“Dearest Fans and Attendees of the Mile High Horror Film Festival, Being the intelligent, horror-movie attending group that you are, you’ve probably already begun to suspect something is amiss with the festival. During the pause in MHHFF programming, we have heard an amazing slew of salacious rumors from divorce, to money philandering to legal disputes. We are here, however, to put the record straight and, with heavy hearts, to give the Mile High Horror Film Festival the eulogy it deserves.
We began this event in 2010 after attending multiple festivals around the country. As individuals who love film and art, we were amazed by the intimacy, culture, and sense of family cultivated when like-minded individuals attended carefully conceived and organized film events. We love that a good festival creates a space for a filmmaker to present his or her work, field questions, and grab a beer with the audience all in the course of the same evening. We felt like Denver was sorely missing a festival that presented the best that the horror genre had to offer and quickly began organizing a day-and-a-half event that, while initially small, was mighty in its ambitions.
Over the span of the next 6 years, we strove to bring the best films, filmmakers, repertoire films, and celebrities to the state of Colorado, always attempting to present content we all love in fresh and thoughtful ways. We devoted weeks and months of our free time to scheduling the films just so and conceiving short blocks that would leave audiences feeling satisfied. We are both obsessive people who don’t like to do anything halfway, and we hope you left our festivals feeling the depth of our devotion to presenting you with the best we could possibly conceive.
We are proud of the blood, sweat, and tears we put into this project, but more than that pride, we are eternally grateful for the friendships that were created as a result of the inception of the MHHFF. Some of the best human beings we know worked alongside us on this project and some of our greatest friendships arose from individuals who attended the event. Many of you went from strangers who attended the first year to dear friends we looked forward to seeing each October. What we will miss the most in this grand project is our beloved volunteers whose sweat made this thing run, the fans who attended year-after-year with some of the most passionate and loyal devotion we have ever seen, and the filmmakers who flew in from around the world to share their projects with us.
While salacious rumors are more fun, the truth is that we have not succeeded in finding a venue that is able to host us at an affordable rate. The festival outgrew many of the smaller theaters in the Denver area and rates at the bigger theaters in town were so high that we could no longer operate the event in a financially responsible way. After two years of searching for a new home, we have found ourselves without a big screen on which to present the films we so avidly enjoy and worship.
We are at the end of a very, very fulfilling journey and feel nothing but debt and gratitude to our volunteers, fans, and friends who stepped in to help us along the way. Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and including us in your October plans since 2010; as Halloween devotees, we understand just how big of a deal it is that you would choose to spend your time with us. Our hope is that the festival can be revived at some point, but for now, we will miss you extraordinarily. If you see us around town, please do give us a hello and a wave. It has been the best of runs and, frankly, we couldn’t have done it without you.”
All Our Love, Timothy Schultz and Theresa Likarish (MHHFF Co-directors)
