Best Short Movies 2020

I didn’t get through as many short movies in 2020 as I would have liked.. There was a massive gap from March to about August where I was unable to spend as much time on the blog and unfortunately the shorts on a Sunday took back seat while I dealt with changes due to Covid19. On top of that I also managed to get banned from Youtube (for life) so in losing my account I lost my playlist and had to start over from scratch. But I feel quite proud for finding this impressive list of impressive movies..  I’d like to thank all the creators for their dedication and hard work, hope to see more of your work in 2021!

The Herd

A group of women are trapped in squalid conditions, impregnated and kept for their milk like cattle, just with cows, any males are thrown in the trash and discarded. During an escape we see a that a lot of women are being milked and killed like cattle. Not sure if the message is directed to make people think about cattle in different ways, we are all beings sharing this planet right. I know the Hucow fetish movement wouldn’t be able to digest this too well. It’s the most visceral in its approach on this list and rightly so, when you discover the reason for this violence and “inhumanity” it makes it all that much more poignant.

Haunted Transmissions Vol 1

Please note there will be spoilers..

So the brain fart behind this list, with all the best intentions, was to collate a bunch of movies where some kind of media has been possessed, cursed or a strange entity is controlling, and in turn is spreading itself via modern(ish) technology such as video, photography or radio signals etc.

Throughout history fairy tales and horror stories were filled with twisted tales of cursed items, a spinning wheel here, fake food there, red dancing shoes everywhere. The notion of something being cursed isn’t new at all but the type of items that surround us everyday have changed and it’s only natural that they too become subject to this affliction of being cursed or possessed.

For me the first memorable modern story featuring haunted media was in the Koji Suzuki 1991 novel The Ring, where a girl, Sadako is able to project her hate onto a video tape where the viewer is given 7 days to live after watching the abstract footage. The video description was chillin it kept cutting out going back every few seconds, it’s not until the end of the novel you realise it was literally looking through the eyes of Sadako and perceiving her blinking.

In the original book Sadako possess the paranormal trait known as Nensha, the ability of Psychic Photography but it was okay as a book in the written format you could only read about the video recording, the actual recording didn’t exist, although things really changed when the movie was released, all hell broke loose in fact, with people losing their shit about a real curse. The cursed video tape remains a constant fixture in the movie and book series, eventually it begins to evolve into other formats both in fiction and in the mass hysteria that it caused, there were reports of Japanese school girls losing their minds about reading reports about the tape and then dying 7 days later, had their raised a tulpa? Is the power of suggestion that strong, Ring mania has begun.

Nensha, is the ability to burn thoughts onto photographs, was around a long time before Koji Suzuki’s groundbreaking novel, the earliest claim comes from Tomokichi Fukurai around 1910 and even Uri Geller jumped onto that bandwagon in 1995. The only evidence that I’ve seen of this in a movie was the darkly comical Premonition (2004) and that’s when I started this magical list, but 16 years later here I go with my first installment…

So here we go 10 Haunted Transmission movies, please note that these are not rated in anyway.

Reasons Why I Love Bigfoot Wars

Despite this terrible B Movie being the definition of terrible it harbors a few highlights and I felt it was about time I highlighted those, if you want to read my original review I’ll leave a link right here.

06.Boggy Creek

I didn’t even catch the town’s name the first time I saw this movie but on the re watch I finally heard someone mention the name Boggy Creek and i really tickled me. I do love that it kept the connection with all of the older Bigfoot movies.

December 2018 Film List

A list of what I recorded watching in December 2018, bold/starred films are new.. reviews are linked, what have you been watching?

UFC fight night

Chocolate

Delicatessen

Amelie

Resident evil

Lake Mungo

Ill boss

Baba Yaga

*Apostle

First blood

Top 250 of the Decade 100 – 51

For those who missed the previous parts

250 – 201
200 – 151
150 -101 

100 Grave / Raw (2016)

Strict vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) encounters a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world during her first week at veterinary school. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her principles and eats raw meat for the first time and brings about a new confusing chapter in her life, her older sister holds some of the secrets but she has to single handedly piece together her new lust for flesh and blood. A daring piece which is brilliantly acted by a young cast. A captivating exploration of cannibalism or vampirism in its purest form.

99 Get Out (2017)

Chris, an African-American man, decides to visit his Caucasian girlfriend’s parents during a weekend getaway. Although they seem normal at first, he is not prepared to experience the horrors ahead. This really changed the game for Black Cinema, sparking huge debates but as a stand alone movie it’s an incredible piece of storytelling keeping an audience on the edge much like Hitchcock

Top 250 of the Decade 150 – 101

The third installment of the epic list,
you can get the first part  and introduction of 250 – 201 here 
and 200 – 151 here 

150 Hold the dark (2018)

There’s something very mysterious in Jeremy Saulnier’s cold thriller where children are suspected of being carried off by a pack of wolves. Once the retired naturalist and wolf expert(Jeffrey Wright) arrives in the secluded Alaskan town to begin his investigations he realises that there is something more tribal going on within the community, but can he solve the new spate of killings that have taken hold of the town before it’s too late? An unusual story which really divided Saulniers fan base, but I feel we need more experimental films like this to appreciate.

149 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

It’s not easy turning a generations favourite short story anthology into a movie, especially when so many cherished the books. But there were a lot of wise decisions for this creepy terror revolving around some of the loved tiny tales and a few new additions work well within the cultured mix. Ends with a chance of a sequel so watch this space.

Top 250 of the Decade 200 – 151

If you missed the first installment then you can find it here…

200 The Monster (2016)

Super effective and powerful movie starring Zoe Kazan as a mother who’s doing all she can to protect her daughter while stranded on a lonely road. Tons of traditional horror alongside poignant metaphorical ideas on what a monster truly is in this entertaining and thought provoking horror story.

199 Lobos de Arga / Game of Werewolves / Attack of the Werewolves (2011)

Invited back to his home village for a civic honour, a writer (Gorka Otxoa) discovers some unpleasant truths about his family and why his village hasn’t changed in more than a century. Brilliant comedy horror with a slash of the uncanny, kinda like Day of the Beast but without the drugs and leather pants.

November Film List 2018

• Mad Max
• Brooklyn’s Finest
• Hard Candy
• Body Bags
• Godfather
• Casino
• Wolf
• *Beast 9/10
• Critters
• *Possum 7/10
• UFC 230
• PeTer

Final Girls Vol.1

Horror is certainly one of my favourite genres, over the years it’s changed from ghouls and monsters creeping around in the darkness, to more ferocious Hammer Horror and Universal Monsters thrashing around and breaking new ground, generally women were the victims or just an attractive side kick, slowly through horror and sci fi, action and drama, women started to find a voice and became stronger on the silver screen, some of them even became our saviours and heroines. This is a list of 10 women who displayed their true grit and managed to make it through a horror flick without getting mauled, eaten or kidnapped for alien breeding programmes… Please note that I will be discussing the END of these movies and therefore SPOILERS!

01.Suspiria (1977)

One of Dario Argento’s classic films see’s a young dancer, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) travel from New York to the Tanz Dance Academy in Freiburg, Germany, but on arriving she starts to notice strange events and these escalate into gresome Giallo technicolour murders. Feeling out of place and having to cope with peculiar events and  possibly being controlled by mysterious forces she manages to unravel what/who is picking off the lovely girls around her, which makes her a number one target. She’s incredibly brave but it’s fear which really keeps her going! The film is lavish with a neon effect which is something idolised by modern directors who are still highly influenced by Argento’s deep sensual style. 10/10

The Most Dangerous Game – Chess

First things first what’s the attraction to Chess? The King of Games…Well first it’s one of the oldest games known to man, it’s technical and shows a lot of character of the person playing.  As soon as you see a chess game set up in the movie you know there is a mental war going on. The cunning tactics that you need to lure a person into a trap, the poker face antics that are played until the final moments are all time which a director can really hit the message home that he’s playing for keeps, the characters are so high class and sophisticated if you’ve not picked up on a think or two then you’d better start taking notes.

There is usually a battle of minds, more than a battle of brawn, someone is up to an evil plan, so check the finer details and see if you can out play the director, and the most devastating move, death, usually this battle will result in some death in some way or in some scenes it will be played by death.

There has been a long lasting kinship between chess and cinema, often seen as the thinking man’s game it’s often used to display character and intelligence. Here’s a list of a few films that have some kind of chess connection.

 

01.Pawn sacrifice (2014)

The film that inspired this list. I am not a chess player myself, I struggle with draughts but I was really interested with this film, it had an usual atmosphere and based on real events, it was a chance to learn something and be entertained. Tobey Maguire, stars as Bobby Fischer, who battled against the soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). The film is as concentrated about the game as it the characters and tells a thrilling but tragic life story, filled with mental health issues and the US vs USSR cold war and how any event between the two countries was considered a  full on war.  9/10