Sunday afternoon, April 18th, the panel for DARK HOUSE kicked off the days festivities in the West Hall. We were treated to the first preview of the film and then joined on stage by actors Matt Cohen, Diane Salinger, writer/director Darin Scott, Jeffrey Combs, Meghan Ory, Bevin Prince and Scott Whyte.

Scott (who produced TALES FROM THE HOOD, STEPFATHER 2 & MENACE II SOCIETY) explained the film's origin to the crowd. "What we wanted to do was make a funhouse ride of horror. The story is about a massacre that took place in this house years ago where a bunch of children were killed by a very evil woman. Now, an entrepreneur who puts on haunted house attractions all over the country, he decides to exploit the history of the house by putting on a haunted attraction there. He hires a troupe of actors, one of whom, he doesn't realize, was present at the massacre. She asked to come back to the house and perform. So they all come and get trapped in the house. The house uses a holographic illusion system to project monsters. They have hundreds of monsters that they can make look real. What happens is a ghost takes over the system and makes all of the monsters real threats. And they start taking people apart one by one."

The actors were completely complimentary of each other on stage, and RE-ANIMATOR alumni Jeffrey Combs couldn't stop praising Scott as a director, which led the filmmaker to reach for his wallet and throw Combs a few bucks for his kind words. It was a motif that continued through out the panel for when anyone complimented someone else, that person would reach for their wallet.

Easily one of the most fun panels the entire weekend, we'll be on the look out for DARK HOUSE and keep you posted on it's release as soon as we hear it! Pictures below!

















(Pictures by Robg.)