Last September I was thrilled to sit on the film jury for Austin's awesome Fantastic Fest. My jury cohorts were Swedish movie producer Christian Hallman and Texan actor Wiley Wiggins. I mention these things not to get pointlessly nostalgic, but to let you know what we decided was the Best Picture of the festival: It was Simon Rumley's bizarre, chilling and strangely hypnotic The Living and the Dead -- which isn't a "horror movie" in the most traditional sense, but is a thoroughly disturbing experience all the same. And by "disturbing," I mean: Really twisted, unique and fascinating to puzzle through.

What's most engaging about the decidedly off-kilter The Living and the Dead is the way in which writer/director Rumley mixes the realistically tragic with the darkly absurd. This is a horror movie about mental illness, drug abuse, loss of parents, fear of abandonment, and the ways in which cancer can erode a whole lot more than just one person's body. The film takes place in a fascinatingly dank and isolated mansion, one that's populated by only three people: Defeated patriarch Donald Brocklebank, his mentally-challenged son James, and his cancer-afflicted wife Nancy. Strapped for cash and with the family estate on its last legs, Donald must travel away from his crumbling estate in an effort to raise some much-needed health-care money. The plan is for Nurse Mary to check in and tend to Nancy's needs, but the over-medicated James has, ahem, other plans. Suffice to say that James sees himself as a completely reliable member of the household, when the truth is actually that ... he's not. Like, at all.

The official Cinematical presence at the 2006 Fantastic Fest was the wonderful Jette Kernion, and I think she managed to bang out about eight reviews ... while the fest was still running! I saw JK everywhere, from the queues to the parties to the local barbecue pits. Frankly I think her coverage rocked the house, and I'm not just saying that because she let me butt in line with her for The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.

But since the FF guys were cool enough to welcome Cinematical with such eerily open arms, I figure it's only right to share my favorite movies, moments and memories of mayhem from the 2006 FantFest. And so I shall.

The Best Flicks

Simon Rumley's seriously disturbing The Living and the Dead, the Swedish vampire flick Frostbite, Adam Green's fun-time slasher throwback Hatchet, William Friedkin's compellingly intense Bug and the quietly cool haunted Brit flick Lie Still. I also had an unexpectedly good time with Mel Gibson's Apocalypto -- and although I'd already seen Abominable, The Host, The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth and Severance, they're all films I have no problem recommending. Oh, and William H. Macy's performance in Edmond ... wow.

I also trekked away from the festival to enjoy a good portion of Feast -- which was negated by my plane ride home. Lindsay Lohan's Just My Luck was the in-flight movie, and that flick packs perhaps the worst screenplay I've dealt with in three years. Stunningly bad.

Oh, and right before I nodded off every night, I watched just a little bit more of The Office: Season 2. If you don't watch this show, you're plain old robbing yourself of multiple peals of bulky laughter. And why would you want to do that?

Ask any experienced writer if they'd like to cover two whole film festivals over the course of three short weeks, and you'll probably get a response like "Um, no." But throughout all of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had a shiny little treat on the horizon: The Second Annual Fantastic Fest, which was to take place at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) down in lovely Austin, Texas. Upon returning home from TIFF, I was this close to simply bailing on Fantastic Fest, basically because I had a LOT of work to finish, plus I really wasn't all that excited about dealing with airports again so soon.

Fortunately I came to my senses and decided to attend the festival. And get this! A few days before the fest, super-cool festival honcho Tim League asked if I'd like to be a jury member! Now, film critics don't get a lot of back-pats or cap-feathers, but being asked to sit on a festival jury is very flattering indeed. Plus, this festival was mostly horror movies -- so obviously I was grinning like a pig in poop. So now that the festival is over and I've returned home (with a horrific cold), I thought you might be interested to know which flicks won what. So let's get to it...

Horror Jury Awards

Best Picture - Isolation
Best Director - Billy O'Brien, Isolation
Best Script - Dylan Bank and Morgan Pehme, Nightmare
Best Actor - Kane Hodder, Hatchet
Best Actress - Nicole Roderick, Nightmare
Best Supporting Actor - Lance Henriksen, Abominable
Best Supporting Actress - Kristen Bell, Roman
Best Art Direction - Alex Boynton, Unrest
Best Cinematography - Robbie Ryan, Isolation
Best Special Effects - Hatchet
Best Make-up - Broken

The Horror Jury was composed of four film freaks: Jay Slater of Hotdog Magazine & FilmThreat.com, Ed Neal of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Peter Martin of Twitch and Chris Cargill of AICN.

Short Film Jury Awards

Best of Show - The Listening Dead
Best Short Form - Cost of Living
Best Long Form - Rogairi (Villains)
Best Animated - If I Had a Hammer
Best Comedy - They're Made Out of Meat

The Short Film Jury was composed of three AICN writers: Brian Satterwhite, Jay Knowles and (again) Mr. Cargill.

Audience Awards

1st Place - Hatchet
2nd Place - Isolation
3rd Place - Firefly

The audience awards were decided by "average Joe" audience members who opted to cast ballots, obviously.

Fantastic Fest Jury Awards

Best Film - The Living and the Dead
Best Director - Simon Rumley, The Living and the Dead
Best Script - Larry Kent and Daniel Williams, The Hamster Cage
Best Actor - Leo Bill, The Living and the Dead
Best Actress - Jodie Jameson, Venus Drowning
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Scarfe, The Hamster Cage
Best Supporting Actress - Kate Fahy, The Living and the Dead
Best Art Direction -Starfish Hotel
Best Cinematography - A Quiet Love
Best Special Effects - Puzzlehead
Best Make-up -The Living and the Dead
Special Jury Mention - Blood Tea and Red String

The Fantastic Fest Jury was composed of Christian Hallman of the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival, Wiley Wiggins of Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, and Scott (dork) Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com, Cinematical.com and Rotten Tomatoes.

And I'll take this quick opportunity to share some opinions with you: I attend a solid handful of film festivals every year -- and Fantastic Fest was (far and away) one of the most entertaining trips I've ever taken. From fest-head Tim League down to the part-timiest festival volunteer, these folks were absolutely sterling. If you have even a passing interest in films best described as horror, sci-fi, fantasy or "plain old weird," I could not recommend Fantastic Fest highly enough. In only its second year of existence, FF looks to be one of North America's premiere genre festivals -- and I can only imagine what the 2007 event will look like.