A Day at MHC 2007
BY Noah Wullkotte
It was Saturday, July 14th and the sun was out, but I was feeling nautious and the ringing in my ear hadn’t stopped. It was a beautiful day and a perfect day for a haunt convention. So I packed up my camera, a little bit of money and headed out to The Doubletree Hotel in Columbus. OH for the Midwest Haunters Convention. Fields upon fields were the majority of what we saw on the drive up to MHC and with 2 hours of this, it gets pretty monotonous. We kept driving and driving until after 2 hours we had finally made it to the Doubletree Hotel where MHC was being held. We could tell we were at the right place from the look of the people on the outside. They were dressed in dark clothing and I recognized a clown from Dream Reapers Haunted House in Rosemont, IL.
So we parked the car and headed into the hotel to find the tradeshow. When I first entered I was a bit confused as to where everything was, but they had maps for the hotel, for the tradeshow and everything else you could think of. I accidentally almost walked into a seminar room, but soon found the right way to the tradeshow. As we slowly entered into the tradeshow I thought to myself boy it’s crowded this year, but soon came to the realization that the room this year felt smaller and the booths were packed in there like sardines. It was kind of hard to walk around and stop to look at the booths because of the crowd, but I figured something out. Of course with an in depth article you would expect some pictures and well I took plenty, 54 to be exact. The booths this year actually looked more organized and it was a cleaner and more professional tradeshow.
After about an hour of walking around the tradeshow floor, we decided to exit and to my surprise there was a huge table with promotional items galore. Everything from flyers to business cards were present and boy did I stock up. We stocked up, walked back to the car and put the items in a safe and secure place, the trunk.
We walked back into the hotel room and sat for a while before the Monster Makeup Wars Started. The area which the show was was being held in was only feet from where we were. There were tons of balloons and decorations in the room and we decided to get a better look. It was over an hour before the tradeshow would begin so we sat down to see what was going on. Right next to us was a professional balloon artist who was creating a mammoth monster out of balloons and it started to take form. The entire room was decorated with various props such a corpse with a cannon, an open box with chains and much more.
Well we were a little thirsty so we decided to walk over to Panera bread to get some drinks. After about an hour of that we headed back and got our seats. At this point it was obviously Hectic. Kelly and Neena Collins, Crazy Bob Tuner and the DJ were roaming around the room like mad men. Actors on stilts and people in dark clothing looked panicked and were ready for the Monster Makeup Wars. Plastic sheets were being put on the chairs that were on stage and some of the contestants were walking in, but would soon walk back out. It was a little less than an hour before the Makeup Wars would start and we decided to move up to front row so it would be easier to take pictures. Damn the zoom on this camera!!
After about 30 minutes of waiting in the front row the contestants started coming in and the crowd was getting larger. The contestants gathered around the stage as Kelly told the rules. After more minutes of waiting it was finally time to get this contest going. It was 5:10 and it had officially begun. It was supposed to start around 4:30, but these things happen. The DJ who had curly hair and glasses turned the music on as techno music blared. Crazy Bob Turner (Haunted Hydro, Fremont, OH) was the speaker of the contest and a pretty good one at that. He would entertain the audience and even a poor woman from Alabama was picked on from well being from Alabama. It was all in good fun though. The place was packed by now. The rules were announced and the contest was in full force. Gates of Terror (Lancaster, OH), Evillusions, The Bone Zone, another haunt from Ohio and a group of unknowns were participating in the Monster Makeup Wars.
Honestly this was probably the best Monster Makeup Wars to date. All the contestants seemed to be more creative with the supplies they were given and some of their creations were pretty amazing. The most interesting had to be from The Gates of Terror. The Gates of Terror scarecrow was being made up to resemble an underwater sea creature with oyster crackers for bumps on its face. There was stiff competition from all the contestants and everyone seemed to be having a really good time including myself. At one point the DJ started playing Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show and a couple of people stormed the stage recreating the dance from the classic movie.
Minutes passed and there was 5 minutes left of the competition. Photographers stormed the stage and 30 seconds remained. It was ready for the winners to be revealed. This year’s winner would receive $50, Monster Makeup Wars T Shirt (15 Made), A Spot on Rotting Flesh Radio and other great prizes. The contestants were judged on a 10 point system by 4 judges. So the highest score you could receive was a 40. It took several minutes for the judges to determine the winner. But finally the winner was revealed, but to be honest I couldn’t really remember their name. Crazy Bob Turner made jokes about the contestants name because it was similar to Avon in spelling, but they were the winners and Queen’s We Are the Champions played on as media stormed the dance floor one more time to take pictures. I could go on and on in detail about what went on during MHC, but it would get very boring for you the reader. But you’re most likely looking forward to the pictures. There were social activities, seminars, workshops, contests and more throughout the weekend that would make any haunter happy. But overall Midwest Haunters Convention was better than ever and I can’t wait till next year.
Hottie of The Convention – Jen Sharlow ” Scream Queen Marketing“
Best Character of The Convention – Escaped Lunatic “Dream Reapers Haunted House“
Best Booth – Screamline Studios
Best Newcomer – Boo Crew Production