Son of Monsterpalooza 2023 - Highlights
In the midst of “Spooky Season”, The Marriott Burbank Hotel and Convention Center hosted Son of Monsterpalooza, which was held on October 13-15th. This three day event welcomed guests from films such as the Evil Dead franchise, Sleepaway Camp, The Exorcist and more. I attended on Sunday with my sister. We had a great time scoping out the vendor hall full of masks, special fx makeup and other horror themed merchandise as well as got to meet some of our favorite actors.
This was my first time attending “Son of”. My first time attending the original Monsterpalooza was in June of this year, so I kind of knew what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by how much more lowkey this event was compared to the bigger one. It didn’t seem as crowded and the Talent signing autographs had virtually no lines. The exceptions being Sam Raimi, Cassandra Peterson and Linda Blair. My sister is a huge Evil Dead fan. She has met Bruce Campbell a few times, but today her mission was to meet Ted Raimi, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly and if we’re lucky Sam Raimi. The first thing we did was get in Sam Raimi’s autograph line. His line was long but didn’t seem too bad considering it was a straight line that didn’t zig zag. We were informed that he would be busy until about 1:30PM and recommended we not wait in line and come back later. It was 11am and we didn’t want to spend that amount of time in line. Shoutout to the volunteers for keeping it real with us and also for moving us into the shade so we weren’t in the sun. That’s something I appreciate when I go to conventions is when the volunteers look out for us and keep us informed. Sometimes that includes telling us stuff we don’t want to hear. My sister and I got out of line and found Ted Raimi’s table which happened to be in the same room as Sam’s. Ted’s table wasn’t very busy so we walked right up. My sister had him sign her Evil Dead poster. She told him she was moving to Florida tomorrow and that this would be her last convention for a while so this needed to happen. I think Ted was happy that she took the time to come say hi knowing she would be hitting the road the following day. He gave her a piece of advice and I didn’t catch all of it but basically he said there’s a highway in Florida she needs to be careful on because cops will pull you over for speeding. I don’t know why I laughed so hard internally hearing him say that. It was so random but also a valid tip. It was my turn and I had him sign my Candyman poster. I had him sign opposite Tony Todd. One thing I do regret is that I brought a Sharpie for him to use because I noticed he only had paint pens. Tony signed with a Sharpie so I wanted it to match. Unfortunately, while I tested the pen it didn’t show well when Ted signed it. I thought about having him trace over it with one of his pens, but I didn’t know how a paint pen mixed with Sharpie ink would turn out. It might’ve looked like a mess. I can go over it myself once I buy a new black pen. I do love that he wrote “Lindsey…Say his name again!” with his name and his character name under it. Ted was super nice. It was cool meeting him.
Next, we went over to meet Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly from Evil Dead. These ladies were so friendly. My sister told them about her move and Betsy was trying to convince me that I needed to move to Florida. I told her I work in video production so I want to move up here to Burbank not Florida. She’s like yeah that makes sense. They were both so excited for my sister. Betsy said that she used to be a travel agent. I was like great, so I can reach out to you and you can help me plan a trip to go visit my sister in Florida. Then my sister was like, I have a spare bedroom if you want to come over. Betsy joked, let me give you my phone number. The two of them were great. I could see the four of us taking a girl’s trip together. I think having that talk with the ladies and Ted probably made my sister feel less sad about moving. Neither of us have lived out of state let alone on the opposite side of the country, so having people hype you up let alone people whose work you love was really cool to see.
After we left that area, I wanted to meet W. Earl Brown. He’s an actor who has been in a bunch of films and tv shows, but I know him as “Kenny”, Gale Weather’s cameraman from Scream (1996) who sadly gets killed by Ghostface. I had him sign in my Scream autograph book. I love that he wrote in it “Ah…Thirty second delay” and “My name’s not Jesus!...It’s Kenny” I made him a little KQIS News friendship bracelet. In the pouch the bracelet came in was my business card and he looks at it and goes “Jones? Your last name is Jones?” He said Kenny’s last name is Jones. I laughed because I didn’t know that. I’m a camera person too so maybe Kenny and I are related. He told me his brother in law’s name is Kenny Jones and he worked for a news station. He thought the character was named after him but it wasn’t. It was just a coincidence. That was a fun fact I didn’t know. We took a photo together and then he wanted to take some selfies so that was cool. He was super nice and I’m happy I met him.
Ve Neill
We took a break and decided to walk the vendor floor. For some reason seeing special fx makeup demonstrations, people selling masks and just monster movie merch in general made me so happy. That’s what I love about Monsterpalooza conventions is you learn about the industry and feel immersed in it. There were costume and makeup fx props, masks, collectibles, apparel, and unique dioramas for sale. There was a silicone alien baby that was for sale and we were allowed to touch it. The vendor hall felt like a museum of cool horror movie art that you could take home. I noticed award winning makeup artist Ve Neill was there behind a booth. I saw her at Monsterpalooza in June and was fangirling inside when I watched her do a live makeup application demonstration. Her work is iconic. I grabbed some shots of her for my video but a part of me wanted to go talk to her. We walked by her booth a few times while I tried to make up my mind on what I was going to do and as I was doing this I ran into a YouTube friend. I chatted with him and he encouraged me to go talk to her. Between him and my sister, I was like okay I need to do this. My sister and I went over to her again and I asked if I could ask her a few questions. She asked what for, meaning where is this video going and my sister said YouTube. She was reluctant at first, but then I went ahead and asked her what I wanted to ask her anyway. I asked her what it was like working on Face Off because I loved that show. She said it was fun. My second question was did she have any interesting experiences working on Mrs. Doubtfire. She began telling us a story involving Robin Williams and it melted my heart. I thanked her for her time and said it was so nice meeting her. She was really sweet. I understand her skepticism regarding me recording her for YouTube. I think by the end of the interaction she was like okay, these girls are nice. They’re not just looking for views. I really do admire her and I think that came across in how invested my sister and I were in listening to her story. It’s really amazing to see how powerful of a presence Robin Williams was and still is. They say people live on in spirit and he definitely does through all of the people he’s worked and interacted with.
Devon Sawa
I was feeling good about the interactions and people I was meeting. Everyone there was so nice. Another person I had on my list to meet was Devon Sawa. I met him back in February at another convention, but this time I wanted him to sign something Casper related. I had just bought a Casper themed eyeshadow palette. It’s a beautiful palette and it’s white so I figured he could sign the front of it. I showed it to him and he was perplexed and fascinated at the same time. My sister reminded him that we met him a few months ago and had him sign our Night of the Twisters DVDs and he immediately knew. He was like, “I remember that! I haven’t signed any since or any before that.” I go, “I bet you’ve never signed a makeup palette either.” He’s like, “No I have not.” He was great. I’m happy he thought it was cool. Sometimes people don’t like it when you bring items that aren’t movie posters or DVDs, but because this makeup palette was Casper themed and we were at a monster makeup convention, it didn’t seem that weird to me. I mean it is…but I think he appreciated it. Also, now I’m afraid to use it because it’s signed, so it may end up being a cool one of a kind collectible. I thought it was funny that he wrote “Can I keep you?” on it and the color paint pen he used was the in-between color of the “Casper” shade and the “Can I Keep You” shade in the palette. I was like, this is a piece of art now.
Felissa Rose
After we had that fun encounter with Devon Sawa, my sister wanted to get Bill Mosely’s autograph. We got in his line and he signed an Army of Darkness 8x10 photo for her. We then finally went to go find Felissa Rose because I needed to finally meet her. I had just watched Sleepaway Camp for the first time this Summer, attended a movie premiere that Friday that she was in but couldn’t attend, and wanted to tell her about how I “discovered” her back in February. It was a long interaction. I have it all on video so I won’t repeat the entire conversation. In short, she was amazing and so sweet. I gave her a Camp Arawak friendship bracelet and she loved it. She put it on. I told her the reason I watched Sleepaway Camp in the first place was because I saw her at a convention and thought she looked like a cool person so I wanted to check out her work. She loved hearing that and gave me a hug. We chatted privately in the corner for a few seconds. She said it really meant a lot to her that I said that. I told her I love that she doesn’t just do big movies but she’s involved with independent films too. She loves acting and loves movies so it’s always nice when you meet an actor and you know they’re doing their job because it’s what they truly love, not because of anything superficial. I also opened my big fat mouth and said that I liked Sleepaway Camp more than Friday the 13th and told her not to tell Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) that I said that because I see him at conventions. Her reaction cracked me up. I love all horror, but I wanted her to know that I really did enjoy that movie and I’m not just saying it to say it because I had finally watched it. Overall, meeting Felissa Rose and the people who were working her booth were so fun. I will definitely drop by and say hello the next time I see her at a convention. Meeting Felissa filled me with so much love and joy. She’s amazing. I also apologize to anyone in line to meet her because I know we took up a lot of her time. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened.
It was around 2pm and my sister and I were starving. We had lunch at the bar and grill that was outside between the hotel and the convention center. As we were walking through the hotel we saw Sam Raimi leaving the Photo Ops area. Some fans in the lobby stopped him and wanted to talk to him. Some brought things for him to sign. I don’t remember if he actually signed anything, but he did stop and talk to everyone and that was really cool to see. For a director as big as Sam Raimi is and knowing how extremely busy he was that day, him stopping and taking time for fans was really sweet. He didn’t have to do that, especially at a convention where fans could’ve met him in his autograph line. While my sister and I never got to meet him because his line was too long, seeing him in-person was cool enough. Both of the Raimis are very sweet people. There are no egos attached to these men at all.
That’s a wrap for Sunday and our time at Son of Monsterpalooza. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day than with a run in with Sam Raimi. I saw some cool cosplay while we were there but because it wasn’t as busy, I didn’t see a whole lot. One that stood out to me was a Nadja cosplay from What We Do in the Shadows and she was holding the Nadja doll from the show. I also saw a really great Guillermo cosplay in line to meet Harvey Guillen. This event was very relaxed and not stressful at all which was refreshing. I didn’t feel rushed or overwhelmed by crowds and long lines. I look forward to attending Monsterpalooza in Pasadena next year and I’m definitely coming back for the next Son of Monsterpalooza in Burbank in 2024.
