Adult Swim: Taking the FFAT (Fantastic Fest Aptitude Fest)

Fantastic Fest is a sci-fi and horror film festival, a makeshift video arcade, and a collection of really kooky parties and special events. The most recent edition of the festival ran from September 22-29, 2011, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. A typical day at the Fest looked something like this:

Noon: Watch a movie where Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo, plays a "sexy serial killer" who starts to fall in love with his latest victim until he learns that she's ALSO a sexy serial killer, and they proceed to beat the hell out of each other for the next 90 minutes. In 3D! Note: this is an actual movie called Julia X 3D!

3 pm: Spend countless hours at the "Fantastic Arcade" playing a game called "Jesus vs. Dinosaurs" in which Jesus travels back in time to kill all the dinosaurs because they're not in the Bible. But uh-oh, what's that jerk Charles Darwin up to?

6 pm: Tacos!

7pm — A Japanese lady has poop-covered zombies in her sights.

7 pm: Time for a Japanese movie called Zombie Ass, which is about poop-covered zombies. Naturally.

10 pm: Are you ready for some nerdy arguments? Rush over to the Knuckle Fantastic Debates, where a series of excitable festival attendees debate hot-button topics about geek culture before lacing up a pair of boxing gloves and settling their differences in the ring. For example: Is World Of Warcraft awesome or lame? Dominic Monaghan (the guy who played Merry in The Lord of The Rings, pro-WoW) and Elijah Wood (the guy who played Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, anti-WoW) finally resolve the issue with a good old-fashioned HOBBIT FIGHT.

This is the sort of stuff that happens at Fantastic Fest.

It's a unique event - sure, you see lots of stars at Comic-Con, but you don't see them box each other. You may be reading this now thinking, "I get to watch Frodo and Merry punch each other in the face? That's amazing! Sign me up!" Well, there's room for everybody at the Fest, but it's a good idea to be prepared for the sort of nuttiness that you're going to encounter. To help you get ready for next year's festival, we've put together a handy Fantastic Fest Aptitude Test.