Fantastic Fest presents free advance screening of THE COLLECTOR + Special Guests!

Fantastic Fest and HorrorSquad present THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!!

Over the course of my non-stop flick-hoppings, I've become a small and unofficial cog in the Fantastic Fest machine. (Let's say I'm half-consultant and half-cheerleader.) Tim League and his Alamo team scour the globe for the best in horror, sci-fi, action, etc., but I've been known to drop those guys a line when an interesting flick crosses my path. (Or when I'm just really bored. Curse you, caller ID!!) So here's some exciting news for those who A) live in Austin, B) love new horror movies, and C) are sure they can tolerate my presence for two consecutive hours:


July 22nd! 10pm! Alamo Ritz! THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!! And they're nice guys! Yes, the guys who wrote FEAST, SAW 4, FEAST 2, SAW 5, FEAST 3, SAW 6 and THE COLLECTOR will be at the theater to A) eat cheese fries, B) drink beer, C) watch their movie on the big screen, and D) stand up for a Q$A thingy! It's going to be fun. I decree it to be so.

THE COLLECTOR, as you may know, was recently known as MIDNIGHT MAN, but it switched titles when it jumped over from Dimension to Freestyle. The plan is for the film to hit theaters on July 31 (which is why they couldn't just hold it for Fantastic Fest: September is after July), and I've already heard from the likes of Ryan "Rotten" Turek, Rodney Perkins, and (yes) Tim League that this is one kick-ass horror show! And now a few words from first-time director Marcus Dunstan: "Well, we just received our R rating after four trips to the MPAA, and I'm happy to say that none of the film's impact has been lost. Matter of fact, their notes made some scenes hit even harder! We're beyond lucky to be a part of Fantastic Fest again, even if it is a few months early this time. Austin welcomed FEAST with open arms, and I am over-the-moon excited to bring THE COLLECTOR to a city that loves movies so much."

In response, Tim League had this to say: "This movie rocks."

Important notes:

Admission to this screening is free. 2009 Fantastic Fest badge-holders can RSVP in advance by emailing brad@originalalamo.com with "THE COLLECTOR ROCKS" in the subject line. Badge-Holders who rsvp will be seated first come, first served. Non-badge-holders are welcome to attend subject to availability; simply arrive at the theater 45 minutes before the show. For more information on Fantastic Fest, please visit the official website at www.fantasticfest.com.

The first wave of content for Fantastic Fest will be posted there on July 13!

-Scott Weinberg, the Horror Squad

Mark the date: 7/13 - first wave of FF content

We've been on the hunt since last October, scouring the globe for the best of the best in bat-shit-crazy-beautiful cinema. Now that Fantastic Fest is a mere 3 months away, we are plotting to release details on the first wave of content in this year's festival. We have LOTS more special events, premieres and surprises that we will be trickling out roughly once a month until the festival. We'll be launching the newly revamped website and activating the BSide community all at the same time, so mark your calendars, July 13 by noon CST we'll be offering up the first glimpse of the Fantastic Fest 2009 toybox! If you want to stay on top of all the news and events, especially during the festival, subscribe to this blog and follow us on twitter! Badges are still available for this year's festival, so tell your friends - there ain't no party like a Fantastic Fest party. Fantastic Fest 2009: September 24-October 1

Behold! 2009 Fantastic Fest T-Shirt And Poster Art!

Way back in March, I announced that we had commissioned Jon Vermilyea to produce artwork for the 2009 Fantastic Fest poster. Every year, the Fantastic Fest programmers go all out attempting to bring you things that you've never seen before. To me, the poster should be no different. With monsters being the theme this year, we set out to do something we've never attempted before. Instead of having a poster with the normal 2 dimensions that you are all accustomed to, we thought, "Why not up the ante and make it 3?!" Here we are...the day has come...I can't wait any longer...Behold! This year's 3D FANTASTIC FEST POSTER!



What do you all think? I can tell you that when I first saw the linework for the poster I said "shit" really loud. When I saw this final with color, I said something much worse.

Many of you might be asking, "Well, if it's 3D, where are all the red and blue lines?" You will find none of that here. We used a very special process called Chromadepth. With your poster you will receive a pair of glasses. The special specks react with the colors and stretch the image to make it 3 dimensional. You can read more about the process here, but essentially, warm colors shoot out at you and cooler colors fall back into the background. If you have 3D Chromadepth glasses with you right now, feel free to put them on and take a gander. If not, feel free to stop in at the Mondo shop anytime and ask to use ours.

Not only did Jon destroy the poster, he did an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT image for the shirt.



So there you have it. This is just a taste of what you can expect from Fantastic Fest this year. We will no doubt have more announcements and surprises for you soon, so stay tuned. The Fantastic Fest poster and shirt will be on sale at Mondo soon!

-Justin

P.S. If you can't wait to get your hands on the Fantastic Fest shirt from Jon Vermilyea, you can order a DEADLY SPAWN shirt right now! The last run sold out quick so we brought it back in two new colorways...black and slime!

Fantastic Fest hotel discount now in effect!

Anyone attending Fantastic Fest from out of town who doesn't have friends or family in Austin now has a place to stay: The Radisson Hotel & Suites at Austin-Town Lake. A special deal for Fantastic Fest attendees is now in effect through September 15 which gets you rooms for $135 a night from September 24 to October 1, a discount of over $40 a night! In addition to being a damn nice hotel, the Radisson is located right in the heart of downtown Austin, with easy shuttle access to Fantastic Fest's Alamo South Lamar location and just walking distance from the famed Congress Bridge Bats. It also sits right on the beautiful Town Lake, which allows for great walks and is ideal for jogging. With all the food and drink you'll be partaking in at Fantastic Fest, jogging might be a good idea.

In order to obtain this special discount, you can either call the Radisson's national reservations center at 800-333-3333, or go to the Radisson Downtown website and enter ALAMO into the promotional code box on the right side of the screen. Click "search" and the group rate will appear. If you experience any problems, please call the Radisson reservations line and let them know this is for Fantastic Fest 2009. Please note that these rates are only available until September 15, 2009, and any reservations made after that date must pay the full rate price.

It's also worth noting that the Radisson will also be hosting many of our special guests this year, so you never know who you're going to bump into in the elevator or get trashed at the hotel bar with at 2am. Anyone who has attended Fantastic Fest in years past can tell you these are some of the most magical moments of the entire festival, so take advantage of these great rates to stay in a top class hotel and enjoy the greatest film festival known to man!