Born Again (2016): Festival Favorite Horror-Comedy Lands a Halloween Eve Premiere on Short of the Week

Featuring Ellie Church and Randall Greenland, the horror-comedy short Born Again has been delighting horror fans at film festivals for some time now, and for good reason. The Grue-Crew have caught the film a number of the film festivals and it always proves to be a highlight of the event. Now, you too can see what everyone is talking about. The film from Hands Off Productions and director Jason Tostevin is making its online premiere on Short of the Week. Look for it beginning Monday, October 30, 2017, at 10:00 AM. This ain’t no trick, Born Again is a bonafide treat! And, look for a friend of the show/site, Jaysen Buterin, in a special cameo role crucial to the plot. {wink}

Short of the Week: Born Again

TOP HORROR-COMEDY SHORT TO PREMIERE ONLINE HALLOWEEN EVE

Multi-award-winning “Born Again” hits Short of the Week starting 10/30 at 10 a.m.

Columbus, OH — Born Again, a horror comedy short film featuring the “worst Satanists ever” and their hilariously misguided attempts to summon the Prince of Darkness, will hit the internet Oct. 30 via one of the biggest platforms on the globe — Short of the Week.

The short has toured the world on the film festival circuit for the last year, including stops at Oscar-qualifying festivals Sitges, Rhode Island Vortex and Cleveland International. In that time, it’s accumulated more than 60 awards and nominations, and made several end-of-year lists, including: Best short film of 2016 (Cinema Constant), top five horror short of 2016 (iHorror), top 10 short of 2016 (From Dusk Till Con), and top 20 horror short of 2016 (Fright Meter Awards).

Born Again was created under director/co-writer Jason Tostevin’s Hands Off Productions banner, whose genre shorts have been screened and celebrated around the world. The team has never before released one of its shorts online, but felt compelled to premiere Born Again because of “overwhelming audience response,” Tostevin said.

“So many people have seen it at fests and asked to see it again, or heard from friends they had to see it, we just felt it was right to arrange an online premiere,” he said.

The seven-minute film tells the story of “five amateur Satanists who have their summoning ceremony go terribly wrong, and accidentally create the holiest holy shit moment ever,” according to the director and co-writer Jason Tostevin.

“We wanted to go back to our ‘80s horror roots when you could get a laugh with your blood splatter,” said Tostevin. “And we wanted to push some boundaries. I know for sure we were left out of some programs because of the ending.”

The short stars award-winning actor and indie horror icon Ellie Church (Frankenstein Created Bikers, Harvest Lake, Time to Kill) as the pregnant leader of the cabal, returns veteran Brian Spangler (Progeny) and introduces Randall Greenland as “Greg,” the affable screw-up who might just have ended the world.

The team’s last festival short, A Way Out, starred Hollywood icon Robert Costanzo and played more than 100 festivals. Before that, I Owe You was named indie short of the year by movie blog Cinema Constant. And the ’Til Death, their first fest short, was included in the horror anthology Seven Hells.

As a bonus to fans, the team is also quietly making two of its top shorts public along with the premiere of Born Again. Both ‘Til Death and I Owe You will be available to view on the team’s Vimeo channel, vimeo.com/HandsOffProductions, beginning immediately.

Doc Rotten
Editor-In-Chief / Founder / Podcast Producer at Horror News Radio
Doc Rotten is the founder of Gruesome Magazine. He is also a film critic for Gruesome Magazine and the podcast host & producer for Horror News Radio, Monster Movie Podcast, Decades of Horror: 1970s, The American Horror Story Fan Podcast and Hannibal Fan Podcast. He is also co-host of the Dracula podcast on TV TALK and is a contributing reviewer for HorrorNews.Net and Widescreen Warrior.

Doc a lifelong fan of horror films, sci-fi flicks and monster movies first discovering Universal Monsters and Planet of the Apes as a young child in the 1970's searching out every issue of Famous Monster of Filmland (and, later, Fangoria). Favorite films include Jaws, The Car, The Birds, The Tingler, Vampire Circus and The Exorcist. Still a huge fan of horror films from the 70s, Doc continues consuming horror films to this day for the site, for the podcasts and for the fun of it all.