House of Horrors 2017

It's that time of the year again! It's time for a horror con. We always enjoy going to the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen in November. Same as this year. A few weeks ago we decided to go to Oberhausen for the weekend. We were at House of Horrors on Saturday and Sunday. It was a mix of exhibitors, cosplay, actors, panels, photo ops, food, drink and more!

We were mainly looking forward to watching some panels, buy some DVDs or games and talk to some awesome people again! 

There were fewer exhibitors than we are used to. But there was still a lot to buy and see! Sig and Tristan spent a lot of time browsing through the merchandise. And that paid off; Sig bought quite some awesome new DVDs. You'll hear more about that in his vlog soon! 

We loved walking around the merchandise. Though most DVDs are German, which is a pity for us since we're Dutch. We are really looking for the English versions of DVDs. But luckily we were able to find a few. Liv bought 2 great DVDs. Yes I did! I bought two Special Edition DVDs. Even though I already had Reservoir Dogs on dvd, I decided to buy an awesome 15 year SE Steelbox. I also bought a special edition of Apocalypse Now, which is (imo) one of the best movies ever made. Sig bought some as well. I must admit: There were some really awesome special editions of DVDs. I was tempted, but since it were German versions, I didn't buy them. 

 Liv and I also bought a game at the Gator booth. It's called Dr. Lakra's Mutant Laboratory. You can create over 190.000 unique and surprising mutant characters based on 21 hand drawn creatures made by Dr. Lakra (A renowned Mexican tattooist). 

What I would have loved to see some more are games (boardgames) and t-shirts! And mainly girlies or hoodies. Some exhibitors sold shirts, but not too many. 

Okay, House of Horrors had to cope with a lot of cancellations. But nevertheless: I liked the guests that were there! Personally, I loved Lou Taylor Pucci, Tom Savini, and Adrienne King. They were so nice! It was awesome to see them at House of Horrors. Even though they weren't very busy all the time, most of them stayed energetic and had a great time with their fans. We loved talking to the actors and seeing the panels. I also loved Courtney Gaines, he was so nice. Most people may know him from Children of the Corn, but I was excited for a whole other reason. You see my brother Ingmar and I love The Burbs. We watched that movie a lot of times! One of the coolest scenes in the movie is the "It came with the frame" scene, with Hans and Rumsfield. We quoted that scene very often. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when he agreed to say the line (Thanks Anne!)

I really do think the number of cancellations was a pity. I was looking forward to meeting Verne Troyer, Vinnie Jones, and Elizabeth Blackmore a lot. And they all canceled (and a lot of other guests). It's totally understandable that guests cancel. It happens to all cons. Where I do think House of Horrors could improve majorly is communication around it. There was a lot of speculation and I haven't even seen any formal communication on Elizabeth's absence. I really hope the information will be there quicker at a next convention. A few actors also just signed until 12 PM on Sunday, which was announced on the day itself. That's really a pity for people who were only there on Sunday.  

The guests that attended the con were all amazing.  They were enthusiastic and kind: It was a pleasure to see all of them. It was easy to talk to them and I always like how they are seated. It's very easy to go over and have a chat or see how much they ask for autographs. That's done very well!

I love it that there are so many panels! I always enjoy attending panels because it's a nice opportunity to learn a bit more about the actors. But it's also a great moment to make some photos. As always, there were many panels. Almost throughout the whole day. The actors were great and enthusiastic during their panels. That was great. 

I really hated the light. Oh the lights from hell! It was bright red. It wasn't just impossible to make a decent photo (without flash), but it also gave me a headache. I just couldn't watch 3 panels in a row. You can see in my picture here how red the light was. Multiple actors even complained about it. Tom Savini asked to change the lights, but they just wouldn't. Without any real explanation. For me, that really was a pity and made the panels far less enjoyable. 

As another point: I'd say communication could be improved here as well. On Sunday morning we went to the panel room for Courtney Gains panel. After 10 minutes of waiting, we just walked to his booth and asked whether he was still doing a panel. He told us it had been moved. Well, we didn't know that. There were multiple panels moved throughout the day. And it was hard to keep track. The Cannibal holocaust panel was just skipped without any explanation. 

As for the presentation of the panels: I just prefer to see Isabel as a host. Agree! This host was okay, but he just didn't communicate a lot with the audience and he didn't look the actors in the eye when he asked them a question. That just looked a bit weird. Of course, I really did enjoy seeing all the panels. I've seen quite a lot over these 2 days and it was the perfect opportunity to get to know the actors a little bit better. It was a lot of fun.