This post will be brief as I am running up against commitments and a lack of time.

Yesterday was another good day at the festival. We started with a private tour for VIP members, which included me, of the Exhibit Cannibals! Myth and Reality at the San Diego Museum of Man. This was a really nice exhibit that presented the reality and cultural hammer that is the western view of Cannibalism. Biggest takaway from the curator lecture and panel discussion afterwards – the word Cannibal was coined by Christopher Columbus.

We watched short films:

Survivor Type – an adaptation of the Steven King short story. Normally I detest the ‘found footage’ genre but Billy Hanson the writer and director made the style fit perfectly. The film was carried on the shoulders of its one man cast and worked very well.

Ear Worm – A film by Tara Price and produce by Billy Hanson this film was quite short but on point about a man tormented by a fragment of a song that he cannot escape. It was well received by the audience and the original song composed as the fragment was everything that makes a good ear worm, catchy, pop, and upbeat.

The evening also saw the presentation of two feature-length films sadly neither worked very well for me.

Dark Exorcism – A film set in that sub-genre of horror film about demons and possession. This sub-genre has seen a resurgence lately. This film had very goods performances and a nearly all female cast giving it an interesting take on the subject. It did not work overall for me because the script leaned heavily on expository scenes which need more dramatic narrative elements woven into them.

Sendero (Path) — From Chile this film is part of thee young people in peril sub-genre along the lines of The Hills Have Eyes, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Five friends out for a weekend find themselves kidnapped and at the mercy of a merciless family. The movie had a strong start and good acting but by the second half of the film I had learned that the ‘professional victim’ class of character is universal cross cultural and language borders.

So now I have seen many films at the festival and only two have been disappointments. This is a far better average then I have seen at other smaller film festivals. I look forward to tonight.