Editorials
[Rock and Shock ’14] Event Report With Photos!
Event Report By @BrianWilkins:
Last weekend, “Rock and Shock” returned to Worcester, Mass. for the eleventh consecutive year.
In addition to celebrity photo ops, autograph sessions, panel discussions, film screenings, costume contests, and a vendor room, “Rock and Shock” distinguishes itself by combining the standard horror con offerings with multiple nights of (primarily) horror-inspired musical acts. While the convention itself is held at Worcester’s DCU Center, the concert portion of the event takes place (within walking distance) at the Palladium — an auditorium-size concert venue with a rich history in the area’s alternative and heavy metal music scene.
This year’s eclectic celebrity lineup included the likes of Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), John Ratzenberger (Cheers, Toy Story), Roddy Piper (WWF, They Live), Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Andrew Divoff (the Strain, Wishmaster), Derek Mears (Friday the 13th ’09), Bill Moseley (Devil’s Rejects, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects, Hatchet III), Dee Wallace (The Frighteners, Cujo, ET), Jake Busey (The Frighteners, Starship Troopers), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th, Hatchet), William Forsythe (The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween ’07), Nivel Ogre (Repo! The Genetic Opera), Fiona Dourif (Curse of Chucky, True Blood), Tom Savini (From Dusk Til Dawn, Machete), Kristina Klebe (Halloween ’07, Chillerama), Alex Vincent (Child’s Play), Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Demons), John A. Russo (Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead), Lynn Lowry (The Crazies), Tony Atlas (WWF), and Tom DeNucci (Almost Mercy, Army of the Damned). Original headliner Tara Reid was pulled from the show two weeks ago, following a scheduling conflict.
The musical portion of the three-day event included GWAR, Life of Agony, Over Kill, Twiztid, Blaze, The Rocking Dead (Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, Alan Robert, Ace Von Johnson, Kriz DK, Virus), and several others.
While “Rock and Shock” officially kicked off with some limited programming on Friday, I wasn’t able to attend until Saturday afternoon. So this report will only cover the happenings of the second and third day of the event.
I arrived on Saturday just after 12-noon. After checking in at the ticketing/press area, I headed directly to the vendor room. Greeted by the “Rock and Shock” staff, I laid my zig-zagging plan of the convention floor. I decided to start at the south end of the hall and would systematically weave my way through the aisles of posters, DVDs, t-shirts, artists, and action figures to the north end — where the celebrities are traditionally corralled.
One of the first (and quite possibly oddest) booths I happened upon, was selling giant snakes, turtles, iguanas, a small crocodile (yes, really), and some spiders — including a tarantula, that I was convinced (after some prodding) to let sit in my hand. To be honest, holding a gigantic hairy spider was’t half as weird as you might think. I won’t be calling one a pet anytime soon, but I can now check that off my nonexistent bucket list of “weird shit to do”.
Some of the other standout booths included Horror Decor (who sell the Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees wrestling buddies, sheets with blood splatter printed on them, and a variety of horror-themed candles), the VHS Preservation Society, Troma Entertainment, Full Moon Features, and New England convention and wrestling event staple: Sinners and Saints (wrestling, horror and music merchandise), plus dozens of others offering a wide variety of memorabilia, clothing and art.
After making my way through the dealers and walking by each of the celebrity autograph tables, it was time to head over to the panel area for “The Frighteners” reunion. The panel included Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace and Jake Busey. The trio discussed their time making the 1996 film with Peter Jackson in New Zealand — which starred Michael J. Fox. Wallace explained that while shooting the film, Fox was traveling back-and-forth from New Zealand to the US to meet with doctors — as this is when he was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Wallace went on to talk about losing her husband, who suffered a heart attack, while she was working on the film — which led to her losing a considerable amount of weight.
Next up, “The Rocking Dead” took the panel area stage. After a somewhat rocky start (due mostly to a moderator not being available), the panel — which included Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein (Misfits, Doyle), Alan Robert (Life of Agony), Wednesday 13 (The Murderdolls), Ace Von Johnson (Faster Pussycat), Alex Story (Doyle), Kriz DK (Deadstar Assembly) and Virus (Dope) — prodded the audience for questions. Doyle kicked things off by pointing toward the audience and telling them that they’d go down each row, so everyone could ask a question. The somewhat disorganized discussion ranged from hometowns, favorite horror movies, musical inspirations and future projects. Doyle, who is well-known for not getting too in-depth during interviews and Q&As, was especially quiet, offering little more than “yeah” or “nah” answers to most of the audiences’ questions.
After another excursion through the vendor hall, it was time for the Child’s Play panel. Brad Dourif, Fionna Dourif and Alex Vincent discussed the series, their characters, and the legacy of the franchise.
Horror convention favorite Kane Hodder, who played Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th (VII-X) and Victor Crowley in the Hatchet series, along with his biographer Mike Aloisi, were up next. The duo discussed Hodder’s acting career, how they went about writing his biography, and their latest project — a video series, that shares the same name as one of Aloisi’s books “The Killer and I” — which follows the antics of the ”odd couple of horror” as they travel around the world.
You can check out a preview of “The Killer and I” below:
Looking back on his career, Hodder explained how fortunate he feels to have had the roles and opportunities that he’s had, telling the audience: “you appreciate it more, when you never expected it.”
“There’s a lot of actors, that I’ve worked with, that I don’t care for as humans,” Hodder admitted. “They don’t seem to appreciate where they are and how tough life can be without the position they’re in.”
Asked about his favorite experience as the iconic Jason Voorhees character, Hodder cited “Part VIII”, saying: “When I was in full costume with the mask on, in the middle of Times Square on a Friday night at 10 o’clock and there’s thousands of people held back by NYPD, watching us film. It was so amazing to stand there in-between shots and do the head turn towards a certain group of people and they’d go nuts and (were) screaming.”
“I felt like the biggest rockstar in the world. It was the only time that I didn’t want the night of shooting to end.”
The final panel of the day was a conversation with Rowdy Roddy Piper. The “Hot Rod” discussed breaking into professional wrestling after living on the street, his early days in Don Owen’s Portland Wrestling, working in the NWA and being an integral part of professional wrestling’s boom period, opposite Hulk Hogan, in the 1980s. Piper also discussed making the 1988 sci-fi/horror classic “They Live”.
Following dinner and catching up with friends, it was time to head over to the Palladium for GWAR.
I arrived just after 11 p.m. as the band took the stage. Quickly slapping the photo pass on my shirt, I headed for the stage — camera in-hand.
If you’ve never seen GWAR, stop what you’re doing, open another browser tab and check these guys (and gal) out on Youtube. Their full stage show includes each member of the band taking on the persona of barbaric interplanetary warriors dressed in over-the-top foam and rubber costumes as they slay celebrities, politicians and monsters alike — all while shooting red and green color liquid toward the audience.
Standing to the left of the stage, I chose my position, avoided the liquid like it was the plague and shot several photos during the band’s first few songs. Aside from my elbow being covered by the blood-colored liquid, projected from Vulvatron’s huge costume breasts, I was able to escape with a dry camera and at least a few good shots.
With the band’s decision to continue, following former lead singer/bassist Dave Brockie’s unexpected death in March, the reaction going into the show seemed mixed — with some fans feeling that “It just won’t be the same without Dave Brockie.”
By the end of the night, GWAR proved that it won’t be the same — and probably shouldn’t be. With vocals now being shared among new members; Blöthar (Michael Bishop) and Vulvatron (Kim Dylla), the group tore through a two-hour setlist — which included a tribute to their fallen comrade Oderus Uriungus (Brockie).
On Sunday morning, I made the trek back to Worcester. After shooting some photos of the costumed attendees and yet another walk through the vendor area, I caught a few minutes of John Ratzenberger’s panel. Ratzenberger, who appeared at “Rock and Shock” this year as a “make good” for having to cancel in 2013, is best known for his portrayal of ‘Cliff’ on “Cheers” and his voice-acting work in Pixar’s “Toy Story” series. He discussed his approach to voice-acting and how he adjusts according to the look, history and his feel for the character. He also talked about the ‘Cliff’, noting that he was responsible for many aspects of character’s personality.
At 1:00 p.m. it was time for “The Sick Man Panel”, which included Twiztid, Blaze, Kane Hodder and Sid Haig. While I only have a surface-level understanding of the whole Juggalo culture, I found both members of Twiztid to be fairly interesting to listen to and extremely personable. Their fans turned out in full-force for the panel — with a packed room that saw every seat filled, for the first time all weekend. As the panel continued more and more Juggalos filled the room, standing ten-deep at the entrance. Both Hodder and Haig, who star in Twiztid’s “Sickman” music video, talked about being fans of the music. Hodder admitted to listening to a lot of their music while filming “Hatchet III”. He said it helped him “get in the zone” to play the maniacal Victor Crowley.
Here’s Hodder and Haig in “Sickman”
On Monday, Rock and Shock organizers posted a “thank you” to their Facebook page:
Everyone here at Rock and Shock would like to give our heartfelt thanks to every fan who came to the show this weekend. We try extremely hard to put on the best show we can, and your continued support over the years not only means the world to us, but keeps us going show to show. We have eleven under our belts now and are planning to finish our first dozen with a bang next year.
“Rock and Shock” returns to Worcester’s DCU Center and Palladium in October 2015.
Follow Brian on Twitter for his thoughts on horror, sci-fi, design and other general musings at @brianwilkins
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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