On the weekend of March 21 and 22, the first edition of the I Heart Horror festival took place in Lint, Belgium, gathering several names from the horror movie scene and a public more than keen to discover the convention.
Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger himself), Linda Blair (The Exorcist) and Costas Mandylor (Saw) were part of the lineup along the filmmaker Marcus Nispel and comic artist Stephen B. Scott.
While in most conventions you usually arrive in the main vendor hall, here you could dive directly into the mood as a poster at the entrance directed attendees to a dark hallway filled with stroboscopic lights and scare actors ready to jump scare them.
Not being a fan of this myself, I gladly took the other route to enter the event, which was also a nice alternative for visitors wanting to escape any flashing strobes.
I didn’t really know what to expect walking into the convention and was pleasantly surprised by the entire atmosphere. Once inside the venue, lights were dim and the place calm, perfect for exploring around.
In the main hall, you could find the guests’ booths for signings and pictures, the panel stage and all the vendors.
A second hall was filled with Xavier Portee’s creations (tjeekenhorrorlifesize), showcasing life-size horror figures to walk among. Several versions of Freddy Krueger were around, as well as both versions of Pennywise and — probably my favorite — a very fancy dressed Lestat.
If a convention based on horror movies doesn’t sound like a family-friendly event, this one seemed well adapted to children as a group of them were wandering the alleys. Between having fun together and escaping the scare actors who played along, they were clearly having a ball and managed to stay busy for a couple of hours.
A convention staple, there was a cosplay catwalk at this one too and, even if cosplayers showed up more in the alleys than on stage, several original costumes could be seen and fun chaos was brought by the group of the Hellhounds.
After several panels and other events, that first day concluded with a concert, which I’m afraid was a little too loud for my taste. But from everything else I could see and heard, I Heart Horror succeeded in providing the more intimate convention it aspires to be. There were fewer artists and sellers compared to larger conventions, but more than enough to spend a good time at with friends. Queues to meet guests could be on the long end, but not overwhelming, and the venue remained easy to navigate throughout the day.
