Attending Creep I.E. Con!

Welcome to Creep I.E. Con! Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday, February 1, I made my way to Ontario, CA, to attend Creep I.E. Con. I first became aware of this convention through WetMovie1's YouTube channel. What particularly amused me about WetMovie1's videos on the subject was his uncertainty about how to pronounce the name of the convention. (Is it supposed to sound like "creepy," or is it literally just said "Creep I.E." as written?)

Dinosaurs invade Creep I.E. Con! Photo by Brett Homenick.

For those of you not in the know, the I.E. is the Inland Empire, essentially the area of Southern California east of Los Angeles. The name of the convention is sort of a mixture of "creepy" and "I.E.," but the wordplay is admittedly a bit awkward, so I can certainly understand WetMovie1's confusion.

As for the convention itself, I was rather underwhelmed. I'm just not into modern horror films, and I don't enjoy the stuff from the '80s or '90s enough to attend an entire convention about it. Most of the guests weren't that appealing to me, and the majority of dealers were selling things that simply didn't capture my attention.

Elvira was by far the biggest draw at the convention, and her line seemed to go on forever. Jason Patric attracted a healthy amount of fans, and it looked like a few other guests made a tidy profit, too. Former WCW pro wrestler Vampiro had been announced as a guest, but I didn't see him anywhere. (Pretty disappointing, seeing as how he was one of the few guests I was interested in meeting.)

I wandered around for a while and just wasn't seeing much of interest. I finally did see a display of dinosaur statues that was pretty cool, and I was glad I'd finally found something to take pictures of. The rest of the convention wasn't much help in that regard.

I decided I should meet one guest before departing, and the choice for me became rather clear -- Barbara Hershey. Having starred in such movies as The Right Stuff (1983), The Natural (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Falling Down (1993) -- on top of being nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Portrait of a Lady (1996) at the Oscars -- her career was by far of the most fascinating to me among the guests. (It's also worth noting that her appearance at the convention wasn't advertised on the show's website.)

I told Ms. Hershey about the time when I lived in Japan that I revisited The Right Stuff during the New Year's holiday (which, if I recall correctly, was during the 2022-23 holiday season) and was impressed all over again with what a great film it was. Ms. Hershey was very polite but seemed a little detached. If I'm being honest, I had much more fun meeting the guests at the recent Hollywood Show, who showed more enthusiasm for what they were doing.

Speaking of the other convention, I ran into producer David Sterling again, who recognized me from the Hollywood Show. When I met him there, another person recognized David at the same time I did, so we happened to approach him at the same time.

 

David asked me about my "friend," but I laughed and said I had no idea who he was at all and that it was just one big coincidence. Afterward, I asked David about his work on Reptisaurus (2009) and The Amazing Bulk (2010), so we had a nice chat about those titles. 

With actress Barbara Hershey.

David told me about what it was like working with director Christopher Ray on the former and about the number of YouTube reviews of the latter, which apparently attract millions of views. I did ask David if he had ever seen Red Letter Media's review of The Amazing Bulk, but he was unaware of it.

Overall, the highlight for me was finding a booth selling '90s-era monster mags, things like Scary Monsters and Cult Movies. I picked up a couple of issues of Scary Monsters, as well as a pair of Godzilla fanzines from the mid-'90s that I probably hadn't seen in almost 15 years. 

With producer David Sterling.

I also purchased a Blu-ray of Night Train to Terror (1985) at the same booth, so I certainly did pretty well for myself there.

I'm not sure yet if I'd attend the next Creep I.E. Con. I do think there are better alternatives out there (at least for me), but it's always fun to get out every once in a while and have some fun. 

Seeing 'Jurassic Park' in Ikebukuro!

Jurassic Park at Ikekuburo's Shin Bungeiza theater. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Earlier this evening (Tuesday, August 15), I did something that I hadn't done in 30 years -- see Jurassic Park (1993) on the big screen. It was a digital projection at the Shin Bungeiza theater, and I was really looking forward to it. Truth be told, I saw Jurassic Park seven time in theaters when it came out, the last of which was probably in November 1993 at a second-run theater. Suffice it to say, I was impressed by the effects (and, frankly, just about everything else in the movie) at the time, so I couldn't get enough of it. It rekindled my childhood interest in dinosaurs, which lasted until around early 1994. 

Another thing worth mentioning is that, the night before we went to see Jurassic Park for the first time, we saw Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) for the first time on VHS. I have to admit that I forgot all about Biollante after seeing Jurassic Park, and my interest in Godzilla wouldn't be revitalized until we finally found the ultimate holy grail Destroy All Monsters (1968), as well as the other Heisei-era Godzilla films, on VHS in late 1994. But it's fascinating to think how things might have played out had Jurassic Park not sucked up all the oxygen in the room at the time.

A few of these characters showed up for the screening. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I remember watching JP when it finally came out on home video in October 1994 and being surprisingly underwhelmed. I guess I'd seen it too many times, and by then it felt a bit old-hat. That was also about two months before we got our hands on Destroy All Monsters, so in the end Godzilla got the last laugh. 

I've given it a lot of thought, and I think tonight's screening may have been the first time I'd seen JP in its entirety since the fall of 1994. Thirty years later, I still remembered most of it, though I was able to pick up on some small details that I missed as a kid.

So how about the movie itself? It's still a lot of fun. The effects hold up really well, the humor still works, and Spielberg's direction is top-notch. Dean Cundey's cinematography is great, too. Some of the scenes were quite obviously filmed on a soundstage -- the nighttime scene with the brachiosaurs' eating in the treetops in particular looks a bit too stage-bound -- and the main characters aren't developed very well. So there are certainly some flaws, but, especially when you compare it with its sequels, the original holds up really well as an effects-driven thriller. 

A few years ago, I tried to see Joker (2019) in the theater more times than JP, but I topped off at six screenings. Now I'm even further in the hole, but that's all right. If Jurassic Park continues to hold the record for the most first- and second-run theatrical screenings, I'm cool with it. It's not a bad record holder at all.