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) […]
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 […]
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. […]
Director Geoff Harmer’s U.K. horror comedy short Dead Air is a colorful, playful blast featuring evil creatures sensationally brought to cinematic life by puppetry and practical effects. Monster movie fans are sure to have a super time with this offering. Female punk band Monster Kitten and their manager are onboard a plane to the final […]
The dating world has never been easy, but Ed Larson is making it even tougher on some people: his murder victims. He is obsessed with serial killers — photos of whom adorn his bedroom walls — and with serial killing. Director Colton Tran’s horror–comedy short Killer Date takes a look at Ed’s methods and at […]