Fantastic Fest is now over, and the only thing I have left are ticket stubs and memories. And the nostalgic photo above where they started changing the marquee one the closing party started. They hadn’t even let our seats get cold yet. But that’s just fine because it means that the Alamo Drafthouse is back to business as usual, and we want them to stay in operation so we can head to next year’s Fantastic Fest and do it all over again.

Fantastic Fest came to a close on Day Eight, and it was most definitely with a bang, and not a whimper. In fact, the final Secret Screening provided bangs both onscreen and off, and then the evening ended with a vampire-themed closing party. They even supplied sangria in blood bags, so it looked like you were chugging some b-negative instead of a fruity wine beverage. The staff were dressed up with scars, blood, and fangs, and attendees showed up in costume as well. Highlights included The Count from Sesame Street and a bevy of female bloodsuckers.

Best Acrtress Winner Shera Bechard

Day Seven was devoted to catching some of the award-winning films at the fest that I hadn’t seen yet. Extreme horror is not really my thing, so I skipped Human Centipede (First Sequence), which sounds like a goretastic smorgasbord, if you’re into that kind of thing. You can watch a trailer for it right here and make up your own mind. I may have made a mistake, since people seem to really love the biological horror it provides, but someone told me it nearly made them puke so I took a stand. Which was probably good since I had a pizza during Yesterday, and that alone nearly made me sick.

With a very sore shoulder from firing round after round from automatic weapons, Day Six began slowly. After just a few hours of lugging and firing those things, I can’t imagine what it’s like toting around tons of gear, a flak jacket, and still being coherent over in Iraq or Afghanistan. Plus, we had relatively cool temperatures and even a little rain. My hat is off to our servicemen overseas.

And what better way to celebrate spent rounds of ammo than taking a cinematic tour through the Orient?

Day Five of Fantastic Fest consisted of one movie. ONE MOVIE! Is it a shame when you attend a film festival and see only one movie on a particular day? I’d normally say yes, but when you see the alternatives that were available, I hope you’ll side with me on this one. It was not a day wasted. Besides, I’m stacking my days fairly film heavy for the rest of the festival, and I have a stack of screeners to wade through still, so it will not have been in vain.

Day Four marks the halfway point for Fantastic Fest, and I’ve already seen two of the best films of the festival so far. That really makes me wonder what they’re going to close things out with. There was Secret Screening #3 on Sunday, and it turned out to be Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and not the Michael Jackson concert rehearsal footage film, This Is It, as everyone expected. Personally, I think we got a good deal. We were able to enjoy Gilliam and Michael Jackson in the same evening… due to the Michael Jackson Dance Party held at midnight.

Day Three of Fantastic Fest is over and done with, and it was a bit of a doozy. Not because of the continuing onslaught of genre films, but because by the end of the night it felt like an alien queen escaped from her hive and laid larval babies in my stomach. I’m not sure if it’s something I ate, or because I was burning the candle at both ends, but after the last screening of the day I was ready to crash. However, one of the movies I’d seen that day has stuck with me, and right now it’s a strong contender for my Best of the Fest.

Day One of Fantastic Fest ended with an opening night party at the Drafthouse’s new “The Highball,” where they threw a Gentlemen Broncos “Brutus & Balzaak Bash” after the name of one of Dr. Ronald Chevalier’s science fiction novels. Complete with popcorn sculptures and a fully-outfitted battle stag (it’ll make sense if you see the movie), it went late into the night while people bowled, drank, and ate new menu items like Dr. Pepper ribs. That’s how geeks party.

Fantastic Fest: Day One is now officially under the belt, as are a large amount of bizarre culinary treats, including the aformentioned root beer cookies. As promised, they are amazing. Amazing and extremely filling. Don’t eat this with a horror movie, or a film about sailing at sea during rough weather, because it’ll make you toss those cookies right back. I probably don’t need to eat sweets for a month now.

So how did the first day fare? It was a bit of a mixed bag. Things didn’t get rolling until the late afternoon, and it was a roller coaster of different movies that ended up being the good, the bad, and the in-between.

[Guest writer (and all around cool dude) Kevin Kelly will be covering Fantastic Fest for us - enjoy!]

Have you ever enjoyed a movie while having dinner and beer… at an actual movie theater? That’s the main claim to fame of Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse. But if that wasn’t enough, they’ve gone above and beyond by creating special programming that caters to the geek in all of us. Things like quote-alongs with The Big Lebowski and Office Space, outfitting an entire audience with Flint Tropics uniforms for Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro, and tailoring their menu to match what’s on-screen. For example, right now you can enjoy root beer extract cookies while watching Mike Judge’s Extract.