SXSW 2018: Day 4 Puppy Love and The Museum of the Weird

If you dedicate as much time to the experience as I have, you should feel right at home by Day 4 of SXSW.

I’m still processing the horror that is Hereditary; I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a game changer, something I believe genre fans will consider instantly canon. It’s emotionally brutal and scary AF! Toni Collette delivers an Oscar-worthy performance that will leave you gasping, but the entire cast deserves to be lauded… Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, and Milly Shapiro: They were all just fantastic. Writer/director Ari Aster deserves to be sought after and supported in whatever he sets his sights on next.

6th Street is an experience in and of itself. It’s ground zero for the music-focused SXSW attendees with clubs on both sides of the street for blocks and outdoor stages. As the focus of the convention shifts from film into gaming and music, 6th Street will transform into something resembling a hybrid of Bourbon Street and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

Josh Millican and Dexter

SXSW is full of wonderful surprises around every corner; the folks at Aceable brought a bus full of dogs and puppies, giving animal lovers like me a hefty dose of warm fuzzies. It was an unexpected and much-appreciated boost, especially for those of us missing out fur-babies back home. An adolescent Pitbull named Dexter gave the best kisses. Don’t judge!

Nestled prominently between the clubs and souvenir shops is Austin’s famous Museum of the Weird; fans of horror movies, cryptozoology, and the macabre won’t want to miss it. Real mummies, Fiji mermaids, and shrunken heads are just a few of the oddities on display at one of the last authentic “dime museums” in the world. They also own some classic props from horror movies genre fans will flip for.

The Museum of the Weird is located at 412 E. Sixth Street in Austin, and it’s opened daily from 10 am to midnight.

Museum of the Weird in Austin, TX

One of the most amazing aspects of SXSW is the mix of pleasure and business. Film enthusiasts will be thrilled by the immense slate of content while simultaneously meeting potential business partners and collaborators. If you’re a filmmaker, you can attend a bevy of meet-ups and workshops. Yesterday Dread Central organized and hosted a social get-together while Shaked Berenson (Epic Pictures/Dread Central Presents) was one of the featured speakers at the 90-Minute Film School workshop. IFC hosted an upscale dinner for genre filmmakers (and their friends), which we were honored to attend.

My Midnight screening tonight will be Ghost Stories, a film by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman based on their extremely successful stage play. Jonathan Barkan conducted an incredible interview with this dynamic duo that will be uploaded to our YouTube channel later this week. It’s been getting an incredible response so I can’t wait to see what the buzz is all about!

Tomorrow will be our last full day at SXSW, and we plan to make the absolute most of it. Check back tomorrow for more of our ongoing coverage.

If this is your first time checking in with my daily write-ups of SXSW 2018, you can catch up on what went down on Day 1 HERE, Day 2 HERE, and Day 3 HERE.

If you’re in town too, and you see me sporting my Dread Central t-shirt, come on over and say what’s up!

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