The Robert Englund V.I.P. Experience: Wizard World Ohio

Don’t be fooled by his day job as an Information Security Engineer. Behind the facade of protecting clients from cyber criminals and hactivists, Bryan Pasquale has a never-ending lust for movies that contain macabre and mayhem. Raised in a pseudo-bible-beating home in West Virginia, Bryan’s love for horror movies and novels was always met with heavy concern from his parents. Their biggest fear was seeing him on the news being hauled off in a straitjacket, covered in blood, and wearing the face of his former next door neighbor. Much to their relief (or dismay), that has never happened. Bryan’s writing heroes include the likes of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, H.P. Lovecraft, and Dante Alighieri. His love of horror includes having read over 25 King novels and proudly owning every Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and George Romero zombie movie (even the “bad ones”). Bryan currently lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and young son.

This past Halloween, in lieu of tormenting the kids who were trick-or-treating in my neighborhood, I decided to take a three to four-hour road trip to Columbus, OH. Why would I forgo the opportunity to pass out candy dressed up as an axe murderer, you ask? One name: Robert Englund.

When I found out that Freddy Krueger was coming to Columbus, I jumped at the opportunity to purchase the Robert Englund V.I.P. Experience at Wizard World Ohio aka Ohio Comicon. Next question—was spending $210 for said experience worth it? You’re damn right it was! Along with the benefits of the con’s V.I.P. stand-alone pass ($199), you received so much more bang for your buck. The package included a Robert Englund lithograph, prime seating for the panel, an autograph ticket, and a photo with the man himself!

So in addition to clenching claws with Freddy, getting a picture with “WELCOME TO PRIME TIME BITCH!!” as the inscription, meeting Darryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Gareth (Andrew J. West) from The Walking Dead, and purchasing a ton of comics, I learned a few things about Mr. Englund during the panel. First, he just had two movies released prior to the convention called The Last Showing and Fear Clinic. Second, his favorite Nightmare movie was Wes Craven’s New Nightmare since he did not play Freddy in that flick (the end credits read “Freddy Krueger – Himself”). Third, he believes that more remakes involving Freddy, Jason, Michael, and so forth are coming down the pipe from Hollywood. Lastly, and I really do hope this becomes a reality one day, there was a prequel script floating around for the Nightmare franchise called “Krueger.” The plot: pre-Dream Master killings, scumbag defense attorneys, and Freddy actually being burned by the parents at the end. For the true die-hard fans out there, they had an abridged version of this story in the pilot for Freddy’s Nightmares called “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”

Final thought, for anyone who has a Wizard World coming to your area (www.wizardworld.com), and the opportunity for the Robert Englund V.I.P. Experience is there, TAKE IT!