Texas Frightmare’s 20th year through the eyes of a convention vet
On a muggy Friday morning in May, the humidity brutal enough to serve up a healthy dose of sweat and fatigue within mere moments of being outside, the majority of Texas residents are going about their days, commuting to work at their day jobs, taking their dogs to the dog park. But at the Irving Convention Center just outside of Dallas, the scene is very different. The Convention Center has a line stretching from the main entrance down through a courtyard, around the block and through the adjacent parking garage, thousands have come together with other horror fans for the notorious Texas Frightmare Weekend.
Photo by: Amanda Rebholtz
2026 marks twenty years since founder Loyd Cryer and his wife Sue debuted a humble hometown horror festival in Feb 2006 in the tiny Grapevine Convention Center, an event that kickstarted what has been renowned for over a decade now as the Southwest’s Premiere Horror Convention. The con has expanded exponentially each year, hopping from modest local hotel The Omni to the Sheraton, then the Hyatt Regency at the DFW airport, and most recently the Irving Convention Center, where it fills the multi-level structure for three days a year with anything a horror aficionado could hope for. Whether you want to hug a horror legend and tell them how they changed your life, take a class from a successful indie filmmaker on how to make your own movie, pose for a once-in-a-lifetime pro photo of your favorite horror icon in their costume, watch a panel of icons discuss behind-the-scenes memories from their careers, meet up with a group of cosplayers who share your love for an obscure cult film from the 90s, or shop a vast array of vendors hawking their wares, Texas Frightmare truly does have something for everyone.
As someone who attended the very first year as a fresh-faced nineteen year old, I remember the feeling of camaraderie and disbelief that there was finally a place I felt ‘among my peers’. I never played sports or joined any teams or clubs, and I was a loner kid obsessed with horror movies growing up in a small conservative town, so there weren’t a lot of spots where I could find people into the same things as me or connect with my peers about our love of all things spooky. Finding Texas Frightmare at such a formative age for me led to a crazy chain of events in my life. For example, one of the first people I met in the friends circle there hired me shortly after to provide voiceover work in an indie horror movie they were making, and through that I met Matthew, a local special FX artist who I wound up having a long-term relationship with and eventually sharing a child with. I met sponsors from Anchor Bay Entertainment who inspired me to change my college major to marketing and completely pivot my career path. I met the late horror film director Robert Hall at Texas Frightmare, which led to me moving to LA several years later and working as his personal assistant, and later we filmed a horror movie starring Robert Englund and Corey Taylor. That experience led to me befriending Clive Barker and working briefly as an assistant to him on a project, and then working with Corey Taylor and his wife, and so on and so forth. So the personal connection I have to Texas Frightmare, and the way that my involvement with this con has shaped my life for almost half of my years on earth, is truly madness to think about.
So there was no question about whether I’d be attending the 20th anniversary, of course. Except this time I was going with my now-ten year old daughter Frankie in tow, and my camera in hand, ready to experience everything through the eyes of a longtime veteran. The convention has changed so much in the last twenty years, but what hasn’t? With its growth, the entire industry has also changed, and where at the first Frightmare $20 would get you a signature and a selfie with George Romero, these days it barely gets you a Coke and a pretzel. The VIP tickets (capped at 500 quantity available) now run upwards of $300 and sell out in around an hour, and there are four host hotels to choose from for lodging if you want to take advantage of the con’s block pricing structure for your stay. Regardless of the prices, Texas Frightmare makes sure to jam-pack their schedule with panels, screenings, special events, guests and even smaller special treats like show-exclusive posters, a glossy collector’s program that is a collaboration with Fangoria Magazine, world premiere screenings and more to make it worth the bucks you shell out.
The con also hosts a special “kick off” event every Thursday night before opening day, usually at the historic Texas Theater in Dallas. This year, it was a 45th anniversary screening of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” with cast and director present, and the highlight of the screening was Alan Hovarth (the incredible composer and longtime collaborator of John Carpenter, among an insane list of credits) bringing his keyboard and gear onstage and playing a live, improvised score to the film. As Alan himself said in the introduction before the screening, “I’m up here just making it up as I go, so tonight is the only night you’ll ever hear this, because it’s not written down or anything, I’m just going to have fun and basically jam with myself while the movie plays.” Fans had the opportunity to meet him, get items autographed, and there was an exclusive event poster for sale that was pretty dang cool as well.
When the doors opened on Friday, there was the difficult decision of what to do - Friday the con opens late in the afternoon and runs until 11 PM, which allows people time to get the lay of the land for the remainder of the weekend. The evening kicked off with a panel from Full Moon Pictures founder Charles Band discussing his project “Horror Puppet”, and a screening of the new horror film “The Barn III”, both of which were well-attended and well-received by their audiences. There was also a cosplay contest that was almost impossible to pick a favorite, with elaborate homemade costumes alongside incredible bodypainting and special FX work, prosthetics, animatronics, stiltwalkers, LED lights and more. After that, new film “The Pitchfork Retreat” screened, and the Friday night party kicked off. The theme this year was “Halfway to Halloween”, and legendary composer Alan Howarth DJ’d the party with live sets of the scores of John Carpenter films he’d worked on. The party wrapped up with another costume contest, and then at midnight there was a 90 minute block of horror short films, featuring innovative and fearless shorts from directors Veronica Felicity Johnson, Erik Martinelli, Quenton Thomas, David A. Holcombe, J.M. Logan and David Cholewa.
Saturday morning began bright and early, with a massive line - boosted in part due to the fact that convention rarity Emma Roberts was there for a Saturday-only appearance. Her turnout alone added a huge chunk of convention goers to the attendance count. Outside, the Hearse and Shock Rod show displayed beautiful, weird cars and hearses for people to vote on - the fan favorite was a replica Chevy Impala like the one from ‘Supernatural’. I spent almost the entire day in the panel room on Saturday, because the schedule - coordinated by Frightmare veteran Bradley Steele Harding and moderated by James Wallace and Paul Salfen - was an absolute back-to-back banger. The day kicked off with horror legend Linnea Quigley reliving her iconic roles in “Return of the Living Dead”, “Night of the Demons”, “Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers”, plus more, and of course that unforgettable workout tape. After Linnea came the packed panel for hometown sweetheart McKenna Grace, who at nineteen has more IMDB credits than most actresses three times her age and who has been featured in such cornerstone franchises as Scream, Ghostbusters and now her upcoming role as Daphne in the new live-action Scooby Doo film. McKenna charmed the audience by being a real life Disney princess, giggling through answers about her recent collaboration with Ice Nine Kills on the Scream 7 theme “Twisting the Knife” which hit #1 on the Billboard charts, wearing tiny rubber hands as a joke during a spicy romance scene with a costar in “Regretting You”, and how excited she is to play the live action Daphne after already voicing her in the animated “Scoob!” series years ago.
After McKenna’s sunshine-bright panel, the already-filled room was flooded with Ghostface costumes, bloodsoaked Casey Beckers, Stu Machers and Billy Loomises for an absolutely packed star-studded Scream retrospective panel. The panel featured not only original film staples David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich and Jamie Kennedy (not an OG Scream girl in sight this year!), but Joseph Whipp, Roger L Jackson and Lee Waddell (not to be confused with Leigh Whannell, who was on another panel!) also joined the table. The discussion ranged from talk about Roger Jackson hiding in a cardboard box to do the Ghostface voice on set while shielding a cell phone and a microphone from the rain, Lee Waddell discussing the physicality of the Ghostface role, Matthew Lillard discussing the infamous tongue-out premiere photos, Skeet defending his bucket hat era, and so much more.
Next up in the main ballroom was film legend Warwick Davis, who gave a brilliant and enlightening panel discussion on everything from his experience on the “Star Wars”, “Leprechaun”, “Harry Potter” franchises and more, as well as talk about the ill-fated “Willow” series. One thing that he revealed which was truly devastating was when a fan asked about why the series had been pulled from streaming altogether - Davis informed us that when a show is pulled entirely from a platform, the streaming company makes all the budget back by writing it off as a loss, and they can’t do that if they keep it on the streaming platform. So shows like “Willow” may never find a physical release or a permanent home due to tax loopholes and annual profits for shareholders, a fact that is devastating in an era where physical media is more precious than ever.
Following this panel was the children from “It: Welcome to Derry”, with stars Arian S. Cartaya, Amanda Christine, Miles Ekhardt, Mikhail Karim Fidler, Matilda Lawler, Clara Stack and Blake Cameron James all taking the stage to discuss the legacy of the Pennywise saga and their contribution to it. I did not attend this panel since I haven’t seen the show yet and didn’t want anything spoiled for me, but from people who did go, the kids were all well-spoken, very excited about their role, and hopeful about their future projects in the horror genre.
At the same time as the “It” panel, Texas filmmaker Billy Pon and his partner Kelley Wilson Robinson hosted a one-hour film school in a smaller ballroom. The creator, writer and director of killer clown cult gorefest “Circus of the Dead,” Pon is a well-respected staple of the independent cinema scene in Texas and he had a blast meeting with a standing-room-only crowd of aspiring filmmakers to discuss the ins and outs of making your own horror film on a shoestring budget. Pon talked about everything from scripts and concepts to writing for your budget to working with what you have equipment-wise, sharing innovative and resourceful ideas to help spur and inspire another generation of aspiring splatter artists to make their next masterpiece.
Photo credit: Amanda Rebholtz
Next up was a panel starring Rohan Campbell (“Halloween Ends”, “The Monkey”, “Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)” ) and Ruby Modine (“Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)”, “Happy Death Day”) to discuss their chemistry in last year’s Christmas release. While “Silent Night, Deadly Night” is a favorite in the genre for those who are faithful to the original, this reimagining brought a vividly different take to the table and brought in many fans who were surprised by how much they enjoyed it. Both Ruby and Rohan were charming and affable, full of funny stories about their times on set - they discussed a long day of nearly eight hours shooting in a ball pit, all for a final shot of about twenty seconds of screen time - and Campbell fondly discussed being part of the Blumhouse “Halloween” legacy and how his current dream project would be working with Curry Barker on the upcoming “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” reboot since this is one of his favorite films of all time. Ruby discussed her current foot injury, which was obtained while doing her own stunt work on an upcoming film, and how she insisted on doing her own ice skating in “Silent Night Deadly Night” as well because she just likes the thrill of doing it herself whenever possible.
After panel, it was time to play a game - Leigh Whannell, Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith and Dina Meyer of the “Saw” franchise took the stage to discuss their legacies in the beloved series. Leigh talked about the tenacity of himself and James Wan in the early days of short films and the Australian film industry, and how the script captured everyone thanks to just the final scene of John Kramer rising from the floor of the bathroom. Shawnee gave an impassioned and beautiful talk about how she has gone through some extremely challenging and rough moments in her life and that she truly believes that things work out in specific ways for the best - “You’re always meant to be right where you are”, and how even when things seem bleak or hopeless there’s always a reason because the next thing is just around the bend. For her it was her casting as Amanda, which changed the trajectory of her life and saw her reprising the role and becoming one of the franchise’s most iconic and beloved characters - there were no less than twelve Amandas in the standing-room-only panel room (I counted), most of them in her debut appearance of purple dress and reverse bear trap headpiece. Tobin also gave a wonderfully philosophical insight when asked about John Kramer’s much-debated anti-hero status - “It is not my job to condemn a character, or paint them as a villain or a hero, that isn’t my judgment to make. It is my job to understand them and bring them to life with what I’m given, to portray them as honestly and sincerely as I can.”
The final panel of the day, aptly titled “The Splat Pack”, was a conglomeration of 1980s-90s genre icons - Gina Gershon, Billy Zane, Stephen Dorff, Mitch Pileggi, and Mira Sorvino. Whether we’re talking “The Gate” or “Bound” or “Showgirls” or “Demon Knight” or “SFW” or ‘The X Files’ or “Shocker” or “Mimic” or “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion”, it’s impossible to deny the impact these actors had on pop culture. Each discussed their favorite memories and what it’s like to see people cosplaying their characters all these years later, and how of course when they initially read the scripts for their seminal projects they couldn’t have known they were going to go on with such a legacy in the cultsphere of cinema. As someone who developed childhood crushes on half the people on this panel, it was amazing to see them all in one place laughing and swapping tales of their lives as fringe/niche genre actors, and it was a wonderful panel full of great anecdotes and advice about perseverance and finding where you’re embraced instead of shoehorning yourself in to where you aren’t.
Saturday wrapped with the world premiere of the Full Moon Productions film “Models vs Werewolves”, followed by a screening of “Wandering Ginza Butterfly” sponsored by Arrow Video. For those who weren’t in the mood to watch a movie in the screening room, the insanely popular Scaryoke party was also happening - the signup list was as long as Matthew Lillard’s autograph line, and fans belted out classic hits to a packed room. At 10:30 the Fake Horror Trailer Showcase began, a contest hand-selected and moderated by Billy Pon and Kelley Wilson Robinson, in which filmmakers were challenged to create fake horror movie trailers in the style of the fake trailers from the “Grindhouse” double feature. The contest is unique in the sense that there’s no age limit to enter, all trailers must be between one minute and two and a half minute runtime, and there are no other rules. It’s a fantastic way for people to get involved with no budget but plenty of creativity and imagination, and it’s always a funny time to see what folks ‘pitch’ in those precious seconds.
Sunday at any convention looks like a George Romero film - everyone staggering from their hotel rooms, many of them hauling luggage to pile into their cars before hotel checkout, slugging back coffee or energy drinks and muttering to themselves “One more day”. We’re all thrilled to be here but the vibe on Sunday is usually more subdued, a little hungover in some cases, and tired. We’re old, our feet and knees ache, our wallets ache. We long for our own beds instead of the crisp hotel ones, our soft towels instead of starched ones. We want to pet our dogs. But there is no rest for the wicked, and so on Sunday Texas Frightmare is just as busy as the two previous days, the line wrapping the convention center in anticipation of doors opening at 11 AM.
With a twinge in my back and a throbbing headache, I headed to the first panel of the day - at noon, the stage was taken by Tom Atkins, Tommy Lee Wallace, Stacey Nelkin and Alan Hovarth to discuss the legacy of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” for its 45th anniversary. The panel featured Tommy Lee Wallace discussing how the movie has finally found its audience about a decade ago after being misunderstood for most of its life, and how the decision to make a Halloween film actually about the holiday is a missed opportunity he can’t believe someone else hasn’t scooped up in the interim. Stacey spoke fondly of her role as Ellie and talked about how much fun it was to go into killer robot mode, and Tom Atkins was of course as charming and gracious as could be while regaling everyone with tales of working on the film. Right after their panel it was time for the packed, standing-room-only Matthew Lillard and Justin Ware panel about Macabre Spirits, the duo’s spirits company that caters to horror fans and nerds alike. With specific drops for Dungeons & Dragons, an Ice Nine Kills collaboration, a novella pairing with Mike Flanagan and so much more on the way, Macabre Spirits is a fascinating new branding venture backed and led by Matthew Lillard and a small team of people who believe in their product. The brand was in force at Frightmare, giving out free samples of their new Ghostface Vodka and selling Macabre Spirits merch, raffling off signed bottles, and sneaking previews of their upcoming rum drop partnered with a horror novella called “Saltspray”. The panel featured Matthew Lillard’s usual warm banter and discussions of staying true to himself while marketing a product, and their future plans for expansion including a 16-part spirits drop that would run an entire Dungeons & Dragons campaign when finished. They also announced that in Sept/Oct, they’ll be doing a six-city tour in Texas of Total Wine liquor stores to promote the Ghostface vodka and sign bottles, so that’s exciting news for southern fans of either Matthew Lillard or delicious vodka!
After the Macabre Spirits panel, there was a 10-year “Terrifier” anniversary panel, followed by a talk with Joe Dante and then a panel with Steve-O of “Jackass” fame, but unfortunately I had other obligations and had to miss those three. I did, however, manage to catch some amazing cosplayers on my way through the lobby and make it to a professional photo op with Matthew Lillard for my kid, before we packed it up and headed out after one last sweep of the vendor room.
I would be remiss not to talk about the vendors - whatever your horror heart could desire, there is a vendor there for you. Some of them have been there since the very early years - Frightmare staples like The Curiositeer (taxidermy, bone jewelry, wet specimens and so much more made by Dames Green), Fast Custom Shirts ($15 horror t-shirts designed and printed by a single man, Joe Garcia, who also carries a curated selection of horror books at his booth and can talk any topic from metal music to giallo film to exploitation cinema to the best place to grab a beer in Dallas), Art with Latex (handmade and breathtaking latex necklaces, earrings, chestpieces and more by local artist Kurt Molhusen), Drink With the Living Dead (etched/engraved glass and barware), and so many other independent artists line the multiple aisles. Video vendors like Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, Wild Eye Releasing, Terror Vision and more peddle their titles, often with show-special pricing (Wild Eye had a “Fill a box for $50” deal for example, as many DVD releases as you could fit in a big cardboard box they provided) or exclusive steelbooks or special covers. Clothing designers like Western Evil, Lix, Pallbearer Press, Atomic Cotton and a dozen more sell t-shirts, dresses, hairpieces, ties, socks, jackets, flannels and so much more. Toy vendors have everything from Funko Pops (of course) to ultra-rare vintage figures, while other booths sell hundreds of posters, comic books, lobby cards, crocheted plushes and more. And if art prints are your thing, prepare your wallet for booths full of incredible prints by well-respected genre artists like Steven Luros Holliday, Matt Ryan Tobin, Jim Ferguson, Timothy Pittides (who does the Texas Frightmare official poster every year as well), Chris Oz Fulton, Ghoulish Gary Pullin, London 1888, Outpost 512 and more. I was dazzled by the offerings this year, and I found so many new pieces I want to add to my already-overflowing collection of boutique prints.
Another incredible year in the books for us, but even after the convention closed at 5 PM on Sunday there were still shenanigans to be had, including an off-site screening of “Scream” at the historic Texas Theater in Dallas. While it did sell out in a matter of moments, fans were treated to a live commentary for the film by Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, and VIP ticketholders received a signed exclusive event poster by the duo as well as a meet and greet experience.
All in all, the 20th year of Texas Frightmare was something to be insanely proud of to those who helped put it together - from founders Loyd and Sue Cryer to the team of volunteer staff (some of which have been there from the beginning, and some who were working their very first year), to the moderators, the panel coordinators, the tech crew running soundboards and slideshows and screenings, and every other piece of the puzzle, a giant machine full of well-oiled cogs working smoothly to make sure that fans had the best possible experience at a convention of this size and scope. If you’re in the market for a huge horror con with a ton to do, Texas Frightmare remains the best of the big boys - just be prepared for the crowds, the long lines for autographs, the overstimulation of a billion sensory overloads at once, and the difficult decision of what to pick from the packed schedule to fill your time with. If smaller and more calm conventions are your thing, then stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to, but if you’re in the market to chase some waterfalls, there’s a reason that Texas Frightmare Weekend has earned its reputation as the best bad boy in the Southwest when it comes to horror cons - and like everything else in Texas, they do it bigger, louder and with no holds barred.
