This past weekend saw Days Of The Dead invade Indianapolis and pack the Wyndham for their 8th show (9th if you include Culture Shock) in the Hoosier state as well as their 28th overall (again 29th if you include Culture Shock).
by Adam Holtzapfel
Kicking off Friday evening fans were rabid to meet Gene Simmons as well as alums from Twin Peaks, NOES 3, Ted Raimi, Vinnie Vincent, show favorites Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and more!
The show rolled through the weekend barraging with guests, panels, films, photo ops, after hours events, and plenty of stuff in between.
Having Gene Simmons as a guest was a bold move and it worked. This move brought in fans who may not normally attend the show and gave them more reasons to come back.
Also, having Gene in his own area allowed for fans to move more freely to other areas, while at times the hall and vendor room seemed over crowded the move to the Westin in 2019 should fix that issue.
The halls were jam packed early Saturday morning as will call opened at 9:30am to allow fans who purchased the 11am and 11:45am Sid Haig in his House of 1000 Corpses Capt Sapulding look with make up done by Bryce Alexander and Bill Mosely in his Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 Chop Top screen used costume with a 2 hour make up job done by Nora Hewitt. Fans also packed the halls in the early afternoon for the Scott Hall and Kevin Nash Outsiders photo op, if you wonder why wrestlers are booked this is why.
Outside of celebrities DOTD has several event tracks, the Black Track, Blue Track, and Film Festival. Giving attendees a tough choice.
The film festival has been showcasing the best of independent horror, but has struggled against the two tracks of panels and events. While heavily promoted online by the show and the film festival’s own Facebook page, if filmmakers are not on site promoting their films or promoting online this leads to low attendance at the screenings. The team from Bong Of The Living Dead and Troy Escamilla from The Stirring were on hand to promote hard for their films. It feels like since 2014/2015 when screenings were standing room only (Pieces Of Talent & Headless) fans have moved on from independent film to some of the other aspects of the show.
The mainstay of the show is the Black Track which is host to celebrity panels and after hours events like Harryoke and the Saturday night after party featuring Iron Diamond. The standout panels for me were Katie Featherston, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, NOES 3 Dream Warriors (which was standing room only), and the fan summit.
The newly added fan summit gives a chance for fans to discuss with the promoters what they liked or didn’t like. Feedback was great for this show with ideas mentioned like doing a Thursday screening due to films bumping up against other events or allowing will call tickets to be picked up Thursday night, maybe even opening earlier Friday and do screenings then.
The Blue Track is host to everything independent from panels to haunt acting to the swap meet. The independent filmmakers panel was standing room only which is quite the feat with the Dream Warriors panel being at the same time. The panel more people should attend is the Copyright Law for Artists hosted by Voodoo Comics Jim Lesniak and Evan McMahon. With piracy being a huge situation this helps filmmakers and artists with how to fight it.
The only real issues I saw were from the hotel staff, but that won’t be an issue with the show moving to a new venue next year.
