Thirty-six films and shorts, three days, two theatres, one scary good time. The second annual Telluride Horror Show was held on Oct. 14-16. It was the last festival of the year. The show kicked off Friday evening with a pig roast and was followed by a seven hour block of horror films ranging from old classics such as “The Little Shop of Horrors,” to brand new films like “Some Guy Who Kills People” and “The Revenant.”
This is the second year of the Telluride Horror Show and it’s growing substantially in numbers and popularity across the horror film community. Five foreign movies and two shorts premiered at the festival, as well as three U.S. films. The two shorts that premiered at the festival were especially unique. One was a vampire short made by Telluride locals called Local’s Bite and the other, “Terrifier,” was made by a group in Long Island. Two of those members drove 2,140 miles just be at the festival for the premiere.
The films shown at the Telluride Horror Show are not like ones you would normally see at a theater. They are all either independent films or made by smaller companies with little money to use. Even though these films are low budget, they are far from low quality. The movies are not your regular Hollywood horror films and they often have very unique story lines. Films like “Chillerama” travel through five different B Rolls of horror drive-ins to tell it’s story. In the horrific comedy “Dale and Tucker vs. Evil,” a group of college kids go camping and have misunderstanding with two best friends in their new vacation home, who they mistake for murderous backwoods hillbillies.
Foreign independent horror films are even more unique. “Deadball” is the story of a kid who pitches a baseball so fast it kills people. Some of the other foreign independents have many distinct aspects. “Rabies” is a film made in Israel. It features a psycho killer, a brother and sister, a forest ranger and his dog, two apathetic cops, and four young tennis players. Because of how realistic and frightening it was many people at the festival left the film in tears. “The Tunnel” is a film from Australia and has been rated as one of the scariest horror movies yet.
“The Tunnel was scary because the only mistake they make is going down into the tunnel for their news story in the first place. Otherwise every move they make is smart, and something a real person would do,” said U.S. Editor for Shadowlocked, Gabriel Ruzin.
Ruzin was also a host for the film festival. Telluride Horror Shows Festival Director, Ted Willson, is already planning next year’s festival which will be filled with even more terrifying films.

asutton@mavs.coloradomesa.edu