Later, the two of us could be found creeping around Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors (when it used to be housed at a hotel near Penn Station in NYC – ah, the good ol’ days) and the Chiller Theatre Expo.
Just after checking into these shows, there would usually be a swag table covered with mini-posters and promo buttons. Regarding the latter, the studios would go nuts promoting their films on buttons, shipping boxes and boxes of them to convention organizers. Naturally, being a horror fan, I’d grab them by the handful.
Now, I know some of you readers out there recall these days of horror film promotion – hell, you might own some of the buttons you see in the gallery below – but a younger generation certainly does not.
Today, studios rely various other swag to spread the word about their titles – t-shirts, mini-posters, et al. Buttons are nearly non-existent now. On a recent jaunt back home to see my folks, I found a shoe box of buttons in my old collection that got me all nostalgic. Later, I asked my father to take some pics of these promos to share with you. You’ll find them in the gallery below!
And just for kicks… I found this Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade promo button I got a comic book convention interesting. Clearly, they didn’t have a title so they just called it “Indy III.”
Horror Promo Buttons
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Army of Darkness
A promo button issued in 1992 for the Sam Raimi-directed film.
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Darkman
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Bram Stoker's Dracula
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Frankenstein Unbound
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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In the Mouth of Madness
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Jason Goes to Hell
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Lord of Illusions
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Needful Things "A"
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Needful Things "B"
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Night of the Living Dead '90
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Nightbreed
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Popcorn & Eve of Destruction
Promo buttons issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Predator
A promo button issued at an unknown genre convention in the mid-'80s.
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The Relic
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Return of the Living Dead Part 2
A promo button issued at an unknown genre convention in the '80s.
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Shocker
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Species II
A promo button issued at a Famous Monsters Convention in the mid-'90s.
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The Fly II
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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The Silence of the Lambs
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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They Live
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Vampires
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Village of the Damned
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
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Wishmaster
A promo button issued at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors.
