Oh, the anticipatory horror. With just 14 days to go until Fantastic Fest 2010 engulfs the Alamo Drafthouse, we thought it’d be a good (nay, awesome) idea to bring some of you newcomers up to speed. But how best to do that?
We could, of course, drive you all out to the country and subject you to ritual geek freakishness fun – a la Race With the Devil – but frankly, we’re busy slamming down FF screeners and writing out butts off. Not that we don’t want to do a creeptastic Rolling Roadshow of our own, but really, who has time to work through the logistics of gathering a fanboy/grrrl-centric coven other than, say, Mark Borchardt?
Instead, we thought we’d resurrect a few of the classic short films from prior Fantastic Fests. Just like in the reel world of Hollywood-oriented fests, fantastic short films tend to receive equally short shrift and all too often become lost to the wages of time (and fear) amidst the ballyhoo surrounding their lengthier counterparts. And that’s just not fair to the filmmakers who have spent their blood, sweat, and tears (and more blood, always more blood) crafting some eerie, funny, or just plain hellzapoppin’ examples of the cinematic version of Poe’s short form perfection.
What better way to kick off in style than with Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo‘s Oscar-nominated 7-35 In the Morning? If you haven’t seen it, we’ll keep mum until you do. Suffice to say that you can spot Vigalondo as the singing, dancing lead Tipo and Fantastic Fest 2010 filmmaker Eugenio Mira (Agnosia) as the keyboard player. 7-35 in the morning…so early, and yet so very late.
This article appears in September 3 • 2010.