Heya Mutilated Crew, for this article we wanted to do something a little bit different. This one is going to be a personal story. I know, I know, what kind of story could I possibly tell that would harness the interest of the Mutilated Crew? Well, combing through my memories I came across a personal story of mine, maybe one that legends will tell tales of one day, and I really would like to share it with the wonderful people that make up the Mutilated Crew.
You see, on August 26th Mutilated Mohawk Media will be attending Mad Monster Expo in Concord, North Carolina. This is an absolutely phenomenal horror convention, and if you are in the area I couldn’t personally recommend it enough. Horror conventions are an absolute blast, and while there will be more posts about them in the future, I want this post to sort of kick off that trend. This is arguably the story that started it all. Mutilated Mohawk, any of my other personal projects, a huge reason I actually pursued these things is because of my very first horror convention.
It was 2019 and I was taking classes at my local community college. Although I wasn’t particularly interested in the classes, and I spend most days in the library typing away at a manuscript or reading some horribly fucked up novel. There was one day in particular that things sort of changed. On my usual commute to the library I saw a poster advertising a film club that the community college was hosting.
I had always wanted to write a screenplay and make a film. My endless hours of watching horror movies only lead to daydreams of actually making a low budget gore flick that would be my own. Although I was hesitant because I imagined the film club being filmed with pretentious people who wanted to make a romantic film or some other genre that I wasn’t interested in at all, I went.
Much to my surprise I found that almost everyone wanted to make a horror film. I met other students who were just as passionate as I was about the genre. One in particular who is a key element to this story, Tony.
Now, Tony was a badass. Never had I found someone nearly as passionate or as into horror as I was in little old Monroe, but here Tony was. Tony and I would meet up in the library and talk all about the movie we wanted to make. We would talk about certain shots in our favorite horror movies that we wanted to replicate, and we recommended to each other all kinds of flicks that the other hadn’t seen before. At the time I was having a lot of problems making friends and finding people with common interests so this was a much needed breath of fresh air.
Now every year our community college would host a comic con, and at the one that had happened this year a vendor who was selling horror patches told me about a horror convention coming to Charlotte. Now, 17 year old Dave couldn’t believe that anything so extravagant would grace itself upon Charlotte, but this vendor was telling me how awesome this was. It was funny how I remember it, a busting hall at a community college comic con. The vendor eyed me carefully as I check out the horror patches, and then after making conversation he leaned into me all secretive like and told me the tales of this horror convention.
I brought this horror convention up to the film club, as when I looked on the website for more information I saw quite the list of horror stars that were attending. Big names like Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Tom Savini, Linda Blair, Clive Barker, and Roger Jackson were just a few of the names that I could expect to see at this convention. My thinking was that I would go to this convention with Tony and get these famous horror stars’ opinions on our movie that we were going to make. See what they liked in horror movies and what they found to be engaging with the lower budget films.
The professor who ran the film club applauded our efforts and encouraged us to go to this thing, so we did. Tony and I bought Friday night passes to Days of The Dead Charlotte 2019. I remember not expecting it to be anything crazy because I had never heard of anything like that. A convention designed specifically for people who like horror? That didn’t make any sense. Again, at the time I didn’t think there was a big enough fanbase in Charlotte to even warrant anything like that.
So, Tony and I loaded up into my shitty 2006 Dodge Stratus, and drove into the Queen City with starry dream filled eyes. I remember getting to the hotel and starting to see some of the other fans outside of the building and something immediately felt right. I saw people who dressed like me. Before this convention I hadn’t really seen people with battlevests or horror merch out in public. Not to sound so pitiful but I didn’t really get out much in those days. The world seemed so much bigger and far away from where I was at.
I parked the car and we hopped out, walking into the large halls where the convention was. We got there an hour before the convention started and instantly we were mind blown. We saw cosplayers mingling in full costumes. Vendors were carrying boxes of horror goodies down the halls. I remember so vividly Tony and I looking at each other with wide eyes as we saw the chaotic hallway and both internally freaked out. This was the coolest place we had ever been.
I don’t really remember what happened but somehow we got in contact with the lady who ran the event and she found out we were convention ‘virgins’ as she called it. Once she got this bit of information she made it her goal to ensure that we had the absolute best time of our lives, and honestly job well done because we did. She showed us a preview of the vendor floor, the lounge where the after party would be, and a few of the notable people. In the meantime Tony and I walked outside and were absolutely mind blown. Without any discussion we immediately upgraded our passes to the weekend pass and went inside to enjoy our very first horror convention.
We then waited in line for the thing to kick off and before we knew it we were on the vendor floor. To go over every single encounter would be a massive waste of time, so I’ll go over the more notable encounters.
The very first booth we hit was a booth that was horror themed pipes and smoking devices. Tony and I examined them for a while and the little old lady behind the booth saw that we were interested and so she ushered us over to her. We stood and she asked us if we wanted to see her secret menu. We shrugged, obviously not paying enough attention to the horror movie tropes that we loved so much. She held up a small piece of glass and clicked a button. In invisible ink there was a menu for different weed infused desserts. Tony and I probably had the goofiest grins on our faces when we saw this. If this wasn’t a omen for how the rest of the weekend would go I don’t know what would be.
Tony and I wandered down the horror bazaar with wide eyes. So many amazing vendors had brought all sorts of wild trinkets, crafts, and tokens. One booth you could have your teeth imprinted and a pair of custom vampire fangs molded to your teeth would be sent your way, another booth had stuffed animals that were gorey and had teeth, and another booth was filled with all sorts of tormented artwork. While that convention in particular was notoriously light on the people, I still met all sorts of crazy characters that I still see at horror conventions today. Back then, the clowns running down the halls and the Michael Myers cosplayers who just stare at you from across the room was this wild new world that I was so excited to understand. Nowadays I know, or at least have been acquainted with a good bit of them so they come up and catch up with me.
The next influential encounter is when Tony and I wandered to the back of the vendor room where we saw a booth that was split down the middle. On top of said booth was all sorts of horror novels from the amazing horror authors John Wayne Comunale and Kristopher Triana.
I had always had aspirations of writing and publishing a horror novel. To see two guys who were living the dream just standing there in front of me was absolutely insane. My idea, just like my strategy was to ask the actors about making a movie, was to ask the authors about writing a book. Now, up until this point the actors were a bit of a mixed bag. Most were polite and gave short answers, some were rude because Tony and I didn’t have a lot of extra cash to blow at their booth. So our hype train slowed down a little. We were enjoying ourselves for sure, but as far as obtaining any genuinely useful information for our movie seemed like a mission failed. I didn’t have much hope when walking up to these authors, but I hoped that there would be some tendril of advice that they could bestow upon me that would help me on my path.
So, I went up to them and introduced myself. Now, these guys are both well established and respected authors within the indie horror scene. Like ask anyone who reads horror nowadays, they know of these guys. Hell, ask anyone who regularly attends the horror conventions and they definitely know these guys. They could have easily blown me off or just been short and polite like the actors had been.
That couldn’t have been further from the case. These guys went above and beyond to help me out. To this day these two are my biggest inspirations in life. They talked to 17 year old Dave, they told him to keep up with the writing, and they were just nice to this random kid who approached their booth. It was such a wild experience to meet these guys who were living my dream and them just giving me all this advice for free.
I used what little money I had to buy their book. That was the only thing I bought at that convention because I was just so enthralled with the things they told me. I walked away from their booth with all sorts of ideas rattling through my head. New ideas for novels and short stories flooded my brain. I now saw people who were living the coolest, most badass life of all time, and that was my new objective. I wanted to write disturbing stories that were demented and gross, I wanted to bounce from town to town slinging books that I wrote, and I wanted to meet all sorts of horror fans across the country. Seeing guys who actually lived that life and cared enough to give me any sort of advice at all meant something that I can’t even begin to describe in words to me.
Anyways, back to the convention. We also met another hero of this tale, one that played a pretty influential part in this whole ordeal. There was one guy who worked the convention and befriended us. He was a giant man with a big beard with all sorts of Viking tattoos. This was our in guy. The guy that showed us the ins and outs of the horror convention. For the sake of this article and me not knowing if he wants his name at all associated with this site, I will call him Bjorn. Seems fitting enough for his personality.
Tony and I go home Friday night overjoyed. We didn’t get a hotel so for that convention we made the drive in and out of Charlotte nightly. The next morning we arose and worked thinking that the convention would be going for the same hours it did the night before, however when we got there they were just beginning to close the vending area. We were super bummed because we thought we missed the main event. Little did we know, however, that the festivities were only just beginning.
Saturday nights at horror conventions are party nights. All the horror fans go absolutely wild, and some of the actors even pop in for a drink or two. Hell, at that Days of the Dead Tony Todd was up on stage singing karaoke with everyone. The party was only getting started when we arrived, and what a night it would become.
I’ll summarize quickly what that night became. We ran the halls with demon clowns, got kicked out of the VIP party for sneaking in, I ran into my cousin in the lobby (which was hard to explain because he was picking up a girl and walked into the lobby of this hotel filled with horrors), we contemplated life, and enjoyed the many festivities of the Saturday night horror con afterparty. That night felt like so many. I remember being outside and sitting with Bjorn while he smoked a cigarette and a demon clown said “Let’s burn a church.” I said “Hell yeah, I’m into that black metal stuff too” and he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in and said “Oh no, it’s so much more than black metal. It’s about freedom.” What a night it was. Once again Tony and I drove home, this time at 2 in the morning, and we were so excited to go for the last day.
Sunday rolls around and we once again drive back up to Charlotte for the final day of the convention. Everyone was a little sluggish and hungover, which tends to be the theme for Sundays at these things. Everyone seems a little solemn. For many people it’s the last day they will see each other for a while. Many of them have different conventions planned. Many of them are really close friends and seem to enjoy seeing each other. Even among the convention goers, many of us only see each other the few times a year that the horror convention comes through. It’s crazy how close we all feel when we are at these things but we only see each other a few times a year.
So we roll in and this day we spent most of the time talking to none other than John Wayne Comunale and Kristopher Triana. Once again these guys spent the whole day encouraging me and giving me tons of resources to better my craft. I still to this day cannot thank them enough.
The day ends and we help them pack up their booth and say goodbye. Although it was just three short days, it really hits you in the feels. Think about it like this; Friday you meet everyone, Saturday you party with these wonderful people you have met, and Sunday you say goodbye to your new horror family.
I will never forget that first convention, there is really nothing quite like it. Being so new to it all. I still love the conventions, and I go to every horror one that comes through the Charlotte area, but man the absolute awe I was in for that first one will never be topped.
That first convention inspired me so much. It was in September and by the following March I already had a rough draft of a horror novel completed. My whole life up to that point I would try to write novels but I could never finish them. Somehow, in the six months that followed that first convention I had finished my first ever novel drafted out. Although I never got it to be published ready, I learned so much from it. I wrote more and more and now I have this website and even one of my own poems published in a magazine.
I honestly don’t know if things happen for a reason. I don’t know if there is some mythic deity guiding us all to damnation. That’s above my paygrade. What I do know, or at least believe that I know, is that going to that first horror convention completely changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but the contacts that I made there have helped me get this far.
Twice a year I’ve gone to the Mad Monster conventions. Twice a year I see my horror family of freaks. Twice a year I party with the monsters. The horror conventions are the most amazing thing in my world. They are my driving inspirations behind everything I do. I work year around just to go to these things. If you are like me before I first attended one and are on the fence about it I beg you to give it a shot. Just buy a day pass like I did. Just see what it’s all about. If you are at all remotely interested in horror I would say that going to one of these things is literally like entering another world.
I will leave this article off with one thing. While my series on the conventions will be ongoing and I may include a few more free form articles like this in the future, I wanted to have this article go up before my return to Mad Monster on August 26th. There are so many things I skipped over for the sake of length, but I can promise you that horror conventions are a paradise to anyone who has a love for the genre. I pass this advice onto every one of you, the advice that Bjorn gave Tony and I right before he took off, “If you boys can just remember one thing, this is it, above all else just remember that the con(vention) life is a good life, and their ain’t a damn thing better.”
To stay up to date with Mutilated Mohawk Media, follow us on our social medias. Our Instagram is here and our Twitter is here. Mutilated for life!