Hi, everybody. Dave here, dropping the Argo One-speaks-as-a-group “we” phrasing for a one-off personal post. It’s time to get mushy, people.

Inhumanwich! arrives on video-on-demand Friday. This is seven years and change after I finished the first draft of the screenplay; five years and change since we released a trailer with a very optimistic “coming soon” slate; nine months and change since we actually finished the damn thing and premiered it to friends, family, and a few early fans; six months and change since we got our first review; three months and change since we screened at our first film festival. This road, it was a long one.

And now we’re here, ready for the movie to go about as wide as a movie like ours can go (and, frankly, a heck of a lot wider than I ever could’ve expected).

The only way we got here is through the hands of many truly wonderful people. They have all earned more gratitude than I can ever properly express. But I’ll try anyway.

I thank the cast and crew, every last wonderful one of them, for their sacrifice in making the movie, and for their creative energy in making the movie better than I ever could have alone. What I told them at the wrap party still holds true: if the film fails, that’s because of me; if the film works, that’s because of them. This movie proves my love of filmmaking as a collaborative process. It’s not my movie. It’s our movie. Suck it, auteurists.

And I thank them for their endless patience as we toiled away the years. Months turned into years for multiple reasons, some valid, some dumb, some personal, some goofy. And through it all, they waited, occasionally nudging but never griping. It felt at times like a movie that would never be finished. But we got there. They need to know patience did not go unappreciated.

I thank everyone who gave us money, or time, or a place to film, or a place to rest, or anything else that may have provided a bit of help along the way. They, too, got stuck waiting right alongside the cast and crew. Their patience was just as appreciated.

Over those years, people came and went, priorities did the same. It took a long time for me to get back behind a camera. And so I thank what has become the modern day Argo One gang, both old friends from Inhumanwich! and new friends picked up along the way. They helped me find my creative energy again, which in turn gave me the kick in the pants I needed to set some deadlines, push the post-production into overdrive, and get the dang thing finished. They turned Argo One from a placeholder production company into a home for fellow loonies itching to let creativity run wild.

I thank Leomark Studios for taking such a huge risk on such an unclassifiable movie – a black-and-white genre mash-up done on the mega-cheap, too silly for the horror houses, too weird for the art houses. They were rare in their honesty about how to best sell it, and rarer in just how truly artist-friendly a company can be. I’ve been hitting the hard sell lately on our movie not out of personal ego, but because I want the people who went way out on a limb for us to be rewarded for their trust (and killer hard work).

(And I thank Michael Heagle and Troy LaFaye of Transylvania Television for introducing me to Erik at Leomark. Never could’ve landed here without you two. As a wise man once said, I owe you one.)

I thank every film fest – both past, present, and future – who looked at our little pile of insanity and said yes, let’s run that on the big screen. You’ve put me in a room with strangers laughing more loudly than I ever expected. You’ve given our movie new fans, and you’ve given me new friends.

I thank every critic who reviewed our movie. A former critic myself, I know full well how reviewing an unreleased microbudget indie offers little reward; it is, like this level of filmmaking, entirely a labor of love. As of this post, we’re six-for-six for positive reviews, and that, like the appreciation found at festivals, took such a load off my anxiety. The reviews are where I first came to trust that while the movie isn’t for everybody, it’s definitely for somebody.

I thank all those who interviewed me. Aside from being great conversations, they helped spread the word.

And I thank you, the freaks and fans still reading this. Whether you’ve followed this blog since the start or just jumped in, I’m just happy you’re here.

I love all you weirdos. Now go buy our movie.