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 […]
Director Adrienne Lovette and screenwriter/actor John Rice team up again after their 2016 horror short Hidden Daylight (reviewed here) and craft another winner with The Dark Room, a supernatural chiller starring Rice as the host of what was supposed to be a fun psychic party. Naturally for a scare-fare short, things turn out differently. Five […]
With Welcome to Helltown, cowriters/codirectors Maxwell Frey and Dominic Reno have created an endearingly oddball portmanteau short film. The vibe is offbeat and the humor is quirky in this outing set in Helltown, Ohio, “Population . . . You!”. Toby Radloff — star of Killer Nerd (1991), Bride of Killer Nerd (1992), and Spirit Animal […]
Prolific filmmaker Patrick Rea, whose features include Nailbiter and Arbor Demon, is a master of the short horror film craft. His latest short, Fused, combines body and psychological horror with mystery, and is another winning effort for the director. Sarah (Sarah McGuire, House of Forbidden Secrets) visits her doctor (Jennifer Femiano, who also appeared in […]
Winner of MidWest WeirdFest’s Best Horror Short award, Zeshaan Younus’ Prefigured combines elements of both alien abduction and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. It weaves its spell slowly without a drop of blood or sensational special effects, nevertheless leaving viewers with a highly disquieting sense of eeriness. Scarlett Redmond (of the series My Haunted House and True […]
The United Kingdom has been home to eye-witness reports of alien big cats (ABCs) — large, wild felines not native to the region — since the 1700s. The United States is no stranger to such sightings, as shown in renowned author Linda S. Godfrey’s debut as a film director, Return to Wildcat Mountain: Wisconsin’s Black […]
Australian dark comedy Dolls involves a man’s unhealthy obsession with his doll collection. It’s a fun short film that also features some heavier moments as it addresses possessiveness and other perilous relationship issues. A man (Cameron Hurry) and a woman (Caitlin Hill) are in the middle of a heavy makeout session when, after entering his […]
Aficionados of the ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) trend feel that they get a pleasant feeling, often a somewhat tickling or tingling sensation that runs from their scalps down the back of their necks, from listening to and watching videos on platforms such as YouTube in which people whisper or make noises such as chewing […]
The German film The Picture in the House (Das Bild im Haus) is director David Lapuch’s loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story of the same title. The dread sets in from the opening scene and never lets up, fittingly appropriate to the source material, adapted here by Lapuch and his screenplay cowriter Alexandra Rollett. […]
Most seasoned fright-fare fans have usually seen their fair share of films about the dead haunting those who killed them, but director Stefan Georgiou’s U.K. supernatural horror short The Dead Ones adds a new spin on things. This unique approach and fine performances by its four cast members help make this short film a rousing […]