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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
When a film kicks off with a cold open of an injured man (Day, played by Theeradej Wongpuapen) groggily waking up in an empty swimming pool — six meters deep, with no ladder — being attacked by a huge crocodile, it has my attention. Thai survival horror/thriller The Pool is heavy on the suspense, if […]
Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow featured three films highlighted by powerful, mysterious female characters for its March 2nd screenings. These films ranged from subtle and understated to violent and gory. The Rusalka (AKA The Siren) Writer/director Perry Blackshear’s The Rusalka (retitled The Siren for its U.K. release), his follow-up to his terrific debut They Look Like […]
Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow offered up horror, comedy, and deadly serious dystopian drama with its Friday, March 1st screenings. Besides the world premiere of the terrific British indie shocker Here Comes Hell, this reviewer also had the opportunity to watch the American metalheads vs. giant ants movie Dead Ant (retitled Giant Killer Ants for its […]
Black-and-white independent U.K. feature Here Comes Hell starts off as a British comedy of manners mashed up with classic old dark house elements before suddenly rocketing into full-on horror territory. First-time director Jack McHenry and his cast and crew serve up a fun, frenetic helping of supernatural chaos. George Walker, Jr., (Tom Bailey), son of […]
Writer/director Hyun Lee’s Australian short Asian Girls is an enigmatic, wholly arresting look at two young neighbor women who live highly contrasting lives – and who haunt each other’s dreams. Striking visuals and a striking soundtrack drive this dialogue-free piece. Chan (Rainbow Chan) is a Chinese seamstress who subsists on instant noodles and boiled black […]
I’m not terribly proud of this but I can’t get enough of the show Survivor. The basic premise is that they strand a boatload of regular folks, by which I mean mostly hot twenty somethings, on an island and they have to fend for themselves, surrounded only by snakes, rats, cameramen, spiders and other assorted […]
Since Peter Jackson’s early films, along with efforts from other filmmakers such as those behind Black Sheep (2006), New Zealand has had a solid track record with producing horror comedies that worked in both aspects of this subgenre, which is not an easy feat. The past year or so has seen releases that pleased both […]