2013 **
It has become a yearly tradition for us to attend the Rock N Shock convention in Worcester. Where we get to see some mostly terrible independent short films, peruse oodles of great horror products and memorabilia and meet cool celebrities like:
William Forsythe
Dee Snider
Jason Mewes
We also get to see some not so famous people imitating famous people just for the hell of it like this guy.
Take a picture it'll last longer. (He actually said it too)
Part of the Rock n Shock tradition for me is to find and review one independent film per year. These are often painful to get through so one is sufficient. This year director James Balsamo caught my attention with Cool as Hell. He told me it was like Evil Dead meets Beetlejuice it was a fairly accurate description but what really sold me was when he said it featured Tom Savini. I thought, if Tom Savini is in it then it can't be all that bad. So I handed over my $10 and got a dvd and a "free" Cool as Hell t-shirt for Tony. Oh Mr. Balsamo you should hang your head in shame, Tom Savini is in fact in the film but only for about 5 seconds. Here is what you see:
Did you blink and miss me?
There are also a number of other celebrity cameos as well but mostly its a assault of poor acting, cheesy jokes and SBIG horror campiness. Oh yeah, the plot: Rich, a comic book shop owner just wants to get laid but he keeps striking out. Maybe it’s his ugly Hawaiian shirt or his cheetah hair or his dorky friend Benny who always seems to be by his side. A demon named Az shows up and decides to help Rich on his quest. Of course it wouldn’t be horror without the appearance of a rival evil demon and a few zombies as well. Cool as Hell does get some points for providing a few genuine laughs unlike the utterly unfunny Ankle Biters. I think I actually would have enjoyed it more if he hadn't mentioned Savini because we found ourselves anticipating his appearance instead of just going with the flow. As low budget indy horror goes I could easily see Balsamo films falling nicely into any Troma lovers dvd collection. Love it or leave it, the choice is purely up to the viewer.
6 comments:
the movie might have been crap, but the convention sounds fun!
Tom Savini is pretty much God in my estimation, so I'd say it was worthwhile despite the disappointment! Rock & Shock is an awesome October tradition and I look forward to your pictures and recap every year.
There weren't that many celebs this year and it's getting quite expensive. I really hope the line up is better next year.
What a terrific post! I'm so glad you cover this every year. I agree with you (hilarious) statement about people dressing as celebrities (i.e. Pee Wee) - it's a level below nerdy.
These conventions are getting too expensive! I just purchased to tickets for Boston Super Megafest to the tune of $50 - sheesh!
Yeah it's really getting out of hand.
Dang, I didn't know the ticket prices were climbing like that. For shame!
Truly great post. Movie quality aside, the experience really couldn't be more Horrorthon.
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