BURBANK CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 10, 2026
An offspring of its larger parent horror con, Monsterpalooza, Son of Monsterpalooza resurrected yet again at the Burbank Marriott Oct. 9-11, celebrating its 14th year of nightmares, terrors and scares. From gruesome cosplay to celeb signings to monster merch, SOM offered enough “tricks” and “treats” at its annual fall event to satisfy horror fans well into Halloween – and beyond!
Reunion panels seemed to be a centerpiece of the show, including a Fright Night (1985) reunion with writer/director Tom Holland, actors Chris Sarandon (“Jerry Dandrige”), Amanda Bearse (“Amy Peterson”), Stephen Geoffreys (“Evil Ed”) and Jonathan Stark (“Billy Cole”) and famous creature designer/creator Steve Johnson (whose credits include Ghostbusters, Species and Blade II, to name a few), discussingbehind-the-scene romps with fans of the cult classic vampire film.
“It was really supposedly a remake of Hitchcock’s Rear Window,” Holland said when asked about the idea for Fright Night. “I went to Universal and told them, ‘If you really want to see something scary next door, forget about a human murderer – have it be a vampire!’ And they threw me out of the office!”l
Asked what made him take on the iconic vampire villain role of Jerry Dandrige, Sarandon replied, “The script! Of course, when the script was first sent to me and I read the title, I was like, ‘I can’t do something called Fright Night – I’m a classical actor’.But I started reading it, and after five pages, it was a done deal! It was a great screenplay and I wanted to meet Tom.”
Amanda Bearse, who went on to star in the hit series Married With Children, shared her experiences working with the late great Roddy McDowall, who played the quirky, yet memorable Peter Vincent, the “great vampire killer”. “I didn’t have a lot oftime with him, but he was truly the most gracious, graceful and interested. For a man who grew up in Hollywood’s golden age, it was remarkable that he would treat all the younger actors as equals. And this immediately helped us relax.”
A Fright Night Part 2 (1988) reunion panel immediately followed, actress Julie Carmen and director Tommy Lee Wallace sharing their terror-ific excursions on the set. Other panels at SOM included a Twin Peaks reunion with actors Ray Wise and Sheilyn Fenn, and a mini Buffy The Vampire Slayer reunion with Juliet Landau and James Marsters. Fans of classic horror movies were especially delighted to attend an 85th tribute to one of Universal’s most famous monsters, The Wolfman.
Renowned makeup and FX artists also took SOM’s center stage, including Faina Rudshteyn with an intro to makeup FX. Academy Award-winning makeup artist Joel Harlow (Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Panther) presented behind the scenes footage of his new horror–music video “The Edge of Perfection”, in which he directed and teamed up with the New York hard rock band Anthrax to create a dark cinematic frightmare. The video/short film includes appearances by actor/filmmaker Rod Maxwell, actor Fedor Steer and legendary makeup and special effects artist Rick Baker.
Harlow was asked by other makeup and FX artists at the panel how they, too, may veer into film directing as he did, and he gave this reply. “Just start shooting. I got a lot of friends in my shop that say, ‘I got this really great idea’, and I say, ‘Just shoot something’. You can see the evolution of the stuff that I’ve done, and how I’ve gotten exponentially better because I’ve had to learn along the way. So I would say just start shooting.”
Other celebs mixing and mingling with fright fans at the show included Doug “Pinhead” Bradley (Hellraiser), Tom Arnold (True Lies, Roseanne), Deep Roy (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee.
Ready to chain your neck to a boulder and plunge into Crystal Lake because you missed out on Son of Monsterpalooza? No need. Monsterpalooza will take place June 11th to June 13th, 2027, at The Pasadena Convention Center (Pasadena, CA). Miss it not! For tickets: www.monsterpalooza.com. Early bird tickets on sale Nov. 1st.
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