On March 27th 2009, Indianapolis was invaded by denizens of the underworld, descending en mass upon the Marriot East for the latest incarnation of Horrorhound Weekend Indianapolis. Drawn together were many horror movie stars, podcast professionals, fans, and vendors of the weirds and wacky.

The most exciting thing for the weekend, for this horror fan at any rate was that this show was the first ‘Official’ public appearance of the Bloody Good Horror Podcast! We’ve been there together this time around, however this time around we were billed as a featured guest and given two tables in the middle of the show floor to allow us to do our thing!

So, we showed up in in force armed to the teeth with recording setup in hand as well as some new banners and merch. We looked pretty top notch I must say and tomorrow’s episode should prove to be exciting. Especially with all the nifty bumpers I was able to record with many of the movie stars including the one and only Crypt Keeper, Adrienne Barbeau, Pinhead, Jason Mewes and a few others!

Quite possibly the biggest surprise for this outing was the fact that we found out we actually have fans. We knew we had listeners, we knew some of them liked us, but those cryptic numbers that say we have over 3000 subscribed listeners don’t feel like much without the faces behind them. Actually meeting these folks coming to greet you face to face and telling you they listen to your show all the time and love it, well that’s just a warm and fuzzy feeling plain and simple.

We managed to get some good recording done and had a blast. We did some heavy duty networking and got the name out there. The Bloody Good Horror beer coozies were quite the hit this year and we even sold out of tshirts!

The last thing a Dominoes Pizza sees: Louis Fowler , Myself, Freddy Morris (Night of the Living Podcast)

So, our first official guest appearance was a rousing success and we really can’t wait for the next time. All of us I believe feel quite invigorated over the entire experience and ready to buckle down some quality content. Better warn your earbuds, they’re about to be assaulted.

While all that was great, the true highlight of the weekend was getting to see old friends once again, friends that you only get to see maybe once a year. Many people may not be aware of the fact, but there are a ton of horror podcasts out there for you to download and listen to. The best thing about this is that this community is extremely tight knit. Nearly every one of the community is happy and excited to get together and knock back a few beers and just to flat out have a good time. With people such as BrotherD and Miss Bren from Mail Order Zombie making the trek all the way from the west coast; it’s a large scale event indeed.

Louis Fowler, Andy (Night of the Living Podcast

A gathering of this sort brings together some pretty zany hijinks as you can imagine and this weekend was no slouch. Much beer was consumed and much fun was had. At one point in the weekend, after watching Corey Haim act like a Diva, Louis Fowler and myself took it upon ourselves to try and encourage a classic hollywood style meltdown. I followed in ‘C Majors’ footsteps as he patrolled the party in hopes of someone recognizing him and loudly introduced myself to everybody we passed with ‘Hi! I’m Corey Haim! you may remember me from such films as License to Drive!” Sadly, no meltdowns were seen however a few dirty looks were thrown our way.

As the night rolled on we did manage to see some rare sights. From a carnival freak show barker busting cinder blocks over his crotch with a sledge hammer to random horror stars visiting the convention incognito as a fan, it was a great time. The highlight to the After Party on Saturday has to go to the half hour jam session between Corey Haim and C Tom Mack (singer of ‘Cry Little
Sister’ in Lost Boys). We got to see Mr. Haim play the bongos, sing an original song, and freestyle rap.

Let that sink in for a second….. Corey Haim, freestyle rapping. Oh yes.

And fear not, the hour and a half of video I took is in the hands of Eric at Bloody Good Horror for editing. You can guarantee it will be posted when done!

My illegitimate brother, Bryan Wolford from Drunken Zombie

The other main point to these shows is to get a chance to meet some celebrities, with expectations of nothing more than a friendly handshake and dreams of some networking. After you have become accustomed to seeing many of these actors in person, it sinks in that the majority of them are just down to earth people like you and me. With the exception of the dingleberries such as Haim, most are happy to meet some fans and share a good time.

Throughout my weekend I managed to meet a good number of horror actors and most of them were quite friendly and happy to talk show business. Some I didn’t get to talk to as much as I had hoped, some I got to talk to more than I ever dreamed of making the weekend truly one to remember.

For the bad and downright odd:

I really don’t need to focus any more on Corey Haim. He’s as big of a douche as he portrays on his ‘reality’ show. Enough said.

John Saxon, star of such classics as “Nightmare on Elm Street” was a bit of a grumpy old man by Sunday afternoon, but I can forgive him of that. He is after all pretty old and had to be worn out. His wife was very polite actually when she explained that they had to catch a flight!

Andrew Benarski, the newest actor to don the chainsaw in the recent “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remakes his a down right disturbed individual. Standing a solid 4 inches over myself and probably a good 45 lbs of solid muscle; he’s pretty damn scary as well. When he is drunk and yelling at folks for taking his picture, it’s best to vacate the area.

As for the good, there are many good stories to tell so I’ll highlight the best.

Derek Mears plays the newest incarnation of Jason Vorhees in this years “Friday the 13th” remake. The man, while of imposing stature indeed, he’s so nice it’s hard to find him intimidating again! Very polite and always ready with a smile and a wave.

Adrienne Barbeau is as gorgeous in person as I dreamed she’d be and she’s a sweet heart as well. Too busy to spend time chatting, she was always happy to say hello and to shake a hand. She made a point to chat with my daughter Delaney as well about her stint as Ms. Simone in “Scooby Doo on Zombie Island” which made a little girls weekend.

Dan Roebuck has been in hundreds of movies, he’s that guy that you’ll see his face and say ‘I remember him!’ I remember him most recently as Leslie Arzt in the first season of Lost (the dynamite guy). This guy is a top notch friendly person as well. He attempted to entertain a nervous looking Delaney with some magic tricks and was always happy to chat. Never rude, never off putting, it was funny to watch him get just as excited over the pro halloween mask exhibit as the rest of us nerds.

To say that John Kassir, voice of the well known and loved Crypt Keeper from HBO’s “Tales From the Crypt”, is a hero would be an understatement. The man oozes voice talent unlike anybody out there. On Friday night of the show as the floor reached closing time, I saw that there wasn’t a line at his table, so I approached to say hello and to grab a hand shake. After a brief mention of my wife and I loving him as Raymundo Rocket on Rocket Power, I soon found myself sitting at his table for another 20 minutes shooting the breeze and talking about various movies he’s been in and people he’s worked with. I was happy to find out that Mr. Kassir was one of the most approachable celebs I’ve ever met and was more than happy to sit and chat with a fan. Throughout the rest of the weekend he always had a smile and a nod every time we crossed paths and he helped to make it a weekend to remember. My only regret with John Kassir was not asking him where I could get the awesome Crypt Keeper Hockey Jersey he was wearing! That thing was badass!

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The final story for Horrorhound 09 is a happy one and pretty mind blowing for this horror nerd writer/former music major. The man pictured above approached our table on Friday night. He looked over our merch table and took one of our business cards, then proceeded to tell me that our stuff looked pretty cool and asked about what we did. I gave him the spiel on our Podcast, our Website. He was highly interested and stuck around to chat for awhile. Extremely friendly and very personable from the get go, we sat and shot the breeze for a good 20 minutes before he decided he wanted to buy a shirt and a beer koozie cause he thought they were so cool. At the time, I didn’t recognize his face so thought it was a cool encounter with a future fan.

As the weekend went by, this man stopped every time we ran into each other, genuine in his happiness to stop and talk. He’d ask how the show was going for us, ask if I’d met anybody cool, what all I’d seen, what he’d seen, on and on. We’d cross paths several times on Saturday and later on at the After Party Saturday night.

It was at the after party that I finally asked BrotherD who the older fellow standing off to the side was. BrotherD informed me that the new friend I had made on Friday night was none other than award winning film composer Christopher Young. Chris Young has scored nearly 100 movies such as “Spider Man 3″, “Hellraiser”, and many other horror classics. I’ve been a long time of the man’s work but I had never seen his face. I was flabbergasted by my quick brush with greatness and even more taken aback over just how awesome and friendly the guy was! He never did mention who he was and to avoid sounding like a blubbering fanboy, I never did mention to him I found out. He came by the table again on Sunday to show me that he was wearing his super cool Bloody Good Horror t-shirt. He was quite excited by the shirt and loved it! We shot the breeze some more on Sunday. When he asked for my email address and asked for my autograph as well, you can imagine that my Horrorhound 09 was indeed complete.

So, to all you podcasting friends out there, the weekend was great and I loved seeing you all. Many were familiar and some were ones I got to meet for the first time. I had a blast with all of them!

In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to Bloody Good Horror as we will be publishing our convention show this week as well as some possible video blogs pieced together from my ambitious turn as a film maker. The podcast will have some cool surprises included and it should be a great show all around.

Until the next convention, (Horrorhound Cinnci, I’m looking at you!) I crawl back into my cave to tap away in the glow of a dimly lit LCD screen!

One of the newest projects I have been flirting with lately is an on going serial type novel. Written and posted in chunks on a near daily basis, the stories will eventually come together as a hopefully cohesive story!

The name of this little cycle is “A Fatman and his Dog”.

Some of you may remember when the Fatman and his Dog were semi regular on this here site, so now they’ve evolved as have I and started to gel into an actual piece of fiction.

Fatman and Dog were the product of me spending an hour walking three miles a day in an effort to regain my health around three years ago. Well, the walks have started again and so have the rusty brain cogs that are turning upstairs so to speak. If you haven’t guessed it, A Fatman and his Dog are essentially myself and my dog Frosty who ventures out with me every morning. Now though, the characters have become fictionalized. The story feels a bit like a fantasy setting but it’s not all swords and chainmail and young boys who found out they are actually mythic heroes and have to go save the village idiot. Er…princess. No, it’s more of a rambling tale akin to tall tales of old, wandering weirdos and such.

As of now, the Fatman and his Dog is attempting to be updated 5 days a week (M-F) on my facebook notes. Feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook to keep up. I will post the first chapter here today to try and tease you in!

If enough people are interested in reading the ongoing adventures yet do not have access to Facebook and have no interest in joining, I will start to mirror the stories here as well. I will need to hear from anybody that happens to read it though that they want this to happen! Other wise it becomes an extra work step and well, we all know I’m lazy.

So without further adieu, “A Fatman and His Dog”, by me. For chapters 2 and 3, you can catch those on my Facebook Profile in the notes section.
Part 2 – Provisions and Such

Part 3 – Beans and Blues

Remember, I’ll be happy to post them in full here, but I need to hear from you if you want it!

A Fatman and his Dog: Part 1 – The Fatman Cometh

New sun rose and with it came the new life of spring spreading across the small country village. A father and son toiled upon fresh earth, preparing for the new season. Father paused to stand resting upon his shovel, dragging a worn and battered sleeve across his sweaty brow.

“Aye son, keep at it.”

“And you father?”

“Don’t be smart son.”

As the two sat and bartered words with each other the country side surrounding them was full of life. Birds fresh from winter nests sang of their glorious return, various rodents sprinted for their short term lives at the hand of hard swung farm implements. Father and son continued to toil upon the field as the murky gray of transition gave way to the first feeble rays of springtime sun.

While once again resting upon his laurels, father took a long pull from the canteen strapped to his belt, the cool water splashing across parched lips. “ahhh…” he sighed contentedly. Son continued, back bent to earth, sweat and aches flowing profusely.

As son began to voice his next insult to hurl at his still lazy father, he paused as he heard the canteen tumble to the hard packed ground behind him. The water jug reported with a thick tink of a sound, letting the son know that father had indeed drained most of the relief granting liquid. It was the surprised gasp that followed from his father that caught his attention.

The boy turned to ask his father what in the seven layers of Heck he was thinking wasting their water and paused himself as his gaze fell upon the elder. Jaw hung ajar, eyes wide and mystified, father gazed intently to the nearby hillside silent in his shock and awe.

“Father, what’s become of you?”

Father gazed on in silence.

“Father?” the boy asked again as he placed a hand on the man’s shoulder to shake him from his reverie.

As he drew near father shook to a start, life returning to his eyes. A faint whisper escaped from his lips, the boy drew close in order to hear. “Faith and begorah…” father whispered in awe. “Twas but a myth, I thought for certain. Do my old eyes deceive me?”

A look of fear and uncertainty took up residence upon the boys faith, he had never seen his father act as such in his seventeen years. Quickly he spun to gaze out over the nearby hillside that held his father transfixed. Blurred by the mist of distance, the boy could make out two silhouettes marching across the peak of the hill. One stood tall and portly, the other short and still rather portly. What appeared to be the shapes of a man and canine friend had stumped his father into silence.

“Father” the boy asked. “Do we need to alert the village council? Are we under attack once again?”

“Nay son.” Father began to regain control of himself once more. “Tis no need.”

Father took a deep breath and reached for the canteen upon his belt, just now realizing it rested upon the ground, empty. He shrugged and pressed on. “Nay son. Tis an unexpected sight is all.”

“Who is it father?” the boy asked.

“Twas someone I thought but a legend, a myth one might say. When I was of your age, the village fell deep into the throws of such myth. Tales of a large man that stalked from hill to dale with his canine friend. ”

“Where they conquerors father?”

“Nay, nay. They were to be quiet friendly if truth be told.”

“Then what was their purpose father?”

“To journey you see. Nothing more than common wanderlust and such. Some say there was something deeper to their journeys however. There was a time it was said that the man was rather rotund, urged by friends and loved ones to take to his journeys as a cure for his girth. He grew lonely on his trek however and so his small furry friend took his place at his side. Together they could be seen at any random time, any random place. They spread good cheer and laughter across the land in a time that it was filled with naught but fear and sorrow.”

The boy turned and looked at the hillside once again and jumped when he discovered that the pair had drawn near. The man was covered in heavy furs to ward off the early morning chill, full beard and mane matted with sleep and common winter time detritus. He resembled that of a bear rising from his winter hibernation. His belly was portly and approached before him majestic and protruding. His canine companion bore an uncanny resemblance, complete with matted fur and distended stomach.

Father noticed their approach as well. A smile broke across his face briefly tainted with concern. “Aye, tis him, tis him!” His excitement rose unchecked “Granted, he looks like shit. But it’s him all the same!”

The boy grew both confused and concerned. However, he felt slightly bolstered by the sound of hope that tinged his fathers voice. “Who are they father? What does this arrival portend?”

“Tis they son. An arrival of hope, good cheer and if my instincts are correct, we’ll actually be able to stock the larder this year! You see, while each and all loved the man and his dog dearly, the two could eat.” Father became distracted in tales of the companions unassailable appetite as they spread good cheer about.

“Father,” the boy prodded. “You’re drifting. Stay on task.”

“Oh, yes, sorry” father jumped.

“Tis they son. The return of a myth, nay a legend and the good times they promise.”

“I still don’t know of who you speak father” the boy reminded.

“Oh, sorry again. This is their return son…the return of the Fatman and his Dog.”

So if there is still anybody reading this blog, you’ll know I’ve been quite lax over the last few months. Between health issues, the day job and general being a dad, it’s been pretty hectic. As you read this, you’ll realize too that this post smacks of the typical “I’m throwing in the towel” type posts as well.

Well folks.

Don’t worry, this isn’t that post. However, it is the post that says that things are going to change however.

A year and a half ago, I fell into the peer pressure of the gang of hooligans over at Bloody Good Horror. I was happy to share content back and forth and such and all was good. It was a low traffic site in the beginning, so not much to worry about. However, things have changed in the land of BGH, and that leads to some constraints and such. It’s good changes though. A little over a year ago we kicked off the Bloody Good Horror Podcast which set the ball rolling. It started out ugly but we’ve put some heavy spit polish on it and it’s starting to shine now that we’ve hit Episode 66. So that is a pretty big 3 hour dedication of time each week to put it out as I’m sure you can imagine. Alongside that, we’ve continued to polish the web site as well and finally our hard work has paid off. People are starting to take notice of the site and the show and business is booming you could say. I won’t go into details as they’re not really mine to share, but let’s say this whole horror movie blogger thing is starting to pay off.

So, as far as my full fledged horror movie reviews and essays, they’re going to start to be concentrated on Bloody Good Horror. The four of us that kicked in at the beginning to try and bring the name to life have become pretty close knit by now, so I’ve decided to throw my chips into the pot with them to help bring it to completion. So, be sure to check in regularly over there as I’ll still be doing weekly reviews, weekly DVD columns, daily blog posts and weekly podcasts. The work is going to continue for sure. Just in a different home.

That brings us to what is going to happen to Cinema Fromage. Well, it’s not going to go anywhere.

When I started this whole shebang, it was primarily to get me writing. Which it has definitely served its purpose! I’ve blossomed from clueless schlub to semi-coherent writer. I’ve published a handful of short stories and have many more in the works.

So, Cinema Fromage will now become the web home of Casey Criswell, Writer. I plan on updating more frequently on projects, random things crossing my mind, story stuff, horror essays and the like. Don’t worry, I still love horror and that’s where I’ll be concentrating, so it’ll still fit the bill!

Stay tuned for more and remember, I love ya all!

Over at Bloody Good Horror, I decided to weigh in on my weekend viewing of Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen”. So here, I give you the teaser intro to the article, and invite you over to Bloody Good Horror for the whole shebang!

In the event that you live in a cave, or under a rock, you know full well that this past weekend marked the release of Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen”. The internet is a buzz with post viewing talk and for myself, I feel the need to join them! You’ll notice that I’ve opted to post this discussion as a blog post instead of a review, and there’s a couple of reasons for that. First and foremost, the movie is not a horror flick. Focusing on a full review would be somewhat outside the lines. However, as genre fans I feel there’s a good place for discussion. Secondly, as a fan of the book who’s read it several times over, I feel that I cannot bring an unbiased review to the table. I’ll fully admit to being a fanboy and any review I’d attempt with drip with that sentiment!

So instead, a brief look at what I liked about the film and why. (Note: I kept this as spoiler free as possible!)

For the whole write, head over to Bloody Good Horror.com and be sure to leave your thoughts!