Upstairs
Director: Phillip Trow
It’s not easy to get your footing with this delightfully spun story following the evening of a particular family as they ready themselves to receive a new dinner guest. The youngest member of the family is a troubled girl, one who has issues with her fathers death and her elder twin siblings. It’s her sister who’s bringing home a new boyfriend and the only way she believes she can save his life is to attack him with a knife..
Upstairs is a really tight thriller with remarkable acting and a totally engrossing story that I believe can be extended into a full length movie with ease. WIth it’s dark paranormal undertones and folk horror flavors this will delight.
The River
Director: Liam Banks
So much folklore in this gem, a piece that brings Jenny Greenteeth into our modern waterways, and I hope the pollution hasn’t bleached her rotten heart! It’s always interesting to see how folk characters can fit into the modern world, and really we need to see more of these transitions explored.
A woman has discovered her partner has been cheating on her and attempts to ground and centre by doing some canoeing, after travelling into deep uncharted waters she realises she’s being watched by something menacing .. row row row your boat gently the fuck outta hear.
Apart from the final monster, everything about this movie is incredibly well thought through and challenges the audience with Jenny’s watery gravesite and her determination to drown as many souls as possible.
Raven
Director: Samuel Kassover
There’s a lot to takeaway from this stranger danger girl power drama. An artist moves into a new apartment and in instantly pounced upon by one of her new neighbors who tries to insert herself into her unpacked life, but ignoring the red flags and not wanting to feel like the bad girl she allows this unknown neighbor to dogsit for her, I guess she’s never seen Single White Female??
Kassover had a knack of keeping the camera at eye level, often over the shoulder of his characters, so it feels as if everyone is getting up close and personal with the audience, luckily not as close and the knife wielding psycho in this short.
The acting is a little subpar, and there’s a touch of overemphasized but this is overshadowed by a twisting plot which takes the characters a step further than Glen Close in Basic Instinct, and a pet or ex lover is served up as a raw bloody snack.. bon appetit.
Dagon
Read by Mike Bennett, illustrated by Christopher Steininger.
A wonderfully stylish recreation of the classic story from HPL. Illustrated in the fashion of a Yami Shibai story by Christpher Staininger, and narrated from the herd by Mike Bennett. The duo manage to really punch home an unauthentic feel for this tale of madness.
Fourth Door
Director: Nathan Nicholls
Ever heard a strange noise in your house and attempted to investigate only to find someone left a tap on? Did you then lose 3 hours of time? All of this high strangest is debated in Nathan Nicholls short movie with a couple of audio hitches but plenty of interesting ideas.
A young man attempts to move on with his life when he begins to notice strange things happening around his home, totally convinced he’s being visited by some previously unknown entity. He stands his ground but his doctor and brother brush his ideas off as “medically” induced. There’s always a fine line between mental stability and UFOs or Demonic Possession but how do you prove either?
Apologies are made for the audio sync but it’s easy to look past this for a meaningful project like this.
Hopefully you enjoyed this week’s list, if there are any short movies that you can recommend please let me know.
You can find a list of all my Short Movie Roundup’s here.
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