Festival of Fear

How’s this for instant gratification: the blood’s still wet on yesterday’s Festival of Fear panel announcements, and we’re already back with Round 2!

THE WORLD OF CHARLES BAND
Puppets, mayhem and more puppets in this intimate and interactive session with the mind behind the PUPPET MASTER series, BLOOD DOLLS, SHRUNKEN HEADS and many more!

THE SOUND OF SPLATTER
The great MAURIZIO GUARINI of GOBLIN fame discusses his life-long career being part of the world’s seminal horror soundtrack band, scoring the great Lucio Fulci’s films, and his latest solo album Creatures From a Drawer…

We’re excited to announce the first batch of panels for the upcoming Festival of Fear, going down August 22-25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto!

A TWISTED HOUR WITH THE TWISTED TWINS
Filmmakers JEN and SYLVIA SOSKA discuss movies, body horror and the inspiration for their groundbreaking films Dead Hooker in a Trunk and American Mary, as well as their segment in the upcoming ABCs of Death 2.

RE-ANIMATING RE-ANIMATOR
Join us in a very special reunion of the stars who made the classic horror hit Re-Animator. With JEFFREY COMBS, BARBARA CRAMPTON, BRUCE ABBOTT and CHARLES BAND….

Todd McFarlane, co-founder of Image Comics, creator of the best-selling Spawn series, and founder of McFarlane Toys, will appear at this year’s Festival of Fear! For his first-ever Fan Expo appearance, Todd joins an ever-growing lineup of horror royalty that includes Joe Dante, Don Coscarelli, Michael Rooker, Norman Reedus, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, Nathan Fillion, the Soska Sisters, and many more.

The Festival of Fear goes down August 22-25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Tickets are already on sale! We still have many more guests and events to announce, so keep an eye on this space and the official Festival of Fear Facebook page for updates.

We all know zombie-killin’ is a family affair, and having The Walking Dead‘s Daryl Dixon (series favourite Norman Reedus) at the Festival of Fear without his big brother just seemed wrong. So we’re happy to announce that Michael Rooker has joined this year’s lineup! Besides his role as Merle Dixon on TWD, Michael has starred in an impressive lineup of genre flicks, including Slither* and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.  Michael is a character, and he never fails to entertain. It’s a pleasure to have him on board, and you can bet it’ll be a blast having both of the Dixon boys hanging around the Metro Toronto Convention Convention Centre August 22-25. We hope you’ll be there too! (For news and updates, be sure to like the Festival of Fear on Facebook.)

*Michael’s Slither co-star Nathan Fillion will also be a guest at this year’s Festival! Coincidence? Yes, actually, but a damn fine one, don’t you think?

We are pleased as putrid punch to announce the latest round of horror heavyweights to grace this year’s Rue Morgue Festival of Fear lineup. Though I’m afraid I stole my own thunder with the post title, here’s more info…

We have a most excellent treat in store for those of you who’ll be making your way to Toronto for the Festival of Fear this August: geek god Nathan Fillion has been added to our ever-growing  guest lineup! Sci-fi fans know him best as Captain Mal Reynolds from Joss Whedon’s woefully short-lived Firefly (damn, I still can’t type that without tearing up a little), but to horror fans, he’ll always be Sheriff Bill Pardy from James Gunn’s slimetastic creature feature Slither. Or maybe you’d rather remember him as Caleb from BTVS, or Captain Hammer of Dr. Horrible fame… take your pick; he’s all that and more…

The Festival of Fear Vancouver kicks off this Saturday at 10 a.m.! This is the west-coast incarnation of Canada’s largest horror expo – two days of celebrity guests, autograph signings, Q&A sessions, seminars and workshops, and a sales floor featuring a monster selection of movies and movie memorabilia, not to mention books, comic books, toys, video games, trading cards, posters and tons more.

Come see the Rue Crew host panels with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Walking Dead), gore guru Tom Savini, the Soska Twins (American Mary, Dead Hooker in a Trunk), Brad Loree (Michael Myers in Halloween: Resurrection) and Ken Kirzinger (Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason). Be sure to swing by the RM booth (#1017, right across from the celeb autograph area) – the aforementioned guests will be there, along with our intrepid Editor-in-Chief Dave Alexander!

Vancouver horror fans, this is a call to arms! Rue Morgue needs dedicated and professional folks to man our booth at The Festival of Fear Vancouver, and we want YOU!

If you made it out to our screening of From Beyond (huge thanks to Scream Factory for making that happen!), you had a ringside seat for our first big announcement about August’s Festival of Fear in Toronto.  For those of you who couldn’t make it, here it is: We’re bringing Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Bruce Abbott and Charles Band together for a Re-Animator/From Beyond reunion!

You guys are in for a treat. This is one of the most hilarious bits of audio we’ve ever grabbed for the podcast – Bruce Campbell’s Q&A at the 2009 Festival of Fear in Toronto.

A few excerpts ran on Rue Morgue Radio back in the day but here for the first time anywhere, is the full one-hour version.

Endure.

:- FDBK