Horror fans can find comfort in their favorite creepers and creatures at the Spooky Empire convention, coming to Charleston Aug. 23 through 25.
With 30+ celebrity guests, including Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Class Of 1999, Halloween 2007), Doug Bradley (Hellraiser film series), Dee Wallace (E.T., The Howling) and David Howard Thornton (Terrifier films), there will be plenty for fright fans to delight in.
Or pose for a photo-op with Jason Voorhees, Pinhead and everyone’s favorite pale-faced psychopath, Art The Clown, while perusing vendors, panels and more at the Charleston Area Convention Center.
Founded in 2003, Spooky Empire has grown to become one of the largest thriller conventions with its attendance increasing each year in size. Spooky Empire, lovingly referred to as “the dark side of Comic-Con” prides itself on allowing guests to interact with their beloved horror icons. The event will host some frightening panels, as well as a huge vendor room of over 100 vendors and exhibitors in attendance.
Locals to participate
As an integral part of the monthly Terrorvision Theater series at the Terrace Theater, and a frequent pop-up host in the area, Ryan Graveface has consistently worked on carving out a niche for local horror nerds. When he isn’t working on bringing underseen films, like $lashers and The Woodchipper Massacre, to the Terrorvision video label — or underheard musicians to his record label, Graveface, he’s working on acquiring more creepy items for his Graveface Museum in Savannah or doing more research for a coming John Wayne Gacy documentary.
The perpetually busy Graveface said the Terrorvision/Graveface table at Spooky Empire will offer a wide array of things to check out — Graveface said, “I like selling my stuff, but I also genuinely love meeting humans and exposing them to new things. Getting someone into new music or some movie they haven’t heard of, or telling them about the museum has always been pretty cool (to me).”
Local stop motion animator, filmmaker, artist, film buff, movie prop collector, and dad Trent Shy will have a table featuring movie props (mostly films from the the 80s and 90s) which he’s collected over the years for his Instagram page, Creature Features Museum.
“We have rare props used in films like The Blob, They Live, Arachcnophobia, Mars Attacks, Anaconda, Tremors, and Trick ‘r Treat just to name a few,” he said “I’ve been in love with movies and practical effects since I was very young. My obsession with practical effects even led me to my career as a professional stop motion animator and filmmaker.”
From this obsession of film and FX came the urge for Shy to acquire practical effects, especially monsters and creatures, from the films he loved.
Shy added, “Owning a piece of history from these films is a way to feel closer to them. Nostalgia plays a big part of it too. I mostly seek out props from films I connected to as a child.”
Bringing the exuberance and nerd dedication to Spooky will be none other than the equally prolific Jules Elizabeth, the president of Charleston’s Absent Friends, and co-host of Midnight Terrors Podcast with Kevin Roche — which won Best Local Podcast in 2024 in the Charleston City Paper’s annual Best of Charleston contest.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization as of this year, Charleston Absent Friends has been around in a less formal capacity since 2002. It started out as a monthly Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast (that currently resides at the Terrace Theater), created by a group of friends and family seeking to have fun.
It has morphed over the years, becoming more relatable to community theater, drag and improv. Setting up a table at the convention means a lot to Elizabeth, who said, “Our goal is always to provide safe spaces to as many people as possible and hopefully entertain and make you laugh along the way! Spooky Empire is an amazing opportunity for our humble shadow cast to get more exposure, in order to make those connections with people who need us. If you need a friend or a space to be yourself, we’re here!”
Started in 2022, Roche’s main objective with the Midnight Terrors Podcast is similar to Elizabeth’s.
“The podcast was created to emulate the feeling of the horror community that you find at conventions,” he said. “Between weekly episodes, live events, interviews and guest appearances … the podcast is built to be a home for horror fans from everywhere and from all walks of life.”
In addition to having a table, CAF will present a Rocky shadow cast Friday evening (Aug. 23). Elizabeth described, “Shadow casting is a very strange art not known to many, where we act out movies right in front of the movie screen. We lip and body sync the characters behind us, in screen-accurate costumes, and with props and set pieces that mirror the film.”
When asked which guest she was looking forward to most, Elizabeth said she was amped about the opportunity to meet Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street). “Next to Laurie Strode of the Halloween franchise, Heather is my favorite final girl! She kicks some serious butt in the first film when she pulls Freddy into her world.”
Roche said his most anticipated guest is Bill Moseley from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.
Graveface, a war-torn horror convention veteran over the twenty plus years, said he’s more looking forward to seeing the awesome vendors selling wares. “Celebrities aren’t as big a deal to me.” He’s pumped about the chance to find all kinds of unique collectibles including autographs, art, movies, toys, props, action figures, comic books, models, posters, fantasy swords, clothing, jewelry — and much more.
Learn more about Spooky Empire and find tickets at spookyempire.com. A one day pass starts at $40. Aug. 23 to Aug. 25 at the Charleston Area Convention Center.
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