Let’s kick off the spooky season with a sinfully good roundup of the best horror shorts from among our favorite festival standouts.
We’re back with another chilling collection of short films that pack a powerful punch in bite-sized portions. From surreal body horror to wickedly funny cult satire, from sexy and sinister supernatural tales to haunting retellings of a gothic masterpiece. These four featured shorts showcase the diverse and imaginative landscape of contemporary horror cinema.
Recommendation from Chris Corker
UNRAVELLING (8 minutes)
As Fiona battles to maintain her grandmother’s autonomy, an invisible illness begins to manifest into a sinister entity, forcing her to confront her deepest fears.
Unravelling is an eight-minute short film that blends fantastical body horror with the real-life condition of Multiple Sclerosis. Its Scottish director Aimie Willemse, herself diagnosed with MS, uses her own experiences to make a film that, even at its most surreal and grotesque, feels rooted in the real-life trauma of living with a degenerative disease.
Fiona (Shona McHugh) is caring for her chronically ill grandmother, Maeve (Sheila Grier), whose failing motor skills seem to be only one in a roster of other health problems. When Maeve’s ailments begin to take on a more malignant and surreal form, Fiona is forced to confront not only the horrors of Maeve’s illness but also the very real possibility that she will suffer the same fate.
Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body begins to attack itself, damaging nerve fibers and leading to a host of symptoms that can vary from mild to debilitating. What Unravelling does best is to provide a physical representation of a condition in which the body itself becomes the threat.
Unlike other horror – and even body horror – in which an external force attacks the body or causes it to change, here the danger comes from within, and the hereditary nature of the disease means that it can perpetuate itself through time indefinitely.
Hope can be difficult to find in such scenarios, and the futility of an unseen but always-present disease like MS can lead to a feeling of social alienation. This is reproduced well in the setting of Unravelling; the cottage in which Maeve lives is small and cramped, and the forest around it is as suffocating as it is beautiful. The musical score also draws on the same melancholy, the plaintive chords as delightful as they are ethereally sad.
While it is difficult to fully explore the various impacts of Multiple Sclerosis in the short runtime, Unravelling nevertheless manages to craft an incredibly personal story that highlights the key terrors of the disease.
Perhaps its most uplifting message is that through sharing pain with others in the same situation, sufferers of MS can find, if not hope for recovery, then at least a shared solace.
Unravelling is currently touring the festival circuit. It made its London Premiere at Fright Fest, where it was screened for this review, and its North American Premiere at ScreamFest. For more details, visit the film’s official website.
Recommendations from Stephanie Malone
THE BLUE DIAMOND (16 minutes)
After the death of her toxic mother, a cultish 80s ski club is the setting of a grieving daughter trying to find closure, but as usual with 80s ski clubs, nothing is as it seems.
Director Sam Fox (Fck’n Nuts) is quickly becoming one of my favorite up-and-coming filmmakers. Her latest short, The Blue Diamond, which she wrote with Addison Heimann, boasts an outrageously hilarious concept with masterful execution.
Alison (Desiree Staples) is the estranged daughter of a recently deceased narcissistic cult leader, Jacqueline (Barbara Crampton). She’s having a mighty tough time trying to eulogize and mourn a mother who abandoned her for selfish pursuits. To make matters worse, Jacqueline’s funeral is filled with her devotees — obsessed sycophants who saw her as the mountain peak of perfection.
Just when Alison thinks it can’t get much worse, things quickly careen off a cliff.
Staples is a delight, with her sharply acerbic wit and believable portrayal of a scarred child in an adult body. She fully sells the emotional fallout of a woman whose childhood made her feel alien.
Meanwhile, the always-endearing Crampton is gleefully deranged as a trapped-in-the-80s bombshell — as creepy as she is charismatic.
It’s a wickedly funny takedown of the superficial self-help complex and a witty but pointed exploration of the trauma of living with a narcissist. Fox says she was inspired to write the short based on her relationship with her deceased father, who suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Visually, the short is a sumptuous treat.
Fox infuses The Blue Diamond with a stylish but off-kilter charm, enhanced by pitch-perfect set design and costuming; it’s bold, vibrant, quirky, and hypnotic.
The Blue Diamond is currently making the genre festival circuit. It recently had its UK Premiere at Grimm Fest. It will next have its West Coast premiere at the infamous Beyond Fest on Saturday, September 28, at 1 pm.
PENTAGRAM GIRL (19 minutes)
A necromancer’s daughter faces off with the demon he kept in the basement.
Pentagram Girl is another film about loss and grappling with the sins of a parent, but this twisted little number is a darker and more unnerving — but still darkly humorous — affair.
Directed by Bryan Enk (producer for the excellent feature The Horror at Gallery Kay), who wrote the film with David Robson, this surreal and atmospheric gothic short is thoroughly captivating from its avant-garde opening to its thrilling conclusion.
Jenna Bouchard (Lisa Anne Sclar) is grieving her mother Margot’s death exactly one year following the death of her father, Peyton. Jenna may seem like a typical bereaved daughter, but her family was anything but typical.
Peyton was a self-proclaimed necromancer who practiced demonic exorcisms. He even claimed to have cast a demon out of Jenna herself. Rumor has it that this exorcised demon sought vengeance for its forceful expulsion by claiming Margot’s life.
A year after Margot’s death, Jenna is being interviewed by famed internet skeptic Jordan Taylor (Arielle Hope). The two end up sleeping together in an intensely erotic scene.
Soon, we learn that the exceedingly creepy butler has a sinister personal agenda. Then, when Jordan’s curiosity gets the best of her, she goes looking for secrets in the home while Jenna sleeps — coming face to face with Jenna’s own dark secret.
Enk makes savvy use of limited resources in this wonderfully weird Lynchian fever dream.
Anchored by strong performances and great cinematography, Pentagram Girl is a possessing short.
Pentagram Girl is currently making another appearance on the festival circuit, and it’s well worth watching.
4. THE DRACULA MONOLOGUES (29 minutes)
This anthology horror film chronicles the tragic plight of Dracula’s three main victims.
Director Bryan Enk landed with great aplomb on our radar, impressing us with another very effective horror short.
The Dracula Monologues (30 min.) is a collected anthology of three previously released short films: The Final Voyage of the Good Ship Demeter (2012), The Curious Case of R.M. Renfield (2006), and The Heartless Cruelty of Lucy Westenra (2023). Each segment features stories from Bram Stoker’s chilling gothic masterpiece.
Both the premise and execution are incredibly simple, but it’s that stripped-down simplicity that makes it so compelling.
For each story, a narrator recounts their horrifying encounters with the Prince of Darkness.
The captain of the Demeter (Steve Bishop) speaks of the infamous ship’s final voyage. R.M. Renfield (Robert Honeywell) tells his doctor about his master’s cruelty. Finally, Lucy Westenra (Carrie Johnson) shares the sordid tale of her relationship with the alluring but deadly Count Dracula.
There’s no fanfare or visual spectacle to accompany the stories. Starkly shot with a single actor against a black background, these tales are woven with simple narration, sound effects, and a minimalist score.
It’s a cinematic campfire story, a radio drama on celluloid, whose narrative captivates and chills.
Of course, it helps that the source material is about as good as you can get. Stoker’s words are brought to life by three stellar performances. Each actor delivers a knockout monologue, keeping viewers fixated.
It all works so much better than you might expect, especially for fans of Stoker’s novel and those who appreciate a good minimalist stage play that puts the spotlight entirely on a riveting script and a wildly talented cast.
If you get a chance to see The Dracula Monologues, don’t miss it, and be sure to keep a close eye on what Enk does next.
Follow Us!