[BATB 3] Third Time’s A Charm For VA Beach Horror Convention [Event Report]
The third Blood at the Beach Horror Convention in Virginia Beach, Virginia, brought many of the biggest names in genre entertainment to the area for the first time earlier this month, and OBXentertainment.com once again hit the road to bring you the following event report!
The “Blood at the Beach III” convention, at the Holiday Inn Virginia Beach Norfolk Hotel and Conference Center in Virginia Beach, VA, featured more than 30 celebrity guests, including a massive Devil’s Rejects cast reunion, The Walking Dead cast, and numerous stars of the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises, among many others.
Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in eight Hellraiser films, recalled working in North Carolina on Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.
“It was beautiful,” Bradley told us of the area, “and the people were just fantastic.”
Later he joined co-star Nicholas Vince (Chatterer) for a Hellraiser Q&A panel, during which Bradley recounted that he and the film’s writer and director Clive Barker both attended the same high school in Liverpool, England as songwriter John Lennon.
Terry Kiser also talked about working in North Carolina on the classic comedy Weekend at Bernie’s.
“I’ve done theater, movies, TV, all types of roles,” Kiser told us, “and it amazes me that I’m best known as a dead guy.”
He said that Bernie’s was the only time he has worked in North Carolina, and spoke highly of co-star Catherine Mary Stewart, who we interviewed in November of last year and who Kiser called “one of my favorite people”.
“Dino DeLaurentiis owned a studio in Wilmington,” Kiser added. “It was a beautiful area. I have to get back there sometime.”
The 73-year-old actor, who has appeared in over 100 feature films, was making his first convention appearance in 10 years. He said he had never been to Virginia Beach before, but called the area beautiful and asked for a recommendation on where to eat good seafood on the oceanfront.
Bill Moseley (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects) talked to us about getting his start in the movie business and his never ending love for all things horror.
“My first drug addiction was fear,” Moseley told OBXentertainment.com. “I was always getting into trouble doing crazy stuff for the thrill of it.”
When asked if it was true that he is a graduate of Yale University, Moseley said, “Yes, I was an English major.”
He recalled getting his big break in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 thanks to his own short film The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, which director Tobe Hooper eventually saw and as a result requested to meet Moseley for the sequel, where the versatile actor was immortalized as Choptop.
More recently, Moseley returned to the franchise that made him famous in Texas Chainsaw 3D, released earlier this year. He told he wanted to be involved in some way because of his love for and loyalty to the original films, but was surprised to learn he’d not be playing Choptop this time.
“They had the rights to all the characters in the first film,” Moseley explained, “but not those in the second film. At first I thought the idea of me playing Jim Siedow’s character (the Cook) was crazy, but then I thought about it and thought maybe it did kind of make sense to keep it in the family.”
Moseley’s co-star in The Devil’s Rejects, Priscilla Barnes told us that her Three’s Company co-star Joyce Dewitt, who was originally scheduled to be a guest at Blood at the Beach, has family on the Outer Banks and was at one point hoping to visit the area after the convention.
Barnes and Moseley later recounted the details of filming the most uncomfortable scene in director Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects during a massive cast Q&A panel before a packed audience. We will have a full report from that panel here at OBXentertainment.com in the coming weeks.
We also got to meet and interview movie icon P.J. Soles, star of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, as well as Carrie and Rock & Roll High School.
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling of love to know that all these people are still impacted by this movie,” P.J. told us about the lasting impact of John Carpenter’s Halloween now going on three and half decades after its initial release.
“They have Halloween parties,” she said, “and they play the movie on Halloween, and they watch it with their son or daughter and it’s their tradition that they do every Halloween. I just hear it over and over again in whatever state I go to. It’s amazing. You carve your pumpkin, pick your costume, get your candy ready by the door, and watch Halloween.”
You can read our full interview with P.J. Soles coming soon to OBXentertainment.com, and can click here now for a preview of our conversation over at HalloweenDailyNews.com!
Tyler Mane, who brought the masked killer Michael Myers to life in director Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake and its 2009 sequel, as well as the memorable mutant villain Sabretooth in X-Men (2000), talked to us briefly about visiting The Myers House, NC, a life-sized replica Myers’ home from John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween film, located in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
“Yeah, I was driving right by there, and Kenny (Caperton, owner) had asked me to stop by so I did. I met Kenny when he visited the set of Halloween.”
Mane told us that Caperton’s is the only house he has ever autographed. You can click here to read our interview with Kenny from 2011 and check out our photo gallery from The Myers House NC!
We also had the surreal pleasure of interviewing Amelia Kinkade, who starred in the 1988 cult classic Night of the Demons as possessed party girl Angela, horror’s most famous female monster since the Bride of Frankenstein. We found ourselves conducting the interview outside by the hotel pool (while Bradley enjoyed a light lunch with a lady friend a few tables over), as Amelia graciously recounted how she got the iconic role 25 years ago, how Angela changed her life, and what she has been up to lately.
“The casting agent hired me (to play Angela in Night of the Demons) because she said I absolutely scared her half to death, which I’m very proud of” Amelia told us. “I was cheerful. I got in her face and I was little bit too flirty. I had no idea that it was going to lead to a series of films that 25 years later have still maintained the test of time. I now have fans coming to meet me with tattoos of me on their chest. The first one of these conventions I did, four guys in their 20s came in with tattoos of me, and I was just shocked. I had no idea I had that kind of fan base out there.”
Now an author and renowned animal psychic, Kinkade talked about visiting the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) while she was in Virginia Beach.
“I took an extra day so that I could go to the Edgar Cayce Library and ARE Center,” Amelia said, “because as a child I grew up reading Cayce books. I read Edgar Cayce on Atlantis when I was nine years old and I read it over and over and over. I took a copy of my second book, The Language of Miracles, to the library, thinking they wouldn’t have it there, and when I went up to the librarian carrying my book, she said, ‘Oh, we have that’. Let me tell you, in my world that means you really made it. That made me very happy.”
You can read our full interview with Amelia Kinkade coming soon to OBXentertainment.com.
Finally, we got to sit down with Robert Macnaughton, who played Elliot’s big brother Michael in Steven Spielberg’s classic E.T. , for a lengthy interview about getting the role, making the film, and his life since. Currently a postal worker in New York, Macnaughton was making only his second convention appearance ever.
Macnaughton recalled that his audition for the role was on the same day that President Ronald Reagan was shot in an attempted assassination.
“I was 14,” he said. “I read for it in early 1981. It was right after Raiders of the Lost Ark had come out, and it was actually the day that President Reagan was shot. It was my first meeting with Spielberg. I went in and interviewed with him, and it went really well but it was kind of chaotic because everyone was rushing in going ‘Reagan’s not going to make it’ or ‘James Brady just died’ and all this stuff. I worshipped Spielberg. Close Encounters was my favorite movie, and Raiders had just come out, so I was like really in awe, and then all that went away in the first five minutes of talking to him. He makes you feel comfortable. That’s how he gets such good performances out of people.”
Macnaughton told us how the director found similarities in the actor and the character he was auditioning for.
“He asked what I liked doing,” said Robert, “and I said ‘Dungeons and Dragons’. He said ‘Well that’s in the movie. What else do you like doing?’ I said ‘Bike riding’, and he said ‘Well that’s in the movie too’. It worked. Everything worked. I said the right things.”
We’ve got lots more with Robert coming later this month.
Look for a our full reports from The Devil’s Rejects and Hellraiser Q&A panels, and extended interviews with Halloween and Carrie star P.J. Soles, E.T. star Robert Macnaughton, and horror icon Amelia Kinkade (Night of the Demons), coming soon to OBXentertainment.com!
Our special coverage of the Blood at the Beach III Horror Convention continues here now with our exclusive event photo gallery below!
[photos by Artz Music & Photography]
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