Short and spooky: horror film mini-fest
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, and it’s about to get busier. This week I’ll be reading at Rhizome in Washington DC and paneling at the Baltimore Book Fest, followed by shenanigans in Seattle, New York, and the Midwest. Sadly, this means my Halloween activities are curtailed by travel and deadlines.
If you, like me, lack the time for seances, graveyard tours, or trick or treating, this curated list is for you: some of my favorite short horror (and horror-adjacent) films, all of them under thirty minutes.
Actually Creepy and/or Disturbing
Reverse is five minutes of terror that will make you never want to step foot (or wheel) into a parking garage again.
iMom: one of my favorites from Alter Films, a deep-dive into intersecting cultural anxieties around uncanny technology and leaving our children with strangers.
Do you have nostalgia for nineties-era commercials? Well, you won’t for long. (Trigger warnings for body horror!)
Did you know it’s almost the five year anniversary of Too Many Cooks? If you haven’t seen this before now, just… watch it. It’s better if you don’t know what to expect.
Timelike combines some of my favorites things: found footage, time paradoxes, and a sense of impending doom.
Will Mayo’s This Is How You Haunt Your House deserves its own newsletter, and maybe I’ll even get around to writing it. A chilling, atmospheric meditation on what it means to haunt and be haunted.
Horror Comedy
It’s difficult to make your audience scream, cringe, and laugh. When filmmakers get it right, it feels like an amazing trick. Here are few favorites that get it right.
Killer Kart is about killer grocery carts. You really don’t need to know anything more than that.
Spooky Club’s laughs are all in its absurd jokes and deadpan delivery. It shouldn’t work, but it does. For the record, this is the probably far closer to comedy than horror. I love it though, and always want to push it at people.
Nineties nostalgia, gen-X slackers, shockingly effective practical effects, and some unexpected bromance.
Happy Halloween!