Fears and anxieties about isolation and loneliness haunt twentysomething Lucy (Maika Monroe of It Follows and Villains, in another fine performance) during a long night in writer/director Kate Trefry’s psychological horror short How to Be Alone. What scares us most is often what we concoct in our minds, and Trefry combines that idea with absolutely […]
If you are in the mood for a brain-bending dose of existential angst and nihilist musing — and if you are not, what’s holding you back? — you need look no further than prolific filmmaker Izzy Lee’s The Obliteration of the Chickens. It is unlike any of Lee’s other works, tackling the senselessness of it […]
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 […]
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. […]
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, […]
Director Matt Wisniewski’s short film Pappy’s World (2018) is a surreal, jaw-dropping, pleasantly confounding blend of live action and animation. It’s bizarre yet wholly accessible in its telling of the carnage of an evil doll secretly unwrapped before Christmas. A girl (Jaz Frazier) uses her sleeping grandfather’s cane to reach a box at the top […]
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 […]
Bohemian Industries’ short film Kiss the Devil in the Dark is an eye-popping visual feast that blends a dark Faustian fantasy with shades of classic Hammer Film Productions and Eurohorror vibes. Fans of practical creature effects will find plenty to enjoy here, as well, with the legendary Doug Jones on hand in dual roles. The […]
Blind dates are perfect fodder for horror films, and the short Foxwood takes that notion to highly entertaining levels. Claire (Kalen Marie George) and Nick (cowriter/codirector Ian Hock) meet in person at a bar after some online introductions. After Claire reluctantly accepts a drink after Nick insists, they take a for-hire van to her rather […]