Seclusion in snowy climes is often a fine springboard for horror movies, with The Abominable Snowman (1957), The Shining (1980), and this year’s The Lodge springing to mind. Writer/director Can Türedi places the protagonist of his new short film Glass Cabin in just such an environment, and the result is a fine slice of psychological […]
If you subscribe to the notion that full moons can affect human behavior, just wait until you see what happens when the titular phenomenon occurs in eerie Canadian short film Red Moon (2019). The film, which won the Best Short award at this month’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, stretches beyond what are usually considered common […]
After androgynous high school student Cassie (Bianca Sanchez) is bullied by a quartet of mean-girl classmates in a campus bathroom, her mother (Melissa Connell) calls upon satanic forces to seek revenge in writer/director Aaron Immediato’s Bathroom Troll. This short film pays homage to Brian De Palma’s 1976 screen version of Stephen King’s Carrie while giving […]
The Mexican horror short 9:40 plays like a classic episode of The Twilight Zone with a climax on steroids. The story may feel a bit familiar, and many genre film fans might well guess where it is headed, but writer/director Jorge Morrell and his cast and crew make the ride an intriguing one, nevertheless. Kristyan […]
Nocturne, the latest short film from writer/director Michael Trainotti, is a superb effort that takes the “Don’t open the door to strangers” motif to terrifying extremes. Erin (Sabrina Howells, who has appeared in previous Trainotti short films Beneath the Surface [2017] and One Dark Night [2018]) has just had a rough night arguing on a […]
Writer/director Mia Kate Russell explores the potential terrors of inaction in her Australian short film Maggie May, which offers up some of the most disturbing horrific images in recent memory, both onscreen and offscreen. Something is dreadfully wrong with Maggie (Lulu McClatchy of the 2012 features Crawlspace and 6 Plots), and though her relatives and […]
Canadian director Kyle Martellacci is a prolific director of terrific horror shorts that tackle myriad subgenres and nail each one. He turns in what I feel is some of his finest work in his latest effort from Red Razor Pictures, supernatural shocker She Must Vanish. Martellaci wrote, directed, edited, shot, and produced She Must Vanish, […]
If you are in the mood for a tongue-in-cheek horror comedy in the fangs-in-neck vein, chock full of corn and camp but also with a respectful approach to classic vampire films and lore, look no further than director Stephen Wolfe’s short film Dracula’s Coffin. From the lighting and special effects to David E. Mitchell’s score […]
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world for university student Quincy (Bailey Ingersoll), whose day starts off with a dissection lesson from an overenthusiastic professor (David A. McElroy) in her anatomy class, finds her lost in thought about her recently deceased father (Jim Dougherty), and concludes with a surreal trip to the dentist (Chad Newman) […]
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 […]