Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and the Masters of Horror series are both hit or miss with me. I've personally, never been a big fan of Hooper's work except for Poltergeist and Salem's Lot (TV movie). And, there are more episodes of Masters of Horror that I dislike than like. I've viewed "Dance of the Dead" (season 1, episode 3) before, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I couldn't remember my opinion of that particular episode. I mean, the combo of Robert Englund and Tobe Hooper sounds appealing, especially when it's based on a short story by Richard Matheson! So, when I found it on DVD (for only $3.50!) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase it and give it another watch. I was hoping for the best, but expecting the worst so as to not be letdown. That all changed about 20 minutes in, when I realized that I did remember it, I just tried to erase it from my brain...
A biology student's failed science experiment has caused a deadly virus to be released on the United States. Enter Joe, an everyday working man infected by the outbreak who chooses to go into seclusion at a cabin. As he suffers through stages of grief, Joe waits to see if he is one of the lucky few to be immune to the virus. Like There's No Tomorrow is a sad zombie short that's about 27 minutes long. It centers on a man named Joe who was bitten on his right forearm after trying to help an infected civilian. I really like how everything is explained and thought out thoroughly, as we find out that the zombie outbreak was caused by a man-made zombie rat created in a lab. Only 2% of the population is immune to the virus and can overcome it, and while Joe is hoping he's in that small percentile, we see him go about his everyday life and doing things like practice shooting with his rifle. But mostly, we see him worrying and feeling sorry for himself. As the story progresses we learn that Joe is separated from his wife and daughter, and misses them dearly. He also starts to decay and darken around the eyes, which is a nice touch.
STARRING- Dominic Pace, Varda Appleton, Peter Le Bas, J.P. Giuliotti, and Jake Ryan Scott
DIRECTOR- Peter Dukes
Synopsis taken from IMDb
Daniel is the story of a young child in a closet from a dangerous intruder, but is all what it seems?
FilmmakerPeter Dukes has unleashed his 15th picture into the world, and this one is his shortest to date. In only three short minutes, it leads you one way, and then steers another. Very well done for such a short time frame, but it's obvious Dukes knows what he's doing. Over time, he's mastered the way of making short films.
"Based on traditional campfire and bedtime ghost stories, 'The First Step' tells the short tale of Sara, who on her first night in a new house with her mother is tormented by a creature in the basement."
Coming fromWild Eye Pictures, this creepy tale is short and to the point. Though co-directors Daniel Brown and Kate McMeans say this is their first "real story in the genre", you can see that this is a horror film made by horror fans. Running about six minutes long, "The First Step" has plenty of time to creep you out and get right to the point. It's an intense ride, that's thrilling, and incredibly eerie. The creature's voice, and the noises (groans) it makes just kept me on edge and I found it awesomely unsettling. The creature's makeup FX could have been better, and I found it scarier when it wasn't focused in on, especially the stairs scene. Nonetheless, it reminded me of The Pale Man in "Pan's Labyrinth".
For a small budget and production, it definitely delivers. The fact that it manages to come off so suspenseful and dreadful is a big win. The acting is good, as is the overall simple concept. "The First Step" has not only reached film reviewers like myself, but also some film festivals. So, if you're into short films that will scare you with the lights out, keep your eyes peeled for this one. I'd bet that anyone home alone watching this wouldn't step foot in their basement afterwards...
"On/Off is a French sci-fi short film (13 minutes) produced by Julien Renaud and Thierry Lorenzi, whose theme is transhumanism and post-humanity. On/Off follows astronaut Meredith having only one mysterious voice message to stay connected to her humanity. Directed and written by Thierry Lorenzi with Carole Brana (A L'Adventure, Red Nights) and Arben Bajraktaraj known for playing the Azkaban Death Eater in the last three episodes of Harry Potter. The visual effects company based in Montreal, Rodeo FX (Pacific Rim, Now You See Me...) is responsible for making credible the sensation of weightlessness. In the end, no less than 150 people and three years were needed to complete this spectacular and mesmerizing odyssey."
It takes a lot to awe me, but this may very well be the greatest short film effort that I have ever seen. When I was approached to watch a private screener, I never expected it to be what it actually was. "On/Off" probably has the biggest vision I've seen for only a 13 minute movie. It reaches at the heart of humanity, and has a very deep and poetic purpose and meaning. This is the"Gravity" of short films, there's no doubt about that. However, this is a more sci-fi approach, and rather than just go into big effects, it manages to focus more on humanity than the disaster element.
It's subtitled because it's French, and the visuals are beautiful. The special effects are outstanding, and the acting is edged out well. There's hardly any dialogue, but what is said is natural and not forced. The score to this film is right on point. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this, as far as short films go. Overall, I'm extremely impressed.
It took a long time, and a lot of hard work to complete, but in the end result it shows. Well done. And the surprise ending is a nice, emotional touch. For more info on "On/Off", you should visit the site here.
After an insightful email from filmmaker Peter Dukes, founder of Dream Seekers Productions, I was turned onto two horror short films that he's made. The description of which, had me automatically invested. Peter Dukes has directed more than 14 films, most of which are horror. He's also had critical appraise around the world for his sense and style of filmmaking.
Upon watching these short films, I couldn't help but smile. Here are two mini movies that were done on very little time and money, yet they somehow manage to be high quality and very well shot. I'm not saying I'm the hardest guy in the world to please (because I'm not) but, I usually don't enjoy short films as much as I do these ones.
These works of love for the genre show true skill and will for making entertaining horror films. I'd like to see what Peter Dukes could do with a full motion picture production budget, now that'd be interesting! There's very good visual clarity to these shorts. And although they're very simple concepts and not much really happens during their duration, you're never not entertained while watching. And the fact that something so simple could be done in such a way as these are is a true achievement. I'd sure as hell be proud of these if they were my films.
First up, you've got "LITTLE REAPER"- A horror comedy about the grim reaper's difficult teenage daughter and how she must take her dad's duties for one day. Chaos ensues.
Starring- Athena Baumeister and John Paul Ouvrier, with John Michael Herndon, Katharine Stapleton, Allisyn Ashley Arm, Katy Townsend and Sorsha Morava.
This one is funny, charming, endearing and thoroughly enjoyable. There's quite a few funny moments actually. Especially considering it's so short. But don't just take my word for it, watch it for yourself!
Next up is "THE BEAST"- An old fashioned horror picture about a father struggling with how to handle his only boy, who's been afflicted with the curse of the werewolf.
Starring- Bill Oberst Jr., Peter Le Bas and Alexander Le Bas
This one is probably my favorite of the two, even though I like them both. I've always been a sucker for werewolves, and this is the more serious of the two. This one is more intense and plays on a serious level, there's no humor to this one. The acting is remarkably good as well!
I'm glad these were brought to my attention, and hopefully some of you will enjoy them as much as I have. You've really got nothing to lose trying them out. They're barely longer than ten minutes a piece, and there's a lot worse ways you could waste your time.
Usually when I think of short horror films, good memories don't turn up, because there's a lot of them out there and the majority of them aren't watchable. These however, are in a different league, and are very well done. If I could find more like these, I'd make a day of watching them!
I've always been a fan of horror anthology films so it'd be fair to say, I had a lot of excitement going into this. Anthology films are great because they're so much fun packed into one movie. I remember growing up watching 'Tales from the Darkside' and 'Creepshow' and, they still remain favorites to this day. The idea of anthology films didn't surface until early 1930's with two of it's earliest films being Edmund Goulding's 'Grand Hotel' and Paramount's 'If I Had a Million', both released in 1932. The anthology method wasn't used in horror until the 1940's. And in 1945, it's biggest one to date, was released titled 'Dead of Night' which was followed by a swarm of British horror anthologies in the 60's and early 70's. Some of the better and more mentionable anthologies include,'Screamtime' (1986), 'Creepshow 2' (1987), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972),'Vault of Horror' (1973) and the superb, 'V/H/S' (2012). The latter finding itself in my elite favorites in the anthology chapter of the horror genre. 'The ABCs of Death' offers a fresh take on the anthology spectrum and takes it to bold levels. I'm not a hundred percent sure on the matter, but this is probably the most stories ever put into one anthology movie.
The UK's very own Lee Hardcastle won his spot as director for T with his claymation short after entering a contest for the 26th director. His story in the film is one of the most enjoyable ones and is full of dark humor. I ended up not liking the film as much as I wanted. It didn't meet the high hopes I had for it. I found there to be too many stories full of humor and that made it less enjoyable for me. The serious stories ended up being the best ones and, it isn't because I don't like horror comedy; I like all types of horror. The humor in this film was too much for me to take it seriously though. To give you an example, Noboru Iguchi's "F is for Fart" wasn't enjoyable to me. I slightly smiled but I never laughed, and I was eagerly awaiting the next story to come on. I'd have to say that my favorites of the lot were Xavier Gens' 'X is for XXL', which is a gory and witty short, only to be surpassed by Ti West's 'M is for Miscarriage'. They are the only ones that I genuinely like. Other than those, some of the concepts were just so ridiculous, I couldn't find myself being entertained. And, I found myself checking the clock on the DVD player to see how much longer of the movie was left. I did enjoy Macel Sarmiento's 'D is for Dogfight'. That was a good one!
One thing that I do need to give credit to this film for is how wide it's scope is. Even though I didn't like all of the stories I still have to admit that this movie went everywhere. Then again, it did have 26 stories, so you'd have to expect nothing less. If anything else, we got to see some of horrors up-and-comers shine and, leave us in hope for what the future of horror holds and will bestow on us. Other directors showed that either we're in for some bad films in the future, or that they just didn't properly use their skill for their short in this film. We can hope it's the latter.
This is another short film I've been asked to view and review, so I'm always happy to oblige. This little devil comes from Macabre Media and is an artistic horror film from Finland. I've never personally been one for art films. I wanted to try this film though because the trailer caught my eye and so I gave it a watch. Like most art films, this film has a barrage of crazy, twisted images that flicker here and there. Some happen so quick that your eye catches it, but your mind catches up after you've thought it over. It reminds me of the Nine Inch Nails music video for "Closer". If you've ever seen that you'll get what I mean. Even though I'm not keen on artsy films, I could read the lines on this one. It's a sadistic vision but has underlying sarcasm. It's all about how you can't run from who you are or what you've done. No matter how far you travel or how you change your identity, inside we are all the same and we are all flawed at our center core. What I got out of this film was that no matter how much you'd like to run from your problems you'll end up back in the same situation in the end because you are who you are. It calls out out the hypocrisy that we all have and our primal need to do bad things. There's a few quick shots that stand out to me, one of them being the clip with the broom. Wait 'til you see it and you'll understand. It's full of creepy shots and noises including the priest's laugh...
While I didn't find anything great in this short film, I appreciate it's purpose. If you like artistic horror films, this may just be a film for you. The acting and camera work doesn't stand out, but it's exactly what you'd expect from a short film that's built around dark humor and sarcasm. I feel that if I were into artsy horror films that'd I'd probably like this one. View the trailer here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB79aMtOGYc
THIS HORROR SHORT FILM GETS 2 1/2 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5
This short film from Sick Bunny Pictures hits the air on the 15th, I was fortunate enough to be one of a few selected to get an advance viewing of this after talking to the director, Nikki Chatwin. This is shot in POV mode, where you see only what the guy holding the camera sees. It comes off like a more deranged version of "Disturbia", and it's not as bad either. The film centers on a guy waiting in his house with his group of friends to see if someone is in his neighbors house across the street. His neighbors are out and they're shouldn't be anyone in their house, but it appears there is when lights flash on and off in the house. Now this film is less than 17 minutes long, so the fact that they were able to pack so much suspense and intensity into this is pretty impressive. Yeah, there is a lot of dialog before things pick up but it's not forced dialog. It really feels as though you're watching close friends spying on the neighbors house and not actors. This of course, helps with the realistic feel of the film. Once intensity hits the film it doesn't really stop. This is a creepy atmospheric movie about a group of kids getting a bit too nosey and getting involved in something they shouldn't. Had the characters had this to do over I'd bet they'd stay at another house for the night. I know I would! The film closes with a disturbing finale that is unsettling but exactly what I wanted. I won't spoil the film for anyone, so I'll stop there. The actors in this film deserve a pat on their backs, as does the director (Nikki Chatwin) for pulling this little film off. It's really an entertaining 17 minutes of film and definitely worth a watch.
