WV’s most famous vampire, Chris Sarandon, finds a ‘nightmare’ in Cleveland

By Anna Knapp & Matthew Young, RealWV

EDITOR’S NOTE: We hope you have as much fun reading this as we did writing it. We are so grateful to the wonderful Chris Sarandon, and Justin Burkhardt, Galaxycon’s director of Public Relations, for making this story possible.

Also, we have to mention Suzanne Stewart’s amazing interview last week in the Pocahontas Times. Check it out to learn a whole lot more about Chris Sarandon.

I’m really not sure how to begin telling this story. But it starts, as the good ones so often do, with a cup of coffee and a conversation with a woman who’s smarter than me. 

“You know, Chris Sarandon is from Beckley,” Autumn Shelton tells me, elongating her vowels the way that she does when trying to make my brain believe that doing what she wants is actually my idea. “You should do a story about him.”

That conversation took place about a year ago, and as Autumn’s vowel-elogation technique hasn’t failed her yet, there was never any doubt that Chris Sarandon would be the focus of a story at some point down the road. What I didn’t know was that the road would take me all the way to Cleveland, and require the procurement of a Samurai sword. 

The things I do for elongated vowels…

West Virginia’s most famous vampire

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the last 50 years – in which case you don’t read our stuff anyway – you know very well who Chris Sarandon is. But on the off chance that you emerged this morning and happened upon an iPhone, allow me to familiarize you. 

Chris Sarandon – aka, Jerry Dandrige – is a vampire. In the mid-1980’s, he terrorized Roddy McDowell and Marcy D’Arcy before the guy who married Raylan Givens’ ex-wife used the power of the sun to turn him into a pile of ash forever.

Or so we thought…

Not long after, Sarandon – aka, Prince Humperdinck – rose like the mighty phoenix only to see his new plan to start a war with Gulder foiled by Andre the Giant and the Dread Pirate Roberts. His second humiliating defeat after having been oh-so-close to sweet, sweet victory seemed to humble Sarandon, causing the Woodrow Wilson High School and WVU alum to develop a whole new outlook. 

Now fighting on the side of good, Sarandon – aka, Detective Mike Norris – fled from the Buttercups of Florin to the toy stores of Chicago, in pursuit of psycho-killer Charles Lee Ray. After shooting Ray during a tense chase, Sarandon’s Humperdinckian-past came back to haunt him, as his bullet left Ray only “mostly dead.” Through a creepy voodoo chant and fortuitous bolt of lightning – and possibly with the aid of Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, although their involvement is merely speculative – Ray was reborn as the adorably-homicidal “Chucky,” a three-foot-tall talking doll. And while Sarandon would emerge victorious in his battle with Chucky, the plucky little doll would go on to marry Jennifer Tilly, and star in his own television show. 

After hanging up his badge and leaving the Windy City, Chris Sarandon – aka, Jack Skellington – served, for several years, as the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. Predictably, however, he eventually got bored with Halloween, and tried to take over Christmas. But after that plan fell apart, Sarandington saw the error of his ways, fell back in love with Halloween, and ran off with the mom from Home Alone. 

I guess there were also some Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations along the way, and a couple-year stint on my mom’s favorite soap opera, but really nothing else of note. 

Everybody up to speed now? 

Excellent. Let’s move on. 

Calling in the calvary

Early last month, my long year of telling Autumn I was trying to locate Sarandon without actually looking paid off. As it happened, West Virginia’s most famous vampire would be making a rare daytime appearance at the “Nightmare Weekend” convention in Cleveland – which is where I was under the wrong impression that Fezzik was from. As it turns out, “Cleveland” and “Greenland” are, in fact, two different places. Who knew?

Anyway, if I’ve learned anything from binge-watching seven seasons of Buffy Summers, it’s that hunting a vampire requires a “Scooby Gang.” 

So I got me one…

Firstly – when one is hunting West Virginia’s most famous vampire, one requires the services of West Virginia’s most famous clown demon. Therefore, I called upon none other than Anna Knapp – aka, Taser Girl – to lead my gang of Scoobies. 

Secondly – Taser Girl needs the steady right hand of a gunslinger. Therefore, I called upon none other than Chase Stewart – aka, the Marshall of Marshall. 

Thirdly – Taser Girl needs the comic relief of a hyper-active tiny sidekick. Therefore, I called upon none other than Junior Editor Nathan (who now wants to be Junior Photographer Nathan – thanks alot, Jenny Harnish) – aka, the Rodent of Unusual Size, or ROUS for short. 

Fourthly – there was me. You probably should’ve guessed that by now. 

We separated into teams for the hunt – Anna with Chase, and I with the Rodent of Unusual Size. 

Anna and Chase were the first to arrive in not-Greenland, and to brave the “Nightmare Weekend” which awaited them…

The adventures of Taser Girl and the Marshall of Marshall

Once Chase and I arrived in Cleveland, we searched for West Virginia’s most famous vampire all day with no luck. There were signs of Skellington trying to steal Christmas all over the convention, but not the man himself. 

We walked and walked all around the convention floor, passing by and asking the likes of Art the Clown, Gizmo from Gremlins and even Red Skull to try and find the Vampire, but none could help. Thus, we turned to a few places known for solving mysteries. 

We first took a trip to Halloweentown to see if Marnie and Kal could help us find our blood sucking friend. However, the only villain they could point us to was Kalabar, who was oddly just standing beside them. 

Hmm, weird. 

So off we went to the next place looking for answers. Hearing that a certain “clerk” was great at giving answers, we turned to The Floor to find Brian O’Halloran. He was able to give us some clues to find our seemingly-invisible batty friend, but unfortunately, we had to wait until dawn to find the dead. 

It was a frightful night wandering the streets of Cleveland, waiting for the sun to rise the next day.

After gathering our clues, we finally realized that our family friend was going to be doing a Q&A panel, so we made our way to a dimly lit room – not suspicious at all, but we’ll go with it. 

We were just excited to see the man. After all the wondering we did, we were excited to learn more about this local legend. Chris started his panel right on time and he did not hesitate to mention being from Beckley, West Virginia. Chase and I obviously had to clap for him showing his pride in being from the great Mountain State. 

A lot of great questions were asked, but some of my favorites gave Chris an opportunity to share his insight on why he enjoys playing the villains in his movies. The fans, Chris said, resonate with the villains because they are able to break social norms. 

Another favorite question of mine was asked by a sweet little boy. He wanted to know if there were any deleted scenes in The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Chris gave us a lot of cool information when it came to filming the movie. 

He stated that he never filmed a scene with any actor other than Catherine O’Hara, who plays Sally, and let us know that it would take them six months after he recorded his scenes to film it. That six months worth of work would result in only 20 seconds of footage. This went on for the two-plus years it took to make the film. Chris concluded his answer by saying he didn’t know if there were only deleted scenes in the movie because of how much work went into it, and how much Tim Burton loves the movie. 

While Chris was speaking, we could tell how much he loves what he does, and how much he appreciates the support from his fans.

On the final day of the convention, Chase and I had the chance to tell Chris how much we loved his work and how great it is to see someone from West Virginia doing such great things. I walked up to his autograph table just to tell him these things, and he started up a short conversation with us. 

I told him that I’m from Greenbrier County, and he told me that his family loved going to the Greenbrier Hotel when he was a kid to play golf. And when Chase introduced himself, Chris noticed Chase was wearing a Marshall University hat. Chris mentioned that his brother graduated from Marshall many years ago. 

It was an awesome interaction with a legend that I will never forget. You can see the pride he has when talking about both West Virginia, and his work. This was an once and in lifetime opportunity for Chase and I, and we are happy we were able to finally find West Virginia’s most famous vampire.

The B-Team joins the hunt

Junior Editor Nathan and I sauntered into Cleveland’s Huntington Convention Center Saturday afternoon, but the lateness of our arrival meant that Sarandon had already retreated to the sanctuary of what I can only assume was a much nicer hotel room than we had. So instead of confronting West Virginia’s most famous vampire, we used the time to get the lay of the land. 

We encountered vendors of all kinds – from all walks of life and all parts of the country – who masterfully enticed Junior Editor Nathan to spend all of my money. There was movie memorabilia, comic books, artwork, and some of the neatest handmade horror-themed crafts mine eyes ever did see. There were t-shirts, Funko Pops, and horror-themed tacos (and by “horror-themed” I mean they cost $26). 

I saw no lions, tigers, or bears, but I did see Art the Clown, Michael Myers, and my guy Ari Lehman. We had a pretty good time catching up, Ari and me. I showed him the story I wrote about his visit to Charleston a few months ago, and he gave me an awesome shirt with his band’s logo on it. And I knew he was just ribbing me when I had to remind him what my name was. That’s just our thing that we do, you know, because we’re tight like that. 

I bumped into Matt Ryan, who is surprisingly very much not British. Junior Editor Nathan was wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt, so he asked if we were going to their concert. I told him no since I didn’t realize they were playing in town. Apparently some rando asked Ryan if he was going. When he said that he wasn’t, they just gave him tickets. Celebrities, man. 

As Junior Editor Nathan is rapidly approaching his thirteenth birthday, he of course found the one guy in the massive convention center who was selling weapons. And because I am a mature and responsible parent, I of course bought him a Samurai sword. Really not much more to say about that. Although I did introduce Junior Editor Nathan to Mick Foley, and he thought the sword was really cool, so there’s that.

Interview with the vampire

It was early the next day when I had the opportunity to speak with Sarandon. The convention hadn’t really gotten started yet, and he was sitting at his table checking the WVU score on his phone. He greeted me with a smile when I introduced myself, his eyes lighting up just a bit when I mentioned that I was from West Virginia. 

While Sarandon agreed with me that West Virginia can sometimes seem like a whole different world to the young people growing up here, he also believes it’s important “to be proud of where you come from.”

“The culture (in West Virginia) that you’re a part of is very old, and very important to American history,” Sarandon said. “When I was in college, I got to appreciate that really quite profoundly. There was a professor who would go up into the hollers and listen to music. In class, we would be looking at a book that had listings of songs that were a couple-thousand years old, and the people up in the mountains would be singing those same songs.”

“That’s the culture you come from,” Sarandon continued. “You don’t come from a, quote, unquote, disadvantaged people. You are part of a culture that is both very important, and also very intricate.”

While I stood there speaking with Sarandon, I had the opportunity to see him interact with a young fan of maybe 10-years-old, and his parents. 

“How cool is that for you,” I asked, “to have multiple generations wanting your autograph?”

“It’s wonderful,” Sarandon replied. “It’s something that I never take for granted. It’s very important to connect with fans. These movies are important to people.”

As far as having the opportunity to come back home to West Virginia, Sarandon says it sadly doesn’t happen quite as often as it used to.

“I used to go back every year,” Sarandon noted. “I used to be the emcee for something called ‘Poetry Out Loud.’”

“Poetry Out Loud” is a national competition, in which West Virginia participates, that sees high schoolers compete in a recited poetry contest. The annual event which Sarandon emceed was the state finals, held in Charleston. 

“My friend, Kay Goodwin – who used to be the Secretary of Education and the Arts under Joe Manchin – I used to stay with her, and her husband.” Sarandon said. “I don’t get to do it much anymore. I miss it.”

“And also, I still have close friends in Beckley,” Sarandon added. “I was in a rock and roll band when I was in high school, you know, a while back. At our 50th reunion, we got the band back together and played. It was great.”

I’m sorry, did he just say 50th reunion? I really couldn’t tell you how old Chris Sarandon is, but I’m 46 and the guy looks younger than I do. No kidding, though – the band was pretty legit; West Virginia Music Hall of Famer Russ Hicks played in that band.

It was at right about this point in our conversation that the convention hit second gear, and Sarandon’s line got pretty long. I thanked him for his time, we exchanged a fist bump, and I was on my way. 

I didn’t make it three steps before damn near tripping over Junior Editor Nathan. He had a handful of Pokemon cards that I didn’t buy him, and seemed to be having some kind of karate fight with Matt Ryan. Ol’ Constantine better just be glad I made Junior Editor Nathan leave his sword in the car.

Anyway, that’s the story of how we found West Virginia’s most famous vampire. I did it all for you, Autumn, and it was entirely my idea.