Ok, so where were the vampires? Last year had way more people dressed up and this year it seems like everyone was dressed as zombies. I'm not against people dressing up as zombies but it would have been nice to get some variety. I felt that Saturday was a stronger night of film and the shorts-block at 7pm was probably the best block of the festival. That was the block I had been promoting the most. However I was joined by several people, many of whom lasted through all 3 blocks which was great. In my opinion "Zombie Jesus" alone was probably worth the price of admission. However "Cannibal Flesh Riot" was also excellent and at least of my companions picked it as the best of the night. I also enjoyed "Dead Resin" and I found it interesting to compare to Romero's "Diary of the Dead" (ie how do young people deal with a zombie outbreak when they have a video camera). "It Came From The West" was also great, especially in the sense of having never seen anything like it. I thought "Aces & Eights" was probably the weakest short, but interesting as it has a similar idea to "Wasting Away". A number of the other shorts were clever and as with the night before there was nothing that wasn't worth watching, though several I wouldn't be interested in watching again. I had only seen the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" once (at the Laurelhurst Theater). The original is a far superior movie but the first 10 minutes of the remake are really excellent. There are some really strong elements in the film and some really weak ones. It's never going to be a favorite of mine but it was fun seeing it with a number of people who had never seen it before. The final film, "Wasting Away" was definitely the best feature film of the festival. The concept was fairly well executed and I have no doubt the idea will pop up again in other films. Of course, one problem is that since the films protagonists were zombies there really wasn't that much in the way of zombie killing, of which a friend of mine is always critical. One thing I noticed was the diverse ages of the crowd which made me happy. It made me appreciate the fact that everyone can come to the film festival due to the lack of alcohol. Besides it's not like there aren't a number of places to get drinks near the theater during the breaks. If I had any suggestions for next year I think they would be that there should be 2 blocks of shorts and that those blocks should be padded by a few of the favorite short films from years past. Reading my experiences from last year I realize how much I'd like to see some of those films again. Perhaps the Zompire folks could take requests for favorites.