I wanted to sincerely thank our hosts, Emagine Theatres in Lake Geneva, our filmmakers, my staff and my production team for delivering one of our best film festivals ever, our 4th since launching at the Geneva Theater in 2017.

To have even been able to have a film festival at an actual theater with amazing 4k projection (projected from DCPs) with new reclining leather loveseats (for proper social distancing), a full bar, a fire place to warm your bones and some great pizza… wow… Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the American Horrors Film Festival may have been the only live film festival event on Halloween with a full moon (the 2nd in one month) at a movie theater in all of America, maybe even the world.

My mother, who had just had brain surgery at 77 years old, attended, as did the directors of Bad Candy, including Desiree, who also just had brain surgery to remove a tumor this summer… I mean… astounding… to have them both at our event… thank you ladies for your bravery and the pleasure of your company…

I love meeting and talking movies with the film creators, like the directors of The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord… a world premiere event on Sunday November 1st, delayed slightly by the power going out at the theater and our ace Emagine Corporate man reloading the movie into the projector’s computer… TWICE!

We dealt with all kinds of technical hurdles and computer glitches leading into the festival, but the worst thing that happened was losing my right hand man, Groovey Newville… Heading into the festival and into the 2nd season of his show, Groovey was found dead in his apartment on October 3rd, right after we’d moved the festival into it’s new venue… I had been celebrating this fact with Groovey on the phone the night before his death… Groovey was the host of American Horrors hit tv series, Groovey TV, my head of publicity and one of my closest friends to come into my life after losing my wife, Waka to colon cancer in 2018.

Loosing Groovey… Groovey’s death has been crushing… to me and the entire Amerian Horrors family. Groovey TV, the tv series, was a dream come true for Groovey. He pulled every string he could, put everything he had into it… he worked on it’s launch with me for over a year, building up the audience for American Horrors and soon for Groovey TV, launching Thanksgiving Day 2019 on the American Horrors Channel worldwide.

A very funny man, with a large compassionate heart and a love for all things horror, martial arts, gaming and metal… His loss has hurt the most… All of us have been morning him during our month, our Halloween month… Luckily, (thanks Ryan), we were able to screen Groovey’s short film, Shovel, at the festival as part of the Helloween shorts. His niece was able to attend and see the dedication introduction I shot for him… we talked about Groovey and dammit, I was the one to break out in tears… Groovey meant so much to us here and brought an energy to the network I hadn’t felt since my wife was alive and running the channel…

Groovey, I love you man and I can still hear your wild ass laugh somewhere on the other side, laughing with us… We were in the middle of the 2nd season of the show, Groovey TV when he passed… I was scheduled to do new singing on the theme song the following week… it’s going to hurt, but I’m going to finish what we started. I’m going to complete the 2nd season, we’re going to be airing his short on Christmas Day as part of the Groovey TV Christmas Special this Friday December 25th with new material and more of his hilarious interviews…. sharing his work with the world… Hell… this is the kind of thing that got me into doing a tv channel and a film festival to begin with…

Speaking of specials… If you were not able to make it out to this year’s American Horrors Film Festival, we’re airing the TV special version of the festival on Friday, January 8th, 2021- including Shovel, and a ton of gems from the festival, including a few shorts I held onto specifically for the streaming portion of the festival, plus our interviews with the Bad Candy & The Great And Terrible Day of the Lord creators, a very raucous informative conversation about their films and the film making business.

We will have more announcements about the launch of the 5th annual American Horrors Film Festival (entries opening January 1st). I apologize for not announcing the winners sooner, but between all the deer jumping in front of my car and the tornadoes touching down in the neighborhood, several of our key people going into the hospital, one of our players went through emergency Brain Surgery this week… I’ve had plenty to deal with, lol.

Again, thank you one an all for participating. It’s the filmmakers and the films I have a passion for- doing the festival is a ton of work, but one of the highlights of my year and worth every minute of effort.

Be well and stay fed!

Sincerely,

Hart D. Fisher/Festival Director