Indianapolis is starting to show itself as the home of horror in the mid-west here as of late. It started with Horror Hound Weekend and now it is expanding with the addition of the Famous Monsters of Film Land Convention this coming July! For those of you not familiar, Famous Monsters of Film Land has been one of the longest running horror mags for decades, took a short hiatus, and is now back and ready to claim its spot at the top of the list once again!

If you check the convention page, you’ll see there is already a stellar line up of guests and with the backing of the magazine, I’m sure there is going to be a lot more excitement to be had before it arrives in July. Thomas Jane is headlining the guest stars which in itself is pretty sweet; he’s a pretty cool guy that seems to connect with the fandom. (Read about Jane’s home grown attempt to try out for Jonah Hex here.) On top of that, we get Ernie Hudson, Derek Mears, a “Night of the Living Dead” reunion, a “Nightmare on Elm Street” reunion, (Sorry, no Robert Englund….yet) and a lot more.

All of these guests are great in their own right. Some of them I’ve met a few times before. (For the record, Derek Mears is a hella nice guy, for real!) For me however, there’s one stand out that I’m down right giddy over getting the chance to meet…..

Herschell Gordon Lewis, to put it simply, is the grand-daddy of splatter films. He single handedly created the entire sub-genre with his low budget classics such as “Two Thousand Maniacs” and “Blood Feast” leading to the influence of so many horror film tropes that we all love and enjoy to this day.

I’ve always enjoyed meeting the celebrities and such at conventions and the majority of them are really nice people and happy to chat for a few. I generally refrain from the shrieks and over excitement that often comes with such a moment, but when it comes down to meeting an idol of writing, film making and general creative exploration, it’s kind of hard to contain ones self! I’ve already busted out my copy of Christopher Wayne Curry’s “A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis” for a re-read before the show and for the highly coveted autograph as well. There will be copious amounts of film watching and posts leading up to the event too, I’m sure. I’ll just come out and say it; I’m in the throws of a fan-boy freak out, in case you couldn’t tell! In the past, I met another luminary in the world of genre starting films when I ran into Rogero Deodata, so this is my chance to add another notch to the meeting idols belt.

One of other quick note: “A Taste of Blood” is by far the best book I’ve found detailing H.G. Lewis’s career. Highly recommended if you want to read up on how gore films got their start.

So, there you have it. “The Famous Monsters of Film Land Convention” hits the Indianapolis-Wyndham hotel July 9-11. Tickets will run you $20 a day or $40 for a weekend pass with what sounds like plenty to keep you busy. I’m sure there will be quite a few films being shown as well throughout the weekend, so should be a blast.

I’ll be there at some point throughout the weekend, so be sure to look me up and say hello!

“Killshot” is a pretty natural fit for me. It has a lot of things I like, such as Thomas Jane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Diane Lane, and Rosario Dawson. It even has Mickey Rourke which I like but not quite as much. Combine this top notch cast with a screenplay based on an Elmore Leonard novel and you get a pretty enjoyable crime flick with some pretty great performances.

As a story, “Killshot” is pretty straight forward. Rourke plays a seasond hitman on the lam from a rival mafia boss. It seems he killed one person too many on his last hit. As he lays low, he happens across Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an insane criminal with no sense of order or style. Feeling a familiarity with the younger killer, Rourke takes him under his wing and together they attempt to extort money out a real estate agent. When they arrive, they happen to mistake Thomas Jane as the agent. He’s only visiting his wife, Diane Lane at work. The job goes foul, the criminals flee. Rourke is a professional though; he can’t leave witnesses to his crimes alive.

As I said, pretty straight forward as far as hitman movies go. With this kind of plot, the attention falls squarely onto the shoulders of the cast to carry it through. In “Killshot”, they manage to do a pretty damn good job of it. There are several undercurrents at play here between the characters, such as Jane and Lane’s failing marriage and their being forced back into each others company under the witness protection program. They are both endearing though Lane isn’t really doing anything she hasn’t done before here. Thomas Jane however does take a new turn as a out of luck and past his prime steel worker still hoping to pull his marriage back together. Dare I say it, he’s a bit loveable and you easily fall in to feeling bad for the guy.

The real excitement here comes from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and surprisingly, Mickey Rourke. As I said, I like Rourke for the most part. He generally tends to rely too heavily on his tough guy routine which just makes him come across as comical. Here however, he has a quiet danger that runs underneath the surface; restrained, held in. You feel he is a dangerous man, methodical in his murder, detached and unfeeling. Rourke handles it quite well and goes a long way towards making this movie teeter into the enjoyable catagory over merely watchable. When paired with Gordon-Levitt’s unhinged maniac, the two play off each other well. Gordon-Levitt is trouble and lives it. He’s frenetic and haphazard, he’s unpredictable, he’s dangerous as well but for an entirely different reason.

Other than the cast, there’s really not much to say about “Killshot”. It’s a good story if not a groundbreaking story. It really relies on the cast to make it work. You’ll find yourself sucked in pretty easily and there are a few jolting moments later on in the film that work nicely just as the film manages to lull you into a rhythm. An above average crime drama to be sure.