19 hours and counting until my favorite weekend of the year arrives. That’s right, Horrorfest is back for it’s third year to warm the hearts of die hard gore and thrill seekers across the country. In case you haven’t heard of it, Horrorfest is an annual film festival featuring carefully selected supernatural and psycho killer flicks that were produced in the past year but never released. They are chosen based on originality, thrill factor, and the fact that they were too disturbing to release to the general public.

This one week event has grown increasingly popular with each year, and the creators have expanded the venue to include script writing, short film, and even Miss Horrorfest contests. Despite the onset of a potential cult following, the San Francisco Bay Area has dwindled each year in it’s theatre offerings. Each year my long-time friend, Jessie, who is also a fellow horror buff and my partner script writer, joins me for a weekend filled with back-to-back films from our favorite genre. It is our ritual to select a different theatre for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, each of which consists of viewing three movies with drinks and snacks in between. We have a strick rule of no other guests and we spend the breaks analyzing and critiquing the film.

This year, as we anxiously checked the web site for movie synopses, trailers, and theatre listings, we were appauled to find that only two theatres anywhere in the bay area are housing the festival! One in San Jose and one in Daly City, both of which are 45 minutes to 1 hour away. Even San Francisco has nothing to offer! It is absolutely ludacris. And to think that SF and Berkeley are known for artistic expression and originality. Regardless of how repulsive you may find them, it must be admitted that horror is indeed an art form.

Nevertheless, we shall overcome. Tomorrow we will leave our respective offices early to drive to San Jose where each day three new films will (hopefully) frighten us like never before. I will have a full report for you next week. And know that one day a film that we wrote will be released at, if not Horrorfest itself, a festival much like this one.

The other day I was next door talking to a friend in another department and I asked if she had any snacks. She told me that they can’t keep food at their desks anymore because there are rats in the office! Maybe she said mice, but still, so freaky! Apparently, people were finding boxes of crackers and bags of cookies with little holes chewed through them. Even food stored in the upper cabinets was being targeted, which made me wonder how the mice climb up there… But anyway, maintenance came and put mouse traps under their desks. I’m pretty sure I would not want a mouse trap under my desk - it’s real funny until someone loses a toe.

So I’m totally freaked out now. I work in another building, technically, but it’s connected to the infested one, so how long before the mice make it over to my cubicle? It was at this point that I began to hear the faint cries of a very sick and hungry animal under my desk (no, I’m not making this up). Paralyzed with fear, I kept calling people over to hear the noise, but, oddly, it never happened when others were around. This went on for over an hour until I was physically jumping out of my cube, yelling “THERE ARE MICE UNDER MY DESK!”

My meltdown finally ended when a colleague confessed to rigging one of those moo boxes with a string and hiding it under my desk. Every few minutes he would pull the string and create the sick animal sound at the back corner of my cube. Dane, if you are reading this, you will pay!