"Not bad for a Human."

This weekend I’ll be in Orlando for the Spooky Empire Ultimate Horror Weekend. What, you say, does a horror movie convention have to do with Sci Fi? Well, I have one word for you: ALIENS. That’s because Lance Henriksen who played synthetic crew member “Bishop” in ALIENS [1986] and the evil “Michael Bishop II” in ALIEN 3 [1992], as well as “Charles Bishop Weyland”, Weyland Industries CEO in ALIEN vs. PREDATOR [2004], will be in attendance, as well as a slew of other well-known sci fi and horror names. Although I won’t be going as official press I do hope to snag some quotes during the panels and take a whole lot of photos during the three-day event.

I am particularly interested in hearing several of the other Media Guests speak, including writer and director Clive Barker [Hellraiser, Candyman], and actors Jeffrey Combs [Re-Animator, Star Trek: DS9] and the Malcolm McDowell [A Clockwork Orange, Star Trek: Generations], but there are literally dozens of famous and cult favorite folks scheduled to appear, and a boatload of panels, seminars and screenings on offer, so choosing which ones to see and which ones I’ll have to miss may be tough. Oh, and a few TRUE BLOOD folks will be there as well, to the delight of some of my fellow con-goers.

Friday afternoon’s pre-show opener is the much-anticipated ZombieWalk, where zombies of all shapes, sizes, and various stages of being undead will march down International Drive. The Annual Walk is sponsored by the Deadite Empire, known as “Florida’s premiere zombie social club”, and will be open to anyone who wants to participate. Make-up artists will be on hand to apply paint, make-up, prosthetics, and buckets of blood so that all walkers can look like proper corpses. Movie makeup magic is a particular interest of mine, so I plan to show up at the Walk locale early to talk to as many of the participants as I can and try to get some good photos of folks being made up.

And if that’s not enough to make you shriek with horror, there’s also a “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” Reunion planned. Heaven help me!

I will be live-tweeting during the 3-day event (I’m @Seshat_6 on Twitter), or as long as the hotel’s wifi holds out. My experiences at Comic-Con in San Diego this year have taught me that connectivity is sometimes a freaky-deaky deal, and often vanishes exactly when you most need it. But, fingers crossed, it will still be a bloody good time!