The weekend of May 4th-6th 2018, I had the pleasure of attending Texas Frightmare Weekend for the 4th consecutive time.  Anyone who know me knows that this became my favorite convention after my very first time, and this is for many reasons.  It is, without a doubt, the most well organized and well run convention that I have attended, and I've been to a lot of conventions over the last 17 years!

Just a few quick details about the convention itself.  It is held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Dallas/Fort Worth airport.  This makes it very easy to attend the convention for me, coming in from out of state.  No car to rent.  No long distance drive.  I landed, got my luggage, and took a five minute shuttle ride to the hotel.

Speaking of the hotel, one of the things that makes this convention so much fun is the fact that the hotel staff is really into it!  Most of them are wearing horror costumes and/or makeup, and they truly embrace the event.

The TFW volunteers are also great.  They are all friendly and knowledgeable, and if they don't know the answer, they will get it for you.  TFW weekend is a VERY busy convention, especially on Saturday, and they do a great job of managing the crowds and the autograph/photo op lines.  Of course there are issues along the way, but I have never seen anything that was a big deal, so either those things don't happen, or they are handled well so that the general public doesn't really see them. 

The guest lineup for this year was stellar, as it always is.  Most of the "Loser's Club" from the 2017 film "It" were in attendance, and they were a great group of kids.  They were awesome with the fans, and seemed genuinely happy to be there.  Jackson Robert Scott, who played Georgie in the film, did an amazing job for a nine year old!  He was friendly and engaging with the fans, and was a real trooper the entire weekend.  He always had a long line, and handled it like a seasoned convention pro.

Ron Perlman, was one of the "headliners" and as expected, he had huge lines all weekend.  Meeting him was great.  Despite the characters that he plays, and his gruff exterior, he was very nice and always had a smile and a hug for the fans.  Billy Zane was another big guest, who was a last minute replacement for a guest who had to cancel, and he was a big hit with the fans....especially the ladies! 

There was a Child's Play reunion, which included stars Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif and Catherine Hicks along with other cast members from various films in the series, and also Don Mancini (writer/director) and Kevin Yagher (SPFX).  The "Cenobite Celebration" was another highlight, which included Doug Bradley, Barbie Wilde, Simon Bamford and Nicholas Vince.

A few other notable guests were Tobin Bell (Saw), Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby Doo), Adreinne Barbeau (The Fog, Creepshow) and Mischa Barton.  There were many other great guests as well.

Having said all that....My main reason for going to Texas Frightmare this year (besides the fact that it is my favorite horror con), was to meet my "holy grail" of celebrity guests, Clive Barker.

I have been a Clive Barker fan for over 30 years.  I have read every one of his books multiple times, and seen every film he directed, or had a hand in making of that was inspired no matter how remotely by his work.  It is safe to say that I have been waiting my entire life to meet him.  He has done conventions before, but for whatever reason, I was unable to attend.  There have also been times when he had to cancel an appearance due to his well documented health issues.

I can honestly say, without hyperbole, that meeting Clive Barker was one of the best moments of my life.  Due to his health, and the long, long lines of legions of fans waiting to meet him, each fan only had a minute or so with him, which is understandable, but it was well worth it.  Clive was warm and friendly and you could tell that he truly loved meeting the fans.  He took the time to briefly chat with everyone, and cheerfully signed all of the items that were handed to him.  I've met countless "famous" people over the years, and I don't often have true "fanboy" moments, but this time I did.  Between getting things signed, and the professional photo op, I saw him three times over the weekend, and they are a few moments in my life that I will never forget. 

A few other notes about the show.  As usual, there was a great array of vendors with tons of great merchandise.  There were a few familiar faces but quite a few new vendors as well.

One of the many things I like about TFW is that guests and vendors are located in the same room(s) together.  I know some people don't like this strategy, but I love it.  I don't like it when vendors are relegated to some room at the far end of the hotel.  Mixing the guests and vendors together means that the merchants will get a lot more foot traffic and, from what I have been told from friends of mine who vend at the show, they all do very well at this convention.

Finally, as with any convention or event of this size, there are things that I can nitpick.  Saturday is VERY crowded and, even though the staff does an amazing job managing the crowds, it can be a little difficult to move around, and I wonder if they are simply outgrowing the venue.  This is a good problem to have I suppose, but I like having a convention at a hotel, where you can just go up to your room if you need to "hide" for a little while.

My other issues had more to do with the hotel than with the convention.  The drinks at the bar and the food are a little pricey, but that's the case with every hotel.  There are options for ordering out or bringing in your own food, so there are ways around it.  However, and this happens every year, the restaurant and bar staff always seem very overwhelmed, and this is something I have noticed at other cons as well.  I know nothing about running a service establishment, but it seems to me that if you know that a major convention is coming in to your hotel, that you should be able to staff up to handle it.  Again, to be fair, this happens at a lot of convention venues, and I struggle to understand it.

Those things are very minor when it comes to the totality of the event.  As I mentioned, this was my 4th Texas Frightmare Weekend, and my intention is to be back next year, and the years after that, and so on......YOU should go too!  You will NOT be disappointed!

-The Horror Nerd

As the saying goes, "You should never meet your heroes", and there is a reason this sentiment exists.

As of this writing, I have been going to fan conventions for about 16 years, and I have met countless celebrity guests, including many that I consider "heroes".  Most recently, I met Clive Barker at Texas Frightmare Weekend.  Meeting Clive has been my "holy grail" of celebrity meet and greets for a long time and I have been waiting to meet him pretty much my entire life.  I can honestly say, it was NOT a let down.  Clive was warm, friendly and gracious despite the fatigue that comes along with poor health.  He made sure that each fan felt welcome and appreciated.

I met many other guests at Texas Frightmare, and I had great experiences with all of them.  Unfortunately, according to some social media posts, this was not the case with everyone.

One particular post caught my attention.  I will not name any names, as calling people out is not the point of this article, but I just want to make a few statements about the culture of celebrity.

In this post, a woman mentioned that her daughter had a very negative experiences with one of the "bigger" names at the convention.  She didn't get very specific, but only said that her daughter was extremely disappointed in the encounter, especially since she had spent $120 for the autographs and photo op.

Of course, right away, many people jumped on it in support of the daughter with statements like, "What a jerk!" or "That sucks, what an a***ole and other things like that.  Must be nice to be able to make such comments without knowing the entire story but, oh well.

Interestingly though, the vast majority of people came out in support of the celebrity guest, mentioning what a great experience they had, and how nice the person was.  By far, there were more comments like this than anything negative about the guest.  I myself posted that I had a great experience, and that I was curious as to what exactly had happened with this woman's daughter.  Still, she refused to say, and would only repeat that her daughter was "very upset".

I am still thinking about this five days later as I write this, and I cannot help but wonder what happened between this person and the guest.  I am very curious as to what she said, and as to what the guest said that made her so upset.   Since I was not there, I can only speculate, but I think that in many cases, fans have a very unrealistic expectation as to what is going to happen when they meet their favorite celebrities.  I think they believe it's going to be a lot more than what it turns out to me.  As a veteran of these events, I know full well that, especially for a popular/big name guest, there are going to be a lot of people on line, and at most, you are only going to have about 30-60 seconds with the guest.  Enough time to get something signed, exchange greetings, and snap a pic.  They are not going to spend a long time listening to what you have to say because there are a lot of people waiting to meet them.

Also, we only get to see these people up on the screen, or on TV, or on stage or in whatever other medium they perform.  We do not know what they are like in person.  Many times they are quiet and shy, and people misinterpret that as being rude.    Don't get me wrong.  There are some convention guests that have no business meeting the public, but in my experience, those are very rare.  For the most part, all the people I have met have been nice.

So....where am I going with this?  As I said, I am still intensely curious as to what transpired between this fan and this guest, but I will probably never know.  My guess is that there's some middle ground, but all I can say to everyone out there who is thinking of going to a convention to meet their favorite stars is, be careful and be reasonable.  They are also just people, and if you just treat them with a little respect, you will almost always have a great experience.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

-The Horror Nerd