And so it was. Mad Detective was strange and beautiful, though I wondered throughout what the title character - who sees the inner selves of people he comes in contact with, rather than their external selves - would see if he looked in a mirror; and seeing as how he died surrounded by them, I felt a little robbed. Ex Drummer was a work of concentrated evil so vile that I actually not only shut off my emotional response to the images on screen, but my intellectual one as well; the result was like watching a hypnotic flashing light for two hours, and not entirely unpleasant at that. And À l'intérieur was worthy of the highest compliment I can give it: it outshone last year's closing Midnight Madness for its sheer sick, twisted fuckedupedness. What is with the French? Honestly.

We lined the front of the house; I brought the rum. There was Colin and a beach ball and the girl who shares the festival's name, and Matty Price on allergy medication and a couple of Sheitan call backs and my pirate socks.

It's done now.

The best of the fest: XXY

So close: Juno

Otherwise great: Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Une Vielle Maitresse, Chaotic Ana, Sukiyaki Western Django

Solidly good: Persepolis, Shoot 'Em Up, Frontiere(s), Control, Chacun son cinema, Mongol, Nothing is Private, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Vexille, Stuck, Naissance de pieuvres, Cassandra's Dream, Encounters at the End of the World, Dr. Plonk, Angel, Smiley Face, Terra, Weirdsville, DAINIPPONJIN, La Citadelle Asiegee, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Mad Detective, A l'Interieur

Acceptable: Glory to the Filmmaker, Diary of the Dead, Chansons d'amour, The Orphanage, Princess of Nebraska, La Fille Coupee en Deux, Flash Point, Gone with the Woman, Hollywood Chinese, Son of Rambow

Unacceptable: Pink, The World Unseen, Chrysalis, The Exodus, Operation Filmmaker, Very Young Girls, The Tracey Fragments

Awful: Mother of Tears, Reclaim Your Brain, L'Age des Tenebres

Horrific: Ex Drummer

I make my count 51, and objections must be filed in box 37.

It's late, dark, and cold, and I won't sleep for hours. To every single person I shared this experience with over the past ten days, up to and including the staff of Burrito Boyz, you have my love, cheers, and thanks.