Horror Convention Crypticon Is Creeping Into Denver

It’s a good year for horror fans in the Mile High City. A new genre festival came to town in May, and now Crypticon will make its debut this week at the Crowne Plaza in northeast Denver from Friday, August 18, through Sunday, August 20.

The Crypticon brand first burst from the tomb in 2008, and currently takes place in Minneapolis, Kansas City and now Denver, where there will be three days of all the essential convention trimmings: vendors, celebrity panels, contests, music, a film festival and more. Plenty of local fright brands will also be contributing, including the Horrible Things Film Club, the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society and Cult Legacy.

Crypticon creator Chazz DeMoss didn’t just pick the Queen City as his next stop out of a hat; he has family in all three convention locales.

“I live in Minneapolis, was born and raised in Kansas City, and I have some some aunts and uncles and cousins that all live in Denver, so…the three shows are all wrapped around family, mostly,” DeMoss explains. Professionally, he came to respect it as a place for fellow aficionados in his early days as a publisher and creator of horror comics and magazines, selling his Dead Dog Publications brand to Mile High Comics. He couldn’t understand how a comic shop out in Colorado was buying such a high volume:

“They used to buy it by the hundreds, and I was like, ‘How does this place sell this many?'” he recalls. On a recent trip, he finally made it to the massive outlet full of thousands of comics and toys, much of it horror-related, and said, “Oh, my goodness. That explains a lot of things.”

Denver’s passionate horror cult – er, fandom – will definitely appreciate DeMoss’s assembling of such stars as Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Escape From New York), Zach Galligan (Gremlins, Waxwork) Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, The Frighteners) and Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street). But the megawatt names are really only the tip of the iceberg, because fans have just as much love for the monsters and the mechanics: Large men wearing masks and meticulous craftspeople are equally revered.

One of the most interesting versions of a genre icon in attendance is Brett “Big Schwag” Wagner, also known as “The Lost Leatherface.” Initially cast in the successful 2003 reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wagner only dispatched a single teenager in the film before a heatstroke-induced injury on set led to his sidelining and replacement. The multi-talented performer took it in stride, leaning into his voice-work skills (honed in a managerial gig with Ultimate Pro Wrestling) and ending up as the host of the Discovery Channel’s hit show Monster Garage. After that, he was off, following Monster Garage with the Speed Channel’s Pass Time.

“One of [Pass Time’s] producers loved me on Monster Garage…and I started hosting a drag racing show – not Ru Paul’s drag racing show, although I would,” says Wagner. The gregarious actor has done a little bit of everything in his thirty-year career, combining the extensive television stints with nearly one hundred film roles, but horror has a special place in his heart.

“When I was a young kid, my mom and dad used to plop me in front of the TV and I’d watch The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery,” he recalls. “I was such a big fan…that when I started to get older I knew that I wanted to be an actor and knew that I wanted to be in horror movies.” The convention circuit gives Wagner an outlet to chat with fellow aficionados.

“Conventions are great,” he says. “I get to BS with folks. I get to do what I love to do, which is talk and chat and sign pictures and do panels and judge costume contests. It’s a great thing, you know? … I get to see people I’m a fan of. I got into acting because I was a fan of movies, specifically horror and science fiction, so I get to see some of my icons.”

He’s particularly looking forward to joining DeMoss’s new venture: “Listen, I am so excited to be a part of this. The Crypticon family, the brand, is legendary. … I was never invited to one before, and I am pretty stoked.”

Wagner will be donning the full Leatherface get-up for photo ops, part of a trio of ghoulish icons available in costume. The others are Lee Waddell (the original Ghostface from Scream) and Douglas Tait (Freddy vs. Jason’s Jason Voorhees). They join a packed schedule of photo ops throughout the weekend, including the aforementioned big names. But celebrity spotting is only a slice of what the convention has to enjoy. There are also three contests available to enter – Tattoo (Friday, 8 p.m.), Cosplay (Saturday, 5 p.m.) and Make-Up (Sunday, 1 p.m.) – and a busy slate of other panels and activities, including a performance by Ari Lehman.

Lehman was the young man who let Tom Savini cover him in makeup to play the first Jason Voorhees, or “Boy in the Lake,” all the way back in 1980’s Friday the 13th. Now he’s a grown-up punk rocker who will be taking the stage with his band Ari Lehman’s First Jason on Friday, August 18.

“There’s a Mount Rushmore of conventions,” says Wagner, “and Crypticon is definitely on that.”

Crypticon, Friday, August 18, through Sunday, August 20, Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center, 15500 East 40th Avenue. Buy package and tickets ($20-$70) at PayPal.com. Find the full schedule of events and photo ops at crypticondenver.com.