DAY THREE: SATURDAY

7:50 am: I'm awake. I wonder how many people will take the time to read Part One of this journal before they read this one.

8:52: With Fantastic Fest eating up my days like a famished cannibal, I am forced to attend to personal, non-fest duties in early morning hours not fit for human activity. Thus, I arrive at the Alamo Drafthouse before online tickets have even gone on sale. There's already a long line at the door. "Are they here because they don't know about online ticketing or because they want to snag early boarding numbers?" I ponder out loud in my best Werner Herzog impression.

9:01: Aha! So that's the plan! The moment 9:00 hits, everyone in line jumps on their laptop/iPhone/iPad/Virtual Boy and gets in the internet queue. This way, they snag their tickets online and are among the first to have their tickets printed out, securing them an early boarding number and thus good seats at the screening. I am officially stealing this plan for my own nefarious purposes.

9:10: Screenings are selling out quickly. Far too quickly. There is loud, exasperated movie geek panic in the line as everyone wonders what deity they angered as to not secure the tickets of their choice. There is much gnashing of teeth and tearing of togas.

9:31: It's going to be a four-movie day for me. I'm taking the morning off to get some writing done, because I'm supposedly a freelance writer and I apparently have deadlines to meet.

9:44: I take a seat at the Highball and dive head first into a blank word processor. Extraterrestrial director Nacho Vigalondo is drinking at the bar, probably prepping for a press day. It's still early, so he isn't loudly singing or playfully chucking beer bottles at his friends yet.

11:07: I am slowly joined by friends and colleagues. The French horror film Livid has managed to surpass The Human Centipede IIin terms of being the divisive film that everyone is arguing about. I cover my ears, hum to avoid spoilers and vow to make it to the second screening.

11:36: One of my outlets asks me to interview Human Centipede II director Tom Six. I have never done an interview before and I tell them so. It turns out that many of my colleagues don't want to conduct the interview because they'll just end up punching Six in the face. So, I guess it's up to me now.

12:09: The movie fan community of Austin, Texas hates Lionsgate today. After securing the rights to the hotly anticipated home invasion horror movie You're Next, the studio has pulled the second screening and have attempted to cancel tonight's. Apparently, holding buzz screenings of their movie at one of the most enthusiastic film festivals in the world is not part of Lionsgate's game plan. Those not grumbling about Lionsgate are irked that the horror short film program has been stuck in one of the smaller theaters, limiting attendance.

1:15: I don't drink coffee, but I drink some anyway.

1:50: I end up interviewing not only Tom Six, but also Human Centipede II star Laurence Harvey. Once you look past the fact that they've made a movie where a deranged man staples people's mouths to other people's anuses, they're complete and total sweethearts who are enjoying their time at Fantastic Fest just as much as the average badge holder.

2:14: Apparently, Nacho Vigalondo went on a rant while participating in a panel discussing video game storytelling at the Fantastic Arcade, explaining that the popular mobile game Angry Birds is a vile game because the birds obviously represent terrorists, flying themselves into the structures of the pigs, who have no way of fighting back. I immediately regret missing this panel.

2:21: The FearNet free ice cream truck is back. Best. Advertising. Ever.

2:36: Part one of this journal goes online. I greedily tweet it.

2:40: I'm seated for my first film of the day, a French action film called Calibre 9. It's not my first choice—heck, it's not even my third choice—but when other films sell out, you've got to roll with the punches. Sometimes, the best film festival discoveries are the movies you stumble into entirely by accident, movies that you know nothing about from first-time filmmakers who come out of nowhere and blow you away, announcing the arrival of a new and important talent.

4:31: Oof. Calibre 9 is not that discovery. I quietly escape the theater before the Q&A with the director can begin. If I know how hard the man worked to get his (inventive but ultimately messy) movie made, I'll only feel terrible for not liking it. Basic human sympathy is going to be the death of me, I know it.

4:44: I run into a filmmaker friend whose short film screening was hampered by a busted speaker. He's heartbroken. This day isn't going well for anyone. I've decided to irrationally place the blame for everything that goes wrong squarely at the feet of Lionsgate.

5:12: The Fandango bags are back. I spy on them from behind the FearNet ice cream truck and formulate my escape plan.

5:46: I settle in for a repertory screening of the great An American Werewolf in London, which will be immediately be followed by a Q&A with pioneering make-up effects wizard Rick Baker, whose werewolf effects in the film are the stuff of legend. This is a special screening sponsored by the immensely popular "geek art boutique" Mondo, so everyone here has to pay a separate admission to get in…but that separate admission comes with a limited edition poster by the legendary Olly Moss.

7:55: Thirty years later, An American Werewolf in London holds up beautifully and seeing it on the big screen with a Fantastic Fest audience is revelatory. Where else would a crowd applaud the various kills and werewolf transformations as they happen?

8:10: This Rick Baker Q&A is amazing. I could listen to this genius talk about his craft for hours. The highlight is his story about how actor Griffin Dunne ripped the face off a meticulously designed werewolf puppet while filming his death scene, prompting a vengeful Baker to viciously attack him with the puppet on the next take.

8:30: I'm not an autograph hound by any means, but I would trample elderly women and babies to get Rick Baker to sign my new Olly Moss poster. Since there are no elderly women and babies at Fantastic Fest, I only have to trample my fellow sweaty nerds. I am victorious.

9:10: The third movie of the day is The Devil's Business. I note that the running time is only 75 minutes and my exhausted self rejoices. At this point of the day, any filmmaker who can keep his movie under two hours deserves a free beer and hug.

10:57: The Devil's Business is fine, but it's the kind of movie that would have been an incredible short film but has been expanded into an unwieldy feature. Outside, the crowd is buzzing for You're Next. Between the film's pedigree (director Adam Wingard and producer Keith Calder are Fantastic Fest veterans) and Lionsgate cutting the second showing, it has become the movie to see at Fantastic Fest 2011. Tickets are worth their weight in gold...meaning that they're worth about 1/20 of an ounce of gold. Because they're made of paper, you see.

11:01: I spot horror legend and You're Next star Barbara Crampton. I'm too nervous to say hi. She's prettier than I am.

11:43: With most everyone squeezed into the theater for You're Next, it's easy to find a great seat for A Lonely Place to Die. I scour the Drafthouse menu for caffeine.

1:37: A Lonely Place to Die is a British action film so well directed that I can't wait to see what director Julian Gilbey does with a script that isn't this generic. Sadly, I fall asleep for about two minutes towards the end of the film, missing the demise of a major character. I initially think his disappearance is a plot hole, but I am soon corrected...and then everyone makes fun of me for falling asleep.

DAY FOUR: SUNDAY

8:46 am: This is the day where things start to get rough. Everyone in line is asleep on their feet. The hot tickets today are the "Secret Screening" (the identity of which is, naturally, a secret) and Take Shelter, which will only be playing once.

9:01: Tickets to both of 'em are long gone. I've gone beyond tired and have entered a kind of film festival nirvana that would normally take two weeks of fasting on a Tibetan mountaintop to achieve.

9:58: I deliberately avoid friends so I can sit in dark corner of The Highball and work. I never drink coffee unless I'm nervously prepping to interview the Human Centipede II guys, but here I am, greedily guzzling it like the procrastinating blogger that I am.

10:14: Oh, Highball food. You are so very good and so very expensive. My bank account weeps tears of blood.

10:37: I reunite with a few friends and we head over to the Drafthouse. We talk about The Yellow Sea, one of the best films of the fest that absolutely no one is talking about. We all agree that it's a shame and I make a mental note to mention it again in this journal.

11:08: I know absolutely nothing about the German dark comedy Snowman's Land, but here I am, ready to watch it.

1:12: Remember when I wrote about discovering great films at festivals by accidentally stumbling into them with no expectations? Well, Snowman's Land is my great discovery of Fantastic Fest 2011 and quite possibly my favorite film of the year so far. A pitch black comedy in the vein of the Coen brothers, it's the kind of film that continuously takes things to dark, violent places, all the while daring you to laugh. Suddenly, I'm wide awake: nothing like a terrific movie to provide you with a second wind.

2:26: I meet a Twitter friend in real life and she buys me lunch at The Highball because she's a nice person and I like free food. While I eat a delicious stuffed avocado, the conversation at the table becomes a heated debate over the future of film distribution, particularly online streaming. As the lunch ends, we ponder the identity of the day's secret screening.

2:52: Still high from Snowman's Land, I settle in for the Belgian horror movie Two Eyes Staring. It's hard to screw up haunted house movies with creepy kid ghosts.

5:16: Two Eyes Staring screws up haunted houses and creepy kid ghosts. We emerge from the theater after what feels like three days. My exhaustion is back. Way to kill my buzz, Belgium. I vow to track down my friend who recommended this one to me and give him a good finger wagging.

5:21: Outside, I learn that cult horror filmmaker Don Coscarelli, the director of the Phantasm series and Bubba Ho-Tep, has quietly arrived at Fantastic Fest to present the first footage from his new film John Dies at the End before tonight's screening of Penumbra. I plan to be at that screening anyway, so I accept this as the Fantastic Fest gods personally apologizing to me for Two Eyes Staring.

5:36: Due to the machinations of movie blogger extraordinaire Scott Weinberg, I mange to snag a ticket to Take Shelter. I'm on a hot streak!

5:52: The Take Shelter screening has been delayed for thirty minutes due to "technical difficulties." Hot streak over.

6:18: There are many, many reasons for you to have friends. They provide you with someone to talk to and a shoulder to cry on, but most importantly, they save you a decent seat when you are the very last person to arrive in the theater for the sold out screening of Take Shelter.

8:49: I am blown away by Take Shelter. As a man having nightmares about the imminent end of the world, Michael Shannon gives one of the best performances of the year (and easily the best performance seen at Fantastic Fest). In a festival filled with horror movies, this unsettling drama is the scariest film I've seen all week. I walk outside with the film firmly lodged under my skin. I don't expect it to leave anytime soon.

8:52: On a lighter note, a drunken friend stumbles up to me and declares that he's prepared to kill someone if it means getting to see Don Coscarelli. I love that I'm attending a film festival filled with people who know who Don Coscarelli is and would commit murder to see him.

9:02: It turns out that today's secret screening was the latest from Pedro Almodovar, The Skin I Live In. I corner Fantastic Fest PR whiz Ryan Fons and inquire towards the identity of the next secret screening. He looks over his shoulder and silently motions to my pen and notebook. I hand them over and he writes something down. I greedily snatch my notebook back and take a look. He's written: "It's a movie." Well played, sir. Well played, indeed.

9:33: I'm seated for Penumbra and Don Coscarelli is on stage, talking about how John Dies at the End is the strangest film he's ever been involved in, which is saying a lot, coming from the man who made Phantasm. He discusses his cast, naming Paul Giamatti (big cheers), Clancy Brown (bigger cheers) and Doug Jones, the actor best known for his movement work in movies like Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. Like clockwork, Jones appears from out of nowhere and the crowd goes nuts.

9:50: The footage and the teaser trailer for John Dies at the End look pretty nifty and the crowd loves it, but now it's time for an Argentinean thriller from the director of the SXSW hit, Cold Sweat.

10:28: Bored to tears by the dearth of anything happening on screen, Penumbra is the first Fantastic Fest film that I feel comfortable escaping to use the restroom.

11:18: Okay, I'll eat crow—after its painfully slow first half, Penumbra gets really cool in its second half. The slow burn is necessary for the climax to have the impact that it does, but that's only obvious in retrospect. This is a sad case where the first seems to lose a lot of the audience, who aren't prepared to hold out hope for a payoff.

11:31: I'm asked to introduce the film Rabies since the person who was supposed to do it is in a screening. I politely decline, citing shyness.

11:34: Well, I've officially been talked into introducing Rabies.

11:51: I chat with Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, the directors of Rabies, whom I had previously met a few days ago (see part one of this journal!). I make sure I can pronounce their names (I can) and I ask them if they're enjoying their time in Austin (they are). While most out-of-towners have been complaining about Texas weather all week, these guys can't stop raving about it, saying that it's a wonderful break from Israel's punishing heat. "I went for a two hour walk this morning because it was so nice!" Aharon exclaims. I love these guys. I sure hope their movie is good.

12:08: My introduction goes off without a hitch and the filmmakers take the stage to tell the audience how hard it is to be horror fans in a country that doesn't respect the genre and how ecstatic they are to be at Fantastic Fest. Seeing two guys from the other side of the world this happy to be here kinda' puts everything in perspective and makes any problems I've encountered over the past few days feel small. It's probably the most joyful humbling I've ever experienced.

1:44: I breathe a sigh of relief: Rabies is fantastic, a slasher horror film structured like a comedic farce, combining blood and laughs in equal measure. In a few days, Navot and Aharon are flying back to Israel to start filming their next movie. I ask them to make it a good one so I can see it at Fantastic Fest 2012.