One way in which Fantastic Fest distinguishes from the bulk of its film festival brethren is in the culture it builds beyond the confines of its yearly slate of pictures. Any lucky bugger who travels down to Austin to experience the fest won’t only be treated to a bevy of interesting genre pictures, but will be invited to partake in any number of sideshow attractions, competitions, and tests of will, and consequently thrust deep into realms unknown. After spending her first two days chatting with Park Chan-wook and watching sophisticated wordsmiths bash each other’s bones, our own Clarke Wolfe spent her third day in Texas experiencing Fantastic Fest’s answer to the aural and culinary arts.
After snagging a few words with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children director Tim Burton—a man who, to this day, holds strangeness close to his heart—and reveling in the comic prowess of a stage-bound Kumail Nanjiani, Clarke graced the Lone Star State with the power of her pipes, partaking in Fantastic Fest’s traditional karaoke outing. Following the show was the sort of snack you’d only find at a festival devoted to horror and the macabre: pork blood and jellyfish sandwiches—an entirely new, decidedly treacherous take on “PB&J.”
Stage shows, tone deaf ballads, and mortifying gastronomic innovations are just a few examples of how Fantastic Fest refuses to call it quits after the roll of its features’ credits. Keep an eye out tomorrow morning for Clarke’s next oddball adventure at Fantastic Fest, and chime in with your own highlights!
