Fantastic films captivate

Known as the largest genre film festival in the U.S., Fantastic Fest brought some of the best and brightest horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action movies from around the world to Austin, Texas for one week of fantastic thrills and events.

This year's edition took place Sept. 22-29 at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and The Highball. The festival housed filmmakers, directors, actors, geeks, fans and more all excited to see the 2011 film line-up. Between the long lines and screenings, festival-goers indulged in free ice cream from FEARnet's "Twisted Treats" truck and invoked carpal tunnel while playing the countless video games featured at the Fantastic Arcade.

There was a party at Pinballz Arcade, a rowdy romp of yelling disguised as karaoke, awards, a prom and even a hobbit vs. hobbit edition of KNUCKLE Fantastic Debates, where Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan debated then boxed over the PC game World of Warcraft. Here are some highlights and reviews of films I surveyed.

Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)

This messy sequel is the queasy, over-bearing, sweaty, vomit-inducing follow-up to writer and director Tom Six's shocking butt-to-mouth horror flick, The Human Centipede (First Sequence). How could Six have possibly outdone himself this time? Well, for starters he went Meta.

The black and white film starts by following the silent, greasy, stubby, bulgy-eyed, pot-bellied Martin through his daily routine as a parking lot attendant, watching Human Centipede on his laptop and attacking people on the way to their cars. If at any point during the film you start to feel less nauseous, you'll be reminded how revolting it is when Martin gently licks his dirty finger while heavily breathing, which he does often. His home life is disturbingly bizarre. His abusive mother calls on a pedophilic doctor to check in on Martin, who stays busy feeding his chattering pet centipede.

The awkward sexually tense relationship between Martin and the doctor is very unrealistic, but then again neither is a 12-person human centipede. Martin has a demented obsession with the film and even masturbates to it using a strip of sandpaper. If that image alone is too much to bear, viewers need not go further because it only gets worse – much, much worse. Horror lovers who weren't fazed by the first centipede complained it lacked gory imagery, so Six divulged the entire centipede- making process with gut- expulsing visuals that change the way you look at staple guns. Six traded extensive plot twists and turns used in the first film for an all-out gross-out spectacle. The rest of the film is so horrific and immoral, I'm not sure I even want to speak of it again. I would not call this a good horror flick, but it did exactly what it was supposed to do – shock and disgust its audience.

The Corridor

This Canadian psychological sci-fi thriller was among my favorites of the whole festival. It goes beyond the typical ‘cabin in the woods' thriller and boasts some wildly unexpected turns.

The film starts with an unsettling scene of an older woman face down in her own vomit in a house full of destroyed electronic devices. Frightened and unnerved, Tyler hid in the closet directly in front of his deceased mother. A group of Tyler's friends search the house and find him wild-eyed, wielding a knife and sputtering what seems to be nonsense. He attacks two of his friends leaving them in complete shock.

Tyler has clearly lost his marbles and no one can tell why or what has happened. The film fast-forwards a few years when Tyler is released from a mental facility and his four best friends meet him to scatter his mother's ashes near her cabin in the woods. The friends have grown apart, and are a little apprehensive of Tyler even though he seems controlled and tranquil on his prescribed meds.

This part of the film turned off many viewers because of the slow character build-up, but it is a necessary calm before the storm and gives you detailed insight to the characters' personal motivations.

While walking in the woods late at night, Tyler discovers some sort of watery, wavy, force- field-like wall of light and steps into it to discover it is some sort of abstract hallway. He's stunned with his discovery and convinces his best friend Chris to see the manifestation. The others follow them and they all find the marvel together. Tyler is grateful at first that he is not crazy, that his friends can see this phenomenon, but their experience begins to change them in unpredictable ways more dangerous than they ever expected.

From this part onward, the film is a psychological mind- screw weaving reasonable outcomes with abnormal reactions and outrageous deeds. The progression of the corridor's effect festers inside and makes you question how you would respond to its calling.

The Day

An irritating thing most post-apocalyptic movies share is a lengthy exposition on how the world fell apart. This American film does a great job of letting you know very little about the preceding apocalypse – only what you need to – because it is more realistic for characters not to discuss the events considering they already lived them.

We follow five wandering survivors with a dwindling bullet count. One survivor is ill, and with an approaching storm on its way the group takes shelter in an abandoned farmhouse. To be stationary puts them in high risk of being discovered by others.