I’ll be writing a little bit more about the unwisely dropped direct-to-DVD festival hit, “Trick ‘r Treat,” after I return from the con. That particularly includes what I gleaned from a trio of round robin interview things with writer-director Michael Dougherty and co-stars Lauren Lee Smith (“CSI”) and Brian Cox, definitely one of the toppermost of the poppermost, acting wise. Including Mr. Cox, all very personable folks, which never hurts in show bidness.

My reaction to the film was muted by my own tiredness, but I do think there is something there. Dougherty, a co-writer on the last couple of Bryan Singer superhero projects, has an outstanding eye for creepy beauty and he certainly brings human values and humor to his horror. However, the muddy acoustics of the hall drowned out much of the dialogue for me, and the impossibility of obtaining coffee at the convention center  in the evening dulled out much of my brain. (Why, oh why, Mrs. Fields, have you abandoned me this year?) The audience reaction was, as far as I could tell, divided between wild enthusiasm and muted nitpicking. More to come.

And now, a few other more high-profile movie related con related matters live from my horrifyingly small shoe box hotel room. Also, I wonder how long I can hold out without ever setting foot in the dreaded Hall H.

* Young ladies first. Anne Thompson attended the “Twilight” panel and lived to tell about it — even after paying one of those outrageous parking fees, I presume. She also has an efficient recap of the events of the 3-D panel featuring Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” “Tron” (which I didn’t much love the first time ’round), and Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” (I’m not a fan of the Zemickis CGI style either, but on a big enough screen, with enough motion-simulator effects, even a good-natured but kinda dull movie can be amazingly fun, as “Polar Express” proved.)

* “Avatar,” “Avatar, “Avatar.”

* “Kick-Ass” apparently pummeled it some major tuchas.

* Video of Johnny Depp’s surprise walk-on for the the “Alice in Wonderland” event with Tim Burton and Patton Oswalt. Can’t accuse the man of overstaying his welcome.

* At the risk of going meta, a Jeffrey Welles reader correctly nails it when he suggests that Film Threat founder Chris Gore, who started me out on the whole web movie writing thing, seems to be pimping for membership in the “Sons of Lee Marvin.”

The next post will be a movie moment of some sort. It’s Joss Whedon day at the con. The Browncoat inside me must get in line yesterday. It’s as serious as a Reaver attack.