This festival is so freakin' wild that I can't believe I ever heard about it in the first place. I can't believe the folks lucky enough to have stumbled on it earlier didn't just keep it completely to themselves in some pact of silence, an effort to keep the festival all to themselves. With that thought in mind I'm tempted to blog about how it's super expensive to eat and drink here, the people are boring and rude, and the films are crap.
When in fact I've drunk more wine here in 2.5 days than I could by with my monthly NYC taxi cab budget where I live. And cannot walk five feet here without someone shouting "DOR!" and asking me what I thought of my last film. I loved my last film, guys. With one or two exceptions where I'd say only "yeah it was fine," I really did.
Biggest Surprises of the Festival So Far:
1) The social climate. I knew there'd be awesome people, I just didn't know I'd have such a great time with them. I mainly am just boggled by the fact that this festival is with the same crowd and at the same theater as SXSW but it could not be further from the SXSW experience. In all good ways.
2) The films. I like horror movies all right, but it took me 15 years to get to a place where I even let myself go see them. So I knew what I was getting myself into here but it would be a lie to say I wasn't a little bit apprehensive. But seriously? I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to cover my eyes. In part I suppose I'm growing some kind of a spine. But mostly, I've seen four movies a day and none of them hardcore fucked up gorefests like I was thinking I'd find here. I think that's great. I feel like I have stumbled upon this perfect place where it's not that all the movies are scary twisted mind-fucks but rather they're the a curated selection of just plain great movies, that happen to appeal to the tastes of those who mostly love scary twisted mind fucks. If that makes any sense.
3) My stamina. At this time last week I was winding down a 48-film TIFF 2012 and incredulously had not taken ill from lack of sleep. So I'm pretty shocked I've been able to dive back into fest insanity without so much as a few deep breaths in between. Parties til 2 AM, up at 8:30 AM like I've slept for a week. There's some crazy magic going on here and I kind of love it.
Surely there are more surprises awaiting me. Time will tell.
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