SDCC 2019: FX ‘Kills’ It With This Year’s ‘FX Fearless Forum’!

I’m so sad that San Diego Comic-Con is already over.

The Geekscape team descended from all over (like Philadelphia and Canada) to take in, hang out at, and cover the phenomenal event. If you’ve missed our coverage so far, you can check out the brand new Geekscape.net for daily recaps from myself and Mikaela, as well as coverage on some of the amazing offsite events that we were privileged enough to attend. There’s more coming down the pipeline as well, so be sure to keep your eyes tuned right here!

Mikaela also spent hours taking photos of so much of the next-level cosplay on display at SDCC, so be sure to follow the @GeekscapeForever Instagram page for a steady stream of incredible outfits.

As I mentioned in my spot on the recent SDCC special episode of Geekscape, I feel like after seven years, as the show floor gets unfathomably busier and as the few things that you actually want to buy require more and more and more work to do so, the expo hall itself definitely begins to lose some of its lustre. What continues to amaze me, however, is the absolutely insane work that these studios and distributors put into these temporary installations. The amount of work required to build these temporary buildings and giant logos and building wraps is just unbelievable… just for them to all be torn down like they never even existed days later.

Over the past few years, FX has been located on the back side of the convention centre, right across from the Hilton Bayfront hotel. In previous years the offsite event has been labelled as the FXHibition, and has always featured some cool art pieces, and absolutely impressive activations based on some of FX’ flagship shows, like the mixed-reality experience for Legion in 2017, or the insanely freaky ‘Fearless VR’ for American Horror Story. Looking back on previous years (not just for FX, but for SDCC as a whole) it’s certainly interesting to note that there appeared to be very few VR-driven experiences vs. previous conventions — this time around, nearly everything was practical.

As always, this year’s event was all new, and it brought with it a new name. The FX Fearless Forum was in the same location, and featured awesome (and practical) activations for series like Archer, What We Do in the Shadows, Mayans, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and an incredible haunted house for American Horror Story: 1984. Keep scrolling for a few photos and impressions for each activation, and a description of the haunted house that basically had Mikaela peeing her pants.

The Fearless Forum seemed to have decent-length lines all of the time, but one thing that I was super thankful for was an open area where essentially anyone could just walk in and help themselves to sunscreen and hand-sanitizer. The area was themed after It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and I think it’s really nice that something super practical like sunscreen wasn’t locked behind a giant lineup, so a huge thanks to FX for this.

There was also a small setup for Mayans, that had a small trailer, a few motorcycles, and some biker-looking dudes giving airbrush tattoos to fans of the show.

Archer had a cool oxygen bar setup for Archer: 1999. I had no idea what an oxygen bar was prior to this event… and I kind of still don’t but it was a neat setup. The activation looked like a spaceship, and had a few interactive pieces around the area (and even a trivia game on some tablets, which you can also play at home using your Amazon Echo). At the bar itself there were a number of different oxygen stations. You stick a plastic tube in your nostrils (thankfully FX provided a new one for each person), and select between different ‘flavours’ of oxygen to breathe, like Piña Colada, Orange/Peach, Chocolate/Cherry, and Lavender/Balsam Fir needles. I think that my sense of smell may be nearly as bad as my sense of sight, because while Mikaela could sense a stark difference between each ‘flavour’, I was definitely struggling to tell any difference. The oxygen apparently perks you up, but I didn’t really need it, as the next activation for American Horror Story: 1984 absolutely pumps you full of energy.

The next activation was called American Horror Story: 1984 – Face The Darkness, and is basically a very impressive (and very scary) haunted house experience. Coming out of this experience, I think that it was the very best singular activation held at SDCC this year. I also thought that Face The Darkness utilized its small space so well, and that the way that the aviation weaves you through the different rooms and areas made the space feel far, far larger than it actually was. You start out with six other ‘camp counsellors in training’ in a small room filled with 1980’s paraphernalia like VHS tapes and old board games, and this marks your introduction to Camp Redwood, where you’ll be spending the next ~15 minutes (and probably much of September/October when the show airs). After a couple of moments, the lead counsellor comes in to tell you about all the training that you’re about to go through (this guy was super charismatic and kept making great dad jokes, and was even wearing the same shorts in this 1984 experience as Matt Kelly was that week), like how to use the very convenient and sophisticated night vision goggles when another counsellor bursts through the door to tell you all that something has gone terribly wrong in the forest, and that there is something out there. The lead counsellor tries to reach the camp director on the radio, and decides to go after her when he can’t. Seconds after he leaves, a terrified camp director warns us over the radio that something is in the forest and to get away while we can.

So, just like the 1980’s slasher films that the experience (and upcoming season of American Horror Story) is based on, instead of running in the opposite direction, the counsellor that’s left instead leads us into the forest (and she didn’t seem to hear me when I asked “Why don’t we bring these night vision goggles with us?” either).

So we leave the cabin, and are all of a sudden in a foggy forested area that sort of reminded me of the swamp from the DC Universe Swamp Thing activation last year. You could see a truck off in the distance, you were having to fan through branches and leaves that blocked your path, and you had no idea where counsellor was leading you. Again, we’re inside in the middle of a temporary building in the Gaslamp District of San Diego, but this forest felt real as hell. The counsellor ends up leaving us in a wrong director, and as we turn around, a tall man with his face obscured appears in the fog and begins walking towards us. The counsellor screams, Mikaela and some of the other attendees scream louder, and beginning running through some tight forested corridors towards a cabin in the distance. I’m at the back of the pack, and just as I’m about to turn each corner, I look behind me to see the tall man right there, pacing relentlessly with the classic Jason Voorhees walk.

We get into the cabin — I somehow make it through just before someone else and in their terror they nearly slam the door on my hand (it would have been worth it). Everyone is freaking out, and the camp director has taken refuge here too. She asks us what we’re doing there, and reiterates that we need to escape, and tasks us all with finding a key somewhere in the room (I’m not sure if it was to the truck outside or something else), all while the killer is outside banging on the door. After a couple of minutes, someone screams, as the killer is now crawling through the window on the opposite side of the cabin. The director tells us to all go into the closet, which ends up being a way out of the cabin, and we’re now walking through a nearly pitch-black area with people randomly grabbing at our feet (there was a lot of screaming here, naturally).

We finally make it to another room, where for a moment we think we’re safe, until we see that the walls are covered in bloody writing. We start looking around at what to do next, when a huge banging sound freaks everyone out even more, and when a chainsaw juts through the wall in front of us. The lights come up, everyone starts nervously laughing, and the experience is over.

We’re led into the final room, where we have our badges scanned so we can be emailed the GIF of the final jump scare, and where we could help ourselves to some AHS themed goodies.

Again, the activation freaked the hell out of everyone, and I loved every second of it. It’s still completely crazy to me that they were able to pull of such an insane, and truly scary experience in such a small space.

The other standout at the Fearless Forum was the What We Do In The Shadows lair. This was a small-ish room (with great AC) that was, naturally, a vampire’s lair. Inside there was a photo-op where you could “become” a vampire, which was cute, and the decor of the room felt just like what you’d expect from watching the series. The best part here were the two vampires that were walking around, interacting and making fun of visitors, and bickering to each other in hilarious fashion. I swear I could have watched these two all day, it was wonderful.

The general area itself also housed a few photo opportunities including some cool FX logos (one made of PVC pipes that only looked like the logo when viewed from certain angles), a giant screen that showed just what people were tweeting about the Fearless Forum, and there were even areas where you could get customized merchandise like phone cases or hats. Overall, it was another phenomenal year for FX at SDCC, and the Forum was absolutely successful, as I definitely started watching the What We Do In The Shadows series on the way home, and after a couple of years of not watching American Horror Story, the September 18th premiere of 1984 is absolutely in my calendar.