Review of Motor City Nightmares Horror Convention and Film Festival

I had the opportunity to cover the Motor City Nightmares horror convention and film festival this weekend. As someone who has attended dozens of horror conventions in the past, and over 70 other industry conventions, I have found that I have become a very hard person to please. After this past weekend, I find that I am going to be harder to please in the future after attending one of the best organized cons that I have ever attended.

While Motor City Nightmares ran from Friday, April 15 until Sunday, April 17, I was only able to attend Saturday and Sunday. From the time that I arrived until the time that I left, I was impressed. While most guests were playing close attention to the special guests like Kane Hodder, Toni Todd, Danielle Harris, and Dee Wallace-Stone, I was paying attention to how the convention was being run. As others were shopping at the variety of vendors, I was paying attention to the types of people that were being appeased.

This was the third year for the convention, so I figured that the promoters would have learned some of the hard lessons about running events on time and convention body traffic control. They quickly proved that these lessons were old news. The harder lessons to learn like efficient scheduling and staff knowledge were ones that I expected to catch them on. The flow of events and the fact that almost all of the staff could answer any question that guests had put Motor City Nightmares on a level with companies that had been running conventions for decades.

The diversity of events and draws at Motor City Nightmares took many of the top horror conventions in the United States to shame. A strong list of special guests, a large number of independent films, and a variety of types of vendors kept a number of types of horror fans walking around for hours. While the room that the convention was held in would be considered by many as mid-sized for an industry convention, it was well-arranged with wide enough aisles to move around without sacrificing the number of potential vendors.

According to talks that I had with the promoters, the Motor City Nightmares horror convention and film festival will be keeping the current home at the Novi Sheraton for the next four years. The number of attendants this year not only ensured that the convention will continue, but helped to guarantee that they will have a home for many years. The strength of the convention will keep me coming back for many years as well.