Just in case you avid readers think we’re all a bunch of bemoaning critics, here’s a bit of news to promote creativity. Ain’t It Cool News has details of a competition for the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas (it also happens to be an amazing music festival too). In the spirit of forthcoming nostalgic gorefest Grindhouse, directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, budding filmmakers are asked to enter mock trailers for their own fictional horror/slasher flicks.

And what’s best about it is that Robert Rodriguez will be judging, with the most impressive (i.e. sickest) entries being screened at the festival. Well, they do ask to Keep Austin Weird. Although the mock trailers in Grindhouse are unavailable to view, here’s a few classic grind house trailers to wet your appetite… with blood!!!

Of course, this is all part of the elaborate buzz (saw) leading up to the release of Grindhouse, which will splatter onto cinema screens in April. And while Tarantino has pretty much spent his career reviving genre flicks with a dash of irony, footage like this does make me worry what the resurrection of such video nasties will drudge up from society.