| Spooky Empire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Horror, multi-genre |
| Frequency | Bi-annual |
| Location(s) | Florida |
| Country | United States |
| Inaugurated | 2003 |
| Attendance | Around 33,000 in October 2018 [1] |
| Website | http://spookyempire.com/ |
Spooky Empire is an American multigenre convention focused primarily on horror and science fiction, held bi-annually in Florida. The convention, which is billed as "the dark side of Comic-Con", [2] features vendors, a film and tattoo festival, music, and celebrity guests.
Co-founded by Peter Mongelli, Spooky Empire has been held in Florida since 2003. [3] It is held twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn. [4] The first event, held in 2003, took place at a Holiday Inn in Broward County, Florida. [5] [6] The convention was held in Orlando, Florida from 2006 to 2019, before moving to Tampa, Florida for its autumn 2019 event due to a lack of sufficient available venue space in Orlando. [3]
Celebrity guests at Spooky Empire have included Gillian Anderson, [5] [7] Fairuza Balk, [1] Bruce Campbell, [8] Neve Campbell, [6] Alice Cooper, [2] [8] David Duchovny, [5] [7] Gunnar Hansen, [6] Kane Hodder, [9] Christopher Lloyd, [1] Malcolm McDowell, [6] Bill Moseley, [9] Cassandra Peterson, [9] [8] Sam Raimi, [2] [8] Burt Reynolds, [6] Christina Ricci, [1] George A. Romero, [6] Felissa Rose, [7] Lewis Teague, [1] Henry Thomas, [1] Danny Trejo, [6] Dee Wallace, [1] and Carl Weathers. [7]
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American actor, voice actor, producer, writer and director. One of his best-known roles is Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise, beginning with the 1978 short film Within the Woods. He has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
The Evil Dead is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and executive produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The film focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem. Raimi and the cast produced the short film Within the Woods as a "prototype" to build the interest of potential investors, which secured US$90,000 to produce The Evil Dead. The film was shot on location in a remote cabin located in Morristown, Tennessee, in a difficult filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew.
Samuel M. Raimi is an American filmmaker, actor, and producer, primarily known for creating the cult horror Evil Dead series, and directing the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the 1990 superhero film Darkman, the 1998 neo-noir crime-thriller A Simple Plan, the 2000 supernatural thriller film The Gift, the 2009 supernatural horror film Drag Me to Hell, and the 2013 Disney fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful. Raimi has also produced several successful television series, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess. He founded the production company Renaissance Pictures in 1979.
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MegaCon, short for Mega Convention, is a large speculative fiction convention that caters to the comic book, sci-fi, anime, fantasy, and gaming communities, often occurring between late February and early March at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, USA. The 2016 event was held in late May.
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Sweetbay Supermarket was a chain of American supermarkets located entirely in Florida. The first Sweetbay Supermarket to open was in Seminole, Florida, in November 2004. The company was headquartered near Tampa, in unincorporated Hillsborough County, Florida, in the Tampa Bay Area, and was a part of the Belgian Delhaize Group. In May 2013 it was purchased by BI-LO. On October 8, 2013, BI-LO announced it was retiring the Sweetbay name and all remaining locations would be re-branded as Winn-Dixie.
David Martinez is an American professional baseball coach and former outfielder who is the manager for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs. He played in MLB for the Cubs, Montreal Expos, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 2001. Martinez had a .276 career batting average, 1,599 hits, 91 home runs, 795 runs scored, and 580 runs batted in.
Pamela Jo Bondi is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida Attorney General from 2011 to 2019.
Iron Gwazi is an upcoming steel roller coaster under construction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida. Being built and designed by Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC), it will feature RMC's patented I-Box Track technology. Iron Gwazi will reuse a large portion of the wooden structure that existed when the coaster was known as Gwazi, making it a hybrid roller coaster that utilizes a combination of steel and wood. It will become the tallest hybrid roller coaster in North America when it opens, as well as the steepest and fastest hybrid roller coaster in the world. It is expected to open in spring 2020.
Horror conventions are gatherings of the community of fans of various forms of horror including horror cinema, goth lifestyle, and occasionally science fiction and fantasy. Historically the focus has been on the cinematic form rather than literature and art, but this has broadened to include all forms in recent years. People in attendance at a horror convention are traditionally known as members of the convention; invited celebrities including film directors and stars are commonly known as guests of the convention, though many professionals including directors will simply attend as members.
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InfoMás was an American Spanish-language cable news television channel that is owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Bright House Networks in May 2016. The channel provided 24-hour rolling news coverage focused on the Tampa Bay Area and Central Florida. The channel was carried on Charter Spectrum digital channel 900 and in high definition on digital channel 1900.
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