Creep I.E. Aftermath 2024 - Highlights
September 20th through the 22nd the Ontario Convention Center hosted Creep I.E. Aftermath. Guests included Juliette Lewis, the cast of E.T., Mayans, Terrifier and more. This convention is centered around pop culture with a sprinkle of horror, so guests enjoyed meeting people from all genres from their favorite movies and TV shows. I only attended Saturday, but I was still able to take in some of the panels, vendors, celebrities and experiences.
When the doors opened for VIP 1 hour before general, I thought I would get my content with the Talent out of the way first. I knew I wanted to meet Henry Thomas from E.T. and Mike Flanagan’s shows/movies such as Midnight Mass and Haunting of Hill House to name a few. I got in Henry’s line and stood in line for about 45 mins making “line friends” as I awaited his arrival. I was then told by a staff member that I could not be in the VIP line because I wasn’t VIP, which from a logistical standpoint I understand but also, why was I let in with VIP if I can’t physically do anything until general admission gets let in? Luckily, the people who paid for VIP who were in line with me told the staff member, “Let her stay. She’s cool. She can cut in with us” and after a few back and forths arguing on my behalf for me to stay, the staff member gave in and let me stay. Huge shoutout to the people in line with me. They did not have to do that. I have conflicting feelings on the whole media thing when it comes to lines. On one hand, I believe the media should not be allowed to use the VIP lines because we didn’t pay for it. On the other hand, we are there to get content for the convention so if we are standing in lines, those are hours we are wasting when we could be getting coverage elsewhere. There should probably be 2 types of passes: Press and Media. Press is you’re shooting stuff for yourself and your business ( ie YouTube). Media is shooting stuff for the convention itself, sending them the footage, etc. Media should have all access whereas Press should not. This also isn’t just a Creep I.E. thing, it’s most conventions. A lot of big conventions explicitly say “Media cannot use the VIP lines”, however in our email for Aftermath it didn’t state that anywhere. Something to note for next year is a little more clarity so there’s no confusion. It’s also hard to police people when everyone feels entitled with a camera. There has to be some boundaries so I get it.
Aside from all that, I was able to meet Henry Thomas. He was very sweet. I told him I loved his work in Mike Flanagan’s shows and movies as he was signing an 8x10 of Eliot and E.T. for me. I later went back and had him sign an 8x10 of him in Midnight Mass which is my favorite Flanagan show he’s in. I asked Henry if he played Dungeons and Dragons and he said he did but not as often as he’d like to. I asked him what his favorite race and class were. He said (something) Elf…it wasn’t Half Elf or Elf. I had never heard of the kind of elf he was speaking of. I’ll have to do more research on my races. As for class? He said he liked playing Druids and Rangers. He told me he plays 5E now but when he was a kid he played whatever the 2nd edition of D&D was. I was like, “Oh I heard the older editions are brutal”. He goes, “Yeah, you couldn’t just pick a character like a Bard. You had to level up by being other things like an assassin or thief to unlock certain classes” I told him I was still learning about D&D and he suggested I play Baldur’s Gate 3 because the mechanics are pretty similar to playing the game. I said I had a PS4 so sadly I could only play Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 from the 90’s. I told him I’ve played a few one shots so I’m still getting used to the roleplaying aspect. He said he prefers playing longer campaigns with friends as opposed to one shots. I was like, yeah it’s hard to find a core group of people to play with. Even with virtual games. He said he learned about D&D through Robert (his brother in E.T.) on the set of E.T.. I joked, “It’s always someone who gets you sucked into it, isn’t it?” Henry is a big Star Wars fan so I asked if he had ever played any of the Star Wars RPGs. He had not but seemed interested in them. He was a delight to talk to. It’s funny because when I approached his table nobody was in line. We were talking for so long that when I turned around there were like 15 people in his line. I was like, oops. My bad guys.
Next, I went to meet actor Ethan Suplee. I think most people know him from the TV Show My Name is Earl, but I know him from the film Without a Paddle, which stars Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepherd. I brought with me a Without a Paddle photo I had gotten Lillard to sign so I wanted to get Ethan on there as well. I went up to him with my poster and he goes, “Holy shit, you got everyone?” I think he saw Matthew wrote all over it and thought they were other signatures. I go, “No, just Matt.” He’s like, “So you need Seth and Dax” I go, “Yeah and Abraham Benrubi” His face lights up, “Benrubi! Yes.” I said, “I know Seth does conventions and I might be able to get Abe. Dax might be difficult.” As Ethan was signing I said, “So you guys filmed this movie in New Zealand?” He goes, “Yeah, how random is that? When I read the script it took place in Oregon and I was like, Oregon? Cool. And then they were like, oh by the way we’re going to New Zealand.” Ethan was great. I told him my dad and I have seen this movie so many times it’s embarrassing because we know all the lines from it.
Looking around, I saw that not too many people had long times to meet them. Nick Castle who had a huge line at H45 was basically a walk up. The only people who had a decent sized line all day were the Terrifier cast and Juliette Lewis because she was only there one day. Ron Perlman and Billy Dee Williams were there. Billy Zane was also there. I contemplated getting all of the E.T. cast to sign something, but I really didn’t want to spend all my money to do that. I’m super picky on what films I want to have an ensemble cast sign a poster for. Scream and the original Halloween are basically it unless more people from Jurassic Park start attending conventions. Without a Paddle is kind of my niche cast poster. It’s the exception because it’s more of a challenge and I kind of like that.
After leaving the autograph hall, I explored Art’s Sideshow which is a room full of life size prop replicas of various horror icons. There was Pennywise, The Joker, the creepy clown doll from Poltergeist, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and more. Upstairs was the Fangoria VIP lounge. It was a room with some tables in it and a photo op of The Shining door with Jack and Wendy standing next to it. I assume this display was also from Art’s Sideshow. There was another room that had a video rental store in it but I never found it. I only found out about it after the fact when some people were featuring it in their coverage videos. Fear Farm had their haunted maze which was next to Art’s Sideshow. Their characters were wandering the halls trying to get people to come in.
The vendor hall was a lot smaller than Creep I.E. Con in February because they included some of the celebrities there. I saw a lot of the same vendors I saw previous years but also some new ones. My dad ended up buying a cool vintage poster of the Overlook Hotel as well as a Jason Vorhees t-shirt from Tee No Evil. My friends over at Toxic Doom Studios and The Magic Oil Box were there vending. There were vendors selling flannel shirts with horror characters on the back of them, rugs, shoes, skateboards and pretty much anything you could think of.
Something new the convention had this year were panels. They had panels with the Terrifier cast, E.T. cast, Billy Zane and more. I attended the E.T. Reunion panel with Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Matthew De Meritt, C. Thomas Howell and Robert Macnaughton. There, they shared funny and interesting stories about how they were cast in the film, what it was like making it and how the film impacted their careers. It was fun to see Henry and Robert acting like brothers during the panel. You can tell after all these years the two of them still have a genuine friendship. C. Thomas Howell and Dee Wallace were adorable. Matthew demonstrated the “E.T. walk” which was cool to see. There were so many people involved in creating that character from props to stunt people like Matt to special fx people moving different body parts when there wasn’t anyone in the suit. It makes sense now why Drew Barrymore thought E.T. was real. At certain points there were real people in the suit.
After the panel, I went outside to get some food at one of the food trucks. I had a really good chicken, rice and cheese burrito wrapped in a freshly made tortilla. I believe the name of the food truck was “Mexibachi”. They had a food truck selling pizza and another selling fancy grilled cheese sandwiches. You could get alcohol out there as well. The convention had a wrestling ring outside where they were doing matches every hour or so, so you could grab some food and watch the fights. That was fun to see. I did not attend the After Party like I did last year, but they had live bands performing and a cosplay contest.
Overall, I had a good time. While I enjoyed the lack of huge crowds, it did feel kind of strange because of it. I think a lot of people were upset about Creep I.E. Con in February that they sat this one out, but hopefully they reconsider next year. I noticed Creep I.E. made some changes that benefited the con like requiring a ticket to see a panel so people don’t camp out for them or having more staff on hand to answer people’s questions. They’ve always been good at listening to people and being open to taking criticisms, then making improvements for the next convention. If anyone is interested in their next events, Creep I.E. Con tickets for 2025 are already on sale. Get them before they’re gone!
