Australian short film Abduction combines social messages regarding shaming and victim blaming with a science-fiction setting. Frances Elliott’s screenplay and Paul Komadina’s direction masterfully balance these two elements, not allowing the science fiction elements to overpower the serious messages and vice versa. Mathilda (Alexandra Nell) enjoys a night out drinking and listening to live music […]
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 […]
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) […]
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 […]