As someone with an aversion to on-screen torture, it truly means something when I say that director Sigurd Culhane’s dark comedy/thriller short Green Cobra is a hilariously uncomfortable, recommended watch. The short boasts both gut-churning and gut-busting sequences. Green Cobra is filmed using wide lenses and a thick green filter, and kicks off with a […]
A superb example of how to take a relatable feeling of tranquility and launch it into a surreal science fiction scenario, director Trish Harnetiaux’s short film You Wouldn’t Understand is a delightful, gorgeous-looking journey into the absurd. A man (Anthony Arkin, who also performed editing duties) is enjoying a relaxing solo picnic and reading a […]
Two mad doctors — well, they may not be totally made yet, but they are well on their way — reanimate a corpse in the fun horror-comedy short Half-Cocked. The problem is, they chose the wrong person to try and gift with eternal life. Dr. Grant Kirby (Pat Healy) and Dr. Gabriella Flores (Vanessa Benavente) […]
Eating just before watching the mind-blowing horror short Mashed Potato Face is not recommended. Many readers can probably relate to the feeling of taking another bite of mashed potatoes when you’re already stuffed, and the queasy feeling that can accompany that decision. Well, that’s nothing compared to how viewers will feel while watching this short, […]
Breakfast is a gripping Australian shocker short blending body horror with another fright-fare aspect that would be criminal to spoil here. Written by Paul Beattie and codirected by Beattie and Melanie Rios, Breakfast delivers an eerie tale featuring differing character perspectives and a chilling atmosphere throughout. Katherine (Rebecca Smee) has been sick and bedridden for […]
Writer/director Finn Callan’s U.K. short film Guest is rich in spine-tingling atmosphere, from the bandaged appearance of its protagonist Mary (Melania Crisan) to the heavy sense of dread throughout to the decidedly creepy reason why Mary is in her current state. Mary has entered, uninvited, the home of a woman (Jessica Munna) after being pursued […]
Old-school film stock and classic giallo techniques combine in writer/director Kevin Fermini’s horror short Death Walks on Nitrate. The result is a trippy, beautiful looking slice of cinema with an eerie aesthetic. Katie Carpenter (Disengaged from Gruesome Magazine’s own Christopher G. Moore and The Haunting of Hill House are among her 20 horror film credits) […]
Witches more interested in their social media accounts than their craft find themselves in diabolical danger in the horror short The Witches of Bushwick. Cowriters/codirectors Catherine Delaloye and Joe Pardavila have crafted an admirable slice of supernatural cinema that sets its sights on social media influencers, poseurs looking for a big financial score, and the […]
Italian short shocker Ferine is a grisly tale that borrows from nature, particularly from species that see the female kill her partner after the act of mating. It’s simply told, beautifully presented, and absolutely chilling. Anna Della Rosa stars as a feral woman who breaks into a house, bathes and dresses up, and then goes […]
A ronin who failed to protect his deceased shogun is on a quest to avenge that master’s death in director Kevin McTurk’s brilliant, beautiful stop-motion short The Haunted Swordsman. This is gorgeous animation artistry that must be seen to be believed. The Swordsman (voiced by Jason Scott Lee) is accompanied on his journey by The […]
Andrew Bowser wrote, directed, and stars in the creepy, fun horror short Little Willy (2019), and he does an ace job with all three tasks. A modern spin on the plot chestnut of a ventriloquist doll driving its owner isnane— á la Magic (1978) or Devil Doll (1964) — with an obvious nod to the […]
Horror short The Springfield Three, prolific writer/director Samuel Gonzalez Jr.’s latest effort, is inspired by the true-life missing person case involving friends Suzanne Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter’s mother, Sherrill Levitt, who went missing from Levitt’s Springfield, Missouri home on June 7, 1992. It should be noted that this is a fanciful narrative short […]
Filmmaker Christopher G. Moore’s latest short film Backward Creep is his strongest outing yet, building on an admirable filmography that includes Gut Punched and Knob Goblins. Moore’s latest takes a more serious tone than those two fine darkly comic efforts, weaving a tale of terror that is making an award-winning run on the film festival […]
Writer/Director Dan Sellers and his Wreak Havoc Productions cast and crew deliver a stellar Stephen King adaptation with their latest short film, Uncle Otto’s Truck. The short story of the same name — part of King’s Dollar Baby Program — was published in the author’s Skeleton Crew collection, and Sellers has done the tale great […]
Maria (Ashley Bell of The Last Exorcism and Carnage Park, and who was absolutely outstanding in Psychopaths) just wants to have a relaxing vacation in an elegant Airbnb-style rental with her work-obsessed girlfriend Jules (Noreen DeWulf). What the couple winds up with instead is a terrifying game ruled over by their unseen, sadistic host in […]