ATLRetro

Days of the Dead returns to Sheraton Hotel Atlanta, Friday-Sunday Feb. 3-5! Here are our Eight Eerie Retro Reasons to catch your chills indoors! Also ATLRetro will be onsite all weekend so check out our ATLRetro Facebook page for photos of the spooktacular shenanigans.

1) BACK AND READY!  TWIN PEAKS returned this summer and you can get the inside scoop from Ray Wise, aka Laura’s father Leland Palmer, on the main stage Friday at 7 p.m.. We hope he’ll sing and dance. Just don’t call him Bob. If you miss it, like all the guest celebrities, he’ll be signing and doing photo ops all weekend.

2) NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY! Welly, welly, Malcolm McDowell shares maniacal memories from the sets of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Rob Zombie‘s HALLOWEEN and more at 2 p.m. on Saturday!

3) REUNIONS! This year FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN cast members Barbara Bingham, Vincent Craig Dupree and Tiffany Paulsen slash up the main stage Friday at 8 pm and THE KARATE KID stars Martin Kove, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka wax-on and wax-off  Saturday at 1 pm.

4) IT’S A RETRO MONSTER CLUB!!!! Ernie Hudson(GHOSTBUSTERS); Meg Foster (THEY LIVE),  Thomas Howell (THE OUTSIDERS); masked menace Kane Hodder of FRIDAY THE 13TH fame! Alex Vincent and Chucky (CHILD’S PLAY) Bill Moseley (THE DEVIL’S REJECTS)! And more!!! The guest list just seems to go on and on with Retro-horror goodness!

5) BLACK AND BLUE GORE-IFIC PANELS! Look for celebrities on the Black Track. But bruises can also be Blue, and the Blue Track has plenty more tricks or treats for the diehard horror fan including a who’s who of Atlanta’s local horror talent. February is Women in Horror Month, so be sure not to miss the Women of Indie Horror panel (Sat. 2 pm) featuring Kool Kat Dayna Noffke, Kool Kat Vanessa Wright, Lynne Hansen and Brooklyn Ewing  On Sunday at 2 pm, hear Jeff Strand, Nancy Collins and Darrell Grizzle read their scary stories during Atlanta Author Horror Showcase. Check out the full Blue Track schedule here.

6) FRIGHTENING FILMS! The Independent Horror Film Fest features new indie horror you won’t see in theaters plus resurrects Retro cult classics. We’re especially looking forward to the Etheria Film Festival (Sat. 3-5 p.m.) spotlighting works by emerging women directors.  Saturday night, catch Wes Craven’s SCREAM (1996) at 7 pm, followed by “Terror from the ‘80s” secret films featuring this year’s Days of the Dead guests at 10 pm and midnight. Get out of bed early for Samurai Sunday with James Bryan’s LADY STREET FIGHTER (1985) at 9 am.

7) SPOOKTACULAR SHOPPING. Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories!

8) MACABRE MAKE-UP, CREEPY COSTUMES AND PHANTAMAGORIC PARTIES!! Check the schedule for make-up demonstrations and competitions, VIP party (open to VIP ticketed attendees only), Chaostume Costume Contest, tattoo contest and more!  Friday Night Frights include Scareoke, Sin & Salvation shenanigans featuring hellacious tunes from Graveyard Gospel and Bump in the Night Ghoulesque, The Dirty Dirty Con Con Gameshow and so much more! On Saturday, Get your blood curdling fill of monsters galore with Send in the Clowns with Captain & Maybelle; and one hell-bent horrorific after party with Kool Kats The Casket Creatures and ELZIG!

Days of the Dead main con hours are Fri. Feb. 2 from 5 to 11 p.m.; Sat. Feb. 3 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sun. Feb. 4 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with parties going late into the night on Friday and Saturday. For more info, visit https://www.daysofthedead.net/atlanta/.

Days of the Dead will be celebrating its sixth spooktacular year at Sheraton Hotel Atlanta this Friday-Sunday Feb. 3-5. Our favorite part as always about this horror media convention is that it celebrates not just contemporary cinema but retro classics. In other words, there’s plenty to please both the gore-fan and the Famous Monsters Kid. Here are 10 of our top things to do this year.

1) LINDA BLAIR. Duck and cover before she spits pea soup on you. Seriously, though, the star of THE EXORCIST (1973), SAVAGE STREETS (1984) and ROLLER BOOGIE (1979) deserves our utmost Retroexploitation respect, and we hear she’s sweet as pumpkin pie.

2) STRANGER THINGS. Look for a quartet of young stars from this spooky sci-fi back-to-the-‘80s hit Netflix drama including Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo and Finn Wolfhard.  Get your photos signed and catch them onstage for a panel at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

3) SID HAIG AND BILL MOSELEY. Returning once more are two of the sweetest sinister guys in show businesses. Sid Haig, one of those rare B-movie icons and character actors whose career spans the decades from Jack Hill’s blaxploitation films of the 1970s to the chaotic, creepy Captain Spaulding. Hear his reflections on an amazing career Sunday at noon. Quite frankly you and Bill Moseley scared the sh-t out of us in THE DEVIL’s REJECTS (2005), and since we’re not easily scared, for that we salute you both!

4) DOUG BRADLEY. The one and only real Pinhead returns to show you such sights, interpret your dreams and tempt you with autographs.  Hear his tales of terror on the set during an hour onstage Saturday at 2 p.m.

5) PJ SOLES & LYNN LOWRY. Forget their remake replacements. These ladies won our horror hearts as two of 70s/80s swellest scream queens for their turns in the original HALLOWEEN (1978) and THE CRAZIES (1973), but to us, PJ will always be Riff Randell eating pizza with the Ramones and toppling Principal Togar in one of our favorite cult movies ever, Roger Corman‘s unparalleled ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979).

6) JOHN RUSSO wrote the screenplay for THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and appeared in it as a zombie. Need we say more?! An undead living legend.

7) THREE FACES OF JASON. Kane Hodder, Steve Dash and C.J. Graham all donned the legendary hockey mask. Hear them recall their times of terror Friday at 8 p.m. and catch them all weekend in the autograph area. Seriously though, these are some sweet dudes and you don’t have to be afraid if they blow you a kiss. Well, maybe.

8) PROFESSOR MORTE, JAMES BICKERT, MADELINE BRUMBY & THE CASKET CREATURES. Another swell thing about Days of the Dead is how it’s embraced Atlanta’s local horror talent including four of our favorite ATLRetro Kool Kats of all time. Catch punk/horror local favorites the Casket Creatures in concert Friday night at 11 pm (Kool Kat interview here). Infamous director James Bickert (Kool Kat here) leads a panel on the making of FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS (2016) with cast and crew members including Atlanta’s favorite hold-no-prisoners fightin’ Scream Queen Madeline Brumby (Kool Kat here) Saturday at 4 p.m., and the movie screens at Midnight. The Silver Scream Spookshow’s Ghost Host with the Most Professor Morte, aka ATLHorror Renaissance man Shane Morton (Kool Kat here), will be scaring it up in the exhibit area with creepy creations for sale and at The Days of the Dead ‘80s Slasher Prom Saturday night at 11 p.m.

9) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING.  Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories.

10) FRIGHTENING FILMS & MORE! The nonstop action includes a 48-hour film festival featuring new and classic indie horror shorts (both US and international), animation, features and con exclusives. Plus costume contests, SFX how-to panels, Haunt Acting 101, and much more!

Days of the Dead main con hours are Fri. Feb. 3 from 5 to 11 p.m.; Sat. Feb. 4 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sun. Feb. 7 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with parties and films going late into the night on Friday and Saturday. Kids under 10 and military free. For more info, click visit the Days of the Dead Atlanta official website here.