Panic Fest Strikes Again

As was the case last year, I worked the Downright Creepy/Rotten Rentals booth at Panic Fest at the lovely and fantastic Screenland Armour over the weekend, once more in the face of some less-than-optimal weather, though much better than last year’s ice storm. Unlike last year, I actually got to see a couple of movies this time, including a double-feature of WolfCop and The Editor which kept me out until 2am on Friday (I guess technically Saturday morning, by the end there).

WolfCop was considerably better–and considerably weirder–than I had expected, in spite of containing more pee gags than is my usual threshold (which is roughly zero). Though the plot also did not go where I would have anticipated just from the synopsis, I think I was maybe most surprised by how good the film looked, especially some particularly nice crane and/or helicopter shots. If you get a chance to check it out, I think it’s probably worth your time.

The Editor I described on Twitter immediately after watching it as “if Anchorman had been a Giallo,” and I pretty much stick by that. If that makes you want to see the movie, then you’ll probably dig it. I struggle with exactly saying that I liked it, but I’m glad I saw it, and it was pretty hilarious, and if I was going to see it, at midnight in a movie theatre full* of excited Panic Fest attendees was the optimal way to do so. For those who haven’t seen it and are not of a prurient bent, be warned, it has more nudity than some pornos. Just a heads up.

*For values of full that include the dozen or so of us dumb enough to stay up til 2 in the morning to watch a movie we could have watched at some more reasonable hour later in the festival.

I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on right now, not all of which is great, some of which I’ll probably post more about later in the week. In the mean time, since I’m talking about Giallo, it seems apropos to point out that today is the birthday of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, which is probably my favorite Giallo film and, as fate would have it, Ross Lockhart will be unveiling the cover and table of contents for Giallo Fantastique sometime tomorrow, so keep an eye out on my various social media streams for that.

And while I’m on the subject, I’ve been obsessing over John Carpenter’s Lost Themes album, which drops in a couple of days and which I’ve already pre-ordered but which I have been (and you can be) listening to in its entirety here. I wish I’d had the “Mystery” track when I wrote my story for Giallo Fantastique, but the only solution to that problem is that I’ll just have to write more Giallo-inspired stories in the future.