A dark journey into the mind of a man increasingly obsessed with the desire to be eaten by either animals or monsters, the Belgian horror short Maw (Muil) is a fascinating, unsettling psychological shocker that aims for an artistic approach rather than focusing on the lurid. Matthieu Sys stars as Richard, a lonely elderly-care assistant […]
Rich in atmosphere and a treasure to watch, the short horror film Belladonna is a marvelous effort. From its terrific performances to its mesmerizing cinematography, this latest effort from director/cinematographer/editor Brett Mullen (Bombshell Bloodbath [2014], Fantasma [2017]) is an absolute gem. Opportunistic, smarmy Sam Franco (Sterling Hurst) sees a beautiful blind woman at a social […]
Prolific Canadian horror filmmaker Kyle Martellacci (Canada Day; Candy Skin; I Make Corpses) delivers another stunning shocker with his latest effort, The Scarlet Vultures. An initially enigmatic piece that slowly reveals its dark secrets, the short has been garnering many award nominations during its current early film festival run. Evelyn (Anne-Carolyne Binette) is being interviewed by […]
Prolific horror movie critic, screenwriter, and fiction writer Dan Wilder makes his directorial debut with the short shocker Mercury Screams, a trippy tale of mysterious creatures and miscarriages. The short initially presents itself as footage that was thought lost, from an episode of a 1984 television series exploring paranormal stories titled Within the Gaze […]
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival’s third edition, which runs October 11th–18th with screenings and events across Brooklyn, New York, will be its largest ever, with loads of amazing world, North American, U.S., and East Coast premieres of both feature-length and short films. Gruesome Magazine’s Grue-Crew members have many of these offerings on their must-see lists. […]
With her debut as a writer/director, Mai Nakanishi tackles contemporary social issues in Japan and South Korea by way of a tragic supernatural tale in the short film Hana. A coproduction of those two aforementioned countries — set and shot in Busan, South Korea — Hana offers a take on how a single working mother […]
Popcorn Frights Film Festival, billed as the Southeast United States’ largest genre movie fest, held its fourth annual outing in south Florida from August 10–16. Festival co-directors Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman curated an incredible selection of offerings that made it easy to see why this festival set a new attendance record for a […]
South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), Asia’s largest genre film fest, once again served up more than 200 films from around the globe this summer. Between July 12 and 22, the fest offered horror, science fiction, dark comedy, fantasy, thriller, and other movies. This article looks at three of the offerings, along with […]
Prolific filmmaker Wendy Keeling delivers another terrific horror short with Sarah’s Dream. This tale of a possibly sociopathic young woman haunted by perhaps more than just a guilty conscience is highlighted by solid performances and a macabre sense of humor. Sarah (Bailey Ingersoll) is having a tough go of it after her father has committed […]
Writer/director Christopher Jopp delivers an amusing horror short with a decidedly 1980s vibe with Meow. This fun, wicked work recalls the best television terror anthology shows from that decade, but rises above being a simple throwback exercise. Samantha (Eleonore Dendy in a charming performance) has just moved into her own apartment. Her mother (Nancy Marvy) […]
The short film Nite Nite is writer/director Chad Meisenheimer’s mash-up of two time-honored horror conceits: the child who fears that a monster lurks in the bedroom at night, and the babysitter in peril. At a running time of just about three minutes, the short delivers a satisfying jolt of scary fun for the young and […]
Writer/director/editor Don Swaynos’s Don’t Ever Change received a great deal of buzz on its film festival run this year, and for good reason. This deeply dark comedy features a superb job by its cast, and offers some unexpected twists, as well. Karen (Cyndi Williams of You Are Your Body/You Are Not Your Body [2014] and Holy […]
Filmmaker Kyle Martellacci tackled body horror and science fiction in his 2016 outing Candy Skin; now he’s back with another genre-hybrid short. I Make Corpses is a dark-hearted combination of a pre-slasher grindhouse movie and a zombie apocalypse tale, a sort of The Last Serial Killer on Earth by way of George S. Romero and […]
Canadian independent horror offering The Child Remains borrows from the heartbreaking, true story of the “Butterbox Babies” — a series of murders and illegal adoptions at a Novia Scotia maternity home in the 1920s through 1940s — as a jumping-off point, and puts a supernatural spin on things. The result is a brooding, atmospheric chiller […]
Jeff Sinasac has an impressive string of credits as an actor, and with the Canadian independent horror film Red Spring, he offers an accomplished debut as a feature-film writer and director, as well. He takes some tried-and-true scare fare elements and puts enough original spins and, more importantly, heart into the movie to deliver a […]