Horror Shorts!
Directed by: Various
Of all the genres of film that can be made into shorts, horror has always been the most intriguing for me. Even though I prefer feature length stuff , the craftiness and clever filmmaking of being able to make something creepy in only a few minutes of film is really impressive to me. That’s why I wanted to take some time and shed some light on a few horror shorts that I wouldn’t normally talk about.
Mr. Pointy!
I like to start with the positives, so I’m going to start with a good short horror film, Mr. Pointy. Mr. Pointy, written and directed by Dominic Wieneke, is one of the best examples of how much quality writing can be crammed into a horror short without that short feeling bloated or exposition-y. Mr. Pointy is the story of a young girl who tries to convince her father that there is a monster in her closet, a monster that may have some mysterious ties to her father. Everything on a technical level works quite well, the sets are good, the editing is also nice, as well as the general level of acting. The real star is the writing though, which is clever and hints at a huge backstory without making a big deal out of it. I could see the same story being adapted into a feature and delivering on the narrative that is hinted at. Even though there are a few nitpicks that could be made here and there, Mr. Pointy stands head and shoulders above many similarly premised shorts. Do yourself a favor and check it out!
Nightlight!
After being impressed by Mr. Pointy I decided to check out a similarly themed horror short, Nightlight, directed by Kyle Daly and J Taylor Martin, about a young boy reading comics in his room when he has some odd issues with his lights. This one starts strong, showing some interesting cinematography and we get some glimpses of a well designed monster, but things get strange quickly. SPOILER: I don’t want to spoil this, but the short completely shifts genre, going from being a horror short to being a more family friendly take on the monster under the bed concept. The shift is more than a little jarring, but I enjoyed both halves of the short separately and seeing a filmmaker who wants to take risks and mess with how things like these are typically set up. END SPOILER: I guess I would call it fun horror? Anyway, give it a watch, it’s a clever little short.
Selfie!
Now we’re getting into a more familiar bit of territory for horror shorts. The previous two shorts were between three and four minutes long and had the time they needed to build up much needed atmosphere, but Selfie is an entirely different beast, being barely more than a minute long. That’s not bad per se, there are many very short horror films that work quite well with a short buildup to one good moment that sticks with you. That’s what Selfie is trying to be but doesn’t get there.
Selfie, directed by Samuel Han, is the story of a young woman who, while alone and bored, decides to take a few selfies… like ya do. After snapping some shots and flipping through them she notices a strange thing in one of her photos, and the short ends with a jumpscarish moment. I don’t really have an issue with the premise, although not even the title is original , There are some elements of Selfie that don’t sit well with me. Visually, the creepy thing we see in one of the selfies is very reminiscent of a haunting visual from the uber famous horror short Lights Out, to the point where it feels like an homage. That takes me out of the short though, and the scare at the end isn’t terribly well executed. I don’t think this is bad, but it isn’t as memorable as the others.
Monster In The Room!
From the same director as Selfie, Monster in the Room tells the story of a young girl who alerts her (big sister? Mom? Not sure) that there is a monster in the room! This again, is a very simple story but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What is bad is the dialogue, acting, and ending that are not nearly good enough to support the bare bones narrative. Everything just needed to be reworked a bit to make the story feel more real, especially the dialogue, which felt unnatural and off-putting. One thing that I do give credit for here, is that there is a scream recorded that sounds like it was actually recorded on set by the actresses involved. That’s pretty tricky, even big studios can get lazy with details like that and I liked how the effort was put in to help give some atmosphere. As above, this is an extremely short film so there’s no reason to really avoid it, but isn’t breaking new ground.
This has been quite an interesting time watching these shorts. There’s a lot of real talent here that should be showed off to a wider audience, and many of these shorts have some unique visual and storytelling devices. They’re not all winners, but many of these can be found on free streaming services, so there really isn’t much risk to at least checking them out.
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