The PopCulteer
September 14, 2018

We are a mere seven days away from Charleston’s very own Horror and Science Fiction convention, ShockaCon. This is the seventh year, and the theme is “Seven Deadly Sins,” so seven days out seemed like the best time to tell you about the show. The fun starts on Friday, September 21, at The Beni Kedem Shrine Center on Quarrier Street in Charleston, and continues through Sunday, September 23.

The Beni Kedem Shrine Center will be packed with movie and TV stars, cosplayers, artists, vendors, Ghostbusters and more, and they’ll be signing autographs, holding question-and-answer sessions, meeting the fans and a wonderfully macabre time is guaranteed for all. Fans of horror and science fiction will gather to meet celebrity guests, take part in workshops, see interactive panels and demonstrations and buy stuff from the eeriest collection of vendors you’ll ever see. Plus there will be tons of live performance and music.

Right after this handy schedule graphic (click to see a bigger version), we’ll tell you a little bit about each of the headlining guests at this year’s show…

The Guests

Linnea Quigley is an American actress, film producer, model, singer, and author. She is best known as a B movie actress and is often referred to as a “scream queen” due to her frequent appearances in cult horror films during the 1980s and 1990s.

Very popular on the convention circuit due to her friendly nature, Quigley got her first acting role in the Charles Band-produced film Fairy Tales (1978). She continued receiving small parts mostly in B movies. Her first bigger part was in the 1981 slasher film, Graduation Day. Quigley followed with more films such as Savage Streets (1984) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

In 1985, Quigley appeared in the zombie horror film The Return of the Living Dead playing a teenaged punk Trash, which is considered one of her most notable roles and gained her the “scream queen” status. During the second half of the 1980s, Quigley starred in a number of cult films following the popularization of the home video. She repeatedly worked with the directors David DeCoteau (Creepozoids, Nightmare Sisters, and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) and Kevin Tenney (Night of the Demons and Witchtrap), and often appeared alongside fellow scream queens Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer.

Aside from her acting career, Quigley is also a singer (she formed an all-girl band The Skirts in the early 1980s) and an author (she’s written three books; The Linnea Quigley Bio & Chainsaw Book, I’m Screaming as Fast as I Can: My Life in B-Movies, and Skin). She is also a devoted animal rights activist and an active member of PETA.

Sean Patrick Flanery is an American actor and author, known for playing Connor MacManus in The Boondock Saints, Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone, Jeremy “Powder” Reed in Powder, Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as Bobby Dagen in Saw: The Final Chapter.

He is also known for his role as Sam Gibson on The Young and the Restless in 2011. He starred in Devil’s Carnival, a short film which was screened on tour beginning in April, 2012. In 2016, he released his first novel, Jane Two, a coming-of-age story drawing inspiration from his own childhood and early experiences. It was released to generally positive acclaim.

Flanery is also a professional race-car driver and a holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Nicholas Brendon is an American actor and writer. He is best known for playing Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Kevin Lynch in Criminal Minds (2007–2014).

His first major role in a feature film came with the Charles Busch satire Psycho Beach Party (2000). Brendon has also starred in the ABC Family Channel original movie Celeste in the City (2004). Brendon is a spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America, appearing in a print campaign for the organization.

On October 28, 2010, Brendon began a four-episode arc on ABC’s Private Practice playing Lee McHenry, a mentally disturbed man who assaults Charlotte King.
Since 2014 he has been writing on the Buffy Season 10 comic book.

Tawny Kitaen is an American actress, comedian and media personality. Kitaen began her acting career in 1983 with a minor role in the television movie Malibu. In 1984, she starred as the title character of the erotic-adventure movie The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak. She also co-starred in the movie Bachelor Party as the bride-to-be of a young Tom Hanks, and was the star of the 1986 horror movie Witchboard. She also starred in the 1997 movie Dead Tides with the wrestler Roddy Piper

Kitaen appeared in several videos in the 1980s for the band Whitesnake, including the hits “Here I Go Again”, “Still of the Night”, “Is This Love,” and “The Deeper The Love.” She was then dating Whitesnake’s lead singer, David Coverdale, to whom she was later briefly married.

Kitaen appeared in Seinfeld, once, as Jerry’s girlfriend in the 1991 episode “The Nose Job.” She had recurring parts in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and co-hosted America’s Funniest People from 1992 to 1994.

Jyoti Amge is an Indian woman notable for being the world’s smallest living woman according to Guinness World Records. She rose to fame as Ma Petite in the fourth season of American Horror Story: Freak Show.

Following Amge’s 18th birthday on 21 December 2011, she was officially declared the world’s smallest woman by Guinness World Records with a height of 62.8 centimetres (2 ft 0.6 in). Her restricted height is due to a growth abnormality called primordial dwarfism.

Amge was featured in the 2009 documentary entitled Body Shock: Two Foot Tall Teen. She was also a guest participant on Bigg Boss 6, an Indian television show. In 2012, she met the world’s shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal. The pair posed together for the 57th edition of the Guinness World Records 2013

Special Events

In addition to the vendors, music, art, panels, contests, cosplayers as well as the food and drink, this year sees after-hours movie screenings added to the ShockaCon mix, and the now-traditional costume parade through The Charleston Town Center.

If you are even in the slightest bit interested in horror, science fiction, scary stuff, Halloween or anything cool like that, you should make it a point to be at the Beni Kedem Shrine Center next weekend. I will not be there in person, as business and pleasure will be taking me to Chicago, but I will be there in spirit, haunting the place. You can take in all that I mentioned above, and so much more. Just go check it out. Clear your schedule and get in the mood to kick off Halloween season in style. This is the seventh year for ShockaCon, and it’s got the biggest line-up of guests so far.

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for all our regular features.