Fantasia 2012: Thursday - Of course my passport is right.... here?

The second worst time to discover that your passport is missing is fifteen minutes before your friends arrive to pick you up and begin your trip. (The worst time to discover your passport is missing is ten minutes before crossing the border.) I only use my passport once a year, and for months it was stored on my painting desk. I was so confidant that I knew where it was that it was the last thing I packed for my trip to Fantasia. Three hours went by as Juliet, Tony, and I tore apart my office and bedroom, and eventually the rest of the house. Tony phoned the State Dept and found out there was an office in St. Alban's VT that did expedited passports. And so that's how I found myself in a car speeding towards Canada, with no passport in hand, hoping that I wouldn't be spending my weekend enjoying the quaint charm of St. Alban's. I picked up a passport picture and filled out my paperwork. Would it take one day to get in? Two? There was nothing to do but check back in a few hours, to determine the fate of my weekend. We had at a great Mexican restaurant, the hostess brought us some ghost chili salsa. We sang it's praises to the waitress, and the cook emerged from the kitchens to talk about peppers and sauces. He also gave us an unfiltered container of ghost chili, four times as potent as what we just ate.

Three hours after handing in my form, I crossed into Canada bearing a shiny new passport.

We stopped in at Rachel's house and stretched our legs after the trip. Then it was time to begin our immersion into some fine genre cinema.

Toad Road World Premiere. A group of kids in York PA (my home town!) spent their days partying too hard with little to look forward to. James' girlfriend Sarah begins to enter their drug fueled world, but has a deeper spiritual reaction to her experiences. She wants James to accompany her down Toad Road, a local urban legend about seven gates that lead you into Hell. They embark on their journey, and reality quickly begins to unravel with each gate they pass through. The film is in documentary style, and the supernatural element hovers around the edge, it's more The River's Edge than Blair Witch Project. The stars weren't proper actors, just friends that the director found while browsing Myspace. (Yes, it still exists). The director did a good job on a very low budget building suspense and atmosphere. My expectations were a bit high, and the movie didn't go in the direction that I wanted. but it's a film I would see again. 3/5 Stars.

A Night of Nightmares World Premiere. An interview with a music blogger goes wrong when the cute singer's stalker tracks her down at the isolated house she's staying in. Things get even stranger when the ghosts of the previous owners show up.
This is a nice old-fashioned ghost story, lots of gradual creepiness with a few shocks through in, and low on the blood content. You really feel engaged with the characters and feel their growing exhaustion and despair. In a world crowded with zombie and vampire movies, it's nice to see a well told ghost story. Now if they could only come up with a good werewolf movie...
Rating 3.5/5 stars.

After the movies we went to an awful Karaoke bar. The shots were cheap and plentiful, which helped me weather the night. I played a friend of Rachel's at pool. I got to hit the ball once before he ran the table on me. Apparently, he's semi-professional. Forest and Vanessa joined our party, and eventually the bar politely kicked us out. Sleep came quickly, one day of Fantasia down.