See what stellar short horror films are worming their way into our hearts this spooky season and discover future breakout genre filmmakers.
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Speaking of Mr. Crocket, which debuted to much fanfare at Fantastic Fest in September, you can watch the feature film about a terrifying TV host who kills parents and kidnaps kids now on Hulu. You can also see where the chilling brainchild of writer-director Brandon Epsy began, first appearing in Hulu’s “Bite-Size Halloween” series via a 2022 short film of the same name. Catch the short in Season 3, episode 10 of “Bite-Size Halloween”.
Recommendation from Liz DeGregorio
Red Yellow Blue (18 minutes)
A girl gets haunted by her own demons as we follow her through her colorful, surreal descent into insanity.
Julia E. Cooke’s short but powerful film Red Yellow Blue (2023) follows a young woman whose trip to Rome sends her down a nightmarish path after she’s cursed in an Italian church.
The horror short (which Cooke wrote, directed, and edited) exists in a realm out of space and time – there are no cell phones, and instead, the nameless woman’s only connection to the outside world is a red payphone in the middle of the city.
After the film begins with flashes of the titular red, yellow, and blue, the nameless young woman (Talya Topzand) floats among the people of Rome like a ghost.
It seems she’s staying at a hostel or small hotel, and she’s unsure who her roommate is or when she will arrive, thus further isolating her. On her first call to her mother from the red payphone, she reassures her anxious parent that she is doing well, then visits an eerie old church, where things take a turn.
In front of a shrine in the church, her eyes roll back, and she holds her arms out to the side in a pose that is reminiscent of the crucifixion. When she comes out of this state, she runs away, frightened. She sees marks similar to stigmata on her palms, hallucinates that her skin is covered in blood, and even slices at her chest. The film cuts to her waking up in her small rented room.
Did she have a nightmare? Or is her reality the nightmare?
She calls her mother again. During her call, viewers can see several yellow buildings in the background. Her mom asks a question that frames the young woman’s experiences in a different way: “Are you taking your meds?”
In just 18 minutes, Cooke’s psychological horror movie takes her viewers on a journey of what can be read as a living nightmare, a psychological breakdown, or a harrowing religious experience.
Red Yellow Blue has been screened widely on the festival circuit. Keep an eye out for this keenly observed and vivid depiction of a young woman’s psychological state.
Recommendations from Stephanie Malone
DARBY AFTER DARK (10 minutes)
One night, during her usual shift, Darby receives a mysterious phone call from a woman who shares a chilling paranormal game with her.
Written, directed, and produced by Anna Hammill, Darby After Dark is a truly independent horror short made on a nonexistent budget. Despite that, it’s masterfully executed and a pitch-perfect testament to how far creativity, a stellar concept, a strong performance, and a sharp eye behind the camera can carry a film—even with minimal resources.
The short begins as a local radio host named Darby (Megan Farley) takes phone calls, asking people to call in who have a spooky supernatural encounter to share. Her first caller is a woman who claims to have experienced messages from the other side, received via a kind of musical Ouija board.
She challenges Darby to play a game. She must write down a set of three questions. For each question, she should play a record backward.
According to the mystery woman, the spirits will answer Darby’s questions via the record—but only if she follows a very specific set of rules.
Darby is too curious not to give it a try. She begins to play the game over the airways and is immediately shaken by how accurate the answers seem to be. The game quickly goes from playful to chilling, ending with a bang.
From the beginning, Hammill had me on the hook with this stylish, captivating, exceedingly cool short that had me on the edge of my seat, breathlessly trying to guess how this wicked game would unfold.
I’m writing this review immediately after viewing the YouTube premiere (at 8:30 Central on October 20, 2024). Be among the first to see it; you can watch it for free below.
DETOX (9 minutes)
A woman goes on a technology fast.
Like many of us, Shelly (Caitlin Morris) is a social media addict. She’s attempting a 48-hour digital cleanse at a secluded getaway recommended by Dr. Hal Levinson.
She checks into her scenic lakeside Airbnb but immediately starts posting and checking social media. After getting settled, however, she decides to fully commit to the program and embrace her time away from her phone.
With the ongoing narration of Dr. Levinson’s social media detox program playing in the background and in Shelly’s head, she makes every effort to embrace the beauty of her surroundings and live in the moment. But she can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right. She hears sirens in the distance and notices a significant increase in traffic on the road.
Soon, Alice discovers that she picked the worst possible day in history to disconnect from the world.
This horror-comedy short written and directed by Alex Hanno (co-written by Wes Hopper) is smart, funny, suspenseful, and meticulously crafted. It works exceedingly well as a creepy, tension-filled horror short and as a witty, satirical look at our modern technological dependence and the extent to which we live our lives online, desperate for validation and the feeling that we are not alone.
It’s a fiercely funny and relatable short that explores what would happen in an apocalyptic scenario. The messages that populate Shelly’s phone once she finally retrieves it are so on point, ranging from wildly different headlines from various news outlets to cries of fake news to people in absolute denial, more consumed by day-to-day silliness than a massive global crisis.
In Shaun of the Dead, Shaun (Simon Pegg) proposes a plan many of us could get on board with: “Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over.” Two decades later, Detox proposes an even more probable approach to facing disaster: drink wine and post selfies with cheeky captions.
Are we all doomed? Yes. Yes, we are — with or without the actual apocalypse on our doorsteps.
Detox was released to Omeleto on October 18th after a successful festival run, which included the Seattle International Film Festival, Screamfest, Panic Fest, and more. You can watch the film for free below.
ALICE AND THE LITTLE GREEN MEN (26 minutes)
A research psychologist attempts to make sense of a woman’s claims of alien abduction through a sit-down interview and overnight observation.
Written and directed by Anthony Columbus, Alice and the Little Green Men is deeply unnerving from the first frame.
Dr. Joan Weaver (Alice Skok), a psychiatrist who studies cases of reported alien abductions to explore how and why the brain creates false memories, is interviewing a sweet woman named Alice Bell (Ashley BeLoat).
Alice and her husband, William (Connor Wilkins), belong to a church that believes in extraterrestrials, worshipping them as “the makers”. Alice claims to have made alien contact more than 100 times in the past decade. She believes she’s a chosen vessel handpicked to carry the truth of the aliens’ message.
Dr. Weaver stays overnight at the couple’s home to take recordings and study any unusual phenomenon that may help explain what’s happening to Alice. What she discovers is far more shocking and sinister than she could have imagined.
This potent short concludes with a gut punch and leaves a lasting impression as it dissects the way predators take advantage of vulnerable people and exploit their trust and faith.
It’s compelling, gorgeously shot, and entirely cinematic; I watched a pre-festival cut that wasn’t entirely finished yet, but it still looked and sounded incredible.
Having recently screened at the 2024 Hollyshorts Film Festival, Alice and the Little Green Men is embarking on its festival circuit tour. If you have the chance to catch this one at a fest near you, I urge you to make time for it. It’s a real knockout.
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