The Edgar Allen Pom
1 1/2 oz. cognacPour it all into a sneaky receptacle and enjoy. My favorite sneaky receptacle for film festivals and arthouses is the reusable water bottle since it's such a common and versatile accessory. As long as your drink isn't opaque, it's nearly impossible to tell that it's not water once the move starts. The aluminum ones are my favorite because you can sneak anything you want in and people will just think you are eco-conscious and well-hydrated, not a comestible-smuggling malcontent.
1 1/2 oz. pomegranate schnapps
12 oz soda water
The cognac is for the cognac placed at Poe's grave every year by the mysterious Poe Toaster (when I first saw that term in print I thought/hoped it was an appliance), and the pomegranate schnapps is for the food of cheating death. You can adjust it to taste, obviously, but do not skimp on the soda water -- drinking cognac and schnapps all through a double feature is a good way to wind up dead in the street wearing someone else's clothes.
Speaking of winding up dead in the middle of the road, Albino Farm made me and the poor friend sitting next to me very glad there was a tight-fitting lid on my drink. Jesus H. Christ, that was a well-made and terrifying movie, and I jumped off the seat on numerous occasions. Albino Farm is a great example of what makes a good Stephen King story scary: It takes something relatively normal and expected and slowly spins it out to monstrous proportions.
In this case, four mismatched college students are sent out to document rural life and end up making fun of the yokels while tracking down a whispered local legend that's never fully explained. It becomes increasingly clear that the in the small town where the students end up, everyone is a) weirdly but harmlessly religious and b) has some sort of physical irregularity or disability. These are the things we are taught as children to never mention in conversation, to try not to think about at all so that people aren't excluded because of some surface difference.
Albino Farm was so suspenseful and terrifying because it was restrained. Sure, there are plenty of gruesome scenes through which even I wouldn't keep munching a chimichanga, but far more is accomplished with sound, disorientation, and the basic human fear of being in the dark than with the excellent makeup effects. One of the more interesting choices the director made was using a mix of actors who were obviously wearing prostheses with those who have what appear to be actual physical differences à la Tod Browning's Freaks.
Check back Thursday for part two of the Sneak's weekend at the St. Louis International Film Festival.
Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits (from an undisclosed location) every Monday or sometimes Tuesday. Sneaks are sneaky that way.
