Chiller Theatre Expo
On April 30, 2011, I went to Chiller Theater Expo. The cover charge is a bit expensive for the expo's size, but it is well worth going at least once for horror/slasher movie fans.
I walked through the main doors and slammed headfirst into nostalgia territory.
I was completed stoked when I saw a fully-functional Haunted House pinball table for sale. I played the crap out of this thing in the arcade when I was little. For those unfamiliar, the table has a clear piece of glass as the center of the playfield. Below that is actually a second pinball table sloped away from you. When your ball hits the drain (where you normally lose the ball), the ball enters the small inset table. You then have to try to hit the ball back toward yourself to save it and bring it back to the main playfield.
The guy wanted $1,800 for it. I seriously considered it, but ultimately I wouldn't be able to get it home, my girlfriend would have killed me, and something else... oh yeah! I could never afford that.
Then came the best moment of Chiller.
I met Lloyd Kaufman! (I'm the guy in the Ghostbusters shirt.)
I remember watching the Toxic Crusaders animated series. I had all of the Toxie toys. As I got older, I watched Troma movies like Toxic Avenger, Poltrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Redneck Zombies, Cannibal! The Musical (made by the creators of South Park), Blood Sucking Freaks, and Tromeo and Juliet.
I was going to get the Toxic Avenger Anniversary DVD, and then I heard the sales guy (who, as it turns out, is also the cameraman) announce, "Anything you buy, Lloyd will sign for free." I thought, "Lloyd? As in... Lloyd Kaufman?" I looked around, and BAM! Lloyd was standing next to me, smiling in Troma-colored purple and green.
I was shaking in excitement and got my copy of Toxic Avenger. Lloyd pulled my friends in, and the cameraman took our picture. It's a bit blurry because he used the screen on the back of the camera rather than the viewfinder. On a Canon Rebel XSi, that disables the auto-focus capability. I guess I should have brought my camera remote. (j/k)
There were a few other movies that I was interested in, but the majority of the movies at Chiller were homemade DVD-Rs that I could have made myself. The biggest letdown was when I thought I found an actual, legitimate copy of the Ilsa series. I'm still not even sure a legitimate DVD set has ever been made, but I'm not paying $35 for someone's torrented DVD-Rs with "Ilsa" written them with a Sharpie.
