The event, called the Weekend of Horrors, is sponsored by horror movie magazine Fangoria and held annually at the New Yorker hotel in Manhattan. The show features previews of upcoming movies, celebrity appearances by horror film stars, and dozens of dealers selling everything from videos to posters to toys to fake fangs. Someone involved with the convention thoroughly did their market research and determined that horror fans are also big heavy metal fans in general, and Kiss fans specifically, since the main ballroom was packed for Simmons' surprise mid-afternoon appearance.

Simmons, sans makeup and costume, was joined onstage by director Adam Rifkin, associate producer Tim Sullivan, and one of the film's teenage stars, Sam Huntington, for a half-hour question- and- answer session with the audience that included the showing of a featurette on the film's making. The short promo film included several clips from the movie, which is a story about four teens on a quest to get into a Kiss concert in 1978. From the brief clips shown, Detroit Rock City looks like it could be a lower-budget, grittier, more rock and roll version of the usual slick teen coming-of-age comedy.

Unusually subdued for a fire-breathing demon from hell, Simmons [who's also a producer on the flick] politely asked audience members to focus their questions on the film, and not on whether "I did your sister or not [on tour]." He also emphasized that the movie didn't necessarily have to have Kiss in it to work.

Rifkin agreed, saying that while Kiss was a presence throughout the picture, they only appear in the climactic scenes, a re-creation of the band's "Love Gun" concert from their '77-'78 world tour. "[Gene brought up] The Wizard of Oz," said Rifkin. "While the movie is called The Wizard of Oz, it's not really about him."

Simmons also mentioned that Kiss will go into the studio next week to cut one or possibly two new songs for the film's soundtrack, one of which might be a songwriting collaboration between singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and hitmaker Diane Warren. Detroit Rock City is slated to open on April 16.

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