Started in 2010,[3] PollyGrind's first year was a five-night event "with over a dozen features, plus tons of short films, trailers and music videos; the quality ranged from borderline incompetent to undiscovered genius, virtually all within the confines of horror and sci-fi.
"[4] Arrowinthehead.com declared the event a "B-movie jamboree of awesomeness" that "only Vegas has the balls to host.
[6] Programming ranged from campy horror B-movies to extreme, underground and avant-garde films [7] and according to Robin Leach featured "every night creature from hookers to zombies.
"[8] DreadCentral.com noted that "PollyGrind has quickly made a name for itself as one of the up-and-coming premiere genre fests out there due to the success of each year of programming.
"[9] Filmmaker Adam Rehmeier, whose film The Bunny Game was banned by the British Board of Film Classification right after playing the event,[10] called the festival a display of cinema's "bastards and red-headed step children.
Starting in 2014, feature film official selections at the festival will also be looked at for distribution through its new label PollyGrind Presents,[15] while short films will be considered for special features and compilation releases through a number of outlets.
In regards to successes of the festival, filmmaker Eric Stanze noted in his 2014 Fearnet column that Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska of American Mary fame and Calvin Reeder of The Rambler and V/H/S received "major boosts in their careers when their early works won key awards at the fest."