Monsterpalooza 2024 - Highlights
Monsterpalooza celebrated its 15th anniversary May 31st thru June 2nd at the Pasadena Convention Center. Guests included the cast of Terrifier, Scream, Candyman, Hellraiser and more. There was no shortage of horror makeup fx either. The vendor hall and museum were packed full of horror fans eager to explore and take in all of the gory, creepy attractions Monsterpalooza had to offer.
I attended Saturday and Sunday and both days had a lot to offer. I was sad I could not attend Friday because they had Nick Castle from Halloween and Bernard Rose who directed Candyman. I was going to add Rose to my poster beside Ted Raimi and Tony Todd but I guess I will have to catch him at the next con. Saturday morning I arrived late (30 mins before opening) to get in line and it was zig-zagged behind the building. I had never seen that many people in attendance. I got in line and luckily the doors opened soon after so I didn’t have to wait too long. The first thing I did when I got inside was get in line for the museum. I always look forward to checking out the museum every year so it was cool to see some of the talented horror figures and makeup fx. You could get up close to them and really appreciate the attention to detail the artist had when making these figures look so lifelike. I liked the various Chucky doll figures. I started watching the TV series a few months ago so I recognized the old/dying Chucky in the wheelchair. He looked just like the one in the show. I loved all of the masks of human faces. They were giving eerie uncanny valley vibes. I liked that we weren’t rushed in the museum and could take our time. I also loved that guests kind of formed their own lines to look at stuff and were respectful. Everyone waited their turn to take photos. I highly recommend if you go to a Palooza to check out their museum. I also recommend going there first because the line to get in throughout the day was huge.
After that, I hit the vendor floor. There were so many cool vendors selling horror themed merchandise, artwork, masks, tools for makeup fx people, and all sorts of collectibles. They also had makeup fx demonstrations going on throughout the day in various locations where you can stop by and see these models be transformed over the course of the weekend. I stopped by a few vendor friends’ booths while I was there: The Magic Oil Box, Small Town Weirdo, and Feral Works. The Magic Oil Box sells aromatherapy products that are horror themed. They are meant to help better your health whether it be to reduce stress and anxiety, sleep better, or you just need something to focus your mind. They had aromatherapy sprays, rollers, and shower steamers. I have their Elm St. blend roller which if I’m not mistaken helps with anxiety. I take it with me when I travel or go to conventions. It’s nice that it’s small to fit in my purse or backpack. Small Town Weirdo is a clothing company that specializes in custom made shirts and jackets centered around horror. They have a lot of cool hand painted denim jackets from films such as Scream and A Nightmare on Elm St. I bought one of their ringer tees and on the front of it it says: “It’s a Scream, Baby”. That’s a line Stu Macher says in the original Scream movie. I love the retro look of it. I also own one of their Final Girl shirts. The shirts are very soft and comfy. While looking at the fun horror masks for sale, I stopped by the Feral Works booth. They have cool masks based off of various celebrities but my personal favorite are the What We Do in the Shadows and The Boys masks. The faces look just like the real people. Micah who owns the shop was dressed up as a Tiefling Bard which was fun to see. Shoutout to Micah for introducing me to your friend over at the Immortal Masks booth. The woman working there is going to try and hook me up with a Dungeons and Dragons game. I’ve been trying to look for a group for months. Overall, the vendor floor was very diverse. I walked through there at least 4 or 5 times and I always saw something I missed the last go around. I particularly liked the vendor that had the collectible of the giant T-Rex head from Jurassic Park. I’m obsessed with that movie so that was cool to see. Of course, the Stan Winston School I also enjoy checking out.
After all that shopping, I did a quick pass at the Talent area to see who all showed up. Linda Blair, Michael Ironside, Giancarlo Espinoza, and Melissa Barrera just to name a few were signing for fans. The cast of Terrifier as I mentioned earlier and Hellraiser. I decided to head back to my hotel to take a break before I went out again for the After Party. While I was at my hotel that weekend I met some interesting people. I met a movie producer who my friend and I sat at the bar with for 5 hours and talked (that was Friday night). There was a professional jazz musician from New Orleans who was visiting who said he has played music for Former President Obama and Bush. He kindly picked up our tab at the bar too which was not cheap so thank you again. That was really nice. I felt like I was writing a movie in my head with all of these interesting characters you meet at hotel bars.
Chucky TV Show Cast Honoring Tony Gardner
This was my first Monsterpalooza After Party so I didn’t really know what to expect. I would classify it as a concert and award show more so than a party. I loved that there was seating. I love nothing more than being able to sit and enjoy music without having to break a sweat dancing to fit in with everyone else dancing. I’m 31 now. I like to “sit dance” in my seat. No alcohol for me that night though. We did enough damage Friday night. Strange Days was performing which was a The Doors cover band. They were really good. I loved every second of it from the cool keyboard to the singing. I feel like a lot of after parties I go to at horror conventions love to overkill with the techno 80’s music. I liked that they were a band playing regular music. Toward the end of the party, they surprised everyone with Don Mancini and the cast of the Chucky TV series to award makeup and special fx legend Tony Gardner with his Lifetime Achievement award. Watching the reel they played showcasing his work was cool to see because I recognized a lot of it. It’s nice to be able to put a face to the name you see in credits in your favorite movies. After the awards, Tony hung out by the front and out of nowhere party attendees started forming a line to meet him and take a photo with him. He graciously allowed it, so I am very happy I got to meet him, shake his hand and congratulate him. Overall, it was a fun night. It felt intimate and by 10pm they were wrapping things up. That’s my kind of party. At Midsummer Scream I remember leaving their party at like 11:30PM to go to bed only for Bob Gurr to show up right as I was leaving. I’ve never felt more ashamed of myself for having a bedtime earlier than Bob’s.
Meeting Melissa Barrera
Sunday I dedicated myself to autographs and photo ops. I checked out of my hotel and got in line outside the convention center early so that I’d have a guaranteed spot in Melissa Barrera’s line. I started striking up a conversation with the women in front of me. One was a mom and her 2 sons. The other was a woman around my age. The woman my age told me she works with animal actors and started showing me photos on her phone of all the shows and animals she’s worked with. She had dogs, Ostriches, a giraffe, monkeys. I go, “How do you not have an Instagram??” She goes, “Because I don’t like people.” I laughed, “That’s fair.” I asked which animal is the most difficult to work with and she said “Katie the capuchin monkey”. Apparently she’s a diva and kind of mean. That was the monkey that was used in “Friends”. She said she’s 36 years old. I was like wow, she’s older than me! She also showed me a photo of a 15 year old dog she worked with. He was in an episode of The Office. At this point, I’m so intrigued by the interesting people I’ve run into at this convention and am loving every second of it. The older woman with her sons was showing us photos of her dressed up like Tiffany from the Chucky movies and we were both like “Wow, you really do look like her.” She was in line to see Matthew Lillard who was only at the convention Sunday. While we were waiting around, we happened to be next to the window where Matthew Lillard’s table was. The girls behind me kept pressing their faces against the glass and waving to try to get his attention. One of them giggled, “Matthew, we’re coming to get youuuu.” He disappears for a minute and then out of nowhere pops up in front of the window, looks at us, pretends to slit his own throat and then walks away. It was hilarious. The girls were freaking out. I go, “Look, you summoned him!”
The doors opened and everyone made a beeline to different autograph tables. Myself and one of the sons went and got in Melissa’s line. Before we got up to her I asked him (his name is Shea) if he could record me meeting her and I would do the same for him. He said yes and we walked up together. Melissa was so nice. I showed her my Scream autograph book with all the different signatures in it. She thought that was cool. I told her I loved her in Abigail. We took a photo together and she gave me a hug. She gave every single person a hug. I also saw her hugging a man and they were both wiping tears away. Seeing her interact with people was so wholesome to witness. I thanked Shea for filming for me. He didn’t have to nor would I ever make someone whos’ not comfortable with it, but he was super nice for doing it. This is why you make line friends. Also, horror fans in general are some of the nicest people. We’re always out there helping each other out. Out of curiosity, I walked over to where Matthew Lillard’s booth was and followed the line to see how far it went. I got to the end, laughed, and decided to go back into the vendor hall to kill time because there was no way even if it wasn’t capped that I’d make it to the front in time before my photo op with him and Skeet.
I had 2 photo ops. One was a solo with Matthew Lillard and the other was a duo with Matt and Skeet Ulrich. I did the duo first. I decided to wear my Beadle and Grimm’s hat and Quest’s End Whiskey sweatshirt because originally I was just doing the solo op with Matt. Those are his 2 Dungeons and Dragons companies. I added on the duo last minute at the con because apparently I thought, “I didn’t spend enough money this weekend” Was it overkill? Sure. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. We were told repeatedly outside while in line “No hugging of the guests” to the point where it was ingrained into my brain. I was like, “Okay, so no famous Lillard hugs this time.” I go in, wait my turn to be seen and as soon as Matt sees me he freaks out, grabs me, pulls me over to him. I’m trying to show him my sleeve on my sweatshirt because it’s kind of hard to tell what it is. I go, “I even have your sweatshirt!” and before I could finish my sentence he wraps me in a bear hug and is like, “I know!” I’m laughing because I know you’re not supposed to talk to the guests during photo ops, but I was being held hostage at this point so I accepted my fate as I’m being squeezed. Skeet asks, “Do you play?” I go, “Um… I’m new.” Which is true. I’m not new to RPG but I’m new to DnD. I wasn’t going to lie and be like yeah, I’ve been playing for years. Matt finally lets me go, we take the photo and I turn to him and go, “I’m excited for Ring of Chaos”. It’s a new tabletop card game Beadle and Grimms is coming out with. He excitedly goes, “I play tested it last night!” I said, “Oh you did? Cool, I bought it. I can’t wait to play it.” In order to get it you had to preorder it way in advance. I could tell he wanted to keep talking to me but I also didn’t want to make the photo ops people mad so I slowly started backing away. I felt so good after that interaction. The two of them have such fun energy. It’s contagious. When I did the solo op, I asked Matt, “Am I allowed to do a hug pose?” because they told us outside not to do them. He goes, “You hug the shit out of me.” We broke all the rules during the ops but it’s fine. We love a rebel. After that, my day was officially done. It was 4pm and I felt really good about my weekend at Monsterpalooza. I love that I got to see convention friends and old friends I hadn’t seen in like 10 years. All in all, Monsterpalooza was definitely a highlight of my “Summer Staycation.”
