Five days traipsing the grounds of a horror-, karaoke-, and pork blood-laden film festival is sure to take some years off any mere human traveler, but our own Clarke Wolfe handled Fantastic Fest with a strength and stamina that calls her mortal status into question. During her final day on the ground in Austin, Clarke worked in a conversation with Nacho Vigalondo, director of one of the most talked-about movies at Fantastic Fest: Colossal. Starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, the film filters true romance through the extended metaphor of a kaiju attack, aiming to prove, in the director’s own words, that the “most beloved genre films … have a really big emotional core.” Clarke’s quick chat with Vigalondo was the perfect way to round out a week of talking The Handmaiden with director Park Chan-wook, followed by American Honey with star Sasha Lane, then Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children with director Tim Burton, and finally Ash vs. Evil Dead with star and producer Bruce Campbell.

Of course, pleasant chitchat and cinematic analysis were just one component of Clarke’s last hurrah in Texas. After speaking with Vigalondo, Clarke endeavored Fantastic Fest’s infamous Satanic Panic Room… which she swears was a ton of fun, even though she’s not normally one for the escape room ordeal. Another kind of mental challenge followed when Clarke teamed up with a few fellow nerds for a trivia competition (one that seems to have gotten pretty heated, in fact), followed by a test of physical endurance: the tattoo parlor.

How’d this year’s Fantastic Fest live up to your hopes and dreams of horror and mayhem? Let us know!