Take two severed but still fully functional heads and put them in an icebox in the basement of a psychotic barber’s shop that they share with a dismembered hand, and you have the kick-off to Mark Brocking’s blood-spattered horror comedy short The Barber’s Cut (U.K., 2015). As the heads communicate and come to grips with […]
I do my best to avoid Alfred Hitchcock comparisons when writing reviews, but when a film earns it by paying homage to the master while simultaneously serving up its own unique voice as proficiently as writer/director John Fitzpatrick’s short Brentwood Strangler (2015) does, I’ll make an exception. With its blend of violent thriller, romance, suspense, […]
If you think that two young women traveling alone and running out of fuel late at night combined with a creepy station attendant at an old, isolated rural gas station sounds like a fine recipe for a horror film, you would be absolutely right. Writer/director Venita Ozols-Graham uses that set-up in her new short Used […]
Being set up by friends for a blind date can have its own unique set of horrors, but when one of the potential suitors involved is an ancient, evil deity from deep beneath the sea, it’s a different situation altogether. Director Nick Spooner’s horror comedy The Call of Charlie tackles that situation exactly, with hilarious […]
Bonfire Films, the Maine-based production company responsible for such winning horror shorts as Tickle (2014, reviewed here) and an adaptation of Stephen King’s Suffer the Little Children (2015, reviewed here), is back with another solid effort, White Drift (2016). From the husband and wife filmmaking team of Corey and Haley Norman, this short follows the […]
The Chinese short film Fish Eye (2015) is a suspenseful, elegant-looking thriller that provides a good deal of mystery and tension in its 13-minute running time (before ending credits). Director Tong Zhou creates an atmosphere of paranoia and dread that builds to a gripping climax. Shasha (Yuti Sun) is a young woman who has moved […]
Opening with close-up shots that make routines of regular female grooming seem much more squirm-inducing than usual, director Jeanne Jo’s horror-comedy short film Tampoon (U.S., 2015) goes on to provide more visuals likely to make viewers both groan and laugh uncomfortably, sometimes at the same moment. Jo has made a fun film that features a […]
Short films are a perfect medium for the cinematic telling of folktales. These traditional tales are ripe for motion picture retellings but require only a brief time for their stories to be told; padding them out to feature length could mean losing the richness of their sudden impact. Writer/director Cameron McCasland’s Tailypo creature feature […]
Swedish science-fiction thriller Darkness Falls is a gripping, great-looking effort that belies its DIY approach. Writer/director Jarno Lee Vinsencius also did the cinematography for the short film, aided in the filmmaking by only two other crew members – assistant director Devis Tzivis, who also stars in the film, and sound recordist Michael Tiedtke – […]
As potential viewers might guess from this short horror film’s title, The Tell-Tale Heart: Sisters is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Writer/director Christine Parker based her screenplay on that renowned tale, adding a dash of “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” as well as her own twisted ideas. […]
Some people yearn for the simpler times of days gone by. Judging from the photos on display in Rosina Leckermaul’s (Wendy Keeling, who also directs) home in the dark-comedy horror short film The Unconventional Gourmet, this lady who seems stuck in the past may have yearned for yesteryear for quite some time. Perhaps her […]
Writer/director/producer Mark Tapio Kines’ short film 20 Matches (United States, 2016) is simplicity at its most effective. Using only one actress and the titular matchsticks, the short delivers a terrifying and disturbing piece of cinema. Without any action, backdrop, or special effects, actress Nina Rausch looks directly at viewers as she relates the tale of […]
Andrea Ricca is an Italian filmmaker with a strong do-it-yourself ethic. He has made about 20 shorts since 1998, often focusing on creature features that harken back to the classic giant monster or alien invasion movies that many horror and science fiction movie fans hold dear to our hearts. He posts his short films for […]
Boasting elements of both science fiction and flat-out horror, writer/director/editor Kyle Martellacci’s Canadian short film Candy Skin is a gripping exercise that assaults viewers’ eardrums almost as much as their eyeballs. For those wondering, I mean that as a solid compliment, as the short immerses us in the chaotic world of a man whose […]
Demons of the mind can drive people to unspeakably horrific acts, as high school cheerleader Laurie Vernon (Isadora Leiva) finds out in director Jake Hammond’s riveting short film Pigskin. He and cowriter Nicola Newton examine the psychology behind body image while delivering a memorable horror experience. As the short opens, we see Laurie forcing herself […]