What is the only thing that can possibly make a beautiful Colorado mountain town in the middle of fall color change even better? Oh, I don’t know, how about a kick-ass horror film festival featuring 20 films and a slew of live-action and animated shorts? Telluride Horror Show is a unique, one-of-a-kind film fest that every horror fan should experience at least once in their lives.
The town of Telluride is incredibly enchanting and picturesque. Famous for its skiing and its celebrity residents or former residents (Tom Cruise once owned a $50 million mansion here), Telluride is a lot more laid back and down-to-earth than you’d expect. The residents and workers are tremendously friendly and the town has so much to offer in terms of shopping, food, bars, etc. And no lie, during our three days there, my wife and I saw two large bears roaming near the gondola station and a herd of around 60 elk on the move about a mile from town. Incredible!
The event organizers do a great job programming the 3-day event, ensuring that festival-goers can get to most of the films without much conflict. Two of the theaters, the Sheridan Opera House and the Nugget Theatre are centrally located in the heart of town. Built around the turn of the century, these beautiful old-timey venues (the Sheridan in particular) are the perfect setting for a marathon of creature features. The third, and largest venue, is the state-of-the-art Palm Theatre located in the Telluride School District. These theaters did a great job accommodating everyone who wanted to see their film of choice.
Throughout the weekend, there was also plenty to do outside of the movie-watching. Friday saw an ice cream social, a campfire scary story telling session, and a karaoke session to cap the day off at the Sheridan. Saturday had a cinematic VR experience with the short film Delusion: Lies Within, a book signing with authors Jeremy Robert Johnson and Paul Tremblay, and a very tasty pig roast barbecue dinner for pass holders. (The food was excellent, by the way.) Sunday was host to a game of horror trivia and a “Last Call” send off to the weekend at the Last Dollar Saloon. And if you needed a keepsake to remember the weekend by, the festival’s store (located in the Sheridan) had a wide array of Telluride Horror Show swag, along with general horror merch, to choose from.
In addition to attending the pig roast, campfire tales, and karaoke (sadly, I just missed out on the ice cream social), I was able to make it to five screenings. It was incredibly difficult narrowing the choices down to just five. Some films that were getting a lot of buzz coming into (and out of) the festival that I had considered were Cam (with screenwriter Isa Mazzei in attendance), Open 24 Hours from director Padraig Reynolds, Terrified from director Demián Rugna, The Dark from director Justin P. Lange, and The Guilty from director Gustav Möller. Ultimately, I settled on Anna and the Apocalypse from director John McPhail (a Scottish Christmas zombie musical), The Head from director Jordan Downey (you can read my review here), You Might Be The Killer with director Brett Simmons in attendance (a hilarious meta homage to 80s slasher and horror films), and Lords of Chaos from director Jonas Åkerlund (a look at the violent birth of Norwegian Black Metal in the early 90s and the subsequent fallout from it starring Rory Culkin).
The highlight of the weekend may have been the 30th Anniversary screening of the classic campy horror film Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The evening began with a surprise appearance from one of the Klowns, recreating the infamous shadow puppet scene. After a brief introduction from director Stephen Chiodo, the film began and the spirited crowd (many in clown costumes) went wild.
Chiodo then re-emerged after the film for a Q & A session. Some interesting tidbits that he relayed to the audience:
- The concept came from Stephen. The idea of a clown driving down the road next to you, or simply being somewhere a clown shouldn’t be, gave birth to the story.
- The character Mike Tobacco was based on a real guy that the Chiodo brothers knew growing up. And yes, he did own a raft.
- The effects cost the brothers virtually nothing, as they called in favors from industry friends to help with them.
- The Klown Kar gag was the most expensive, as they had to shoot it twice. The first attempt was poorly lit and the second was too bouncy. They went with the first.
- They only had enough money for one recognizable actor, so they went with John Vernon for the Sgt. Mooney role. Chiodo said Vernon was great to work with and looked after him when the crew was “giving him shit.” Vernon also came up with the idea of getting squirted twice by the flower.
Overall, the weekend was a whole hell of a lot of fun. Being able to see independent horror films in a packed theater with big-time horror fans is a real treat. I realize that getting to Telluride isn’t the easiest thing to do, but I would strongly suggest to all aficionados of the genre that they make a point to do it at sometime in their life. The dates for next year’s tenth anniversary of the Telluride Horror Show have already been announced (Oct. 11th-13th). I’m sure the festival organizers will have something grand planned for the momentous occasion!
All photos courtesy of Mary Pacheco Photography
