By Mike Lera
Creeping its way back into the circles and cerebrums of dedicated horror fans for its fifth consecutive year, Creep I.E. CON V (“I.E.” for Inland Empire, CA) began 2026 with another stunning macabre spectacle Jan. 30th-Feb 1st, aptly named for its odditorium of all things beastly, slasher and supernatural.
Aside from its aisles and piles of monster merch, spooky photo opps and killer clown-infested mazes, Creep I.E. Con was packed with pop culture celebs (super exceeding its 2025 star roster) for signings and pics, the stellar guest lineup including A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Robert “Freddy” Englund, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, Henry “The Fonz” Winkler, character actor Ted Raimi, Linda Blair (The Exorcist) and Skeet Ulrich (Scream).
Reunions was a popular theme at CC, featuring Back To The Future’s Christopher “Doc Brown” Lloyd signing side-by-side with Tom “Biff” Wilson, Young Guns’ Lou Diamond Phillips tag-teaming once more with his wild west nemesis Dermot “Dirty Steve” Mulroney, and notorious first kills and final girls from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, including Amanda Wyss, Tuesday Knight, Brooke Theiss, Brooke Bundy, Joann Willette and Lisa Wilcox.
CC’s panels included discussions and Q & A’s with former cast members of the Scream franchise, a la Skeet Ulrich, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Lee Waddell and Dermot Mulroney.
Cassandra Peterson, on another panel, talked “Elvira shop” to a room packed with loyal fans and “Movie Macabre” devotees. “I’m done putting on the drag,” Peterson shared with Fangoria magazine. “I don’t want to be 70-something doing that [Elvira] character. There’s AI and stuff, but man, I don’t think my fans would appreciate it.”
Spencer Charnas, co-founder/lead vocalist of the metal band Ice Nine Kills, spoke on his group’s 25-year journey in basing their music almost exclusively on and for horror movies, including the original song and video “A Work of Art” for the recent Terrifier 3 film. “I thought the first [Terrifier] movie was a throwback to that mean spirited 70’s/80’s era that I like, so I told [director] Damien, ‘I want to make what Dokken made for Elm Street, and what Alice Cooper did for Friday the 13th’. And he just said, ‘Do it!’”
The Lost Boys stood as a CC centerpiece, many of its reunited cast members – Kiefer Southerland, Alex Winter, Billy Wirth and Chance Michael Corbitt – bombarded by old and new school fans alike, reminiscing over the mega successful/almost 40-year-old cult vampire classic.
Horror Nation pulled aside Lost Boys’ lead star Jason “Michael” Patric for a brief talk, asking him about his take on horror comedies, then and now, “vampire” ones particularly (i.e. “Abigail”).
“There’s way too much CGI [in today’s horror comedies] – not enough ingenuity,” Patric stated. “I think the acting is not what it used to be in horror movies. I’m not a big fan of that stuff.”
Asked about Lost Boys’ arch vampire rival, Fright Night (1985), Patric smirked and confidently replied, “That movie was made a year before ours, aaand… we dominated!”
