One of the main draws about foreign horror films is that they often introduce viewers to new or unfamiliar mythologies, or unusual takes on familiar stories. This is certainly the case with the South African film 8, and viewers looking for something out of the ordinary in the supernatural vein should be quite pleased with […]
The first film from Newfoundland selected in the history of Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival, New Woman is a remarkable gothic horror short. It is absolutely drenched in atmosphere. The gorgeous exterior shots and wonderfully detailed interior shots belie the film’s modest budget, and the horror is of the classic, slow-reveal kind. In […]
Caper movie meets horror story in the Canadian short film The Remnant when a group of con artists try to pull one over on an elderly lady. Director Navin Ramaswaran serves up a thrilling supernatural tale that is an absolute blast to watch unfold. Sheila Hargrave (Jill Frappier) lives alone in a large, well-appointed home. […]
SF IndieFest’s Another Hole in the Head Film Fest celebrates its 16th anniversary this year with a December 1st –15th run at New People Cinema in San Francisco’s Japantown. According to the festival’s website, this will be “a two week cinematic excursion into the realms of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other assorted genres . […]
Horror shorts and feature films that hearken back to the 1980s heyday of theater releases and straight-to-video in the fright fare genre have been plentiful for the past few years, with the quality ranging from incredible to practically unwatchable, and the nods ranging from homage to pastiche to unoriginal aping. Writer/director Rich Ragsdale’s new short […]
Writer/director Brian Shephard delivers good old-fashioned creepiness in his debut short film, Terror Road. Recalling 1980s horror movies and such television favorites as Monsters and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the short is both a fun throwback film for adults and a fine “introduction to horror” work for younger audiences. This two-hander sees wife […]
When I reviewed the gothic dark fantasy Kiss the Devil in the Dark for Gruesome Magazine‘s Super Scary Shorts Saturday last year during the film’s award-winning film festival run, I called it “an eye-popping visual feast that blends a dark Faustian fantasy with shades of classic Hammer Film Productions and Eurohorror vibes.” Now fright-fare fans […]
Horror-on-Sea celebrates its eighth year in 2020 as it returns to Southend once again, with its biggest blood-soaked line up of independent films yet. One of the U.K.’s biggest independent film festivals, Horror-on-Sea was originally formed to promote independent horror films, giving an opportunity to fright-fare features and shorts that are not normally played on […]
Director Zoe Dobson’s U.K. horror short The Cunning Man is an eerie folk horror outing. Though animal cadavers are part of the story, which may potentially disturb some viewers, they are ultimaely used for a positive reason and toward charming effect. Afran Harries (Simon Armstrong) collects dead animals in the Welsh countryside. A knackerman (Ali […]
Few things in horror films beat that cathartic moment of a good comeuppance to a villain, and few are more disturbing than an innocent person falling into a dangerous situation when they merely tried to help someone. The latter of these cases is the situation for the protagonist in director Ryan Gaff’s short film Black […]
Right in time for Halloween, writer/director/editor Heidi Lee Douglas’ Australian gothic thriller short Little Lamb has just been launched via Omeleto, the home of award winning shorts. You can watch it here! I reviewed Little Lamb for Gruesome Magazine‘s Super Scary Shorts Saturday during the film’s festival run, giving it the highest possible rating of five […]
Blood in the Snow (BITS) film festival, the biggest celebration of Canadian horror, is back with a fresh slate of northern chills! BITS 2019 takes placefrom November 21 to 26 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto. With six nights of the best horror fare in the nation — including feature films, shorts, webseries, and the […]
Writer/director Ryan Oksenberg balances the macabre and the meditative, the ghoulish and the gorgeous, and the pensive and the putrid in his beautifully shot horror short Together. Characters suffering from damaged souls and physical sickness find themselves in close quarters with one another, and the result is an intriguing, contemplative work. Arielle Hader (of Recovery […]
Director Freddy Chávez Olmos’ new Canadian fear-fare short film Duérmete Niño makes its online debut this week, just in time for Halloween. I have had the pleasure to watch it in advance, and can recommend it as a bizarre, beautifully shot chiller with skin-crawling moments. Read more from the official press release following, watch the […]
Oregon-based indepenedent filmmaker Ross Williams has announced that his latest short, Luna, will have its online premiere on October 25 after an award-winning festival run. “Luna is a unique twist on the ghost girl genre; you know, the films about creepy girls, with white faces, long dark hair, and old dresses,” said Williams. “I’ve taken […]