We Are Movie Geeks attends CONTAMINATION in St. Louis

Contamination, St. Louis’ second annual convention billed as our city’s first and only ‘Horror, Sci-Fi, and Pop Culture Convention” was last weekend and We Are Movie Geeks was there to cover all the action (and to drink). The con took place at the Westport Sheraton Chalet and Hotel in West St. Louis County. Contamination is put on by Dyer Straits Productions who, according to their website “is constantly thinking outside the box trying to bring you the best and the most unusual in Horror, Sci-Fi, Music and Pop Culture.” The guests last weekend included Tony Todd (who played Candyman!), Kane Hodder (played Jason in three Friday the 13^th Films), Brad Loree (played Michael Meyers in one of the Halloween films), and the cast of the never-aired 1994 TV movie THE FANTASTIC FOUR. Headline guests Eric Roberts and Norman Reedus (of BOONDOCK SAINTS and The Walking Dead fame) were no-shows but that didn’t stop most of the hundreds of attendees from having an excellent time. Half of BOONDOCK SAINTS McManuss brothers were there in the person of Sean Patrick Flanery and David Della Rocco, who played ‘Rocco’ in the film made it as well. These two were very popular, sold plenty of autographs and answered questions from fans in a Q&A forum moderated by Scott Ford.

Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, Michael Bailey Smith, Carl Ciarfalio & Joseph Culp were the stars of the aforementioned FANTASTIC FOUR movie and apparently the Saturday night screening of the film was very well-attended (it was supposed to be outdoors, but there were major thunderstorms) and the Q&A afterwards well-received. The film’s director Oley Sassone made a surprise appearance at the convention as well. Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Brad Lorree, and Bill Johnson (one of two actors who played Leatherface in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Pt 2 in 1985) gathered for a panel Q&A to discuss playing movie monsters. 70’s Porn stars Seka and Veronica Hart were there signing autographs, selling vintage movies of themselves, and participated in a Q&A discussing the golden days of hardcore pornography. Seka contributed a lovely gold sequined dress she wore in a porno film decades ago to Contamination’s charity auction (it went for $125.00 in case you’re wondering). Other starlets in attendance included Maxim and Playboy model Amber Smith, Max Wasas (who played a porn star in MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN in 1989 and had the biggest cleavage), and “Supermodel and Actress” Kayla Perkins who clearly has a great career ahead of her. Dan Shor, who played Rom in the original TRON was there as was Sandahl Bergman (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, ALL THAT JAZZ), and Cody Deal who played Thor in a recent Sc-Fi channel movie. Cast members from George Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD were there and some guy from Jackass. I may have left some  celebs out but that’s the beauty of Contamination. They bring in a lot of guests and since it’s smaller than other cons that bring in fewer celebrities, the attendees end up spending more one-on-one time with the stars.

Other highlights of Contamination included a 24-hour screening room that showed such classics as MEGAFORCE, GODZILLA VS BIOLANTE and ATOR THE BLADE MASTER. We Are Movie Geek’s own Tom Stockman presented (for the last time) his popular Super-8 Vincent Price Movie Madness show and the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD puppet show, so popular from last year , returned. There was of course a dealer room where hucksters were selling bootleg DVD’s, movie posters (this geek scored the bottom 2/3 of the 1966 BATMAN 3-sheet for next to nothing!), T-Shirts, books, and bloody body parts. Local filmmakers such as Wyatt Weed, Jim Ousley, and Eric Stanze were set up promoting their films and Stanze premiered his latest, RATLINE at a well-attended screening (watch for a review of that soon here at WAMG). I haven’t even mentioned the Belly dancers, artists (including madman Joel Robinson), costumed attendees, the all night dance party, and the zombie pig cake.

There is a lot to do at Contamination and the organizers make sure to keep everyone up all night with movie screenings and parties. St. Louis is lucky to have an annual con like this and We Are Movie Geeks looks forward to getting contaminated again next year.