Crypticon Seattle 2024 Wrap

Crypticon Seattle, the great Pacific Northwest horror convention was packed full of great events and thousands of fans. The Scariest Things was so busy over the weekend, moderating two panels, participating in four other panels, running The Horror Movie Greenlight Pitch, and last, but certainly not least, interviewing Bonnie “The Nun” Aarons on stage. Eric is still coming down from the buzz that was… Crypticon 2024.

This was my second time participating at Crypticon. Last year, I assisted in two panels and ran The Greenlight Pitch for the first time, and I hosted a monster movie bracket fight. Convention directors Jason Weiss and Jasen Mortenson decided… that went great! Let’s give Eric more to do! And it was exhausting but TOTALLY WORTH IT. This event is something of the other side of the film festival coin. There are some films here, but this is all about the horror community. Meet other horror fans, share your knowledge, celebrate the horror icons who attend, and party until you drop.

Sound fun? It was!

Once again, I made the trek up to SeaTac (Between Seattle and Tacoma, for those not in the know) Doubletree Inn, the hotel that exudes 1984 in the best way. It’s a Byzantine labyrinth of a hotel, but I love it there. I also adore the nearby 13 Coins Restaurant and its late-night comfort food menu.

Crypticon behaves similarly to a small comic convention. It’s much more focused, but there is an artist alley, a celebrity meet and greet room, a presentation ballroom, and several conference rooms to provide panels. For me, the panels are the star of the show. They range from filmmaker instructional presentations (gore on a budget), makeup techniques, horror history, horror philosophy, and trivia (Courtesy of our friends at The Portland Horror Trivia Massacre). This year I was in charge of two panels, and I came prepared to talk some tropes!

Be prepared for a long post!

My Panel 1 – Culinary Creepiness

One of my favorite podcasts that I have done was Episode 112: Edible Horror with Mike and Liz. On stage for this event, I was joined by Dana Vargas, Melissa Leigh, Julie McGalliard, and Todd Johnston. Todd, in keeping with the theme, brought ice cream drumsticks for the audience to recognize one of his favorite films: Ice Cream Man. For this educational panel, I broke the trope into sub-tropes to define the power of food-based horror themes.

Starvation Themes

Horror as a provocative sociological agitator. Many dystopian future films deal with this. Society class struggles between the haves and the have-nots. What happens to us when the food runs out? Sometimes this is a lost individual. Sometimes this is when the world’s food supply has dwindled. Sometimes this is punishment.
Starvation tropes always play it straight. Ain’t nothing funny about starving to death.
Films with this theme: The Platform, XX, The Road, Soylent Green, The Hunger Games, Snow Piercer, The Terror, Thinner

Dining as a Twisted Ritual

The dining room table is a place for community and conversation. Horror will turn this on its head and make it a place for confrontation, or conversion.
Films with this theme: The Menu, The Invitation, Hereditary, The Feast, Eraserhead, Alien, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Thanksgiving

What goes in, Must Come Out… Food as the Gag Reflex… or diarrhea blowout!

It ain’t body horror, but it’s damned close. This section features some of the most awful scenes, or wonderfully funny scenes, depending on the tone.
HURRRRRFFFFF…. gagkkle… plop plop
Films with this theme: The Fly, The Exorcist, Le Grande Bouffet (The Big Feast), Se7en, Feed, and The Evil Dead. (Non-horror shout-outs to The Meaning of Life, Stand by Me, Bridesmaids, and Dumb and Dumber.)

You really Shouldn’t Eat That

Do you really want to know how that sausage was made?
It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s Fritters! (Motel Hell)
- Movies with people eating dangerously inedible objects belong in this sub-trope.
Cannibalism themes are appropriate here if humans are prepared as a food item… we’ll get to pure cannibalism soon.
Films with this theme: I Drink Your Blood (meat pies with rabid dog blood), Motel Hell (the Fritters), The Farm (humans into burgers), Ice Cream Man (Human ice cream), Cooties (Bad nuggets), Witness Infection (Bad Sausages), Are We Not Cats? (Hair)

Food that Wants to Kill You

This is the weirdest and rarest of the horror food trope. This is the opposite of the serious starvation theme.
This is ALWAYS played for laughs. Full Moon and Troma live here.
Films with this theme: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The Stuff, The Gingerdead Man, It: Chapter 2, Poutreygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Thankskilling

You Look Tasty: Cannibalism Horror

It all comes down to this! The last measure of food desperation. Sometimes, a last resort. Sometimes mental illness.
Play it for humor or play it for the most uncomfortable horror that the genre can offer.
Video Nasty Staple: Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferrox.
This really could be a panel all by itself.
Films with this theme: Raw, Cannibal Holocaust, Delicatessen, Ravenous, Eat, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Anthropophagus, Bones and All… and so many more.

My Panel 2 – Know Your Tropes: Gas Station Horror

This is one of my favorite unsung Horror Tropes. I was joined on the panel by my friend Heather Alexander from the Portland Horror Trivia Massacre, Robin Lindsay Groves, and Julie McGalliard in her second tour of duty with my panels. I was thrilled at how enthusiastic the panelists were about this trope. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to figure out how to get the audio recording to work. (Next year… notes for next year)

Once again, I broke this into six sub-tropes. You can find more in-depth detail on this trope on one of our Dead Lists.

The False Refuge: Trapped in a Gas Station

Gas stations are often false refuges, locations where desperate fleeing victims will try to take shelter. What could be a better hiding spot than a brightly fluorescent-lit small space with windows all around? You might be able to buy some time hiding behind the chips and beer, but the killer is going to find you before too long.
It’s no picnic for the working stiff attendants who are left all alone in remote locations, with nobody around for miles, deep into the night. What could possibly go wrong, other than EVERYTHING?
Fundamentally, this is where we start.
Movies with this sub-trope often STAY at the Gas Station.
Films with this Theme: Splinter, Maximum Overdrive, High Tension, Body Bags, Finale, Southbound (Looped), Halloween, Open 24 Hours, Vacancy, and Night of the Hunted

The Gas Station as the Rubicon: The Point of No Return

Beyond this point, here there be dragons!
On long road trips, this might be the last place someone will see you alive.
There are crazed mutants down the road, a serial killer, or evil spirits. Turn around while you still have a chance!
Often associated with the Creepy Gas Station Attendant sub-trope.
Films with this theme: The Hills Have Eyes, Friday the 13th, The Hitcher, Wrong Turn, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Cabin in the Woods, The Darkness of the Road, Messiah of Evil

The Creepy Gas Station Attendant: Class Identity and the Horror Sterotype

Call it classism. The gas station attendant is often the lowest rung of the employment ladder, and in horror movies, they get populated with degenerates… or false degenerates.
Often intertwined with Hillbilly Horror.
Films with this theme: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Origin of trope), Deliverance, Urban Legend (Subverted), Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (Subverted), Cabin in the Woods, Children of the Corn, The Hills Have Eyes, The Blackburn Asylum, Exit 33, and Sundown: The Vampires in Retreat

So, you’re minding your own business, and then some awful creeper spots you, and you can’t shake them. This sub trope is the home for stalkers, kidnappers, and road rage merchants.
We all have to use the gas station, and you never know who you might run into.
This sub-trope uses the gas station as an accelerant or a stage for a scene, but not the overall theme of the movie. This is the starting block for a few harrowing thrillers.
Films with this theme: Tailgate (Bumperkleef), Unhinged, The Hunt, No Country for Old Men, Breakdown, Duel, Joy Ride, The Vanishing

The Gas Station as a Ticking Time Bomb

You know something about gas stations? They are loaded with explosives! KABOOOOM!
The Time Bomb trope has to be a moment, rather than an environment, and it often signals a major turning point or closure to a scene… or the movie.
This is a sub-trope on loan from the Action Movies. (Thank You First Blood, Bad Boys, Robocop)
Films with this theme: The Birds (trope origin), The Hitcher, The Call, Christine, Carrie (2013), Maximum Overdrive.

The Roadside Attraction from Hell

Mom! Let’s check out the Museum of Monsters and Madmen! Kids… that’s a really bad idea.
A rare, but potent sub-trope.
How these attractions manage to stay open defies logic and common sense. The protagonists in these films are often severely lacking in both.
Films with this Theme: House of 1000 Corpses, Tourist Trap, Jurrasic Park: The Lost World (The terrifying amusement arrives at a gas station), House of Wax, Black Mirror, Talon Falls

The Horror Movie Greenlight Pitch

For the second straight year, Crypticon invited the Scariest Things to run our Horror Movie Greenlight Pitch event. This is a horror movie production simulation game, that uses a snake draft format for prospective teams to pick their actors, directors, crew, and tropes for a horror movie of their own making. Teams compete to find the best people and ideas to suit their production choice.

Film Festival Darling? Maybe try and get Anya Taylor Joy and Timothy Chalamet?
Grindhouse? How about Eli Roth and Tom Savini?
After the draft, the teams are given a moment to write their films and make a three-minute trailer greenlight pitch to the judges for the winning prize!

This year’s Teams:

Derek: Feisty Goat Studios: “Mirrors in the Sky” : WINNER

A festival darling film, directed by Axel Carolyn, starring Anya Taylor Joy, Adam Driver, and Alan Tudyk. Featuring Music from Disasterpiece. Anya Taylor Joy encounters a strange portal in a Cabin in the Woods, after receiving strange transmissions over her cell phone. Above the cabin is a shimmering mirror to another planet is a gateway for an Alien Invasion. She recruits her brother, Adam Driver, to try and close the portal, but they are going in blind, and only courage to see them through.

Becky and Brad: Surban Ghost Films: “Blood Rage”

This is a reboot of the Twins-based thriller “Blood Rage” by John Grissmer. This time, the director is Christopher Landon (Freaky, Happy Death Day). The film stars Samara Weaving in a double role and is supported by Barbara Crampton. This gory reimagining features bullying themes, a chainsaw fight, and lots of exploding heads. This version of Blood Rage is set on a dark and stormy night. I.L.M. bolsters the movie with its state-of-the-art special effects work.

Akilah: Black Horror Theater: “Murder House”

Murder House is an elevated art house film, directed by Ana Lily Aminpour and casts Janelle Monae and Sheila Vand (an Aminpour favorite) in the lead role, with Betty Gilpin as an evil cultist running a powerful Energy Consortium. Janelle can sense that her boss (Gilpin) is making some very cryptic decisions, and tries to get to the bottom of it. She and her girlfriend (Vand) discover that there is a ritual plot that requires enormous amounts of power to bring a demon to this world, and only they can foil it. Margot Martindale plays the hapless mayor who disbelieves the rumors of cultish corruption.

Sharai: Nevermore Pictures: “Dead Head”

This sexy Thriller from Kathryn Bigelow features three of the hottest actresses in today’s Hollywood: Margot Robbie, Jenna Ortega, and Mia Goth. Bigelow returns to a horror western backdrop and introduces a vampire from the badlands, Danny Trejo. Stay for the rain of blood, ending with a Goblyn soundtrack cranking in the background. The legendary Eiko Ishioka provides some spectacular steampunk costuming.

Teri and Greg: Party Hardin Films: Film Title TBD

Party Hardin goes full Gonzo with this period costume horror. Kevin Smith directs a wildly entertaining cast, including Bruce Campbell, Octavia Spencer, and Jack Black. The theme is punk-rock-inspired, with Black attempting to kill the honeymooning couple of Campbell and Spencer for a ritual sacrifice in a spooky castle. Fortunately, the loyal dog keeps foiling Jack Black’s fumbling attempts in this mad-cap gothic comedy. Does it make sense? Not really. Is it fun? Sure is!

The Bonnie Aarons Interview:

Jason Weiss at Crypticon had heard my interview with Rebekah McKendry and thought I would be a good interviewer for Bonnie Aarons, star of The Conjuring 2, The Nun, Jakob’s Wife, and The Nun2. It was a privilege to present this horror icon, a late bloomer whose impressive interview with James Wan changed the trajectory of her career forever. Initially, she was a little reluctant to interview, and she wanted to make sure that the fans got a chance to interact. So, I adjusted the questions and what we got was a sparky and animated interview full of great fan interaction.

She was engaging and, in a few instances, elicited a roar from the audience. I proposed to the audience that there are four great female MONSTERS who belong on Mount Rushhorror by themselves:

Elsa Lanchester, The Bride of Frankenstein
Allison Hayes, Nancy Archer, the 50-foot Woman
Linda Blair, as Regan MacNeill in The Exorcist
… and Bonnie Aarons, as Valek, The Nun

For the Record, my runners-up include Simone Simon as Irena (Cat People ’42), Natasha Kinski as Irena (Cat People ’82), Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body), The Alien Queen, Delphine Chanéac as Dren (Splice), Natasha Henstridge as Sil (Species), and Katherine Isabelle as Ginger (Ginger Snaps). This is NOT a Mt Rushhorror for Final Girls. That is a mountain of its own.

I had a great time with Bonnie on the stage. She was engaging and punchy, and she really brought the energy. Thanks to my friend Greg Hardin, we have some video footage of the interview here. Sound is… so-so, but Bonnie, who declined to use a microphone, can really project to the back of the hall.

The Exploring Grief and Trauma in Horror Panel

I teamed up once again at Crypticon with my friend Terri Harden, LMCA for another dive into the psychology of horror. It struck me that this is a panel that is enormously helpful to a number of people within our horror community. Horror movies are a means for some to exercise catharsis, after suffering from loss or trauma. Whether it’s PTSD, depression, or abuse (both internal and external), there are many in our community who have suffered.

Terri’s therapist’s messaging is always sensitive to triggers and warning flags. We talked about how horror affects us, and how we see grief and trauma played out in horror movies. I have had a few traumatic moments myself, but horror has never been a therapeutic device, but somehow perhaps I am drawn to the genre out of an internal need that I haven’t quite trapped into. For Terri’s panel, I played more of the movie resource expert.

As Crypticon panels go, this was unique. It was a horror panel as therapy. Many in the audience shared their stories, and how they worked through their issues. We also shared our favorite films and tried to figure out if any horror protagonists managed to handle their trauma and grief in a healthy and productive way. Oftentimes… most of the time… no.

Among the movies we discussed:

The Sixth Sense (Applauded for a good recovery)
The Babadook
Midsommar
Hereditary
Don’t Look Now
The Lodge
Midnight Mass
The Night House
The Invitation
A Dark Song

The Podcasting Advice Panels

It comes somewhat as a surprise to me, but making it to seven years of Podcasting makes me something of a veteran for horror movie podcasts. I joined Justin “The Reverend En Fuego” from the Grit City Podcast to help aspiring and developing podcasters get to that next level. The Rev has been podcasting since the nascent years of the format, having taken his radio skills into creating a pan-nerd-genre podcast, and now the Grit City Podcast, which focuses on happenings in and around Tacoma, Washington.

These were his Crypticon panels, and he set them up this way:

Podcasting 101: Because Just Hanging Out With Your Friends Isn’t Enough

Introduction to Podcasting. For people who have listened to podcasts, understand what the concept of podcasting is, are interested in creating their own content, but are at ground zero on their journey. The goal is to get people in front of a microphone and recording content.

Podcasting 201: We’re Actually Doing It! But, We Need to Get Better!

You’ve started making a podcast but now you want to focus and make better content! For people who have podcasted for a little while (more than 3 months), who are into it, and are willing to spend a little bit of money on their hobby.

Podcasting 301: It’d Be Cool if I had More Listeners More than Just Mom

You’ve podcasted for over a year (or more!) and have realized that you’d like to expand and try for more listeners … and possibly monetary compensation! A discussion for people who are looking to monetize their podcast spread the word through social media, and expand their reach in the digital landscape.

These panels had a lot of wonderful back and forth discussions between the panel and the audience as we shared the range of success that we had or what we aspire to. I was particularly interested in learning other techniques from all quarters, as Podcasting is a slow-developing medium that features tons of podcasts competing for a sometimes hard-to-reach listenership.

In Support of our podcasting brethren, here are the sites of the podcasters on the panels and in attendance. Check them out! I will be! It’s the community of horror podcaster support group.

Final Musings of Crypticon

There is so much going on at Crypticon, and there’s only so much time to catch everything that’s happening when you are involved with as many panels as I was on. One of my favorite events is the 13th-floor party, where lots of adult beverages are consumed, and you can chat with all your new horror friends. For some, that is the highlight of the Convention. I certainly had a great time, meeting all sorts of terrific horror fans, and bonded with my fellow attendees.

The Crypticon Artist Alley and Vendor Hall this year featured the Cascadia Reptile Expo, which brought some wonderful friends, including a beautiful snake (I forgot the species, but it is a Florida native). I was able to cruise through the Celebrity meet and greet area to have a number of icons sign my Horror Movie Greenlight Pitch manual, including Jeffrey Combs, Millicent Simmonds, Eugene Clark, Barbara Crampton, and, of course, Bonnie Aarons.

I was able to find enough time to catch my friend Willy Greer’s master class panel “The Seven Psychological Archetypes of the Movie Monster” and Heather Alexander’s “Skinamarink and Other Divisive Horror Movies”. Next year: More panels! Of course, a trip to Crypticon would not be complete without saying hello to the parking lot security droid and going to 13 Coins for prime rib.

My thanks to Jason, Jasen, and all the Crypticon crew who made this event so special. See you in 2025!