Thousands of diehard horror fans descended upon the Matrix Conference Center in Danbury, CT this past Saturday to take part in the third annual CT HorrorFest which is put on by Rob and Christine Caprilozzi, Connecticut residents and founders of popular news website Horror News Network.
Those in attendance were greeted by a slew of incredible vendors which included Food Network Cupcake Wars winners Hardcore Sweet Cupcakes, haunted attraction gurus Evidence of Evil and Face-Off finalist and SpecialFX wizard Tyler Green.
Mixed in amongst all of the amazing vendors were the celebrity guests that CT HorrorFest was able to bring to Danbury this year. Fans spent the day chatting and taking pictures with the likes of Halloween’s Tyler Mane, the ladies of the original Evil Dead movie, Gremlins’ Zach Galligan, the last surviving Universal Monster Ricou Browning, who played The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and plenty of other well-known talent.
The biggest guest of them all, however, was none other than the creator of the zombie genre as we know it, George A. Romero. Mr. Romero, who is known for such films as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow, spent his entire day happily greeting the fans who wanted nothing more than a small piece of time with one of the most legendary film-makers in the long history of the horror genre.
Mr Romero also ended the day by taking part in a panel discussion and taking questions from a room full of fans who were more than happy to hear his stories of filming the first modern zombie films, his relationship with Stephen King and his opinion of hit TV show, The Walking Dead.
Also taking part in panels were The Creature from the Black Lagoon’s Ricou Browning and the ladies from The Evil Dead. In the panel room this year, attendees were also able to watch, and take part in, two separate costume contests; one for children and one for adults. Among the judges for these events were Connecticut’s own SpecialFX guru Tyler Green and Danbury mayor Mark Boughton.
When discussing CT HorrorFest with creators Rob and Christine Caprilozzi, Rob said, “First and foremost, we are horror fans who want nothing more than to put on a cool show for our home state.” Christine added, “everything that we do is for the fans. We’ve been going to conventions for a long time and have had the opportunity to use those experiences to try and craft a show that we would personally enjoy as guests. When we see people who are just horror fans like us and they are having a great time at CT HorrorFest, it makes all of the hard work worth it.”
