As my favorite childhood book series, Goosebumps, used to say, reader beware! You’re in for a scare.
Okay. Not really. This post isn’t particularly terrifying. But OKC Horror Con might be! Especially if you’re like me and you find the fans of horror media to be scarier than the horror media itself!
Before you accuse me of being an elitist or whatever, just know that my irrational fear of fans of the horror genre isn’t a class statement, nor is it an attack on Louis. This is simply me acknowledging that people who want to watch movies about folks being dismembered or devoured by monsters aren’t normal!*
Anyway, OKC Horror Con is this weekend. If you like horror movies, cosplay, meeting the actors from your favorite horror franchises, and scary-okie karaoke, you need to grab a ticket ASAP.
As an October baby, most of my birthdays through elementary and middle school were Halloween and horror themed. In fact, for my eleventh birthday, my mom took me and my friends to a haunted forest on Danforth Road, east of I-35. We screamed our way through it, and went back to my house where we watched Halloween and had a slumber party in the living room of my parents’ house. My mom made me a birthday cake with crumbled Oreos on top to look like dirt. She stuck Milano cookies in the top of the cake with all the names of my friends piped in icing to look like head stones.
Then, before bed, my parents told us a story about a murderer who used to live in the neighborhood and how he just got out of jail that day, but he definitely wouldn’t be coming back to the neighborhood that night. Then my dad and brother slipped outside to knock on the living room windows in the dark. We all screamed. It was great.
So, yeah. I was a spooky kid. Unfortunately, when I was pregnant, I had a dream I was making out with Freddy Krueger and it kind of ruined all horror movies for me.
(Before you ask, he wasn’t a good kisser, and I don’t remember anything else from the dream.)
But don’t let my terrible dreams ruin your fun, especially if you want to hit up Nightmare Market. There will be vendors, spooky photo ops, tarot readers, and horror-themed food and drinks.
Bets of all it's free...
Will this market itself be a nightmare? Will the experience of it seem like a nightmare? Or are you actually purchasing nightmares? I guess only those who attend will know for sure. Though, if these vendors are like anything you see at other cons, the sheer amount of 3D-printed bootleg crap will leave you shaking in your boots. But if the themed food and drinks are half as good as the cake my mom made for my birthday all those years ago, I'll gladly eat my words.
If you're a paying ticket holder to Horror Con, you get to do all the Con type stuff like get autographs, shop vendor booths and other convention things. If you're a baller though, you can also check Twilight movie screening at Lost Lakes on Saturday. It costs... $70. $280 for VIP.
I get the organizers of the convention have to make money, but $70 to watch a movie with a bunch of sweaty people outside? Sure, “con” is short for convention, but it might just be a different type of con, especially in this economy. Oh, the horror!**
Anyway, if you do head out to OKC Horror Con, say hi to Linda Blair for me. Tell her The Exorcist still scares me to this day, and I have many intrusive thoughts of my kid becoming possessed because of it. Get a photo with Ron Perlman, and wave to the crew from The Lost Boys. Unfortunately, the guy playing the saxophone on the boardwalk won’t be there.
* Don’t worry, gang. I’ll be sharing about an event in a couple of weeks that will help you understand what kind of not normal I am. It’s on another end of the spectrum but might be particularly frightening to those of you who grew up in purity culture.
** If OKC Horror Con is out of your price range, just know the Shudder app is $7.99 a month, after a free trial. And you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home.
