Video of cosplay horror villains invading Summit County Fair goes viral, provides laughs

When an all-star lineup of horror movie villains showed up Thursday night at the Summit County Fair, the result was far from what you might expect.

In fact, it was a flat line on the scaro-meter.

But there were laughs, fun and a whole lot of selfies with fairgoers.

The creative force (call him Roy) behind the collection of very bad boys said Saturday that the Akron-based group – known as The Merkins – went to the fair to shoot a video, have a good time, and help other fairgoers do the same.

The result is a 1-minute, 39-second video that’s gone viral on social media from Facebook to Twitter and beyond.

The video was posted on The Merkins' Facebook page Friday afternoon and had more than 48,000 shares 26 hours later.

Roy, who asked not to be identified to avoid unwanted encounters with overzealous fans, said on Saturday that past publicity forced him to change his name on Facebook.

“I don’t want to have fans chasing me on my lawnmower,” he said.

Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, other villains frolic at Summit County Fair

The fair video features some of the horror genre’s most famous villains frolicking at the fairgrounds, riding the rides, eating popcorn, riding a mechanical bull and petting rabbits. One villain is shown winning a fair game and hugging his adorable stuffed unicorn prize.

The Merkins’ latest video isn’t its biggest, however, said Roy. That honor belongs to a parody called “Slashstreet Boys – I’ll Kill You That Way,” with more than 28 million views on Facebook.

The parody video of a popular boy band’s huge 2009 hit – you figure it out – features lead vocalist Nate Vaill, owner with brother Seth of the Rialto Theatre in Kenmore. Roy sticks to background vocals on The Merkins’ musical efforts.

Roy said he’s gradually built The Merkins’ fan base while still figuring out how best to capitalize on its popularity.

“I’m between 10 million and 20 million views a month,” he said. “On YouTube we have almost 700,000 (followers). Almost 2 million followers totally online.”

Vanilla Ice and a Backstreet Boy comment on The Merkins videos

Roy said some artists enjoy parodies of their work by The Merkins, but others, not so much. He had to pull down a very popular parody because of an objection. The Slashstreet Boys video, however, was actually tweeted by a member of the real group.

Some artists even reach out to respond. On Saturday, for instance, Roy said Vanilla Ice had done so.

For the Summit County Fair video, Roy contacted the fair to make sure his rowdy ruffians wouldn’t be unwelcome guest.

“We left all of our fake weapons at home,” he said.

Turned out it was kids day at the fair, so The Merkins arrived later in the day. No worry, though, because parents were asking Roy and his cosplay cohorts to scare their kids and take selfies.

“I didn’t see any negative reactions, personally,” he said. “We were conscious of not scaring any kids.”

Roy said he’s invested about $200,000 in the effort over the years and has found horror fans receptive.

“The horror community is one of the nicest on the planet,” he said.

The Summit County Fair runs through Sunday. For information, go to www.summitfair.com/.

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Video of cosplay horror villains at Summit County Fair goes viral