After traveling cross country to nearly every major horror convention over the past year, it was quite refreshing to simply cross the bridge from Philadelphia to Cherry Hill, NJ for Monster Mania 9 at the Crown Plaza Hotel last weekend. Since half of the team set off to Toronto for Rue Morgue?s Festival of Fear (coverage here) to hunt down Dario Argento, I opted for a much more local spot.

For a smaller show, Monster Mania definitely came through on talent! Chris Sarandon, Catherine Hicks, and Karen Black paired with a bunch of Michael Myers? including two young Mikes; Daeg Fearch (Halloween 2007) and Erik Preston (Halloween 4). Lucky for us, we got to ask the age-old question: Who was the best Michael Myers? And surprisingly Daeg, despite lacking years on the others, responded with possibly the best answer pulling out on-screen statistics as if he?d studied up and was prepared for the question! But despite the fast pace of the evening there were some definite highs and lows of the convention:

The Highs ? Interviewing Reggie Bannister and watching Tony Todd eat a sandwich.

Though it may be trivial and seemingly unimportant, when we see celebs in their natural habitat, it?s quite jolting. Apparently the same people who are fully prepared to ?scare the hell out of you? onscreen do normal human stuff off screen, like walking to the bathroom, eating, and smoking a cigarette. There I stood, a Friday night in Cherry Hill, NJ taking a quick break right in front of Candyman eating what appeared to be a turkey sandwich. It?s shit like seeing Tony Todd devouring a sandwich, sliced lunchmeat dangling from his mouth, that can make lugging around a 50 lb. bag of camera batteries all worth it. Even though I could have pegged Tony as a ham and cheese kind of guy.

It seems like every time we are out at these conventions fans and industry people almost always ask the same question: ?Have you ever interviewed/met Reggie Bannister? He?s cool as fuck? each time, lowering my head in shame, knowing exactly what they are going to do I reply ?No?. And each time, without skipping a beat they reply with some witty (or what they think is witty) retort and turn away in disgust. Well my friends, I can now raise my head high and say ?Hell yeah he?s cool as fuck, I interviewed him!? the next time I am asked the immortal question. In an interview with Reggie, he talked about his experiences on Wishmaster, Phantasm, and his new and upcoming projects that involve a special lady in his life. But the best part of the entire night was seeing the hilariously pleased reaction he gave me when I explained the aforementioned experiences, like he was somehow responsible for lifting me a few notches on the ladder of horror street cred.

The Lows ? Having to face the Tall Man alone and getting cut short by Warwick Davis? manager.

Of all the people I?ve come across through my convention travels, Freddy, scores of Jasons and Michaels, Captains, Candymans, zombies and cannibalistic mutants alike, there was just one man who had the ability to scare the holy hell out of me. Of course, I had to encounter him alone, armed with only a lapel microphone and uneasy smile. The Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm of the Phantasm films, and boy is he the Tall Man even sitting down. His presence (not to mention his autograph line) was inescapable. But to my surprise, he was quiet, calm, not as tall as I thought he?d be, and had a lot of great things to say about his time working on Don Coscarelli?s Phantasm films.

After interviewing the tallest guy in the room, I moved on and attempted to get some time with the shortest guy in the room until my plans were immediately thwarted by his manager. Apparently, he was uneasy about letting us do the interview with his talent regardless of the fact that we?ve aired nearly every Leprechaun movie on our network and was overly excited to talk to the man himself, Warwick Davis. His manager even went as far as causing a scene yelling at Warwick in front of a stocky line of poster wielding fans hoping for autographs. And though Warwick protested to his manager, explaining his wish to do the interview, unfortunately his manager prevailed and we weren?t able to get down with the Leprechaun.

Despite the disappointment, it was overall a big success for Monster Mania and FEARnet. We were able to get some great footage from the con so be sure to check back for some video interviews later this week! Big thanks to Monster Mania for letting us troll the hallways of the Cherry Hill NJ Crowne Plaza!