Absolutely chilling, unsettling, and macabre, writer/director Michael Kratochvil’s Australian short film I Call Upon Thee takes the concept of a children’s horror story and places it firmly in the world of adult fright fare. The result is an unforgettable slice of cinema that lingers discomfitingly long after its initial viewing. Nia (Anna Cooke) is older […]
Director Daniel Rands’ U.K. horror short Peaking relies heavily on sound design to get its eerie atmosphere across. It does so quite impressively, resulting in a 7-minute shocker fraught with tension. After Sound Recordist Sandy (Louisa Harris) overhears one of her colleagues making a sexist remark about her, she stays behind in the house where […]
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 […]
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 […]
A pandemic can’t keep a good film festival down, as film aficionados have seen in recent weeks. Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere horror genre film festival, is joining the new trend of film fests going virtual this year. Horror fans can dive into a terror-filled smorgasbord of more than 60 short and […]
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. […]
Seen as a sort of revisit to the celebrated television series Masters of Horror, the new scare-fare anthology Nightmare Cinema serves up five tales of terror from renowned directors Mick Garris, Joe Dante, Alejandro Brugués, Ryûhie Kitamura, and David Slade, with a wraparound segment featuring Mickey Rourke as The Projectionist. As with any cinematic portmanteau, […]
A group of young hikers finds that the opportunity for sudden wealth leads them down dangerous paths in the horror outing Stay Out Stay Alive. Greed motivates some members of the party, but the lust for riches proves to be no match for supernatural forces in the forest in this engrossing thriller. Amy (Christina July […]