The Short Horror Magic of Happenstance Horror Fest
WOMEN IN HORROR (1 hr)
The fest’s Women in Horror block offers a showcase of vision and muscle: sharp craft, sharper instincts, and stories that cut to the bone. These filmmakers channel grief, rage, reclamation, and wicked humor into shorts that feel personal and purposeful. It’s a reminder that some of the boldest voices in horror belong to women who aren’t afraid to stare down the dark and make it blink.
Festival Favorites
The Resonance (Dirs. Sashia Dumont & Paul Robinson, 13 min)
Winter, 1979. Renowned psychologist Sloane Campbell is reviewing the final case file of a colleague who died under violent, mysterious circumstances three weeks after evaluating a patient for an exorcism. The frame is simple, but the execution is exquisite: a vintage patina, sumptuous cinematography, and a creeping unease that tightens like a tourniquet. Dumont’s performance anchors the piece with quiet authority while Robinson’s lens crafts a suffocating mood that never lets up.
What makes this sing is the discipline. The period detail is precise, the editing assured, and the sound design builds dread without ever resorting to cheap tricks. The final stretch lands hard. It feels like a lost 70s chiller you discovered at midnight and can’t shake in the morning.
Watch now: Gaby Simpson’s Margie is another stellar supernatural chiller. On a dark, rainy night, a young man gets lost driving to a party and encounters a strange girl named Margie. After offering her a ride, he is led to a decaying house where he discovers the disturbing signs of her tragic past. It’s creepy, compelling, and stunningly executed with a gorgeous gut punch of an ending.
Las Paredes del Horror (The Walls of Horror) (Dir. Rosaicela Enriquez Santillan, 9 min)
Drenched in atmosphere and ritual, this Spanish-language chiller cross-cuts between an old woman performing black magic and a man trapped in an elevator with nowhere to run. As pins meet cloth and candles gutter, his body responds in real time. The set design is richly textured, the soundscape harrowing, and the emotional core unmistakable: grief curdled into vengeance.
Santillan positions the film as a meditation on loss, forgiveness, and the cost of clinging to anger. It ends on an image that lingers. It’s cinematic, cathartic, and unflinchingly human. Extraordinary.
Watch now: Les Battues (The Fading) is another dark, atmospheric short film about a grieving mother pushed to the extreme. In the heart of a foggy and rural Quebec winter, Luce, a grieving mother faced with the disappearance of her son, is taken aback when three local hunters track down the alleged killer, a seemingly harmless young man. Rafaël Beauchamp’s haunting short is emotional and devastating, centering on the harrowing ways darkness feeds on trauma and how loss can make us lose ourselves.
Further Frights
Cringe (Dir. Lisa Ovies, 6 min)
Life is hard. Being a functioning adult can be harder. Director Lisa Ovies (Puppet Killer) stars as Lila, whose social anxiety and embarrassment spiral into something darkly funny and uncomfortably relatable. The short is sharp, witty, and builds to an ending that’s equal parts punchline and pressure release. Cameos from Gigi Saul Guerrero and Heather Dorf add sparkle.
It’s witty and relatable for anyone who’s ever felt like they could just die… or kill.. from feeling painfully awkward.
Watch now: If you love horror comedy, I suggest Corey Totten’s Her Curse about a young woman who attempts to place a curse on her ex by following the steps of a How-To article. The entire 12-minute short is wordless, aided by strong visuals, some brief textual interstitials, and a superb score that sucks you in and keeps you on the hook until a great stinger of an ending.
Multi-Level Massacre (Dir. Ashes Homon-Rahall, 8 min)
A gleeful homage to Night of the Living Dead filtered through the soul-sucking world of MLMs. If you’ve ever been cornered by a “girlboss” sales pitch, this is karmic payback with teeth. It’s snappy, sardonic, and ends exactly where you want it to.
Watch now: Dive into ALTER’s Female Filmmakers playlist on YouTube for a trove of gems. Start with Pop Monsters by Megan Brooks: a nasty little tale about girls behaving badly that pairs perfectly with this short’s dark humor.
Manicured (Dir. Tracy Lynn Rohach, 5 min)
A stylish, neon-lit riff on the slasher where beauty becomes weaponized. Two girls are stalked after a Halloween party, but the “final girl” energy flips when one of them takes matters into her own hands—literally. It’s fast, fierce, and smart about trope inversion.
Watch now: Night of the Slasher (shot to look like a single take) is a clever, kinetic subversion in the same spirit. It’s fierce, funny, and brimming with feisty final girl energy.
Betty (Dir. Leticia Buchanan, 9 min)
A wickedly gnarly takedown of incel fantasy. Dr. Banta builds an AI “perfect woman” who can’t reject him. Betty, his doting 50s-housewife bot, begins to glitch in the most deliciously destructive ways. Groovy vibes give way to a vicious finale that earns its applause.
Watch now: For incisive context on the culture this skewers, Natalie Wynn’s ContraPoints: Incels is essential viewing. It is as entertaining as it is informative.
Rabbit Season (Dir. Spooky Madison, 5 min)
A dark fairytale about a “rabbit” (Spooky Madison) who runs away looking for adventure and falls into the trap of a wolf in a prince’s clothing. It’s an atmospheric metaphor for grooming, abuse, and reclamation that refuses to flatten its heroine into a victim. Short, haunting, effective.
Watch now: You can check out this gem for free now on YouTube.
Midnight Snack (Dirs. Abby Brenker & Alan Kudan, 4 min)
A solo rideshare home, a too-friendly driver, and a door that won’t open at the end of the ride set up the dread you’re expecting. Then the short sidesteps into something far more playful and satisfying. Predator and prey aren’t what they seem, and the ending is a delicious bite.
Watch now: ALTER’s CHOMP is a demented workplace creature feature with a similar “don’t judge by first impressions” payoff.
A Mother’s Love (Dir. Lisa Ovies, 1 min)
One minute. Maximum impact. A razor-sharp revenge microshort about how far a mother will go to protect her daughter. It’s simple, nasty, and wildly satisfying.
Watch now: The Moths Will Eat Them Up is a brilliant companion piece about gendered violence, fear, apathy, and unexpected power. Terrifying and ultimately cathartic.
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