RED GLOVES – Horror Short

In 1980s NYC, a young dancer at the top of her class is stalked during a lonely night of rehearsing by a shadowy figure wearing red gloves.

 

Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’ve seen Red Gloves from 2023, directed by Santiago Saba Salem and written by Santiago Saba Salem and Drew Maxwell Weiss. We’re in the 1980’s, and some dancers in NYC are rehearsing. One of them stays alone in order to keep practicing, and of course, someone’s out to get her! Someone we can’t fully see except from noticing them wearing red gloves in typical giallo-style (well, the usual style is black gloves, but everyone’s got their own fashion preferences). It’s impossible to not notice the apparent Suspiria-vibes in this one, and it’s like a love letter to both the aforementioned film and the giallo genre.

 

RED GLOVES - Horror Short

Director: Santiago Saba Salem
Writer: Santiago Saba Salem, Drew Maxwell Weiss
Country & year: USA, 2023
Actors: Isabelle Phillips, Ed Malone, Ruth Kavanagh, Madison Grace Johnson, Olivia Greco, Alexandra Osorio, Maya Tsuruki-Holden
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt28499552/

 

 

 

 

GOOD HEAD – Horror Short Film

When Hollywood mega-star Cooper Bradley goes to a special-effects lab in Atlanta to get his head molded for his latest film, all hell breaks loose. Not only must he try to escape from this freakish funhouse of props and make-up, but in the process he must retrieve his very soul, which the VFX master has stolen.

 

For this Horror Short Sunday, we’ve decided to present Good Head from 2021, being shown on Alter. It’s written and directed by Matt Servitto, who also plays the role as the Hollywood star who ends up having a not so pleasant experience in a special effects lab. It’s fun and energetic, with comedy moments that are both crazy and freakish. Imagine having to fight with Jackie Chan’s hands, the butt of Meryl Streep and seeing Jennifer Lopez’s leg hop around? Yep, all of that actually happens here. It’s Voodoo, baby!

 

GOOD HEAD - Horror Short Film

Director: Matt Servitto
Writer: Matt Servitto
Country & year: USA, 2021
Actors: Henry Zebrowski, Matt Servitto, Addie Weyrich, Dan Triandiflou
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt15463340/

 

 

 

 

OCCUPANT – Horror Short

A quiet evening at home takes a bizarre turn when a man goes to investigate strange noises in his yard.

 

It’s Horror Short Sunday once again! This time, we take a look at Occupant which is a horror short that starts with a man’s mundane, everyday life: he’s putting his daughter to bed, and tells her a good-night story. Then, after speaking briefly to his wife, he hears strange noises from outside and decides to go investigate. It’s very simple, yet effective enough to be both atmospheric and provide enough mystery to keep you guessing what will eventually happen!

OCCUPANT - Horror Short

Director: Peter Cilella
Writer: Peter Cilella
Country & year: USA, 2018
Actors: Caroline Jennings, Dan O’Brien, Lauran September
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt8760354/

 

 

 

 

SEA DEVIL – Horror Short Film

An American fisherman attempts to smuggle two Cuban immigrants into Miami, passing them off as day laborers. While the group trawls for shrimp, a fourth person boards the boat, carrying a secret at the bottom of the Ocean.

 

Sea Devil is a creepy sea monster horror short!

SEA DEVIL - Horror Short Film

 

Director: Dean Colin Marcial, Brett Potter
Writer: Dean Colin Marcial, Brett Potter
Country & year: USA, 2014
Actors: Moise Brutus, Antoni Corone, Taylor Rouviere, Mario Ernesto Sánchez
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt2503344/

 

 

 

 

TWISTED TALES: A SUPER 8 ANTHOLOGY – Horror Short


A deliciously depraved trilogy shot entirely on Super 8 film. Set in the ’60s, THE LANDLORD’S DAUGHTER, a couple’s twisted desires lead them to abduct an engaged couple. BAG FOR LIFE is a psycho-sexual thriller about a murderous bag with an unhealthy attraction to its owner. Lastly, THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE about a psychopathic office worker who embarks on a deadly rampage to exterminate anybody unlucky enough to share her peculiar name.

 

Twisted Tales: A Super 8 Anthology is a weird horror short shot on one continuous roll of Super 8 film, made by the same director of Rhyme or Die!

TWISTED TALES: A SUPER 8 ANTHOLOGY - Horror Short

 

Director: Max Lincoln
Writer: Max Lincoln
Country & year: UK, 2024
Actors: Abayomi Oniyide, Rose Lucas, Aiste Gramantaite, Giovanni Mocchi, Victor Alli, Daisy Moore, Amanda Urvall Nyren, Alicia Britt, Cherrelle Skeete, Shiloh Coke, Elizabeth West, Nick Finegan

 

 

 

 

THE BRASS ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM – Horror Short

The Man sits, sipping tea in an endless void, until a chandelier comes crashing down. The pieces transform into a Woman and the newly met couple wonder endlessly as the void presents objects and events that disrupt time, space and logic.

 

The Brass Elephant in the Room is a surreal and really strange horror short with a dark fairytale vibe to it.

THE BRASS ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - Horror Short

 

Director: Junior Day, Eleanor Dolan
Writer: Junior Day
Country & year: UK, 2020
Actors: Tatjana Anders, Edward Saunders
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12032850/

 

 

 

 

CALVING – Horror Short Film

In a rural Irish village, a strange calf is born. And it won’t stop screaming.

 

Calving is an atmospheric allegorical horror short.

CALVING - Horror Short Film

 

Director: Louis Bhose
Writer: Louis Bhose
Country & year: UK, 2021
Actors: Steven Mackintosh, Liz Fitzgibbon, Philip O’Sullivan, Gerry O’Brien
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13607452/

 

 

 

 

LAST WORDS – Horror Short

When a hiker awakes in the wilderness to find herself separated from her friend, she hears a familiar voice crying for help.

 

Last Words is a mysterious and creepy horror short, proving that scary stuff can also happen in broad daylight!

LAST WORDS - Horror Short

 

Director: Teal Greyhavens, Nikolai Von Keller
Writer: Teal Greyhavens, Nikolai Von Keller
Country & year: USA, 2023
Actors: Julien Crane, Ari Fromm, Charlotte Hjerpe, Jake Jeffers, Jacobii Leal, Nick Luberto, Ché March, Richardson Palmer
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt27707083/

 

 

 

 

Fragile (2005)

FragileMercy Falls is an old hospital that’s about to get closed down, but due to a horrible train accident the main hospital, St. James’s, can’t take in any more patients. Thus, Mercy Falls will need to stay partly open for a while more, keeping some of their patients there and the children located in the children’s ward. One of these children is Maggie, a little girl suffering from cystic fibrosis. She is terrified of “Charlotte”, someone she claims to see. One of the new nurses, Amy Nicholls, bonds with Maggie as they have something in common: they’re both orphans. Maggie confides in Amy, telling her about this Charlotte character which Amy later finds out is some kind of urban legend at the hospital, where several children have claimed to see her over the past two decades. When Amy starts looking even further into the mystery about Charlotte, she discovers that all the other children who claimed to have seen Charlotte are deceased, and she fears that Maggie might be next.

 

Fragile (aka Frágiles) is a supernatural horror film from 2005, directed by Jaume Balagueró (who is most known for the two first REC movies). He came up with the idea for this film after seeing an old photo of a little girl suffering from Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a horrible disease where bones are easily fractured, also known as “brittle bone disease”.

 

Fragile is going in a well trodden path, but the savoring points of the film is the atmosphere from the old, gloomy hospital where the Bearwood College in Berkshire, England, was used for the exterior shots. There’s certainly a fair amount of good old-fashioned gothic atmosphere, tinged with mystery. The story unfolds slowly, where you’re being introduced to the main character Amy Nicholls (Calista Flockhart), various nurses and the sick children in the hospital. Since the plot starts with knowing that the hospital is about to be completely abandoned, but having to postpone it for the children due to the full main hospital after the train accident, you get a feeling of the characters being in an even more isolated and threatening situation. And of course, there’s the abandoned floor where we know something terrible happened. It’s all a nice recipe for a solid, albeit not especially strong, ghost story. Its suspenseful, atmospheric, and quite decent.

 

The ghost here, though…well, she’s something that looks more like she came from a Hellraiser movie and wandered into the wrong set. While there are certainly a lot of horror movies where the ghosts appear a bit over-the-top malformed (like for example the Insidious franchise), she does feel a little bit misplaced here amongst the otherwise traditional gothic elements. Then again, this does make her first full appearance an unexpected surprise. The scenes when she is more obscured works a lot better though than the ones where we see her full on, but overall we don’t really get to see all that much of her.

 

There’s a scene where the children are watching an animated “Sleeping Beauty” film (nope, not the Disney one, as you might have guessed), and this animated film was actually created specifically for this movie. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in its entirety, aside from in the clip from Fragile. This animated clip does have a certain significance to the movie’s sad but sugar-coated ending.

 

Overall, Fragile is a familiar-looking entry into the supernatural genre of vengeful spirits, mostly held up by its atmosphere and moody locations.

 

Fragile Fragile

 

Director: Jaume Balagueró
Writers: Jaume Balagueró, Jordi Galceran
Country & year: Spain, UK, 2005
Actors: Calista Flockhart, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya, Gemma Jones, Yasmin Murphy, Colin McFarlane, Michael Pennington, Daniel Ortiz, Susie Trayling, Michael Gatward, Scarlet Carey, Cameron Antrobus
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422272/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

SHINY NEW WORLD – Horror Short

Fifty-year-old Barry is a special kind of cleaner: he cleans crime scenes where demons have wreaked havoc. While making a corporate film about his work, a normal working day for Barry gets out of hand in a bloody way.

 

Shiny New World is a fun horror short where you get a look into the amusing job of being a demon crime scene cleaner!

SHINY NEW WORLD - Horror Short

 

Director: Jan van Gorkum
Writer: Jan van Gorkum
Country & year: Netherlands, 2021
Actors: Patrick Stoof, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Maarten Prins, Marije Coralie Loermans
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12619824/