Last weekend, I attended my first Chicago All Monsters Attack convention, an offshoot of Days of the Dead. This made perfect sense because I’ve seen fewer days as dead as this one. The show was at the Crowne Plaza in Rosemont (right across the street from my last adventure, Nightmare Weekend), which coincidentally used to host the similarly themed G-FEST (Godzilla Festival). After attending G-FEST for over twenty years, my eldest son, Alex, and I were curious how they’d compare.
Last night I attended an early screening of Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One. Despite Godzilla’s recent American films and Monarch series on Apple Plus, TOHO Studios has returned to its signature IP for the first time since the acclaimed Shin Godzilla in 2016. Although I’d heard positive feedback from its Japanese debut nearly a month ago, I was ill-prepared for just how good it actually was.
Last year’s G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) had the distinction of being the only one I’ve missed in the last twenty years. However, after the event’s two-year Covid hiatus. it almost felt like going again for the very first time. I should mention that although I grew up a Godzilla kid and do enjoy the movies, my sons, Alex and Luke, are the true fans. Their seemingly innate fervor for Japan’s most famous monster is what inspired me to bring them to G-FEST back when they were grade schoolers and now, at ages 25 and 19, their devotion has remained remarkably steadfast. This year, I decided to reassert our G-FEST tradition and spend a family weekend there together, this time as adult fans.
Terror from Beyond the Dave 