A ghoul ol’ time at Dark X-Mas

By Denise Dick

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at the Eastwood Expo Center.

NILES — Cortland resident Kylee Humphrey, 12, got ready for Halloween a little bit early.

After getting made up by makeup artist Troy Holbrook of Michigan to look like a corpse, Kylee donned an identification tag as Holbrook zipped her into a body bag and snapped some photos.

“I like it,” Kylee said of Holbrook’s work. “It’s cool.”

Her face bore a gouge on one cheek, a deep cut at the bridge of her nose, a wound at her hairline and another at the side of her mouth.

Her dad, Gary Humphrey of Girard, said the family would put the photos on their home computer and print them out so Kylee could show her friends.

“I’m taking you out to dinner like that,” the father joked.

The Humphreys were among the visitors Saturday to the Dark X-Mas horror, science fiction, celebrity memorabilia and film expo at the Eastwood Expo Center.

The event continues from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. Admission is $12 for one day and free for children 10 and younger.

Holbrook started his makeup craft about seven years ago and cites his crime-scene images as his most proud accomplishment. The gruesome photos, shot by Holbrook, depict people made up as crime victims.

He shows his work in a collection of Body Bag Trading Cards.

The back of each card gives the gory details of the fictitious victim’s untimely end.

Many of the “victims” are friends of the artist.

“I started out with friends but ran out and had to switch to other people,” Holbrook quipped.

The expo also was to feature the trailer for the locally made movie, “The Girl,” starring Cortland resident Lisa Neeld. The slasher movie is the work of director Travis Bowen of Warren and writer Joe Mohn of Girard.

Mohn, who said the movie is tentatively set for an October 2010 release, grew up watching horror movies.

“That’s all I watch is horror movies,” he said. “I love them.”

“The Girl,” is about a woman, portrayed by Neeld, who gets attacked by a mad man and left for dead.

The trauma of the event turns the victim into an attacker herself and she begins killing people in the woods where the crime occurred.

Two of her victims are portrayed by Cythera and Steve Liston of Ravenna. The couple, along with their son, Chicago, 10, were among the Saturday expo visitors.

They haven’t seen the movie yet but plan to make it a champagne-toast event when they do. Chicago, though, isn’t sure he wants to watch.

The Listons are big movie fans, listing horror as their preferred genre. Steve named “Friday the 13th Part VII” his favorite while his wife picked “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

denise_dick@vindy.com