Kryptic World Tour Starts Next Weekend!

That’s right kiddies, next weekend we’ll be heading to Cincinnati for the HorrorHound Weekend, which officially starts our 2023 convention tour. It seems like it has been forever since our last show, so we are very excited to have another great weekend. Looking forward to seeing our friends there, getting to hang out and talk about movies, and just having a great time.

The following weekend, while we’re not vending, we’ll still be at Cinema Wasteland in Strongsville, Ohio, and is one that we’re really looking forward to. Not only do they have the last remaining cast members of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but they also have writer Kim Henkel and cinematographer Daniel Pearl on the guest list. That show is always a great time and so much fun.

In April, we’re staying local and doing our second appearance at the Windy City Pulp and Paper show, which is more of a literary show, but if you’re a book lover, this is one to come to! Plus, that same Saturday, we’ll be leaving the show a little early to head to the Davis Theatre in Chicago for the Euro Horror Shock Show, put on by the House of Monsters, which will be screening 4 amazing films, including two featuring Paul Naschy!!! How can you pass that up!

You can see the rest of our shows that we have lined up this year at the top of our main page. Hope to see you at some of them!

Wasteland for Life!

On the Thursday before the show, my newsfeed starts to blow up with all these people posting “Wastelanded”. Why are they getting there a day before the show even starts??? Well, there is a reason for that.

When I used to post my convention reports, I usually would use the word “survivor”. But it really doesn’t do justice when you’re talking about Cinema Wasteland. Sure, after the weekend, you did feel like you ran a marathon (might be due to the lack of sleep) but the word “survivor” makes you feel like the event was an ordeal and that you’re glad it is over. That is not the case for this particular convention.

HorrorHound Next Weekend!!!

Less than a week away and we’ll be packing up the Kryptic Van and heading to Cincinnati for HorrorHound Weekend! And just looking at the huge guest lineup, it looks like this is going to be one hell of a show, as always. There is going to be someone there for all fans of the genre, from a Hocus Pocus reunion, a Killer Klowns from Outer Space reunion with the Chiodo Bros., stars Grant Cramer and Suzanne Synder, as well as Harrod Blank & Mike Martinez who played a couple of the Klowns, to so much more. You have Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Anthony Michael Hall, Quinn Lord, Dana Delorenzo & Ray Santiago, and so many more. They even have Milly Shaprio from Hereditary!

Alive and Kickin’

Sorry for the lack of updates, besides a few RIP notices, which are never fun to post. We were at Flashback convention last weekend, and it honestly took a few days to recover. We’ve been there since the very first show and haven’t missed one yet, and always have a great time and so glad to be there to help celebrate their 20th Anniversary show! Mike and Mia and all the Flashback crew make it look easier than it really is, with the staff being so nice and helpful.

It was great to see so many horror fans coming through the door all three days of the show. There was a time at most conventions when Sundays were just for a few stragglers wandering around, but they were still lining up to come in that last day. Always a good sign for vendors! But it really is the afterhours conversations that is the highlight for me at these conventions. Getting to talk about our favorite genre with other friends is so much fun and always a great time.

Flashback Next Weekend!

Starting next Friday, Aug. 5th to the 7th, you’ll want to run off to Flashback Weekend that is taking place in Rosemont, IL, at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. As always, they have a HUGE guest list, but if you’re a fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, then you don’t want to miss this one, since they have 10 guests from the series, including Freddy himself, Robert Englund! But there are plenty of other guests as well, such as director Steven Miner, who not only directed the second and third entries in the Friday the 13th films, but also directed House, H20, and Lake Placid, just to name a few. Then we have Alex Winter from Bill & Ted and Lost Boys, Brad Loree, Tom Jones Jr., P.J. Soles and John Michael Graham (Lynda & Bob) from the Halloween series, and so many more.

Monster Bash Next Weekend!

It’s been three years since our last Spring Monster Bash Conference, and we are so excited to make our return next weekend. The show takes place in Mars, PA, from June 24th to the 26th, with movies showing all weekend until the wee hours of the morning. Plus, you have guests like Caroline Munro, Patrick Wayne, Beverly Washburn, and more. Not to mention plenty of Q&As, seminars as well. Lastly, I would say that this show has one of the best dealer rooms around. I am always finding some great stuff here at the Bash. While the show focuses on classic horror, you just never know what you can find perusing the different vendors. In other words, there is more than enough fun to be had while you’re here.

My wife and I will be set up there as usual, so if you’re heading out, make sure you stop by and say hello! For all the updated information about the show, the guests, the schedule, and all the great films they’re screening, head over to their website HERE.

Columbus Moving Picture Show This Weekend!

This weekend we are making our return to Columbus for the Columbus Moving Pictures Show, formally known as Cinevent. We haven’t been there since before the pandemic, so we are not only very excited to make our return, but excited to be part of a new beginning of the show under new management. For those that don’t know, the Cinevent Classic Film Convention ran for over 50 years! One of the co-founders, Steven Haynes, had passed away in 2015, and his son Michael took over for a few years. But they sold it to new owners and have changed the name to The Columbus Moving Picture Show, promising to keep the spirit of Cinevent alive and living. This is a good old fashioned movie memorabilia show, where you can find posters, stills, lobby cards, and just about any other kind of stuff related to movies. Granted, they tend to be on the classic side, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have “younger” movie related items. I’ve always found a few gems each time I’ve gone.

HorrorHound Weekend: A Huge Success!

This last weekend was our first stop in the 2022 Kryptic World Tour, the HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati. If this is a sign for the things to come, this is going to be a great year! I was shocked and amazed at the turnout for this show, on all three days. Now anybody that has been to more than a few conventions know that Friday and Saturday are usually the busier days, and Sunday is just for stragglers wandering around. But the crowd for this Sunday seemed just as big as it was for the previous two days! In fact, our sales were so good on Sunday, we sold more stuff on that day than we had over three days at some smaller shows! So, a huge shout out to Nathan & Aaron, as well as all the other HorrorHound workers that made this show go as smoothly as it did and made it a lot of fun.

HorrorHound Approaches!

In just a few days, we’ll be heading to Cincinnati for our first convention of the year and looking forward so much to getting back into the swing of things. It’s been five months since our last show and we’re chomping at the bit to see all our horror family this weekend! We’ll be set up there with our usual array of horror reference books which is a great place to continue your journey to Discover the Horror! And because this is our first show of the year, we’re going to have several great titles on sale! So, make sure you stop by our table to see what we have in store for you!

Plus, we’ll have some other goodies like some soundtracks, DVDs and Blu-rays, and maybe even some magazines we’re getting rid of from our own collection.

Return of the Monster . . . Bash!

This last weekend, we made our return to the Monster Bash Conference in Mars, PA. It was their first convention since 2 years ago and we were thrilled to be back. We started attending this show back in 2015 and quickly fell in love with it. This really is like no other show that we attend. Not that we don’t have fun at the others, but the Bash is so much different. From the free cake on Saturday night, the insanity of the prize toss, to all the films they screen over the 3 days of the event, it really is a true classic horror film fan’s dream.

It seems that conventions are getting more attended by more of the casual fan than really true die-hard fans. They are there to get some over-priced autographs, maybe a new Halloween t-shirt, and that’s about it. 20 years ago (yeah, I know. Old Man Kitley ranting again!), just about every fan that came through the door were avid fans, anxiously waiting to pounce on the dealers room to find some new treasures to add to their ever-growing collection of movie memorabilia. They were always searching out new films, or old ones that they hadn’t seen before. And the guests at these shows were there to meet and greet their fans, not customers. They were just thrilled you knew who they were as well as being truly grateful that you enjoyed their work. But it seems those types of conventions are disappearing.