In the yesteryears before my Converse-sporting, “I (heart) Jason Schwartzman!” Wes Anderson days, I was a fan of a Ms. Gillian Anderson, had black Airwalks and an “I Want To Believe” poster. Yes, I was a mega-X-Phile, and when all the show’s writers left for “Buffy,” my heart sank and what remained was a meteor-sized crater.

What could ever fill this emptiness, you ask? For others in this situation, I highly recommend San Francisco’s annual Fearless Tales Genre Film Fest, taking place from March 29 to April 3.

The festival runs throughout each day at various theaters and covers a wide range of shorts and features. Specializing in horror, fantasy, noir and sci-fi, these films have no shortage of delightfully paranoid, incestuous, and sadistic characters.

The selection this year is eclectic and excellent. Most of the shorts are appetizing morsels for all kinds of palates. Just from the titles-”Teenage Bikini Vampire,” “Candy Snatchers,” “A Feast of Souls,” to name a few-you know what kind of movie you’ll get.

Miguel Gallego’s “The Crypt Club” and Mike Williamson’s “The Silvergleam Whistle” feel like made-for-TV campfire ghost stories, while others, like Brett Anstey’s “Atomic Spitballs,” would make Ed Wood proud. They aim to be B, which makes them all the more fun to watch.

Of the shorts, Sam Chen’s “Eternal Gaze”-which looks and feels as if Tim Burton had directed an animated Pixar film-stands out for its elegantly written and animated tribute to the life and work of artist Alberto Giacometti.

The features are of another diverse and chilling breed. “Malevolence,” an accelerating slasher film directed by Steven Mena, is an exercise in horror film suspense. While watching, you switch back and forth, from being just as scared as the victims to yelling at them for 1) splitting up, 2) investigating mysterious sounds, 3) going upstairs and 4) turning on a flashlight that only draws attention to them and limits their vision in the dark. It’s like these characters have never watched “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Halloween” before.

Of course, the killer is never caught, and like “Malevolence” all the films end while leaving the stories open to speculation. And to secure the appropriate feelings of unsettlement, the movies are flushed with distorted and dark filtered shots, atonal piano keys in the score, and rapid non-linear cuts from scene to scene.

As bizarre as each film is, none equal Miguel Coyula’s “Red Cockroaches” in confounding expectations. Set in a dismal New York City ravaged by acid rain and mutant blattodeas, Coyula spins a surreal story of the mystery surrounding two siblings and their unnatural desires. Half the fun is figuring out “Are they or aren’t they?” and the other half is trying to trying to make sense of what’s going on.

None of the filmmakers will tell you what the hell is going on, which is good if you like uncertainty but bad if you’re easily mentally exhausted. And in case you’re wondering who is behind these creations, the festival is selling tickets to a “Fearless Tales Filmmaker Party.”

The festival is doing everyone a great public service. It’s a relief to know that there is a safe haven where people can come together and watch people get gutted.

What other festival is gracious enough to let Ron Jeremy have another crack at acting by screening “Dead Meat,” in which the porn star terrorizes a group of cheerleaders, helped by a team of escaped convicts? Who knew Ron Jeremy had other talents?

For every conspiracy theorist, fan fiction reader and dreamer who has a taste for the surreal and macabre, this is the place to be.