Two years ago The GWW.com covered the annual, weekend spanning, fan appreciating and franchise celebrating event known as Galaxy Con Richmond. This convention, however, is not the only time that the company creeps into the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like a lycan circling the dates of the lunar cycle on a calendar, those intrigued by all things fearful and frightening know that each year Nightmare Weekend arrives in the River City around the 2nd weekend in October. So every year, as pumpkins begin appearing on porches, another fandom gets an opportunity to take over Downtown Richmond, showcasing their spookiness and offering all sorts of scary sights to spectators along the city street.
Now to be honest, given the city’s “unofficially recognized” haunted history, which incidentally includes the Governor’s Mansion located only a few blocks away from the Greater Richmond Convention Center, by consistently offering audiences in Richmond an engaging fan event like Nightmare Weekend, during Halloween, it always feels like the events organizers are maybe working a little bit of dark magic behind the scenes.
You can almost picture the setup, a group of hooded figures conducting a ceremony like you would see in an old black and white horror film. But instead of a temple, in this one they are gathered in a conference room to summon some unforeseen forces to facilitate their efforts of coordinating Richmond Nightmare Weekend year in and year out. However, given the numerous pleasant and friendly exchanges experienced with staff and volunteer members during the event, it seems highly doubtful they would be up to anything that sinister. Then again, after listening to Victoria or the Little Pale Girl during a terrifier-less public appearance, you can’t ignore that masks, mischief, mayhem, magic and amusement are basically what the season of the witch is all about.
This year’s convention did two things differently than 1982’s Halloween III. For starters, it featured an appearance of The Shape, with Halloween Kills Michael Myers star James Jude Courtney in attendance. Also, this year’s ticket price offered the audiences an experience that awakens a ghost of horror cinema’s past: The Double Feature. But, if you had asked the stars of the series Chucky during their Saturday evening Q & Q, they all would probably agree that you have to be cautious in these situations. Some things just don’t know how to play well with others.
Although it is the spirit of Charles Lee Ray that animates the Good Guy doll, that is about as much as the horror franchise has in common with another Galaxy Con sponsored convention: Animate Weekend. Obviously as the name implies the weekend’s primary focus is on animation, which of course also includes anime. Once considered by some as a sub-genre of that segment of cinematography, anime – and anime-esque art, stories and stylization – now dominate and occupy a more significant corner of the “cartoon” industry. So with Dragon Ball Z as one of the most recognizable anime’s worldwide, it makes perfect sense for Animate Weekend to give fans a chance to meet Vegeta voice actor Brian Drummond, among a host of other fabulous guest celebrities.
In years past, these two conventions mentioned tended to took place at two separate times. Actually, if memory serves correctly, before this year Richmond wasn’t even a host city for Animate Weekend. This, however, all changed the weekend of October 17th – 19th. Because, like a wizard adding a smidge of salamander root, the team at Galaxy Con mixed the two convention’s ingredients together to create the mashup now known as Animate x Nightmare Weekend.
Created an Animate x Nightmare
For anyone foreseeing a problem with two potentially diverse fanbases converging on one location, don’t forget that the fan favorite candy of Virginia is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. So, this state understands something amazing can happen when opposing tastes collide. Besides, since the weekend festivities occur in the month of Halloween, cosplayers representing everything from console games to comic characters,ranging from Sonic to Silent Hill, were already welcome spectres at Nightmare Weekend. In essence, you could consider what Galaxy Con accomplished with Animate x Nightmare Weekend Richmond 2025 simply seamlessly fused a head to a body.
Kicking off Friday October 17th, the first day of Animate x Nightmare Weekend perfectly set the tone for this year’s absolutely horrifying good time. The amount of celebrity guests already on hand for Day 1 was truly impressive and something that cannot be ignored or overstated. Nor is the fact that the majority were available still for fan photo ops and participating in Q & A’s all the way up to the show’s finale on Sunday October 19th. In addition to the previously mentioned Mr. Myers, the masks that have haunted many a nightmare were removed, allowing fans to meet Brett Wagner and Derek Mears, the faces behind slasher legends Leatherface and Jason. In fact, even the original young Jason, Ari Lehman was in Richmond that weekend. Just a reminder that one of the OG 80’s horror franchises, Friday the 13th, originally featured a bad mother.
This fact also illustrates another reason why the Animate x Nightmare Weekend Richmond 2025 double feature works so amazingly well – it cuts deep. Already due enormous amounts of respect, as the premiere female African American action star, Pam Grier’s stake in this event extends well beyond simply her character Coffy’s resemblance to the Cowboy Bebop character with the similar sounding name. She’s no stranger to horror, and before you scream that Scream Blacula, Scream and Bones belong in a basement subgenre, you better be mindful of Foxy Brown’s role of the Dust Witch in 1983’s Something Wicked this Way Comes. Grier even participated in projects evenly split between the worlds of horror and humorously zany animation such as Mars Attacks, a film that brought the B Rated horror classic imagery from the silver age to the screens for another generation.
After all, isn’t that the true spirit of Halloween? It is according to a panel titled From Samhain to Spirits. Seems the origins of the holiday in America also include a bit more than mere tricks. Mischievousness, from minor terror to vandalism, was a normal occurrence the night of All Hallow’s Eve. The treats we enjoy today originate from a deal made with the little devils to protect homeowners and their property during the revelry. As interesting and informative as the discussion panels at Animate x Nightmare Weekend were, they also managed to make the material doctored and digestible for all aged ghouls in attendance. But with fans and fan favorites from the first Five Nights at Freddy’s film all under one roof, it just reinforces that Halloween reveals the kid hiding inside all of us.
Not to mention a bit of riskiness and risque, because as the event reached the midnight, things tended to go bump in the night. An After Dark Cosplay Contest and Cartoon Cabaret were just two of the 18+ events during this nightmare that left some in attendance singing 5-6 grab your crucifix, which no doubt you just did too. Meanwhile, others probably just chose to wash away their sins and banish some demons during Cocktails with Constantine featuring Matt Ryan. Yet, for all the offerings at Animate x Nightmare Weekend not rated All Audiences, there was plenty to do that was appropriate for even the tiniest of terrors. However, nothing may save any of them from the emotional scars of watching one of their parents attempt to learn the Wednesday dance with the Fred Astaire Dance Studio. Oh, the horror!
Monstrous Cheer
Over the three day weekend, the Greater Richmond Convention Center welcomed hundreds of assorted vendors and merchants, families, friends, followers and fellow fans, along with a host of stars from across a spectrum of shows and spectaculars, to come together for a monster mash. But there is always room for one more. Despite all the organizers do to line up talent, fan attendance and engagement always helps draw awareness and interest to conventions. Or bring your goods to market as all merchants, even The Laughing Salesman are invited. Also, if you happen to have an interest, knowledge or experience with anything remotely relating to the worlds of animation, horror, science fiction and fantasy then you might not be braindead after all. More importantly, the organizers over at Galaxy Con would love to hear from you about ways to improve the convention to make sure Animate x Nightmare Weekend is still happening 28 years later.
The new toy Animate x Nightmare Weekend Richmond 2025, like its predecessor Nightmare Weekend did not disappoint. This isn’t just Frankenstein meets The Wolf Man. No, the meeting of the marvel of Animate Weekend with the slash hit of Nightmare Weekend is like when Chucky met M3gan. When two things work well together, you don’t have to pick sides.
Something to remember here in Virginia in case you’re tempted to hand out Twix in your neighborhood this Halloween.