I Was in a Basement With Elvira and The Exorcist’s Linda Blair During a Tornado

The character of Elvira may be timeless, but the actress who plays her, Cassandra Peterson, turns 74 years old today.

The movies she used to show on Elvira’s Movie Macabre back in the 80s might have made me afraid to go down in the basement when I was a little kid, but I never thought that someday I’d actually end up in a basement with Elvira herself.

Back on September 6, I was one of the featured guests at Terror Con, an annual horror convention put on by Altered Reality Entertainment, the same folks behind Rhode Island Comic Con. Of course, I wasn’t one of the actual stars people had come to see; arguably the biggest ones that weekend were Peterson and Linda Blair, who starred as Regan in The Exorcist.

A Spooky Setting for Terror Con

It was a rainy day, and the weather was perfectly spooky for some pre-Halloween horror fun. Folks packed inside the Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlborough to meet the celebs, get autographs, and purchase wares from the various vendors.

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When the Tornado Warning Came

However, right around 3 p.m., everyone’s phone went off at the same time with an ominous-sounding alert: there was a tornado spotted in the area, and we were now under a tornado warning.

At first, people were only mildly concerned; an announcement from the Terror Con staff said they were actively monitoring the situation but no action was needed at that time. Then, a few moments later, another announcement said that all guests and attendees were required to remain inside the convention center for the time being. That got a buzz going throughout the crowd.

Not long after that, a third announcement told everyone in attendance that we all needed to gather in the back of the convention center, where we would be escorted by staff into the facility’s basement until we were given the all clear.

Stars and Fans Take Shelter Together

Hundreds of people, regular and famous folks alike, shuffled down the steps and hunkered down in the basement, which was thankfully both spacious and relatively free of clutter. All the pretense that existed upstairs – special sections for celebrities, long lines just to meet them and say hello – vanished as we all just became one big group going through it together.

We remained in the basement for about 20 minutes or so, as the convention staff informed us that an active cell was spotted just a short distance down the road. Everyone remained calm and respectful of others and their personal space, even as we were all huddled together in the confines of the convention center cellar.

Nobody was having more fun than Peterson and Blair, though. The two friends made the most of the experience, creating a fun video for social media.

It probably wasn’t as much fun for the costumed rock band GWAR, though; the story going around was that because of the height and width of their costumes, they couldn’t come down into the basement and instead had to seek shelter in a restroom upstairs.

The Aftermath: Five Tornadoes Touch Down

Once we were given the OK to go back up to the surface level, an eerie calm had settled over Marlborough as the tornado had moved on. In the days following, we would find out that there were actually five tornado touchdowns in the immediate area that day, although meteorologists were not sure if some were the same tornadoes touching down in different spots, or if it was five individual funnels.

Major props to the Terror Con and convention center staff for their professional handling of what could have been a very chaotic situation. Special kudos go out to the graphic designer who quickly put together t-shirts and posters with the slogan “I Survived the Terrornado” that sold out in record time on Sunday.