JAMES CITY – No, Seth Gilliam cannot tell you who Negan killed, so scrap that question.
It is the inquiry that Gilliam has fielded most since the Season 6 finale of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” aired in April. The 47-year-old actor is better known to “Dead’ fans as the enigmatic Father Gabriel Stokes.
In the cliffhanging season finale of the wildly popular zombie apocalypse thriller based on a comic book, newly introduced Negan bludgeons a prominent character, but the victim’s identity isn’t revealed before the episode ends.
“People want to know who Negan killed,” Gilliam said. “They used to hate Father Gabriel and now they’re coming around to him.”
Gilliam visited Williamsburg Saturday, signing autographs and mingling with fans at the Scares That Care horror convention at the DoubleTree by Hilton.
Scares That Care features an entire weekend of horror-related activities for a good cause including meet-and-greets with numerous actors and authors, a 5K race, vendors, a costume contest, seminars, and trick-or-treating and zombie hunting for kids.
For some of the celebrities on hand like Gilliam and Horror Hall of Fame inductee Sid Haig, Scares That Care is unique because after the bills are paid, all of the proceeds go to charity.
On its website, the nonprofit states that it “fights the real monsters of childhood illness, burns and breast cancer by helping families that are experiencing these extraordinary hardships cope with the financial burden.”
“The money goes directly to the people that need the help,” Haig said.
Haig, 77, has been an actor for six decades. One of his best-known roles is Captain Spaulding, a crass clown in “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects.”
He said some of the more terrifying characters he has played like Spaulding don’t disturb him at all.
“I guess that says a lot for who I am,” Haig quipped. “The thing is: I work organically. Inside every person is every personality trait, so I just have to find the person’s Captain Spaulding that lives inside me and bring them out. You have to put them back at the end of the day, or else bad things can happen.”
Most fans understand he is simply acting, but some aren’t convinced. Either way, his objective at events like Scares That Care: Make sure everybody walks away from his table with a smile.
There were lots of smiles in the celebrity hall that TV horror host Count Gore de Vol helped watch over as he waited to emcee the costume contest Saturday night.
“Good horror is a lot like riding a rollercoaster,” the Count, played by 69-year-old Dick Dyszel, said. “People look at it and they’re frightened and they get an adrenaline rush; every drop, and they come back up and they know they’re going to be safe. In a movie, in a book, you can do that. You can get that rush knowing you’re going to come out good on the other end, which life doesn’t sometimes throw at you in reality.”
The escape from reality is part of the fun for convention-goers. Ask someone in costume for a photo and an unprompted, customized pose goes with it; They didn’t come to be themselves, necessarily.
Missy Julian of Chesapeake and Norfolk’s Chris Hatfield exited the haunted house on the second floor of the convention and explored some of the vendors’ shops; Julian in rather comprehensive zombie makeup (and carrying a fake dead person on her back) and Hatfield with some lower-key skeleton face paint.
“I like the shops up here, seeing different independent artists doing their thing and developing,” Hatfield said. “I wish had more money because I would buy everything.”
“I love horror movies,” Julian said. “I used to go to all the ones in New Jersey when I lived in New York. I didn’t hear about this one until recently, though.”
Downstairs, WWE’s The Boogeyman somewhat ominously roamed the first floor of the exhibit in his full regalia, which includes red face paint, and a Grim Reaper clone spoke casually with a couple that was in standard attire.
If it all seems a bit much, Scares That Care founder Joe Ripple cautions: Take a step back. Reality can be much scarier.
“Just because it’s spooky doesn’t mean it is real life,” Ripple said. “… People think that everybody is evil or voodoo worshipers or whatever. We have Christians here, doctors, lawyers; Police officers are here, because they enjoy the genre. They just want to come here and have fun, cut loose, dress up. Halloween is our favorite time of year, so we get to do that in July.”
