24th September - Hello and welcome to another set of FrightFest Post Cards, this time from an unusually damp and rainy Austin. Yes, it's Fantastic Fest time again. Paul and I are looking forward to reporting back on all the goings-on from Texas. We have been joined by FrightFesters Mike Hewitt, Kimberly Howsen, Helen Mullane. Jake West is also here with his film Doghouse. We also caught up with August FrightFest guests Ti West, David Hess, Trick 'r Treat director Michael Dougherty and Tom and Ilona Six, the Human Centipede people.

I ran into Jordan Barker last night. Some of you with long memories will remember Jordan. He attended FrightFest four years ago when we showed his film The Marsh. He has his new film here called Duress. An elegant suspense ride, Duress is a film about it cold blooded killer who has singled out a mild mannered recently widowed father. He forces him under the threat of harming his young daughter to participate in some gruesome activities according to the press notes. Which gruesome activities he is forced into we will have to wait and see, but I look forward to seeing the film later in the week.

Looking through this year's programme many of the films featured in FrightFest in August are also showing here. Clive Barker's Dread, Trick 'R Treat, Human Centipede, Salvage and Smash Cut. Also showing isTom Shankland's film The Children. You will remember that we played this in last year's all-nighter.

I managed to arrive on time this year, unlike last year when my train was two days late. Since attending the Toronto International Film Festiva, Paul had gone off to LA to catch up with Adam Green and his friends and I had spent five days in the Rocky Mountains in a little place called Chama.

So once settled in to my hotel, it was off to collect my accreditation and see Tim Leauge's, the festival director new nightclub called The Highball, which will be the centre of this year's socialising.

Having got all that out of the way it was off to the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin. The Paramount is a fantastic old picture palce and a great location for the first film of the festival. The opener was Gentleman Broncos, the new film from Napoleon dynamite director Jared Hess. As well as the director, all of the main cast were in attendance for the screening. The included Jermaine Clement who hilariously introduced the film in character. As for the film itself, I quite enjoyed it. Full of the same type of off-beat humour that made Napoleon Dynamite so enjoyable, it was a good crowd pleaser to kick-off the festival.

I didn't hang around for the Q&A as I wanted to get a jump on the crowd and get back to the Draft house to sign up for all the various excursions that Tim so generously hosts. I must say I'm looking forward to my annual jaunt to Smittys in Lockhart. This is a little town about 20 miles from Austin, which has not one, but two very famous barbecue restaurants. It's like stepping into a time warp going through the door of Smittys. They claim the fires used to cook the meat have never been out in 100 years. The decor certainly hasn't seen a lick of paint in years, but the food is wonderful. The meat just melts in your mouth and you don't even have to use a fork and knife, you just use your hands and eat from the paper the meat is served on.

Anyway, enough for day one. It's time I was off to the draft house to catch my first film of the day. Hard Revenge Milly, a Japanese revenge movie. Later it's back to the Paramount for Zombieland.

Until the next time…..

Ian.

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