Movies
Step Right Up, “The Vendors of Flashback Weekend”
Article by Bloody-Ian
While the celebrity guests take up much of the attention at Flashback Weekend, what would it be without the tireless toils of the vendors’ room? A big empty room. If it’s horror you can get it here; from horror-themed ties, to guitar pick earrings, to vintage horror comics, to original horror art.
Often unnoticed is the effort these vendors go through to make a living off these events. It’s blood, sweet, and rolling carts that transform these drab folding tables into a mobile store front usually no more than eight feet by four. It’s all about getting the fan to stop and look be it huge posters, videos playing, racks with their most collectable items, or just good old fashion sex appeal.
Larry of the MOJO RESIN table has a wide array of classic magazines stacked in front of model kits. His passion for model kits started when he was stationed in Japan and over the decades he has gone to countless conventions. While several comic-cons have become multi-media spectaculars, “…horror conventions have remained grass-roots.” He comes year after year, because he enjoys meeting with people and the celebrity’s are still approachable.
Next to his table is VOODOO COMICS table run by Jim and Griff (pictured above). Box after box of just horror comics overflow their table as they preside over the collection like demented genies granting any request they can.
Jim shared that the vendors (fans, themselves) often barter with each other; be it simply trading collectibles, to logo designs and graphics printing. They are a community within a community, spending their days in the hustling Dealer’s Room and their nights hanging out in somebody’s hotel room. Each event is like a convention within a convention for the vendors. They catch-up, share information, and just have a lot of fun…all while trying to pay the bills.
New this year is a slightly smaller table full of tiny delights. It’s BENT METAL CRAFTWORKS run by John and the artist Stacey. Glittering in the florescent lights is a wide variety of jewelry, row after row of guitar pick earrings featuring Freddy, Jason, and KISS.
Stacey’s (the artist) has been growing Bent Metal online for 5 years but just recently realized how big Chicago’s appetite was for horror. She’s very pleased the convention-goers and the Flashback Staff and expects to do more conventions.
It’s thanks to the efforts of these fans, craftsmen, and artists that a typical hotel ballroom is transformed into this dark caravan of macabre delights.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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