Nightmare Weekend Looks to Fill Horror Convention Void in Miami

South Florida has been without a major horror-specific fan convention since Spooky Empire moved to Orlando in 2005. But that will change when Nightmare Weekend debuts at the Miami Airport Convention Center October 18-20.

The horror convention will feature celebrity meet and greets, Q&As, film screenings, themed photo stations featuring animatronics, end-of-the-night parties, and pro-wrestling matches where the grapplers from Fantasy Super Cosplay Wrestling (FSCW) will be dressed in horror costumes. Picture Freddy Krueger body slamming Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers suplexing Art the Clown.

The guest lineup includes David Howard Thornton, who plays Art the Clown in the gruesome Terrifier trilogy, and Brad Loree, who played Michael Myers in Halloween: Resurrection. Horror fans will be happy to know that both actors will wear the creepy costumes that made them famous during photo ops. Where else but at a horror convention can you get that kind of picture?

Also scheduled to attend are Thornton's Terrifier director Damien Leone and co-star Lauren LaVera, Constantine TV series star Matt Ryan, and character actors Ted Raimi and Clint Howard. Wrestling stars Darby Allin and D-Von Dudley will also be there because if you know the horror and wrestling community, you know there's a lot of overlap.

Nightmare Weekend launched in 2023 and has run shows in Richmond, Virginia, and Des Moines, Iowa. The list of cities will grow over the next 13 months, with conventions in Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, and Savannah, Georgia, on the way.

The convention's goal is to join the major players in the industry. Founder Mike Broder calls Texas Frightmare Weekend in Irving, Texas, the multi-city Monster-Mania Con in the northeast, and HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati some of the country's best horror conventions.

"The majority of horror conventions are hotel shows. There aren't a whole lot of horror shows that do over 8,000 people," says Broder of the Fort Lauderdale-based GalaxyCon, which runs Nightmare Weekend. "Our model is different. We run our shows at convention centers. There's a bigger show feeling to what we're doing. Our production is a lot more upscale than what you see at a majority of horror shows. We're investing more in marketing than a lot of these shows do."

He adds, "It's such a huge community, but the horror shows don't match what we see with other comic cons. There are comic cons like New York and San Diego that have over 100,000 [attendees]. There are no horror shows drawing those numbers. What we're trying to do is a mass appeal horror show on a national level."

Why didn't GalaxyCon launch Nightmare Weekend in South Florida sooner, given that horror is a hot commodity and the company is based here? Broder says he legally couldn't.
In 2019, Broder sold Florida Supercon, the company he founded, to Reed Exhibitions. As part of the arrangement, he agreed to a five-year noncompete clause in Florida. The noncompete ended in March, allowing Broder and GalaxyCon, his new company, to return to Florida this year with Nightmare Weekend. GalaxyCon will also host Anime! Miami next year at the Miami Airport Convention Center February 14-16.

"We generally book a show six to nine months in advance, but we only had three or four months for this one," Broder says, adding that finding talent for Nightmare Weekend Miami was a challenge because many beloved figures from the horror industry had already committed to other horror conventions. "October is the busiest time of the year for horror shows."

And then there's the issue of this being Nightmare Weekend Miami's inaugural year. Broder says some talent and their management prefer to take a wait-and-see approach to first-year conventions. Still, he feels Nightmare Weekend Miami "got some good names," pointing specifically to the cast of Terrifier, which he calls "the hottest thing in horror right now."

While the guest lineup tends to be one of the most important aspects of these types of conventions, if not the most important, it's not the only draw. Some fans like to dress up — by dress up, we mean cosplay — and be around people who enjoy the same stuff that they do. The very best costumes at Nightmare Weekend will compete for a $4,000 cash prize.

Feel free to bring the kids, as Nightmare Weekend is family-friendly until around 9 p.m. That's when the nightly After Dark events take place for guests ages 18 and older. They include burlesque performances (Nerdlesque, in this case), more mature comedy shows, and cosplay contests.

But the rest of the convention — which will include voice actors from the Resident Evil and Five Nights at Freddy's video games — is, for the most part, all-ages. (Kids 9 and under get in free with a paid adult.) Broder wanted to offer something for everyone because horror is for both kids and adults, despite its R-rated reputation.

"It's a horror convention, but what does that mean?" Broder says. "People who are into Terrifier might not be into The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, and Halloweentown. People who are into Freddy and Jason may not be into Terrifier. You want to pull in from different genres within the genre. You try to find different things that will appeal to different audiences."

Nightmare Weekend. 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, October 18; 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday, October 19; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, October 20; at the Miami Airport Convention Center, 711 NW 72nd Ave., Miami; 954-231-0574; galaxycon.com. Tickets cost $35 to $250 via eventeny.com.