Monster Mania 2022: Indie Horror Con in COVID Time
Ever since the pandemic, it’s gotten harder and harder to remember a time before COVID, when things were “normal”. However, on March 11-13th in Cherry Hill, I got to remember just what conventions were like in a pre-pandemic world. This was the first convention I’ve attended since quarantine that didn’t require masks or proof of vaccination. As such, I still wore a mask for the majority of the time for safety, but I did remove my mask on occasion. Thankfully, unlike AnimeNYC, I didn’t get sick after attending. Monster Mania is a small horror and monster movie convention, held twice a year in Cherry Hill, South Jersey. I’d attended it in the past, but largely just to shop for hard-to-find movies and fanfare. This year however, I had the distinction of attending not only as a fan, but as a reporter for RGN99. I was overjoyed to find that there were several celebrity guests in attendance that I was excited to meet – Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo, who are most well known for playing Pablo and Kelly in the Ash VS. Evil Dead television series. After waiting in line, I got the chance to talk with them, and learn a few interesting tidbits about their time on the show.
Josh B with Ray Santiago & Dana DeLorenzo
Joshua Brafman (JB): Hey, I had a question. In Ash VS. Evil Dead, when you were possessed by the Necronomicon, were all those tattoos practical effects or digital?
Ray Santiago (RS): Oh, that was practically three hours a day in the makeup chair. [laughs]
JB: I was super surprised to see you on Raising Hope, I watched that after seeing Ash VS. Evil Dead.
RS: Oh yeah, that was the O.G. Ray.
JB: I’m really excited to see that you’re back as Pablo for Evil Dead: The Game. I got worried when they first announced it and all we saw was Kelly. You gotta have both in the game!
RS: Oh yeah, Pablo wasn’t in there at first. We had to… work some stuff out to get him in.
JB: So, what was the most challenging or fun thing that happened to you on set?
RS: Hmm… well, it’s hard to say. I can’t really pick just one thing, you know? I will say that working on Ash VS. Evil Dead, I did a lot of things I never thought I’d do, like birthing demons from my mouth.
Ray was a really wonderful guy to talk to. I would love to see him again at a future Monster Mania.
In between meeting Ray and Dana, I got to have a photo taken with the both of them, and Dana in particular was really very nice. She recognized me from waiting in line to see her, and insisted to the convention staff that after the photo, I be placed back in her line for autographs exactly where I was. Unfortunately, by the time I did get to see Dana, it was later in the day and I was pretty tired, so I forgot to ask her as many questions as I did with Ray.
Dana DeLorenzo (DD): Hey there! Did they let you back in line like I told them to?
Joshua Brafman (JB): They did! Thank you very much! I’m really glad to meet you, I’d been trying to meet you and Ray since New York Comic Con back when the show was still on.
DD: You went to New York Comic Con?! That was me and [Ray’s] first convention!
JB: Yeah I wanted to get an autograph from you guys back then, but it was a madhouse and I couldn’t get in line before they turned everyone else away.
DD: Oh, that’s too bad! But really, that was just “sign, go! Sign, go! Sign, go!” It was way less personal than something like this.
JB: Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. Though I did get something cool there, though. [pulls out Ash VS. Evil Dead bottle opener]
DD: Whoa!
JB: Yeah, this is the best free thing I ever got from a convention.
DD: Man, we never got any of that stuff.
JB: What? I always thought that cast members would get like one of each of those promo items or something.
DD: You would think, right? You would think.
Dana was just as kind and wonderful as Ray, and had easily the highest energy of any celebrity guest I’ve ever met. She would always spend a ton of time with each guest, and perform multiple funny variations of selfies with them. I hope I can meet Dana again when I’m less tired, so I can ask her more about her time on Ash VS. Evil Dead. Both she and Ray were truly in their element at Monster Mania, and it was a joy to finally get to meet them both after years of seeing them at bigger conventions. But meeting celebrity guests is only half the fun of Monster Mania. The other half comes from patronizing the local, independent vendors, such as Video Daikaiju – a store dedicated to releasing hard to find live action Japanese cinema. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ray and Mike, the heads of the business.
Joshua Brafman (JB): Thanks for agreeing to talk with me!
Ray (R): Our pleasure! So, what would you like to know?
JB: How did your business get started?
R: Well, we started all the way back in 1989. I was studying Japanese, and Mike here was looking for a translator. We started out purely dealing in anime, which back then was a rare commodity. We took LaserDisc masters from Japan and transferred them to VHS, I translated each one personally back then. Mike would take trips to Japan to get more masters of various anime and I would translate them, give them English subtitles.
JB: What made you transition to live action, tokusatsu titles?
R: As anime became more mainstream, we experimented with some live action fare, and we found that people really responded to it. There was a growing market for anime, but a lot of the live action stuff gets stuck in Japan. So, we took it upon ourselves to bring that over to the States.
JB: How do you guys get new content, or pick what to import?
R: Well, we run all over Japan looking for interesting and cool stuff to bring over, but a lot of new titles we get are suggested to us by our customers. They tell us what to get and we work to fill those orders.
JB: Did the pandemic affect you guys at all?
MIKE (M): Oh yeah.
R: Due to the pandemic, Mike here couldn’t leave Japan. So we really couldn’t produce any new titles. Not to mention the fact that during COVID, there were no cons, so that cut out a big portion of our revenue.
M: We still had a steady stream of mail and online orders though, so we were able to make it through okay.
JB: Well, I’m thrilled to see that you’re still here! Where can people find you?
R: You can find us online at videodaikaiju.com.
M: You can also send us mail at Video Daikaiju, PO Box 185, Succasanna, NJ 07876.
I always make it a point to patronize Video Daikaiju at every Monster Mania, and I wish them nothing but continued success going forward. I’d also like to thank them for taking the time for an interview with me. It’s people like Mike and Ray that help keep the kaiju fandom alive and well.
Monster Mania 2022 was an absolute blast, and I’m looking forward to going again in the summer. The convention scene has truly risen from the dead.
