On the weekend of March 25, 2023, my friend Freddie and I headed out to the latest edition of New Jersey Horror Con. The weather was kinda shitty, and seemingly impacted the amount of fans in attendance. But, we had a great time regardless and met a bunch of cool celebs.
The first one I went up to was the lovely Nancy Loomis. Best known for playing Annie in John Carpenter's
Halloween, she's also appeared in other favorites like
The Fog and
Assault on Precinct 13 (both also from Carpenter). She was the person, I must looked forward to meeting the most. She is, after all, my favorite of the three girls in the slasher classic. She was very sweet in person and talked to both of us for a good amount of time. We also learned that she teaches theater acting nowadays.
Next was John Dugan who played grandpa in Tobe Hooper's
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and a couple of its sequels. He was awesome and an absolute riot in person! He talked to us for a good amount of time, as well, telling us about what an absolute hell it was to shoot the classic dinner scene in TCM. And, then he even broke into a song, something about me, Gio, and us drinking cheap wine. Dude is one of the coolest celebs ever!
Tom O'Connell played Darth Vader in the recent
Obi-Wan Kenobi series; a show I really enjoyed. And, as some of you probably know, I am a lifelong
Star Wars fan. Something I let him know. He smiled and said he was too! He was really nice, and it's great to meet someone who played the latest incarnation of one of my favorite characters (
one I cosplayed as some years ago). And, before you ask, yes I did meet David Prowse, who originally played Vader, many years ago at a Fangoria Weekend of Horrors.
Mike Hughes is someone I've wanted to meet forever. He of course played Gage in the original
Pet Sementary, a movie I like. But, it's really for his role as Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's
New Nightmare, a movie I love. He was a really nice and friendly guy, in person.
The last person that I went up to was Eileen Dietz who was the face, in make-up, of course, of Pazuzu, in the horror masterpiece
The Exorcist. She was incredibly sweet in person and talked to us for a good chunk of time. Turns out she is a fellow New Yorker! It is so rare to get anyone from William Friedkin's classic, that isn't Linda Blair, to appear at a con. And, being how much I adore that movie, that I was pumped to meet her!
That was a way to end the con on a high note for us. After walking around for a bit more, we headed home. I didn't buy any merch, but I did get three of my movies from my collection signed:
Nancy Loomis:
Halloween
Eileen Dietz:
The ExorcistJohn Dugan:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Next up for us, will probably be Chiller at the end of this month. Any of you going to that? Did you go to this con? What were thoughts and experiences at it? Let me know in the comments section below.
