On the fourth night of Austin’s SXSW Film Festival, fans got their first look at the wholly weird and strange and sad and rageful new Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way) movie Observe and Report. Seth Rogen plays a bipolar mall cop, but his illness thankfully isn’t employed as an easy joke. He’s just a deeply odd dude with an inflated sense of importance, a crew of sweet underlings, and an alcoholic kindly wreck of a mom at home. (The Austin crowd loved it. Not all crowds will. It’s weird. Paul Blart would probably walk out of this movie.)

The first question during the Q&A after the screening was not about the flaccid penis (not Rogen’s, incidentally) that played a pivotal role in the film’s climax, or the bizarre fact that mainstream Warner Bros. allowed such a dark comedy onto their plate, or the arguments that must have gone down during post-production over scenes that were just too troubling to stay put. No, the first question was some earnest idiot who stood up and wondered about the possibility of a Freaks and Geeks movie. Incidentally, at the previous Friday’s screening of I Love You, Man the actress Jamie Pressly was cut off while trying to answer a question about improvisation by a similarly hopeful young fellow who hollered out to Jason Segel about the need for a reunion.

Now I watched that entire series in one delirious sitting, breaking only to pee and drink, pee and drink. Linda Cardellini was like a much cooler version of my childhood idol Jo from The Facts of Life. But all you freaks and geeks out there aren’t helping your cause by acting goofy. Speaking today about Freaks fans’ sometimes inappropriately timed bursts of devotion, Rogen expressed amused patience. "It’s nice, it’s nice," he said. "I’m sure they’ll keep asking. And the fact that they’re doing an Arrested Development reunion movie doesn’t help us. They’ve given people hope!" Alas, no plans are in the works as of now. So we all might as well start trying to enjoy the actual entertainment in front of us. And when a lady is talking, don’t interrupt!

What do you think? Do you think the guy who asked the Freaks question was a champion or a boob? What pop culture favorite can you not let go of? For my ladies, did you too try to make two mini ponytails converge into one larger ponytail a la Jo when you were growing up?

On Day 3 of Austin’s SXSW Film Festival, horror fans converged at the beautiful Paramount Theater for the midnight screening of Sam Raimi’s unfinished cut of Drag Me to Hell. Would that I went to every movie with this crowd. People came ready to love. When Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles, in orange Hawaiian shirt and lime green sneakers, wheeled out onto the stage to introduce Raimi, the audience members took to their feet at the mere mention of the Evil Dead director’s name. In between Spider-Man movies, Raimi had finally found time to return to his roots. Standing ovation. In his brief hello, Raimi came across like an endearing dork in a square black suit. He pratfalled as he walked across the stage, pretended to confuse his prepared speech with an eviction notice from the local Four Seasons Hotel, and then he got his tie purposely jumbled behind his glasses like a blindfold. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" he wondered. It was like watching your favorite uncle at Thanksgiving before he decides he ought to go nap.

As the curtains parted, a couple stray bats swooped circles up in the dimming lights and the crowd geek orgasmed. (Unlucky bats? Yucky promotional stunt?) The movie (in theaters May 29), starring Alison Lohman as a cursed bank loans officer (ha!), was funny and silly and smart and full of genuine screams that ended in happy snorts of disbelief. The delightfully gnarly death match in the parking garage between a crazy-eyed old gypsy and the delightfully cast Lohman should make one of EW’s inevitable future list of best fight scenes. IT WAS AWESOME. Standing ovation. Welcome back, Mr. Raimi.

Who out there is psyched for another Raimi horror film? Is there any way he could fail you? When will an old gypsy ever get to break typecasting and play the lead in a romantic comedy?