The Dutch short film The Burden (Het Juk) proves that the classic set-ups of a creepy backstory and a flashlight beam slowly moving around a dark attic are still effective horror cinema elements. Writer/director Nico van den Brink’s 15-minute chiller offers up a superb terror tale that keeps viewers guessing. Ciska (Hanna van Vliet) is […]
Director Ian Hunt Duffy, working from a screenplay by Darach McGarrigle, examines the mysterious, dark relationship between a father and his young son during a rite-of-passage boat excursion in the Irish horror short Low Tide. The result is an eerie, enigmatic effort that offers both visceral sequences as well as a sense of dread. Dad […]
With Residual, French writer/director Damien Kazan has crafted a taut 14-minute chiller that combines a classic slasher film chase sequence with a bit of the supernatural. The result is a nifty short chock full of striking images and nail-biting moments. Sam Cavalier stars as Jay, a young woman preparing for an evening out on Halloween […]
Co-directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz deliver one of horror’s hardest gut punches of the year with The Lodge, a chilling tale of a suicide cult survivor and her attempt to bond with the children of her boyfriend. Some viewers considered Fiala’s and Franz’s Goodnight Mommy to be cold and distant, but their latest effort […]
Following its jam-packed first wave announcement last week, Popcorn Frights, the Southeast United States’ largest gathering of genre films and fans, announces its jaw-dropping second wave of programming for the 2019 edition of this fright fare film festival. The fest runs from August 8–16 at the historic Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In its fifth […]
A lone office worker finds himself dealing with mysterious machines in the U.K. horror short The Third Hand. Prolific actor Tom Bonington, who fright fare fans may recognize from such films as The ABCs of Death 2 (2014) and A Haunting at the Rectory (2015), plays the worker, who watches snowy television and buys a […]
Popcorn Frights, the Southeast United States’ largest gathering of genre films and fans, continues its tradition of showcasing outstanding cinema from around the world. The festival has proudly announced the first wave of programming for its fifth annual celebration of the latest and greatest in fright fare, thrillers and chillers, and other genre movies. The […]
My favorite style of horror film is that which deals with an eerie, unsettling atmosphere bordering on — or diving headlong into — the surreal, with the filmmakers never fully or easily explaining what is unfolding. Water Horse, a brilliant short film from co-directors Sean Temple and Sarah Wisner, delivers just such an unsettling experience […]
Provocative, prolific horror filmmaker Izzy Lee imagines what might happen in the near future should a certain wall be built on the border between the United States and Mexico in her latest short shocker, Re-Home. Lee is no stranger to creating fright fare with a sociopolitical vibe, and this, her latest offering, continues that trend. […]
Seen as a sort of revisit to the celebrated television series Masters of Horror, the new scare-fare anthology Nightmare Cinema serves up five tales of terror from renowned directors Mick Garris, Joe Dante, Alejandro Brugués, Ryûhie Kitamura, and David Slade, with a wraparound segment featuring Mickey Rourke as The Projectionist. As with any cinematic portmanteau, […]
Cinepocalypse, Chicago’s outstanding film festival focused on genre fare running from the terrifying to the hilarious, returns for what promises to be another amazing edition at the Music Box Theatre from June 13 to June 20. Among the stellar lineup of shorts and features, from eight world premieres to a few old favorites, are the […]
A group of young hikers finds that the opportunity for sudden wealth leads them down dangerous paths in the horror outing Stay Out Stay Alive. Greed motivates some members of the party, but the lust for riches proves to be no match for supernatural forces in the forest in this engrossing thriller. Amy (Christina July […]
Director Chris Roe blends a classic cinematic melodrama approach with a healthy dose of EC Comics-style horror in his black-and-white short film Cemetery Tales: A Tale of Two Sisters, the first installment in a planned Cemetery Tales series. This 1949-set tale stars Traci Lords (Not of This Earth, 1988; Skinner, 1993) as Victoria Chastain, a […]
When you find a ventriloquist dummy chained, gagged, and sealed in a crate in the attic of a house into which you just moved, common sense dictates that you either leave the dummy alone, get rid of it, or better yet, break the lease and get out tout de suite. Luckily for viewers of the […]
An abused little boy retreats to a fantasy world in writer/director Davide Melini’s U.K. short horror film Lion, but his violent, drunkard father and intimidated mother (Tania Mercader as Amanda) come face to face with a harsh reality. Lion is still on its film festival run, and has claimed more than 263 awards so far, […]