Short Movie Roundup 01 January 2023

Portrait of God

Director: Dylan Clark

This tiny piece of golden cinema is the best movie I could find this week to start of 2023 with, originally released 4 months ago, it’s causing a storm in the world of shorts. A young woman is running through a thesis, a presentation about what God might look like, after showing a painting to a few subjects they describe their experience with the painting, after listening to these vivid descriptions the girl has her own “religious” experience.

There’s a pivotal point in Takashi Annô’s Anime film Dark Myth where a researcher finds a pool that will grant her everlasting life, she climbs in and returns as a hairy bug eyed monster, the lesson, out human bodies can’t go on forever so it has to transform you into a creature that “can” live forever, be careful what you wish for. There is a similar analogy playing out here, we want to see god in the naive belief that it will be a hugely positive and beautiful event but there’s the potential that it’s something so alien to us, that the event might be scary and unending. A glimpse of eternity is still an eternity right?

Clark manages to conjure up a visual nightmare that is chilling as well as deeply profound. The artistic lighting of each scene and unwillingness to set character in the center of any frame, the uneven and beautifully placed cameras really spark an emotion and give the film a natural feel. But if you really want to “get” everything about this film, much like the tricks used in other classics such as Hereditary you might need to turn the brightness up and check out for delightful extras.

Not only is it a super brave subject to approach, questioning and assuming to depict the face of god will upset others and intrigue a few more but to also make it supernatural and creepy is so gnostic and exactly what the horror community needs to work with more judging by the results of this frightful short.

Short Movie Roundup 24 July 2022

Short Movie Roundup 24 July 2022

The Artist

A delightful student project from Tyler Buss that hits on all the typical horror elements such as dramatic noises, a torture artist and creepy cellphone pictures.

An artist and his friend are awaiting the arrival of a patron, a notable collector of art who chooses a quiet hour to visit and view his commission. but are instead visited by an eternally creepy entity.

It’s not all horror and gore, there is a deep philosophical conversation about the artist separating themselves from the world and their art, unexpected but shows a level of flexibility and character for a young director.

Without a budget, traine actors and special effects this is still a superb effort, not exactly a master class in art but a perfect beginning for Tyler if he chooses to carry on making horror stories with sharp twisted endings.

Short Movie Roundup 06 February 2022

ACID A

Advertised as a British Gang Film.. In appearance it looks like it’s going to be closer to The Fence is style, based around 1986 a group of pseudo footie thugs adopt a new member into their gang who becomes Acid, a young fighter but like them an all round okay boy, who just likes to have fun and fight, but his bloody induction into the gang only causes friction within its members.

Despite the name it’s less like Trainspotting and more like Awaydays. Sadly the acting is a bit off, the lines aren’t delivered too well but with a bit of TLC it could become a bigger and more vibrant part of a longer story. I can see Danny Dyer popping up as one of the gang members if this was ever given a cinema release lol.. Oh dear. The work from The Three Lancers will improve with age, I’m sure.

Short Movie Roundup 30 January 2022

The House Abandon

This movie brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, a young boy is playing one of those retro option games on his computer, the computer flashes up a situation “you see an old creepy house” the boy types “I enter the home”.. If you’re as old as me you’ll want to plug in your commodore 64 and wait 3 hours for it to load a game. Unfortunately in this vaporwave tech bedroom his choices seem to have a bearing on his own real home and his safety is in question when someone enters his home. It’s an ingenious blend of reality and game clashing together, something that outdoes all of Tron, from pionering director Clint D’Souza.

Short Movie Roundup 23 January 2022

Short Movie Roundup 23 January 2022

The Ghost

Everything about Sueng-Hyeun Lim’s creepy short is aimed to really scare the audience. A young mortuary cosmetologist, Mi-young, who makes a few extra bucks by pulling gold teeth and robbing corpses, but when an unidentified body is brought in, he really starts paying out when Mi-young finds a diamond in his butt, after rifling around in his sphincter she ends up with a bag of diamonds, before she can celebrate it seems the dead want their belongings back. Sueng-Hyeun Lim seems to be influenced by the comedic side of Miike as he conjures a ghostly story that feels like a chapter of The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

Best Short Films 2021

It’s that time of the year again!! I have been a bit lazy with keeping the short roundups being posted on time as I had a lot of arting to do with an exhibition then with ill health and a few household “things” time got away with me.. BUT here’s the ultimate round up for the year.. Lets see what made the top list of movies i covers d in 2021!!

I am Become Death

I assume this is based on Oppenheimer and his famous speech after seeing the devastation of the Atom Bomb. but what Tom Potter does with this very short piece is to give a deeper insight into the blood thirsty post bomb 1950’s America, a world that lived in peace only due to utter fear. You can literally hear how broken Oppenheimer’s is for what has been created and how he fears it will be used this is a window into that dark thought.

Short Movie Roundup 09 January 2022

Theourgia

The story of creation, of the Garden of Eden and the fiery Hell of revelations are, as old as the hills, and while Jorge Jaramillo has used these themes in his disturbing horror, you can’t deny that he’s given them a new sickly edge in a twisted universe.

Short Movie Roundup 15 August 2021

So after a couple of weeks of neglect I’m back on board with the blog. The negative and vile feedback from Twitter has been processed and I’m dealing with that and moving on, so here’s a handful of interesting short movies and videos that I found interesting from the week.

Nightingale

Jasper de Bruin’s slow burning thriller follows the night shift of an enigmatic nurse who’s elderly patients are on critical care, and some aren’t expected to make it through the night, however her stalker has reason to believe the passing of the patients might not be that natural and will the overworked nurse be able to make it till dawn? heavy overtones of let the right one in along with an overbearing sense of doom in this chilling horror.

Short Movie Roundup 25 April 2021

Somniphobia

Dillon Vibbart’s mini movie is a prime example of what indie cinema can achieve with the right mind behind it. This haunting story of a woman being tormented by demons in her dreams is outstanding, so expect to see it at the end of the year ok folks! Made on a healthy budget of 12K. After experiencing some life threatening dreams a woman reaches out to a man who can enter her dreams to help her. Once in the dreams things don’t go exactly as you’d expect, but the battle is fought, but how will it turn out!?!

The doctor is played by Chris Attoh, and I am besotted with his acting skills as they blow the competition and elevate the film’s message. What starts out as something which any horror fan thinks they have cracked turns into something more poignant but that doesn’t mean it’s any less scary, in face the fear becomes more palpable. I can’t express how well this is filmed and executed, there are some really menacing long shorts which hold real tension, the characters are believable, the effects are kept to a minimum but what you see can’t be unseen and it doesn’t rely on jump scares and silly tactics to get under the skin. I hope this becomes a bigger film or that Vibbart is given more opportunities, but please keep Attoh!

Short Movie Roundup 18 April 2021

Dead Packet

A jaded film actor challenges an ancient Chinese Demon in this comedic short film. Starring the legendary Richard Ng, the film was shot over 2 days in Hong Kong by Simon Yin.

Incorporating a lot of popular Asian folklore and pop culture the movie is quite brilliant in it’s delivery of a slightly obvious but well crafted story. There’s a lot of different filming styles combined together as the movie jumps into a found footage style from time to time as it follows a lively youngster who’s actively studying the ventran actor on his 444th dead scene. Luckily the aged actor is generally pissed off at the annoying kid following him and all the interruptions and begins to make a point that folklore is nonsense and begins to act up.

It’s a classic story of someone who challenges the unknown, and is surprised when it bites back. WIthout the laughs it does have a creepy edge but it’s hardly horror.