night were changed up by Saturday to make room for new guests and vendors. Saturday was sold out so I felt better having a handle on the layout and devoting the entire day to Bruce. And after hours of waiting for him, we finally got to walk up to his table!! I was hyped to show him the artwork I bought years ago melding together characters and key images from Evil Dead 1 & 2. Something I didn't see anyone else have in the endless lines ahead. He asked me what I do when I'm not at Texas Frightmare and I said I was a horror writer. Bruce said to "keep it up" which for him probably didn't mean as much as it meant to me.

​Naturally, when you go to meet high profile guests you know it's going to come with a long wait and minimal meeting time once you get to the front. And honestly, most of the people I freak out about meeting aren't the guys that take forever in line and are usually able to take their time and really talk with you. My favorite meeting I have ever had was with Meg Foster on Sunday. Someone I have admired and loved in everything but had no clue was going to be at Texas Frightmare. I told her as much and she replied, "I didn't know you were gonna be here either!!" while giving me the biggest hug even though it was our first time meeting. I was so excited to tell her how much I loved her work and that I based a primary character in many of my short stories on her. It felt strange to open up to someone so quickly but I really felt like I could. She looked into my eyes the entire time talking with me and said, "It takes a lot to make a movie, doesn't it?" From there I sprung into how I was trying to get everything in place to make my own horror movie and talking with her made me feel like I could. I really needed that.

​It was crucial to me that I carved out some time to get a seat for the screenings of the fake horror trailers and short films. I am a huge supporter of indie horror and donate to all sorts of crowd-funding campaigns because I believe in it so much. They were all super impressive and the entire audience was hype and encouraging throughout. My favorite of the trailers have to be Butcher's Bluff and Shovel Head - hoping they end up putting these into actual production. I am looking to submit something of my own now that I know this convention accepts submissions!
 
And let's not forget the only time I like to shop is at a horror convention. I will post pics of my main finds including my first ever Mondo print purchase, a shirt from Pallbearer Press and some Re-Animator grabs too good to let go!

Conventions have always been an outlet for me to get around like minded groups and make connections with all sorts of talented people living and breathing this stuff. I suddenly blend into spaces at these things with my black horror shirts and tattoos. It's oddly comforting and I've met some of the nicest people excitedly rushing up to ask things like where I get my shirts or how cool is it watching Elvira check into her hotel 2 feet away. She's just like us! It's weird to be surrounded by so many extensions of things you love all at once even if only for a short time. I constantly remind myself not to let it go by too fast. 

I couldn't leave Texas Frightmare without dropping some brand new Witchdoctor promo cards on the networking table. I have never done something like that before but someone awesome made them for me as a birthday gift and I figured why not put them to use? I love to meet horror fans so feel free to reach out to me anytime! 😈😈 😈😈

For more cool horror and writing stuff:
Follow me on Instagram: @thisiswitchdoctor

To kick off my haunted house festivities this month I had Scout Island Scream Park at the top of my list. A brand new Halloween carnival fest featuring three separate haunt attractions, fright zones, thrill rides, ghostly games, music, food and drinks. I could not wait to get there even with the knowledge that there would be a Cirque Du Fear fright zone that I could only assume would be creepy clowns and vaudevillian gore. I have a real problem with clowns for anyone new here. But I stayed cool until we grabbed our All Access passes and ran eagerly over to the entrance only to find this dude:

"Wonderful," I thought. Now we have to go home." Turns out we did not go home and I did not regret this decision once we walked past the spindly legged, toothy grinning creepshow!

Let me quickly cover the tiers of admission tickets. General admission basically just gets you in the door to walk around and check out the sights without having any of the fun. The fright zones are free to walk through and that's about it. All Access passes allow you into all of the haunt attractions and carnival rides as many times as you choose. Games are a separate charge and obviously any food, drink or souvenirs are extra. They also offered a VIP Access pass which I would only recommend if you want to come to Scream Park much later in the night when the lines are going to be packed and you want to skip the longer wait times. We were there from 6-10pm on a Saturday night and did not experience a wait beyond about 20 or 30 minutes which was unexpected and awesome.

Though this is Scream Park's first year, I was impressed with how many terrifying and varied props they placed all over the area and inside their attractions. As a collector/fanatic of horror props and animatronics, Scream Park's were top notch. I would have liked more scare actors running around the park and even inside some of the attractions, but I know the festival is still looking to hire more people for this. The scare actors they did have were incredible though. The detail in costume and FX makeup were on a pro level and everyone kept in creepy character no matter what. I had so much fun just walking around waiting to be messed with.

Okay so like I sad earlier there are three main haunt attractions: The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour, Zombie Outbreak Battlefield and the Scream Factory Haunted Fun House. We decided to go the Fun House first because we wanted things to get dark before we did the outdoor stuff and also because I knew it would be the scariest for me. I love haunted houses, I hate clowns. This was going to be both. We were the last 2 people in the line of our group which was the worst spot to be since the staff made sure to put plenty of time in between groups. So there is nothing but darkness behind you and a harlequin lady with half a face whispering in your ear while she follows you for what feels like hours. I was legitimately scared and remembered being in line and seeing at least 4 or 5 people bail on it halfway through and bust through the emergency exit to escape. I understand now, I thought.

My favorite haunt in the whole place was The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour. They give your group some lanterns (I was a proud lantern holder) and they send you into the woods with the condition you do not stray from the forest trail. Easy enough. Walking into this gave me the feeling we were heading into the Temple of Doom:








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The Devil's Swamp Tour had a nice mix of walking through mostly pitch dark forest and then coming to these wonderfully elaborate and immersive staged walkthroughs complete with high end props, animatronics and scare actors. I bounced between fright and amazement at the level of detail and eeriness about the trail and it managed to have some story telling going on as well. We had a fun group of strangers to walk with and the trail was so much longer than I expected which made the wait feel worth it. I would have waited twice as long honestly. 

Unfortunately, we did not get to the Zombie Outbreak Battlefield because the wait was insane by the time we had finished seeing everything. My understanding is you play some lazer tag with zombies and you can bet I'll be heading to the battlefield first when I go back to Scream Park for a second time.

By the way, we took a ton of pictures to help convey the Scream Park atmosphere further so feel free to check out the slideshow below:

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