Scarefest Weekend - Day 1

For me, Scarefest Weekend begins when I get in my car and begin the long drive to Lexington. It's almost 900 miles each way. Traffic drives me crazy, so I had the great idea to make the drive overnight. I left my house at around 6pm Wednesday night, and got to the Hyatt Regency Lexington at 5am on Thursday. For much of the drive it was basically me and a few semis on the road. Luckily the Hyatt was able to check me in. I spent the rest of the day Thursday preparing for the convention.

I arrived bright and early (~6:30am) on Friday to join my friends Stacey and Dakota in line. I didn’t have much of a game plan, other than hopefully getting Robert Englund first. I don't remember the exact time, but they let us in the building pretty early today. It was much appreciated!

I don't think we'd have needed to get in line so early if Robert Englund wasn't attending. Lucky for me, I kinda sorta enjoy the long wait in line. Only because there are so many cool people to talk to in line. In real life I almost never get to talk about this stuff, so it's nice to have a place with so many like-minded people. I've made a lot of new friends waiting in lines at horror cons, and today was no exception. I was happy to meet

They still hadn’t called anybody for Robert when doors opened at 3PM, so I scoped out the autograph area to decide who to go for first. Right when I was about to get in a line, they announced that group A ( was A5) could line up for Robert. I went downstairs to Robert's area immediately. Unfortunately, there was a lot of confusion about where to wait. Also, there were quite a few people already in his autograph room. It was a bit disappointing that I was supposed to be fifth to get him, but I probably ended up more like 20th or more. Still, if that's my biggest complaint about a convention, that's a damn good convention!

Stacey and Dakota both only needed Robert on one item, so they helped me out. I was able to get 4 things signed total. All four turned out great. Robert was excited when he saw I had a "Hatchet" poster for him to sign. Then said he had never signed the Creel House Funko Pop. He also said my 16x20 of him and Heather was the nicest, largest version of that photo he had signed. Apparently I did well choosing my items! The only one he didn't comment on was the "Freddy Vs. Jason" 20x30.

Robert is always an awesome meet, and today was no exception. It was also great seeing Connie, one of my very favorite convention people!

The one drawback of being pushed back a bit in the queue for Robert was we ended up getting to the main autograph right as GA was let in. So we didn't get to take advantage of the shorter lines. Luckily, with so many celebs in attendance, only the biggest names had long lines.

I decided to work on my "Monster Squad" poster first. I started with Stephen Macht, who had just arrived at his table. I waited a minute while he got situated, and then we got to business. My poster got it's cherry broken, and I was off and running! I'm only going to show this poster once. So for all of the other "Monster Squad" people below, this is what I got signed.

After Stephen I worked my way through the rest of the Monster Squad group. I met Robby Kiger, Ashley Bank, Michael Reid MacKay, Duncan Regehr, Lisa Fuller Michael Faustino, Andre Gower, and Ryan Lambert all in a row, all with short lines. They were all super nice. If I had to single somebody out, it would be Ashley Bank. She was super friendly and personable. I got photos with all of them.

The last person I got that was in "Monster Squad Row" was Tom Woodruff Jr. He easily had the longest line of the bunch. I needed him on a bunch of stuff, but I wasn't able to fit everything in my cart lol. So I just got him on the "Monster Squad" poster and a couple other things, and I'll get him on the rest tomorrow.

After that I used a line skip for David Arquette. I used it just in time, as I was the last person to get him before he left for photo ops. I've met him several times, and he is always a super sweet guy. I don't use the term "sweet" to describe many men, but the term fits him (Doug Jones would be another). I told him he always does a good job scaling his signature to the size of the cutout, filling all of the space. He replied "Well, you make it easy". Somehow I never had David sign my "Scream" franchise poster, so that was my main objective. I also got 11x17s for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Bone Tomahawk" signed.

I do regret getting the "Bone Tomahawk" poster signed in red. I couldn't find my black paint pen, and was scrambling because he had to leave for photo ops. It certainly doesn't look bad, but I think I'd like it better in black.

After that I started working on the Nightmare on Elm Street cast. I started with the always delightful Brooke Theiss. Last time I saw her she pulled me onto the dance floor at the Spooky Empire VIP party in October 2023. We had fun reminiscing a bit. Similar to the "Monster Squad" poster, I'm only going to show the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise poster once. I had all of these lovely ladies sign it.

Next up were Lisa Zane and Toy Newkirk. It was my first time meeting Lisa, and she was nice. I loved her David Bowie shirt. Toy was awesome. She also remembered me from Spooky in 2023. They both signed the franchise poster.

Next up was Brooke Bundy. She's another I met a couple years ago. When I got to her table, she looked at me and said "Oh you're Doug. I heard you've got some great dance moves". She's a sweetheart. In addition to the franchise poster, she signed a "Dream Warriors" poster for me.

I continued working my way through the Nightmare ladies. Next up was Lisa Wilcox. Last time I met her (also at Spooky in 2023), she smeared her autograph on my Nightmare 4 poster. Luckily there were no such issues with my franchise poster or Nightmare 5 11x17.

I bopped over to Beatrice Boepple's table next. While I was waiting for the person in front of me to finish meeting her, I got a surprise visit (and selfie!) from the legendary Adrienne. Definitely the meet of the day. Robert who?

Then I met Ms. Boepple. She was delightful. She told me some stories about filming the movie, and gave a Mark Patton update. I'm glad I finally got to meet her. She signed the same Nightmare 5 poster above, as well as the franchise poster.

It was time to introduce some testosterone into the proceedings, so I met Michael Bailey Smith next. Both he and his wife were great. One thing I realized while meeting him is that there are lot of tall dudes at Scarefest this year! I'm a pretty tall guy, and yet many of these guys tower over me. Anyway, Michael signed the same Nightmare 5 and franchise posters as the last couple of people. I didn't have my Buffy poster with me today, so I'll have to get him again tomorrow.

I met Kim Myers next. I told her that my wife thought she saw her at a Central Florida Publix last year. She assured me that it wasn't her lol. She signed the franchise poster, as well as a Nightmare 2 11x17.

Robert Rusler was next. I met him for the first time earlier this year, so I already had him on my franchise poster. But I was happy to meet him again to get him on the same Nightmare 2 poster Kim Myers signed. Robert is one of the coolest guys you'll meet at a convention.

Tuesday Knight is another Nightmare lady I met for the first time at Spooky a couple of years ago. Like Lisa Wilcox, she smeared her autograph on my Nightmare 4 back then. But she did a great job on my

franchise poster.

Tuesday said she loved our photo, and asked me to post it on Instagram. I have to admit, I can't remember the last time I was on Instagram lol.

I expected to use a line skip for Chris Jericho, but when I got to his line there were only a few people there. He’s a really nice guy, but I wish it wasn’t $100 to add a selfie. I wanted one, but at that price I had to pass. I had him sign my "Terrifier" franchise and "Terrifier 2" posters.

I had Bill Perry sign a few items today, and I'll be having him sign a few more tomorrow. He's an awesome guy. He would tell me something about each film as he signed the posters. Most of the posters he signed for me today have already been posted, but since they were much earlier in the post, I'll post them one more time.

We are in the home stretch. I made my way over to the Doomsday's Krypt table, which was hosting Danny Hassel. He had his Nightmare 5 makeup on (done by Joe Castro I believe). I had him sign the Nightmare franchise poster and Nightmare 5 mini poster.

I had one last autograph to get. Legendary scream queen Linnea Quigley! Not a bad note to go out on. I had her sign the Nightmare franchise poster and Nightmare 4 poster. Unfortunately, after a long day and a lot of back pain, I gave her the wrong pen for the Nightmare 4 poster. Bummer!

My last order of business was the Robert Englund photo op. I’ve met him several times, but had never sprung for a photo. It was long overdue, and a great way to end the night.

As an added bonus, I got to chat with one of the hosts of my favorite movie podcast (Now Playing) while waiting for the Robert line to open up.

And with that I called it a night. What a great first day! I still have a ton of stuff to get signed on Saturday. I hope I can get everything done, because I need to get started on my looooong drive home Saturday evening. And now, the stats! Celebs Met: 26

Photos With Celebs: 23

Items Signed: 17

Autographs Obtained: 45