Top 3 Things I Learned at Crypticon 2014 in Minneapolis

I swung by Crypticon 2014 in Minneapolis this past weekend and went to a few Q&A sessions. These are the top three things I learned at the annual horror convention:

1. Shooting Gremlins took a long, long time.

The first Q&A I saw was with Zach Galligan of Gremlins fame. Here’s a shot of him answering questions:

Zach mentioned that Gremlins took over 34 weeks to shoot. The first 17 were with the actors and gremlins. The last 17 were entirely with the Gremlins. This was back in the days before CGI, so the gremlins and Gizmo were animatronics, operated by people off screen. They were fragile and finicky creatures.

According to Zach, the dog in the films, whose real name is Mushroom, was obsessed with the Gizmo creature/robot. In the scene where Zach’s character is opening the box with Gizmo inside, Mushroom got excited and jumped on Gizmo. The dog broke off a piece of Gizmo’s ear. It took 10-11 hours just to fix the ear and be ready to shoot again.

2. Bodega Bay makes for good, creepy filming.

At the next Q&A, Tom Atkins took the stage:

He has been in a whole host of movies, from Escape from New York to Halloween 3 to My Bloody Valentine. He was also in The Fog, which was directed by John Carpenter.

Tom Atkins pointed out that The Fog was actually shot on-location in Bodega Bay. That is the same location as Hitchcock’s The Birds. Clearly, that is one creepy town.

Tom Atkins also mentioned how difficult it was to film a movie like The Fog in the days before CGI. He said that the special effects guys would spend hours creating fog and trying to make it look “more ominous.”

3. Goonies 2 is a “distinct possibility.”

The last Q&A I went to had none other than Corey Feldman. He has been in about a hundred films, spanning throughout the time I was growing up, including The Burbs, Goonies, The Lost Boys, and Gremlins Here he is answering questions with Frog Brother Jamison Newlander:

Of course, someone asked Corey Feldman whether there would be a Goonies sequel. He said that it is a “distinct possibility.” That’s good enough for me. I’d watch it, even if it has been nearly 30 years since the original came out.

My husband, always the asker of questions at every conference or convention we attend, asked Corey, “What makes a good horror movie?” His simple reply: “suspense.” He noted that the best horror movies don’t show too much gore and rely on suspense to build the tension. He specifically referenced Halloween in this regard, and I have to agree with him here. Suspense is the backbone of any decent horror movie.

Do you agree that suspense is essential? Did you go to Crypticon and learn something cool that I missed? Leave a comment.