Director Noboru Iguchi and his entourage, in the parking lot of the Alamo Drafthouse.

I have only a few minutes to post a few scattered thoughts about the first day of Fantastic Fest. It was a hoot and a half, though!

FRANKENWEENIE
I had a lovely time watching Tim Burton’s latest film, Frankenweenie. I’m pleased to announce it’s the best thing he’s done in years, constructed 100% of everything he does well. It isn’t a classic on the level of Edward Scissorhands, but it is a delight, particularly for film nerds. I’m also pleased to announce that the 3D is gorgeous with the stop-motion animation.

THE FINAL MEMBER
The Final Member is a documentary about three men who are preoccupied with penises: one is the proprietor of the Phallogical Museum in Iceland, and the other two are potential donors of the one specimen that is missing from the collection. Despite the sensational object at the core of this documentary, the film is about much more. It finds tremendous depth in exploring the personalities of these three men, and it quickly finds the core of this story. It’s a very Errol Morris-y type of film, gorgeously lensed and carefully constructed, but yet not without humor. HIGHLY recommended.

MEMORY OF THE DEAD
This Argentinian horror film desperately wants to be Evil Dead, but doesn’t know what made that film click. The tone and focus are all over the place, and the film never really gels. It does have some interesting, creative moments, and it manages to pull an interesting ending out of the mess, but it’s just not good. That said, the drunken, rambling Q&A with the director and screenwriter after the film made the screening worthwhile a hundred times over.

OTHER WEIRD STUFF

The Dredd people brought a slo-mo photo booth to the parking lot of the theater, which means that people threw a lot of glitter around. Also, this.

One of the theaters showing Frankenweenie was filled with dogs and “guests of the dogs”. I wish I had photos of that.

We almost killed Martin Landau, who took a spill off the stage during the Frankenweenie Q&A. He’s fine, but I still want to apologize to the world.

The Alamo Drafthouse served us some sort of meat during The Final Member. I hear that it was cow testicles. Whatever it was, it was tasty.

I got to visit the new Mondo gallery during the day. They have the best chandelier in the world:

Tim League, owner of the Alamo Drafthouse, at Fantastic Fest 2010

In just a couple hours, I will hop in my car, nab my road buddy Don, and start driving to Austin, TX. We will arrive sometime tomorrow, and I hope that, this year, all the raccoons we see along the way will still be alive after we pass them.

That’s right, we’re heading to Fantastic Fest!

Fantastic Fest is an utterly bonkers film festival, housed at the famed Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. It focuses on genre filmmaking (mainly horror, crime, action, and sci-fi) that would usually only pop up occasionally at more “serious” film festivals, and it excels at bringing in those films from around the world. Fantastic Fest embraces the weird, the crazy, the underground, the obscene. The triumphant mantra of Fantastic Fest audiences is “CHAOS REIGNS!”

This will be the third year in a row that I attend. Over those years, Fantastic Fest has become one of my favorite nerd events of the year. It’s eight days where I completely fill my head and eyeballs and ears with filmmaking that often doesn’t reach American audiences at all. And then, between the films, absolutely insane things happen. I’ve seen ebullient Japanese film directors strip nearly naked whilst singing karaoke in a Texas bar. I’ve seen – and eaten - whole roast pigs that have been sewn together, Human Centipede-style. I’ve seen Elijah Wood get thrown in a Faraday cage so he could dance while being struck by lightning.

And during all of this, we eat food at the Alamo Drafthouse. Mmmmm…

This year, The Geek Life cohort Wendy will be sharing the Fantastic Fest experience. Will she survive? How many Mondo posters will she buy? Will she get spoon bruises from acclaimed Spanish directors?

In these pages over the next two weeks, you will find out what happens on our adventures! You will also be awash in film reviews and photos. Join us in the chaos!

Fantastic Fest Rule #1: the party is *always* where Nacho Vigalondo is.