Friday, June 15, 2007

2nd annual Texas Frightmare Weekend starts June 22 with George Romero in attendance

This year's theme: 25th anniversary salute to Creepshow.

By John P. Meyer

It was a genuinely frightening experience meeting Loyd Cryer face-to-face for the first time.

Which had nothing to do with Loyd or his face. What made it so damn scary was that I had to drive from Pegasus News World Headquarters (at Walnut Hill and Central) all the way over to the Chili's in Grapevine (off 114 at Main Street) in (minor-key pipe organ fanfare) WEEKDAY LUNCH HOUR TRAFFIC. AAARGH!

Loyd Cryer grew up in the laid-back little burgh of Bardwell (near Ennis), where, he notes, Wes Craven filmed portions of Deadly Blessing when he (Cryer, not Craven) was ten years old. That's all he had to say about Bardwell.

Loyd Cryer, with a van full o' parts. That's all I'm sayin'.

Which is a key indicator of the sort of things that are important to Loyd. In his day job, he works for a local Lexus dealership in - wait for it, now, wait... - the PARTS department. (Sometimes this stuff just writes itself, folks.) But Loyd's real passion is horror, as in horror movies, and last year he decided to take a deep-end plunge by sponsoring the first-ever Texas Frightmare Weekend. He themed the two-day event around the 20th anniversary of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, with the goal of getting horror film fanatics, actors and filmmakers together in North Texas (for first time in recent history) in order to simmer the mixture and see what might develop.

What developed were lines of rabid fans circling the Grapevine Convention Center, rather like eager vultures circling roadkill, clamoring to pay their money to get in. According to Loyd, he sweated big sweat bullets for weeks in advance wondering whether "anybody would show up or not." Those he could count on to make it included invited guests such as Bill (Leatherface) Johnson, Bill (Chop Top) Moseley, Caroline (Stretch) Williams and writer John (Joe Bob Briggs) Bloom - all of whom were owed per diems in addition to their hotel and travel expenses.

Surprisingly (to Loyd), the first-time event actually generated a small profit, having drawn fans from as far away as Canada and California.

Loyd's currently gearing up for the second annual Texas Frightmare Weekend (June 22-24). The theme of this year's fearful festival centers around another anniversary, namely the 25th of Creepshow, arguably one of George A. Romero's less-familiar directorial efforts. This time around there's no bullet-sweating occurring, at least not in regard to whether anyone's going to show up - the hotel headquarters for the event (the Omni Dallas Park West) is already fully booked, with overflow rooms being lined up at the nearby Doubletree. Word has clearly made its way to the hordes of North Texas horror fans.

Due to appear this year are the great Romero himself (whose groundbreaking indie horror flick, Night of the Living Dead, introduced this reviewer to the thrills of no budget, no boundary filmmaking on a rainy Halloween eve at the University of Texas in the early 70's), along with Jeffrey Combs, Doug "Pinhead" Bradley, luscious Linnea Quigley, Clint Howard (Ron's B-flick bro), babilicious Cerina Vincent, and Camden Toy (Übervamp from the Buffy series). And a whole plot more.

Returnees from last year (back by fan demand) include Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Lloyd Kaufman, SFX wizard Tom Savini and the perky, vivacious Caroline Williams. (Loyd tells me that a number of other participants from last year actually lobbied him for the privilege of making repeat appearances, but he was forced to diplomatically decline because he wants to keep the event fresh and avoid too much year-to-year overlap. "But Sid (Haig) and Bill (Moseley) are so popular," explains Loyd.

When asked which weekend events he'd designate as "can't miss," Loyd proclaims there are just too many good ones to single out any particulars - but allows as how both the Halloween and Creepshow panel discussions are likely to be highlights. Currently categorized as "man, I hope this comes off" are clips from Romero's eagerly-awaited Diary of the Dead and Rob Zombie's re-envisioning of the Michael Myers tale, Halloween (2007 version); if the Diary clip happens, it'll be the world's first glimpse of that forthcoming feature.

I asked Loyd which movie he saw when he was a kid that scared God's own pants off him, and I was less than surprised to hear him single out Friedkin's The Exorcist - which shocked me senseless at a somewhat later age. Loyd's favorite era for horror films was the 70's.

Frightmare welcomes a group of "Texas Frightmakers" - Lone Star filmmaking scaremeisters including Mel House (Closet Space), Stacy Davidson (Domain of the Damned), Justin Powers (Pot Zombies) and - winner of my unofficial best director name contest - Daniel DelPurgatorio (The Clearing).

The panel of moderators includes, interestingly enough, a cryptozoologist named Chester Moore, who - in addition to messing with Bigfoot in his off hours - fronts the rock band Freak 13.

When I asked him to give me a hot tip relating to upcoming horror cinema events, Loyd told me to keep my eyes peeled for a resurgence of Clive Barker material - this per an acquaintance by the name of John Harrison, who's recently signed on to do the music for a Barker Books of Blood production.

Turns out Loyd and I share a proclivity for good old atmospheric plot-driven supernatural tales as opposed to the current crop of gore-laden torture-happy chop-fests, but Loyd tells me not to worry - we're just going through a cycle. He brings up the theory that horror cinema gets more grisly when Republicans are in office. (He brings it up - without necessarily subscribing to it.)

Our waiter at Chili's, Austin Zamhariri, spent considerable time eavesdropping and peering at the Frightmare Weekend poster Loyd had spread out on the table; eventually, Austin offered up his theory that "every person has their own scare factor." Which sounds pretty plausible, actually. Just FYI, and in case all you Grapevine homicide cop readers have any unsolved murders on the books, Austin himself admitted to being a fan of serial killer stories. I'm just sayin'.

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