I’m boycotting DEAD ISLAND, and you should too. I’m serious. Never in my life have I seen such a blatant use of false advertising to gain buzz for a product that is literally nothing like what was originally promised.

I am back from the grave (literally; had to lay a parent to rest). Personal pain, and my blogging absence, aside, over the past few weeks I joined THE NIGHT CREW, a terrific webcast created/hosted by follow Fango writers Sean Smithson and Thom Carnell (with a little backup from our editor, Mr. Alexander). When I was asked to contribute, my first words to “Butcher” Smithson were, “Can I talk about Westerns?” He may have scratched his head a second—then said “Yes!”

While Dutch writer/director Dick Maas’ SAINT (a.k.a. SINT) is not specifically a killer-Santa-Claus saga—it focuses on the even older, somewhat different European figure of St. Nicholas, a.k.a. “Sinterklaas”—the film initially sparked some of the same outrage that greeted SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT in the U.S. back in 1984. Societies devoted to protecting the beloved icon protested to the media, objecting just to the concept and poster before filming had even begun. The two movies’ situations diverged, however, once SAINT hit theaters in Holland.

Fantasia 2011 ending has left me pretty much devoid of purpose, and I have to admit I’ve been struggling quite hard to come up with words for these last write-ups. After taking a few days off, I decided to compile a short “short film highlights” article, which is criminally slim considering the amount of short film I could’ve—and probably should’ve—been watching during the festival. Per example, missing the annual Small Gauge Trauma collection was as big a journalistic misstep is it was a personal mistake, and would’ve added great content to this article.