Psychology student explains May-Hem convention

When she was a little girl, Dawn Gomez, 19, lulled herself to sleep watching the horror films “Bride of Chucky” and “Friday the 13th.” So it’s no wonder that Gomez dressed as Batman’s enemy Poison Ivy and joined thousands of fellow goblins and ghouls at Spooky Empire’s May-Hem convention at the Wyndham Orlando Resort.

The show drew a stilt walker dressed as the devil, a man in a chicken costume holding a severed head, a “nurse” from the video game Silent Hill who had bloody, exposed brains and a man with entrails spilling out of his chest and belly. Call it fun and fantasy with an edge.

“You can be a different person for a day and not worry about things,” explained Gomez, a University of Central Florida psychology student.

The convention featured horror-film stars who, for a fee, signed photos and memorabilia (Freddy Krueger claw, anyone?) and posed for pictures with fans. They included Linda Hamilton of “Terminator” fame; “Mini-Me” Verne Troyer; the Lintz family from “The Hunger Games”; the Hall family from the TV reality series “Monster Man”; and Marc Price, known for playing Skippy on the TV show “Family Ties” but who also played Ragman in the 1986 cult film “Trick or Treat.”

Read more about it here.