Starting last Friday, June 13, the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA was home to the Walker Stalker Con, a three-day long event where horror fans (among others) could converge for a weekend full of treats and chances to meet various people in the entertainment industry. Given the name, zombies were naturally the primary focus, with most of the booths spread around the Westin relating to the shuffling walkers in some way shape or form.
The stars of AMC’s hit television show The Walking Dead were the most prominently featured guests at the Con, with most of the Q&A panels and photo ops centered around them and booths set up for autographs and photos with the actors and actresses. Some of the bigger players from the show weren’t around, including Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey, but the majority of the cast made appearances, from Jon Bernthal to Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Chad Coleman, and many others.
But the Walking Dead cast members weren’t the only people to be featured at the Con. With the event in Boston, it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see the cult hit film The Boondock Saints have a decent-sized presence, including a Saturday screening and follow-up Q&A. Not having Norman Reedus there (at least on Sunday when I attended the Con) was unfortunate, as he would have created a nice bridge between the horror and gangster stuff, but other Saints actors Sean Patrick Flanery and David Della Rocco were on hand to talk to attendees.
Fans of the horror genre were treated to some other nice surprises, including the chance to meet original Night of the Living Dead actors Judith O’Dea and Russ “Coming to Get You Barbara” Streiner. Friday the 13th series fans had a few notable guests of their own, such as the lead actresses of the first two movies, Adrienne King and Amy Steel, and Tom Morga, one of the many actors to play Jason Voorhees, as well as Michael Myers too. Some other examples of the eclectic line-up of guests included Melissa Hutchison from Telltale Games (who are responsible for the fantastic Walking Dead episodic games), AMC’s Comic Book Men, and the Science Channel’s Oddities.
Other vendor booths set up shop around the Westin provided a variety of goodies and entertainment, from artist zombie renderings to a pellet gun range with zombie targets. Movie posters of all kinds could be found almost anywhere in the Con areas, while comics, toys, DVDs, music and other merchandise were available too. Friday night was host to the Zombie Bash dance party to shake things up, while attendees also found themselves visiting the zombie makeup vendor to get decked out in gnarly prosthetics to look more like members of the shambling undead.
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But this won’t be the last time that the Walker Stalker Con makes an appearance in 2014. The convention will next make its way to Atlanta from October 17-19, where guests such as Michael Rooker, Melissa McBride, David Morrissey, and Greg Nicotero will be there.
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