Fantasia 2008: Day 21
Johnny Butane
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Well, another year of Fantasia has come to an end. The wife and I are headed home today and back to our “normal” lives, which believe it or not is actually something I’m looking forward to. As much fun as this festival is and as much as I love all the people we can hang out with because of it, Fantasia has a way of wiping you out that no other event I go to comes close to. Well, maybe Comic Con…
Our last day of the fest started off with a film from Denmark called Island of Lost Souls. Not nearly as creepy as it sounds, it’s actually an adventure movie in the spirit of films like Harry Potter and its ilk, but with some interesting twists on those films’ conventions that can only come from another culture. It’s not anything you’ll be seeing a review for here, but I’m still glad to have checked it out.
We wanted to hit the premier of Alone, the new ghost film from the guys who did Shutter, but McCannibal decided we should all go out to dinner instead since it was our last day together. This was one of those times we had to make the decision to either see a movie or hang out with friends, but it was easier than usual to make since it was the last day and, I found out later, we didn’t really miss anything by missing Alone. McCannibal is seeing it today so expect more details soon.
Apparently we did miss quite a bit by skipping Uwe Boll’s latest film, the Vietnam War movie Tunnel Rats, however. Synapse Films’ Don May was telling us before we went into a screening that not only was it probably the best thing Boll has done to date, it was all around a very solid and well done movie about the horrors of war. See, we knew he’d come out and surprise us all someday!
The night ended with the world premier of Jim Isaac’s “>Pig Hunt (review), his “I don’t give a fuck” indie reaction to the hell he went through getting Skinwalkers made, or so one can assume. Though I would love to say it was all you’d hope for from a movie about a 3,000-pound boar named Ripper, it’s sadly nowhere near anything I had hopes for. Check out my review for the full diatribe.
We retried to the Irish Embassy for one last night of Fantasia celebration and said our final goodbyes to all the people who continue making this show worth coming back for again and again. Though we’re not always in agreement as to why films were good or bad, the greatest thing is the ability to discuss their merits, or lack thereof, until the early morning hours and know that there are no attitudes, no pretensions, and no animosity when it’s all over. That is yet another reason I love this damn show.
Thanks to everyone who followed our coverage of Fantasia 2008 over the last three weeks! Don’t forget to check out the fest’s database entry for all the daily reports and reviews that came out of this year’s show, and hopefully you can be a part of it at Fantasia 2009!
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