The Telluride Horror Show‘s “Shelter-in-Place” Edition kicks off this week, running from October 15-18.
From the press release, “The festival welcomes actor Ted Raimi, who will host “Deathly Spirits”, a virtual cocktail hour offering viewers an opportunity to mix Ted’s drink recipes and engage with the genre favorite after the screening of his new short film “Red Light”. In addition, Telluride Horror Show alum and Colorado filmmakers Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei (Cam, 2018 Official Selection) will return to the festival with “Red Rum” (starring Christina Ricci) and a conversation about their Colorado episode for Sam Raimi’s “50 States of Fright”.
“The 2020 “Shelter-in-Place” Edition will also feature Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor Uncut, a NEON release and one of the most anticipated films of the year. This special screening will close out the festival on Sunday, October 18th at 7pm MST.
“With a few exceptions, most programs will be on-demand for the entire four days, so viewers can build their own at-home festival experiences. Viewers are encouraged to plan accordingly for scheduled events, including the Live Conversation with Max Brooks & Daniel Kraus, Deathly Spirits with Ted Raimi, 50 States of Fright: Red Rum + Live Conversation with Daniel Goldhaber & Isa Mazzei, and Fright or Wrong: Horror Trivia.”
SPECIAL EVENTS
Live Conversation with Max Brooks & Daniel Kraus
1PM MST, Saturday, October 17, 2020
Free & Open to the Public
Max Brooks
GUEST AUTHOR
Max Brooks is the author of World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide, Minecraft: The Island, and Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. His graphic novels include GI Joe: Hearts and Minds, The Extinction Parade, Germ Warfare: A Graphic History, and The Harlem Hellfighters. Brooks holds dual fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Modern War Institute at West Point.
Daniel Kraus
GUEST AUTHOR
Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling author. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Books of the Year, and he has won two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler) and has been a Library Guild selection, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Bram Stoker finalist, and more. The Living Dead, his newest release, is a posthumous collaboration with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s work has been translated into over 25 languages. He lives with his wife in Chicago.
Deathly Spirits with Ted Raimi
6PM MST, Saturday, October 17, 2020
(Open to festival passholders only)
1) Watch RED LIGHT, a new short film featuring Ted Raimi.
2) Make one or all of the deathly cocktail recipes provided by Ted Raimi.
3) At 6PM MST, with drink(s) in hand, join our virtual cocktail hour with Ted Raimi.
4) Live chat questions and slurred adorations will be accepted by Ted Raimi.
As an actor, Ted Raimi’s thirty-year career includes feature film credits Midnight Meat Train, Candyman, Shocker, Born Yesterday, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Grudge, Oz the Great and Powerful as well as the Spider-Man series of films. Television credits include DeadWax, Ash vs. the Evil Dead, Supernatural, Twin Peaks, CSI: NY, Xena: Warrior Princess, SeaQuest DSV and dozens of others.
50 States of Fright: Red Rum + Live Conversation with
Daniel Goldhaber & Isa Mazzei
6PM MST, Friday, October 16, 2020
(Open to festival passholders only)
Sam Raimi’s 50 States of Fright, available exclusively on Quibi, explores stories based on urban legends from each state, taking viewers deeper into the horrors that lurk just beneath the surface of our country. Telluride Horror Show alum Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei (CAM, 2018 Official Selection) return to the festival with their 50 States of Fright episode RED RUM (starring Christina Ricci), where a bunch of “influencers” descend on Colorado’s most haunted hotel and find themselves the victims of a bunch of spirits who just want to be left alone. Immediately following this special screening of RED RUM, join us for a live conversation with Daniel & Isa and hear more about their Colorado-based ghost story. 50 States of Fright: Red Rum program courtesy of Quibi.
Fright or Wrong: Horror Trivia
4PM MST, Sunday, October 18, 2020
(Open to festival passholders only)
Join hosts Brad McHargue & Becky Sayers for the first-ever virtual edition of Fright or Wrong Horror Trivia! Pour yourself a beer, hop on Zoom with your friends, and play along from the comfort of your own home. Allow Brad’s impossibly hard questions to ruin your day. Shake your fists at Becky’s weirdo slasher picks. And if you survive all this, you just might win a prize!
“CREEPY CAMPFIRE TALES” (Free & Open to the Public)
Take your screen outside, build a campfire or light some candles, and enjoy virtual “Creepy Campfire Tales” from guest authors Emily M. Danforth, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Alma Katsu and Paul Tremblay, filmed exclusively for the Telluride Horror Show “Shelter-in-Place Edition”.
Emily M. Danforth
GUEST AUTHOR
Emily M. Danforth’s debut (YA) novel, The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, was named to numerous “best book” lists, translated into half-a-dozen languages, and adapted into a Sundance award winning feature film of the same name. Emily’s second novel, Plain Bad Heroines – a meta-gothic-sapphic-romp of nested stories and so many killer yellow jackets – will be published by HarperCollins in October 2020.
Jeremy Robert Johnson
GUEST AUTHOR
Jeremy Robert Johnson is the author of the critically acclaimed Entropy in Bloom, In the River, and the breakthrough cult novel Skullcrack City. His latest novel, The Loop, is “unputdownable…fans of The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and Stranger Things will be especially thrilled” (Publishers Weekly). Jeremy’s fiction has been praised by countless publications and authors such as David Wong, Chuck Palahniuk and Jack Ketchum, and has appeared internationally in numerous anthologies and magazines.
Alma Katsu
GUEST AUTHOR
Alma Katsu writes novels that combine history and horror. Her latest are The Deep, a reimagining of the sinking of the Titanic, and The Hunger, a reimagining of the story of the Donner Party with a horror twist. The Hunger made NPR’s list of the 100 Best Horror Stories, was nominated for a Stoker and Locus Award for best horror novel, and recently won Spain’s Kelvin 505 award for Best Novel (translated). It also won the 2018 Western Heritage Award for Best Novel. Her first spy novel, Red Widow, will be published spring 2021.
Paul Tremblay
GUEST AUTHOR
Paul Tremblay is the award-winning and best-selling author of The Cabin at the End of the World, Growing Things and Other Stories, A Head Full of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and The Little Sleep. Stephen King found Paul’s new novel, Survivor Song, “absolutely riveting. I haven’t been able to put it down.” Paul is a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly.com, and numerous “year’s best” anthologies.
FEATURE FILMS
CLOSING NIGHT FILM: Possessor Uncut
7pm MST, Sunday, October 18, 2020
(open to festival passholders only)
Possessor Uncut
Canada/UK | 2020 | 103 min | Director: Brandon Cronenberg
From the visionary mind of writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, POSSESSOR is an arresting sci-fi thriller about elite, corporate assassin Tasya Vos. Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people’s bodies to execute high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her.
Anonymous Animals
France | 2020 | 64 min | Director: Baptiste Rouveure
A series of vignettes illustrating human captives being literally treated like animals by humanoid figures with animal heads – who or what exactly are these people?
Bloodthirsty
Canada | 2020 | 85 min | Director: Amelia Moses
A vegan singer songwriter goes to work on her second album with notorious music producer Vaughn Daniels. But as the album progresses, she starts to transform into a powerful beast with a thirst for blood, meat and the hunt.
Butchers
Canada | 2020 | 93 min | Director: Adrian Langley
WORLD PREMIERE
A family of sadistic butchers lives deep in the backcountry. From the dead of winter to the dog days of summer, anyone who crosses their path is dead meat.
Dark Stories
France | 2019 | 84 min | Directors: Guillaume Lubrano & François Descraques
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Zombies, aliens, ghouls, ghosts… Dark Stories only…
Faking A Murderer
Canada | 2020 | 96 min | Director: Stu Stone
U.S. PREMIERE
In search of their next hit series, filmmakers Adam Rodness & Stu Stone embark on an investigation to find a man they believe to be a serial killer. Are they in over their heads? Yes.
For the Sake of Vicious
Canada | 2019 | 81 min | Directors: Gabriel Carrer & Reese Eveneshen
For the Sake of Vicious stars Lora Burke as a nurse and single mother who returns from a late shift on Halloween to find a maniac hiding out with a hostage in her home. As a wave of violent intruders descend upon the neighborhood and lay siege, the nurse soon realizes the only way out of the situation is to become as violent as everyone else.
Hail to the Deadites
Canada | 2020 | 79 min | Director:Steve Villeneuve
Hail to the Deadites is a documentary about the fans of the Evil Dead franchise. Through interviews with cast, crew, collectors, fans, freaks and geeks, Hail to the Deadites seeks to illuminate the darkest reaches of the Evil Dead franchise’s undying and still-growing popularity – a popularity that has spawned four films, a TV series, comic books, figurines, and surpassed even its creator’s wildest dreams. Hail to the Deadites puts the spotlight on the fans that cultivated and spread this groovy pop-culture infection and celebrates those who’ve celebrated the films! Featuring interviews with Evil Dead franchise cast members Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Tom Sullivan, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Sarah Berry, Rick Domeier & Bill Moseley.
Retribution
USA | 1987 | 109 min | Director: Guy Magar
RESTORATION WORLD PREMIERE
From the annals of ’80s L.A. horror history comes this outrageous, gaudy tale of possession and dismemberment, complete with bizarre death scenes and glowing eyes, awash in eye-popping blasts of red and lime. On Halloween night, George wants to end it all – but doesn’t die after falling several stories to the ground. A green-hued force enters George, tormenting his dreams of a man brutally gunned down by faceless people. From there, RETRIBUTION takes several more shocking, “Tales From The Crypt”-worthy turns into the strange and inventive. Restoration world premiere courtesy of Severin Films and the American Genre Film Archive!
Reunion
New Zealand | 2020 | 95 min | Director: Jake Mahaffy
SCHEDULED PROGRAM
A pregnant woman returns to her recently-deceased grandparents’ old family home to spend time with her estranged mother. What begins as a tenuous reunion slowly turns terrifying. A psychological thriller that preys upon perception, Reunion sees veteran actress Julia Ormond deliver a tour-de-force performance of threateningly quiet intensity and features a twisty narrative that will burrow itself into the darkest corners of your mind.
Spare Parts
Canada | 2020 | 90 min | Director: Andrew Thomas Hunt
U.S. PREMIERE
In a godforsaken bar in the middle of nowhere, an all-girl punk band, Ms. 45, rips the stage apart with their punk spirit. Their performance impresses an enthusiastic fan who lures the girls into a trap, sedates them, and starts… customizing them. The four wake up with an axe, drill or chainsaw attached to one arm and are forced to fight gladiator-style, in an arena-style auto-wrecking yard for the amusement of the Emperor and his sadistic townsfolk. The women must now truly band together and use all of their talents if they’re going to get out alive.
The 100 Candles Game
New Zealand/Argentina | 2020 | 100 min
Directors: Victor Català, Brian Deane, Oliver Lee Garland, Guillermo Lockhart, Tony Morales, Nicolás Onetti, Nicholas Peterson, Daniel Rübesam, & Christopher West
WORLD PREMIERE
A group of friends must confront their fears in a terrifying game. They must sit by the other players in a circle made of a hundred candles, take one of them and tell a horror story. As stories are told and candles blown out, strange events will start to happen. They will feel strange presences around them, lurking in the shadows. But they MUST NOT leave the game or else a terrible curse will fall upon them…
The AGFA Horror Trailer Show
USA | 2020 | 80 min | Director: Miss N. Limbs
Visit the drive-in from dimension X! Unleashed from the dungeon of AGFA (the American Genre Film Archive), these are the most spine-ripping, slime-slinging, soul-shredding horror trailers in our arsenal. Meticulously constructed by AGFA’s mad scientists to resemble an otherworldly night at the movies under the stars, this mix features a plethora of material unseen since the films’ original releases. From the vaults of the American Genre Film Archive!
The Columnist
Netherlands | 2019 | 84 min | Director: Ivo van Aart
In this darkly funny horror film, Katja Herbers plays columnist and writer Femke, who is flooded with (anonymous) nasty messages and death threats on social media. One day she is completely done with it and decides to take revenge…
The Oak Room
Canada | 2019 | 90 min | Director: Cody Calahan
U.S. PREMIERE
During a raging snowstorm, a drifter (RJ Mitte) returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender (Peter Outerbridge) by telling him a story, the night’s events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.