Monsterpalooza 2023 - Highlights
Monsterpalooza which was held at the Pasadena Convention Center June 2-4 2023, was a weekend of frights and fun with freaky friends from all different walks of life. I got to check out some of the vendors, cosplays, special fx demonstrations, photo ops, autographs and panels. This was my first time attending Monsterpalooza and it did not disappoint.
I attended Saturday and Sunday, so I was able to see a lot of what this convention had to offer. I arrived two hours early on both days to secure a spot in line. Waiting in line to get in wasn’t so bad though because I was entertained the entire time by cosplayers dressed up like monsters who would walk around and let people take photos with them. I even saw Bigfoot ride by on a one wheel while eating a granola bar. I was there by myself on Saturday, but I made some new friends in line. Making connections with people over the things you both love and enjoy is one of my favorite things about conventions. Everyone I encountered at Monsterpalooza was so nice and welcoming.
Once inside the convention center, I headed straight to the museum. The museum was full of cool art, sculptures and props from some well-known horror films. What I liked about this museum was that it had a variety of horror and sci-fi work. They had sculptures from The Terminator, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Exorcist, and more. I was looking at a lifesize figure of a character from Invaders From Mars and a man next to me was admiring the sculpture. He told me that this movie scared him as a child and asked if I had seen it. I said “no” and he began telling me the plot of the movie. By the end of our conversation it made me want to go watch it. This museum was great because not only did I enjoy the artwork from films I recognized, but the ones I didn’t, I learned about them and it made me want to go check them out.
After the museum, I headed into the vendor hall where I spent the majority of Saturday. There was so much to look at and I ended up stopping at every booth. There were a lot of really well-made masks. It was frightening how lifelike they were whether they were masks of monsters or of real people. I ran into Billy Butcher from The Boys aka Micah Ebbe from Feral Works. I sent a photo to my friend and he goes, “That’s a mask?!” He thought I took a selfie with someone who looked just like Karl Urban. Feral Works also had some masks of my favorite characters from What We Do in the Shadows. It wasn’t just masks that blew me away, but there were vendors showcasing some of their own lifesize sculptures of characters from movies like The Shining and The Conjuring. I encountered E.T. at one point as well as RoboCop from Cool Props. There were vendors selling merchandise ranging from cute horror decor like drawings, stickers, signs, paintings and plushies to grotesque figures and special fx makeup supplies. One of the big highlights for me in the vendor hall was seeing the live special fx makeup demonstrations stationed throughout. I was starstruck watching Ve Neill do a live prosthetic application at the Stan Winston School booth. I loved watching her on the show Face Off and I admire her work in movies. Seeing her work live and in-person was pretty cool. Also, I’m a huge Jurassic Park fan, so getting to see some of what the Stan Winston School had to offer felt like I was in the presence of greatness.
Once I finished my rounds in the vendor hall, I headed over to my photo op with Skeet Ulrich from Scream. The process was pretty simple. They give you a time to queue and line up and then they scan your ticket. I originally had a pose in mind, but I froze and only communicated half of it. That is why Skeet looks like a proud dad while I’m standing there with a crazy look on my face. I am not great at doing pro photo ops and I knew this going into it, but man. I think this tops the funniest photo I’ve ever taken. It has nothing to do with Skeet (he looks perfect and handsome as always). It has to do with me not knowing how to look “normal” when the pressure is on to take a quick photo. Skeet was very nice the couple of seconds I had with him. After I picked up my printed photo, I wandered into the last half of the Hocus Pocus reunion panel. They were holding a Q&A with fans and once that ended, the cast huddled in a circle for a group hug. It was really sweet to see. Seeing everyone together made me want to see them return for a third movie. The Sanderson Witches get all the credit for the film, but the child actors in the original movie were who we could all relate to the most. Everyone in the cast except Doug Jones left the stage. The panel moderator announced that Doug will be starring in the new Nosferatu movie. Director David Lee Fisher came out to surprise everyone and he and Doug sat back down and continued the panel giving the audience some exclusive insights into the film.
It was that time of day I was starting to fade, so I decided to get some shots of the Talent interacting with fans before I head home. Monsterpalooza’s celebrity guest lineup was missing a few key anchors to the show, but that didn’t stop fans from showing up and showing their love and support for everyone else who was in attendance. I saw cast members from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th signing for fans, the Chiodo Brothers, Tom Holland which was a pleasant surprise, Dermot Mulroney and Skeet Ulrich from Scream, the Hocus Pocus cast Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, Doug Jones, Larry Bagby and Tobias Jelinek. Amie Donald from the new movie Megan was there and I got to meet her. Her and her mom were so sweet. I told Amie how great she was in the film and told her that robots scare me. Her mom asked if I wanted to take a free photo with her and I did. Meeting her and her mom brightened my day. I hope to see her in more movies in the future.
Sunday arrived and I attended Monsterpalooza with my sister who came dressed in her Ash cosplay. One thing I noticed about this convention compared to other cons I’ve been to was just how good the cosplay was. You could tell every person who came dressed up as somebody put in a lot of hours and effort into their costumes, makeup and hair. I saw cosplays from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. There was a Teen Wolf wandering around and an Art the Clown. For the most part, I noticed a lot of original characters. That was really cool to see. Some of these characters were so creepy and disturbing, I’m surprised nobody has made a movie about them. My hat’s off to them for their creativity, originality and overall creepiness.
The first thing my sister and I did was get in line for Skeet Ulrich’s autograph. I was determined to take a redemption photo with him since I looked crazy in the other one. I went up to him and handed him my horror notebook to sign. I’m trying something new where I have people sign in a book so I can collect everything in one place as opposed to having a bunch of signed 8x10 photos. I don’t really have enough wall space for that. While he was signing I asked if he was having a good weekend and he said yes and he asked how mine was. He asked where I was from. I told him I was here filming stuff for the convention and told him I will be in Denver at the end of the month for Fan Expo to shoot that too. Him, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy and Neve Campbell will be in attendance too. He asked if I had looked up to see what the weather was going to be like in Denver and I went, “Oh yeah, it’s supposed to be like 95 degrees and possibly raining.” At least I won’t be the only one dying in the heat knowing the cast will also be there suffering. We are so spoiled living in Southern California. I asked to take a photo with him and we did. My sister was recording on my phone gimbal and he goes, “I like your phone rig”. I go, “Thanks!” He was super nice and easy to talk to. I had met him back in February at Creep IE Con, but I didn’t say much to him aside from “I like your work”, so this time I’m glad I got to have a casual conversation about the weather with him in a state neither of us live in. I love random chats like that. Later, I looked in my book to see what he wrote and out of all the Scream quotes he could’ve picked he wrote “We all go a little mad sometimes” which is hilarious because it perfectly describes the look on my face in the pro photo op and he didn’t even know about that.
My sister and I hit up the vendor floor again so she could see everything. We ended the day at the museum the way I had started my weekend. Even walking through it a second time, I was still in awe and took so many pictures. All in all, I feel like I captured a lot in the span of 2 days and it was such a great time meeting new people and experiencing the movie magic. The event overall was well organized and the staff were able to pivot in the face of last minute cancellations and changes. I wish everyone a speedy recovery to those who fell ill and could not make it and I cannot wait until next year’s Monsterpalooza.
FULL Monsterpalooza Experience
