Spooky Empire is Florida’s largest horror convention. The event just finished at the Wyndham Orlando Resort and had thousands of attendees celebrating their favorite horror movies, shows, comics, and aesthetics. In fact Spooky Empire is so popular that they have two events every year, so if you missed this summer event, there is a bigger event on October 21-23, 2022 in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
Previously we gave you a blog “6 Chilling Reasons To Attend Spooky Empire“, so in this blog we’ll give you the 6 reasons Spooky Empire was a terrifying success.
Terrifying Reason #1: Celebrity Panels
Camp Spooky Empire hosted several celebrity guest panels for horror movie and television icons like Julie Benz, John Kassir, Dee Wallace, and Dennis O’Hare.
Julie Benz
Julie Benz has been acting since 1990 and has an extensive career in both movies and television shows such as her recurring role as Darla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Rita Bennett on Dexter, and Sarah in Rambo. Youtube user, Creatures from Elsewhere, captured the Panel Q&A from this year’s Spooky Empire, which you can watch below.
Clint Howard
Clint Howard is credited with over 200 acting roles having been acting since 1962. Howard is well known for playing Whobris in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Liebergot from Apollo 13. Youtube creator, Creatures from Elsewhere, filmed the panel Q&A from this year’s Spooky Empire, which we’ve included below.
Terrifying Reason #2: Cosplayers
There were fantastic and horrifying cosplays around every corner at Spooky Empire. Fans brought out cosplays from their favorite movies, books, comics, and anime. Some fans even created their own characters.
Cosplay Gallery
Terrifying Reason #3: Vendors Hall
Spooky Empire hosted a variety of vendors and artists from around the country. One vendor that Florida Comic Cons really wants to highlight is Plastic Pizza.
Plastic Pizza
Plastic Pizza has been vending at conventions for less than a year. Spooky Empire marked their fourth convention ever. Plastic Pizza likes to bring forth imagination and push the spirit of creativity with its whimsical creations like the Cosmic Cows and Peace the Pizza. They produce designer toys, collectible pins, stickers, and posters. Also, when you purchase a T-shirt, it comes packaged in one of their original pizza box designs.
Terrifying Reason #4: Tattoo Festival
Spooky Empire is known for featuring a tattoo festival during its convention. This year featured over 50 tattoo artists with all kinds of specialties. Florida Comic Cons has decided to highlight two artist booths: The Plastic Flamingo and TatsbyAmanda.
The Plastic Flamingo
The Plastic Flamingo is a tattoo parlor that opened in the Daytona Beach area a little over a year ago. This female-led tattoo shop has artists that specialize in all genres like feminine neo traditional artwork, anime tattoos, and nature designs with some artists that have been working with tattoos for decades. The shop also offers fun tattoo ideas like the popularized “get what you get” tattoo where the client randomly receives a design from a gumball machine. Additionally, you can receive a tarot card reading and whatever the reading says will be the type of tattoo you’ll receive. They even offer emergency tattoo removal. Check out all of their services by visiting their website, Facebook, and Instagram.
TatsbyAmanda
TatsbyAmanda is an artist that works at Atomic Tattoos in Palm Harbor, Florida. She has been a tattoo artist for three years. She specializes in anime tattoos and loves to do large detailed pieces because of how fun they are. (Fun Fact: Chel, the editor for this blog, actually had a set of tattoos done by Amanda at this years tattoo festival.)
Terrifying Reason #5: Cosplay Contest
Every year, Spooky Empire is known for hosting a Cosplay and Costume Contest. The winner receives a one-of-a-kind championship wrestling belt sponsored by Mohawk Crew. You can see the winners of this year’s competition below.
See all of the posts about the Costume Contest from Spook Empire by checking out their Facebook and Instagram.
Terrifying Reason #6: After Parties
This year the theme was Camp Spooky, so Spooky Empire wanted to make it feel like summer camp by hosting parties out by the pool of the Wyndham Orlando Resort. Every night, there were unique activities such as a Jason costume contest and a float-in movie night. There were also specialty Redbull cocktails.
Friday
Friday night hosted a DJ and a Jason costume contest out by the pool. Jason fans had costumes for everything, like Star trek Jason, Freddy Krueger Jason, Sexy Jason, classic Jason, and even Swamp Thing Jason.
Saturday
Saturday was float-in movie night where camper were invited to come hang out in the pool and watch a spooky movie and then afterwards dance the night away to a live DJ.
Cocktails and Screams
Cocktails and Screams is a horror themed bar with themed drinks. They hosted themed after parties for Spooky Empire on Friday and Saturday night.
Want to Get a Feel of the Con Better?
Check out these videos of Tampa Jay visiting Spooky Empire on multiple days of the Con.
Need help finding comic cons in Florida?
Florida Comic Cons provides the Con Calendar — a curated calendar of upcoming comic, anime, horror, science fiction, fantasy and pop culture conventions in The Sunshine State. And event listings include con info as well as helpful links for things like buying tickets and registering as a vendor.
