Telluride Horror Show: 2021 Program Revealed, 10/15 – 10/17!

05 Oct Telluride Horror Show: 2021 Program Revealed, 10/15 – 10/17!

Telluride Horror Show announced the full program for its 12th film festival, October 15-17, 2021 in Telluride, Colorado. Three-Day Passes are almost sold out for the weekend. Visit the online box office for details.

3-Day Passes include access to all films and a number of Special Events, including Fright or Wrong Horror Trivia, the Ice Scream Social, Pig Roast, Folked Up Party, and Last Call at the Last Dollar. The festival also offers free events, open to the public, including the 2021 Horror Summit, Vinegar Syndrome Booth, and Creepy Campfire Tales featuring guest authors Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, and Jeremy Robert Johnson.

ANTLERS will close out the weekend at the Palm Theatre, providing attendees with an opportunity to see the highly-anticipated release from Searchlight Pictures, Producers Guillermo del Toro, David S. Goyer and J. Miles Dale, and Director Scott Cooper (Hostiles, Crazy Heart). The film stars Keri Russell (The Americans, Waitress) and Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad, Fargo).

In addition to ANTLERS, Telluride Horror Show has programmed an international line-up of films from 18 countries along with a roster of genre authors including Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, and Jeremy Robert Johnson.

For the first time in two years, festival organizers will greet horror fans in person.

“We’re beyond grateful to be able to welcome our attendees back to Telluride, from all over the country – with a high energy film line-up that includes long-time festival alumni and talented newcomers,” said festival director Ted Wilson. “We couldn’t be more excited to be offline and back in the mountains, with a ravenous bunch of diehard horror fans.”

Please read on for the full line-up and other details.

GUEST AUTHORS:

Stephen Graham Jones
GUEST AUTHOR

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections, and there’s some novellas and comic books in there as well. Stephen’s been an NEA recipient, has won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction, the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, three Bram Stoker Awards, four This is Horror Awards, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. He’s also made Bloody Disgusting’s “Top Ten Horror Novels” and is the guy who wrote Mongrels and The Only Good Indians. His latest is My Heart is a Chainsaw. Stephen is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English, as well as a Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado Boulder. Stephen Graham Jones joins the Telluride Horror Show as a guest author and will participate in a public reading, conversation, and book signing.

Paul Tremblay
GUEST AUTHOR

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of Survivor Song, Growing Things, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the forthcoming The Pallbearers’ Club, along with the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family. Paul Tremblay returns to the Telluride Horror Show as a guest author and will participate in a public reading, conversation, and book signing.

Jeremy Robert Johnson
GUEST AUTHOR

Jeremy Robert Johnson is the author of The Loop, Skullcrack City, In the River, and Entropy in Bloom. His fiction has been praised by The Washington Post and Publishers Weekly, authors such as David Wong, Chuck Palahniuk and Jack Ketchum, and has appeared internationally in numerous anthologies and magazines. A long-time member of the Telluride Horror Show family, Jeremy is “a defining name within the [bizarro] genre. His work is most aptly described as a mixture of all these things — thrillers that become bloodbaths, horrors that blend into fantasies, and apocalypses that transcend into high art” (Los Angeles Review of Books). You can find Jeremy on the internet, unless he’s hiding out and writing more books. Jeremy Robert Johnson returns to the Telluride Horror Show to host a conversation with fellow guest authors Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay and will participate in a public reading and book signing.

FEATURES

Alone With You

USA | 2021 | 83 min | Directors: Emily Bennett & Justin Brooks
IN PERSON: Emily Bennett (Director/Lead Actor), Justin Brooks (Director)
As a young woman painstakingly prepares a romantic homecoming for her girlfriend, their apartment begins to feel more like a tomb when voices, shadows, and hallucinations reveal a truth she has been unwilling to face.

Antlers

USA | 2021 | 99 min | Director: Scott Cooper
CLOSING NIGHT FILM

From the visionary world of acclaimed director Scott Cooper and horror maestro Guillermo del Toro comes ANTLERS. In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher (Keri Russell) and her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons) become embroiled with her enigmatic student (Jeremy T. Thomas) whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them. Based on the short story “The Quiet Boy” by Nick Antosca. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, David S. Goyer, and J. Miles Dale. From Searchlight Pictures, in theaters October 29.

Black Friday

USA | 2021 | 84 min | Director: Casey Tebo
On Thanksgiving night, a group of disgruntled toy store employees begrudgingly arrive for work to open the store at midnight for the busiest shopping day of the year. Meanwhile, an alien parasite crashes to Earth in a meteor. This group of misfits led by store manager Jonathan (Bruce Campbell) and longtime employee Ken (Devon Sawa) soon find them themselves battling against hordes of holiday shoppers who have been turned into monstrous creatures hellbent on a murderous rampage on Black Friday.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion

USA | 2021 | 104 min | Director: Jacob Gentry
For three years, James (Harry Shum Jr.) has been haunted by his wife’s sudden and inexplicable disappearance. His best distraction is work—specifically, archiving old videos. While watching decade- aged TV news footage one night, he sees a video interference that’s deeply disturbing. And it’s not the only interference he’ll see. As his obsession over these strange clips increases, and he submerges himself into their mysteries, James discovers troubling connections to his missing wife. What will these broadcast intrusions bring him, though: long-desired answers or a never-ending nightmare?

Hellbender

USA | 2021 | 82 min | Directors: Toby Poser, Zelda Adams & John Adams
IN PERSON: Toby Poser, Zelda Adams & John Adams
There will be hell to pay when a lonely teen discovers her family’s ties to witchcraft. The family behind “The Deeper You Dig” (2019 Telluride Horror Show) return with their latest feature film!

Let the Wrong One In

Ireland | 2021 | 101 min | Director: Conor McMahon
Matt is a little too nice for his own good. When he discovers that his older, estranged brother Deco has turned into a vampire, he’s faced with a dilemma: Will he risk his own life to help his sibling, with blood being thicker than water? Or will he stake him before he spreads the infection further? The film stars upcoming Irish talent Karl Rice and Eoin Duffy, along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer icon Anthony Head, in the role of Henry; a taxi driver with a sideline in vampire hunting. From the director of “Stitches” (2012 Telluride Horror Show).

Mad God

USA | 2021 | 84 min | Director: Phil Tippett
Special Introduction by Jon Davison (producer of Robocop & Starship Troopers)
Follow the Assassin through a forbidding world of tortured souls, decrepit bunkers, and wretched monstrosities forged from the most primordial horrors of the subconscious mind. Every set, creature, and effigy in Phil Tippett’s macabre masterpiece is hand-crafted and painstakingly animated using traditional stop-motion techniques. MAD GOD is a labor of love, a testament to the power of creative grit, and an homage to the timeless art of stop-motion animation. Founder of Tippett Studios, Tippett is a pioneer in the Animation and Visual Effects Industry. His career has spanned over 45 years and includes two Academy Awards®, six nominations, one BAFTA award, two Emmys, and the prestigious Winsor McCay and Georges Méliès awards. Tippett’s work covers nearly every major milestone in modern visual effects history, from the now iconic creatures in Star Wars, to the revolutionary marriage of computer technology with stop motion on films such as Robocop, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, and the giant swarming insects in Starship Troopers.

Offseason

USA | 2021 | 83 min | Director: Mickey Keating
IN PERSON: Mickey Keating (Director), Valerie Krulfeifer (Editor)
After receiving a mysterious letter, a woman travels to a desolate island town and soon becomes trapped in a nightmare. From the director of “Darling” (2015 Telluride Horror Show) and “Psychopaths” (2017 Telluride Horror Show).

Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It

Kazakhstan | 2020 | 84 min | Director: Yernar Nurgaliyev
When three losers go on their first fishing trip together, in a van filled with sex dolls and optimism, they witness inept gangsters accidentally blowing someone’s head off. In the wrong place at the wrong time, the losers are hotly pursued by the mobsters, but things get worse when a one-eyed man, skilled with knives and his fists, joins the fray and begins to pick both parties off one by one. With nobody to rescue them, what twisted fates and bodily injury will greet our heroes and villains?

Take Back the Night

USA | 2021 | 90 min | Director: Gia Elliot
IN PERSON: Gia Elliot (Director)

When a local artist is violently attacked in downtown LA, her family, friends, and the authorities rush in to support her. Her memory of the attack is fragmented, but there are loose ends that haunt her. Loose ends that support a theory her attacker was more than human, that her attacker was a monster. But as Jane tugs on the threads looking for answers, she alienates her supporters. When the monster comes back to finish what it started and Jane becomes convinced what she is seeing is real, she launches a vigilante attack to kill the beast before it can kill her. As her efforts intensify, her troubling history of drug use and mental illness bubbles to the surface, causing everyone to question the authenticity of her account. Suddenly alone in her fight, Jane starts to doubt her own memory of the attack… to doubt if the monster exists at all.

The Exorcism of God

USA/Mexico/Venezuela | 2021 | 98 min | Director: Alejandro Hidalgo
After being possessed by a demon he was trying to expel, Father Peter Williams, an American priest working in Mexico, commits the most terrible sacrilege. Eighteen years later, the consequences of his sin come back to haunt him, unleashing the greatest battle against the evil within.

The Feast

UK | 2021 | 93 min | Director: Lee Haven Jones
Shot entirely in the Welsh language, “The Feast” follows a young woman serving privileged guests at a dinner party in a remote house in rural Wales. The assembled guests do not realize they are about to eat their last supper.

The Sadness

Taiwan | 2021 | 89 min | Director: Rob Jabbaz
IN PERSON: Rob Jabbaz (Director)
After a year of combating a pandemic with relatively benign symptoms, a frustrated nation finally lets its guard down. This is when the virus spontaneously mutates, giving rise to a mind-altering plague. The streets erupt into violence and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things they can think of. Murder, torture, rape and mutilation are only the beginning. A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try to reunite amid the chaos. The age of civility and order is no more. There is only “The Sadness.”

The Spine of Night

USA | 2020 | 94 min | Directors: Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King
IN PERSON: Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King (Directors), Will Battersby (Producer)
This epic fantasy tale, about the history of a land that never was, begins when an ambitious young man steals forbidden knowledge from a sacred plant. He falls to its darker temptations and in so doing, unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. As his power grows over the years, it falls to people of different ilk and culture to attempt to stop him. Among those who stand against him are a daring tomb- robber, star-crossed lovers, a maniacal necromancer, winged assassins, and an undying guardian. Featuring the voice talents of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, Joe Manganiello, Larry Fessenden, and Jordan Douglas Smith.

When the Screaming Starts

UK | 2021 | 86 min | Director: Conor Boru
IN PERSON: Jared Rogers (Co-Lead Actor/Producer)
Aidan Mendle has a dream: He aspires to be an infamous serial killer. When struggling journalist, Norman, is invited to follow Aidan on his journey, he believes he has finally landed his big break. But as Aidan and his newly recruited murder cult embark on a blood-soaked rampage, will Norman’s dream of becoming a renowned filmmaker turn into a nightmare? Who will be remembered, who will be forgotten, and who will be left behind chopped into little pieces?

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

USA | 2021 | 192 min | Director: Kier-La Janisse
Due to its length, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched will be presented in two parts.
WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED explores the folk horror phenomenon from its beginnings in a trilogy of films – Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968), Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) – through its proliferation on British television in the 1970s and its culturally specific manifestations in American, Asian, Australian and European horror, to the genre’s revival over the last decade. Touching on over 200 films and featuring over 50 interviewees, WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED investigates the many ways that we alternately celebrate, conceal and manipulate our own histories in an attempt to find spiritual resonance in our surroundings.

SHORTS

Worse than the Demon

USA | 2013 | 13 min | Director: Maya Tippett
Featured with MAD GOD
A short documentary following Phil Tippett, as he turns away from the commercial successes of Hollywood and delves into his 35 yearlong passion project MAD GOD. Created by his daughter, Maya Tippett, the film chronicles Phil‘s journey as an artist as he commits himself to the subterranean stopmotion world of monsters, demons and mad scientists.

“Cosmic Horrors”

Below the Pines

USA | 2020 | 24 min | Director: Zack Stauffer
IN PERSON: Zack Stauffer, Shay Eberle-Gunst
Cooper mysteriously disappears for days. When he returns, his wife Dawn tries to console him and figure out what has happened. As Cooper’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Dawn is forced to take steps to protect her family.

Terrible Things

Ireland | 2021 | 10 min | Director: Ciarán Hickey
Amidst the dead uninhabitable world of the future, the refuge of a forgotten country cottage affords a lone wanderer opportunity to acknowledge the lingering strands of her own humanity.

Colossus

USA | 2021 | 17 min | Director: James Roe
A young Navy pilot’s life is shattered after being shot down by a UFO in World War II. Consumed by obsessive fear and hatred, he sets out on a quest to find and kill the creature that put him burning into the sea.

Sleep Talker

Australia | 2021 | 7 min | Director: Carl Firth
A woman comes home to find that her husband is talking in his sleep, but soon realizes that something else is talking through him. From the director of “The Witching Hour” (2015 Telluride Horror Show).

Katu

Sweden | 2021 | 16 min | Director: Oskar Johansson
Five years ago, humanity lost their language. A woman and a man live alone in a large mansion. One day they get a visit from a stranger. Without being able to understand each other, they need to find out what the stranger wants before more visitors arrive.

“Dark Humours”

Kia Summer Sales Event

USA | 2020 | 6 min | Director: Brendan Walter
An innocent conversation about a new car between a Juggalo boyfriend and girlfriend devolves into an existential, harrowing relationship crisis surrounding infidelity, family and their (possibly fabricated) deepest darkest secrets.

Wall #4

Netherlands | 2021 | 8 min | Director: Lucas Camps
When a cinema audience starts mocking the film they’re watching, the events in the theater take an unexpected turn.

Subscribe

USA | 2020 | 7 min | Directors: Benji Allred & Merik Richardson
IN PERSON: Benji Allred, Merik Richardson
On the run from a bloodthirsty slasher, a young woman desperately turns to an online tutorial video to learn how to load a revolver. From the director of “Reed” (2016 Telluride Horror Show).

Special Delivery

UK | 2020 | 3 min | Director: John McPhail
A young delivery driver struggles with one simple direction… DO. NOT. OPEN. From the director of Anna and the Apocalypse.

Beans

USA | 2021 | 8 min | Director: Justen Mann
After the collapse of civilization, a man tries to open a can of beans.

Minimally Invasive

New Zealand | 2020 | 10 min | Director: Adam Harvey
An anxious patient fears his concerns are being ignored when his routine operation yields unexpected findings.

Night of the Living Dicks

Finland/Denmark | 2021 | 19 min | Director: Ilja Rautsi
Venla, who’s fed up with getting dick pics on the internet, finds a pair of glasses that reveal which men are real dicks. But as the dick monsters realize Venla can see their true form, they chase her and Venla must confront an explosive nightmare of genitals and gender roles.

Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes

USA | 2021 | 7 min | Director: Anthony Cousins
IN PERSON: Anthony Cousins
The title says it all. Festival alum Anthony Cousins (“When Susurrus Stirs”, 2016 Telluride Horror Show) returns with an outrageous horror comedy.

Guts

USA | 2021 | 8 min | Director: Chris McInroy
IN PERSON: Chris McInroy
A guy with his guts on the outside of his body really wants a promotion. Long-time festival alum Chris McInroy returns with his latest horror comedy!

Dragon Blue

USA | 2021 | 10 min | Director: Grant Dominguez
IN PERSON: Grant Dominguez, Jeremy Anderson, Nick Sugarman
Transformed against his will, Chase Jackson battles the evil forces of Goldline Incorporated as the cybernetic ninja Dragon Blue.

“Folked Up Horror”

Stuffed

UK | 2021 | 19 min | Director: Theo Rhys
Stuffed is a short musical about a taxidermist who dreams of stuffing a human and the man she meets online, so afraid of ageing he volunteers to be her specimen. An unexpected romantic spark between them complicates their plans.

The Wet Nurse

France | 2021 | 16 min | Director: Arnold de Parscau
In 1900, Marie sells pancakes made with mother’s milk at the market of a small Breton village. The recipe is all the rage and all the villagers become addicted. One day Marie runs out of milk. But the peasants still want more. They are going to make her go through an ordeal to continue to consume this precious resource that they consider inexhaustible.

The Effigy of Mary Seer

UK | 2021 | 4 min | Director: Ross Jameson
A young girl finds an old doll in the remnants of a bonfire. She has no idea how it got there, or where it came from. But when she discovers that she can see through the doll’s eye, she will uncover the terrifying truth.

Calving

UK/Ireland | 2021 | 12 min | Director: Louis Bhose
In a rural Irish village, a strange calf is born. And it won’t stop screaming.

In the Soil

Denmark | 2021 | 14 min | Director: Casper Kjeldsen
Karoline’s life is turned upside down when her father, Kjeld, manically starts digging a pit in their backyard. The following days turn into a living nightmare as the pit becomes a grave and the land, which has been in the family for generations, pulls Kjeld further and further down into the deep.

“Here Be Monsters”

Familiar

UK | 2021 | 10 min | Director: David Ellison
It is 1942, in the dark woods of Pennsylvania. Richard Mason is the familiar to a hideous ancient vampiric creature living in the bowels of an isolated mansion. Every day he must bring it a new victim to feed on, while tolerating its physical and mental abuse.

Transfer

Belgium | 2020 | 13 min | Director: Jonas Govaerts
Elias Duyster, a serial killer sentenced to life, is visited by his estranged daughter Fia. Elias hopes for reconciliation, but all Fia wants from him is a signature on a medical certificate. Then their conversation takes a sinister turn.

The Thing That Ate The Birds

UK | 2021 | 12 min | Directors: Sophie Mair & Dan Gitsham
On the North Yorkshire Moors, Abel, head gamekeeper, discovers the thing that is eating his grouse.

Imaginary Portrait

Argentina | 2020 | 14 min | Director: Felipe Martinez Carbonell
Through the creation of a family portrait, a mentally imbalanced young artist connects with her dead mother to exact revenge on her ghoulish father and abusive grandfather.

The Wheel

USA | 2020 | 15 min | Director: Nikhil Bhagat
IN PERSON: Nikhil Bhagat
A woman receives a Ferris wheel antique and is terrorized by an entity that takes her on a ride to hell. From the director of “As They Continue to Fall” (2016 Telluride Horror Show).

The Tenant

Spain | 2021 | 10 min | Directors: Lucas Paulino & Ángel Torres
Mia wakes up one morning with a strange pain in her leg. Little by little the limp gets worse, until someone warns her that the pain is not what it seems. Either she casts a spell that very night or her life will never be the same again. From the directors of “Bedtime Story” (2019 Telluride Horror Show).

A Shadow in the Darkness

Australia | 2021 | 7 min | Director: Dean Butler
A man squares off against a demonic entity in regional Western Australia.

Smile

Canada/USA | 2021 | 7 min | Director: Joanna Tsanis
When a young woman struggles to smile, her depression becomes something truly monstrous. Starring Konstantina Mantelos (Anything for Jackson), Tyler Williams (Killjoys), and featuring the voice of Ashley Laurence (Hellraiser).

“Sinister Stories”

Psychos

USA | 2021 | 10 min | Director: Richard Karpala
The recursive life of Norman Bates is examined within the haunted historical architecture of the Bates Motel. From the director of “Iris” (2015 Telluride Horror Show).

Face Not Recognized. Try Again.

Spain/USA | 2021 | 9 min | Directors: Also Sisters
IN PERSON: Sonia & Miriam Albert-Sobrino (Also Sisters)
Alone in the wilderness, a woman must find a way to survive after discovering her head has been encased in cement.

You’re Family Now

USA | 2020 | 20 min | Director: Ryan Mack
IN PERSON: Ryan Mack, Logan Mack
A newlywed couple visit the husband’s inherited childhood home for the first time. After the husband tells his wife about a mysterious family curse, things take a turn for the worst.

Tranvía

Spain/USA | 2021 | 9 min | Director: Carlos Baena
A seemingly ordinary commute becomes a woman’s rapid descent into terror aboard a mysterious streetcar. From the director of “La Noria” (2019 Telluride Horror Show).

Koreatown Ghost Story

USA | 2021 | 15 min | Directors: Minsun Park & Teddy Tenenbaum
In this supernatural horror tale based on a Korean ritual starring Margaret Cho and Lyrica Okano, a woman entertains a macabre marriage offer that would let her pursue her dreams, for better or for much much worse.

Shielded

Netherlands | 2021 | 21 min | Director: Jan Verdijk
Amidst a worldwide pandemic, two young sisters are stuck in an isolated home. An odd man appears in a hazmat, claiming he can help…

“Suffer the Little Children”

The Provider

USA | 2003 | 20 min | Director: Matt Smith
A short course in agricultural economy. An unearthed film from the director of “The Altruist” (2020 Telluride Horror Show).

Expectancy

Finland | 2020 | 15 min | Director: Juho Fossi
Alex is left alone for the weekend to renovate a room for his and his wife’s unborn child. Soon, a baby monitor starts to play him horrifying sounds about his future failures as a father.

Princesses do as they please

France | 2021 | 34 min | Director: Quarxx
A poetic and nightmarish dive into the deranged mind of a psychotic little girl. Nina is 9 years old but isn’t like other little girls. Nina has two secrets… She has freed Tony the Monster who lives in the magical cave and she has just killed her parents… From the director of “A Nearly Perfect Blue Sky” (2016 Telluride Horror Show).

THURSDAY NIGHT CLASSICS

Get primed for the Telluride Horror Show with two retro screenings at the Nugget Theatre, Thursday, October 14. Free admission!

Starship Troopers

USA | 1997 | 129 min | Director: Paul Verhoeven
In Person: Producer Jon Davison and author Paul Sammon (“The Making of Starship Troopers”)
Humans in a fascist, militaristic future wage war with giant alien bugs. Revisit Verhoeven’s cult classic, featuring the VFX work of Phil Tippett and Tippett Studio.

You’re Next

USA | 2011 | 95 min | Director: Adam Wingard
10th Anniversary Screening
When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.