Terror Expo
Terror Expo was held Friday January 22 - Sunday January 24 at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center. The Expo was put on by the Billy Madison Show, Armando Montelongo and the organizers who bring Alamo City Comic Con to San Antonio.
Terror Expo was heralded as San Antonio's premier horror themed convention, and this show was supposed to be "tailor made for horror fans." It is necessary for conventions, expos and shows to advertise themselves well, however these statements brought some consternation to those who have brought horror conventions to San Antonio in the past. Sometimes it is difficult to work for a long time, with shallow pockets to try to bring events to San Antonio and then to feel trivialized when some big fish swim in and do what you have been working to do for years. All feelings aside though, I personally feel that in a city the size of San Antonio there is plenty of room for several horror conventions and with a certain amount of variation they can all be successful on their own levels.
I was only able to attend the convention on Sunday but I did have enough time there to make some personal observations. Please be aware that my observations are my own, they are based on my experiences and are opinion based. Also going into this let me say that I have been to numerous conventions and in all honesty I am beginning to be quite over many of these events due to the nature of their make up.
I thought that for a first year event the expo was able to draw a decent amount of people, which may have to do with the celebrities who were there. As usual the event was saturated with celebrities who sit in their little areas, bored to death, simply waiting for some rube to show up and pay them money for their signature and a chance to get a photo with them. I personally find this to be appalling but I guess people have to make their millions of dollars somehow, even if the poor person they are taking the funds from have worked about 6 hours in a minimum wage job just to pay for the pleasure of meeting them. But I digress. Let's just say there were lots and lots of celebrities, some current, some "B" or "D" list celebrities and some only vaguely connected to the horror genre.
One thing that confuses me about these conventions,expos,shows, whatever is the lack of things to do. I personally feel that if you go to an event that is horror based you should get to experience horror type things, like a miniature haunted house, a band that plays creepy music from scary movies, places to watch scary movies, a place to get make up done so you look like you are from a scary movie, a place to practice your horror movie scream, a zombie live action role playing game, etc., etc. I just feel like these place should have things for you to do, I don't understand paying money to go to a place where you pay more money to meet people with over inflated egos, to get strange photos that look like you went to Sears in the 1970's and got a family photo with a celebrity, or to walk around and buy POP figures, or things you could easily find on Amazon.
One thing I really do like about conventions is getting to cosplay. I really enjoyed some of the cosplay that was there at Terror Expo this year and I hope that really gets ramped up next year, maybe they could get some of the haunted houses to send people or maybe Sea World or Fiesta Texas to advertise their Halloween events.
All in all I think it was a decent first year media convention. I am not sure it needed it's own convention maybe it could just be the horror corner at Alamo City Comic Con since it was pretty much the same thing just some different celebrities, in fact there was even a themed car there so it felt pretty mush like the same thing. If you like media conventions then this is definitely the place for you. If you want to pay to meet celebrities this is the event for you. If you want to see some panels of actors talking about their lives, shows and how cool they are then this is the place for you. I think there were things people enjoyed and there is room to grow. If you are curious about it then check it out next year, but until then keep the lights on and check under the bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment