BITS 2022: Pre-Feature Shorts

The Right One

Director: A.J. Demers

The Right One plays outs a scene as a woman who is trying to summon her lost sister through dark folk magic. Instead, she ends up summoning someone impersonating her who is trying to lure her with the pretense of helping her find her sister.

Running at almost 5 minutes, The Right One is a very straightforward tale. It doesn’t take any deep dives about magic and it mainly focuses on that one task and hand and the conversation between a desperate sister and a manipulative spirit that has shifted into her sister’s appearance. There aren’t a ton of scares however the atmosphere is done pretty well as it uses a dark background to create an ominous feeling which is a suitable setting for the tale it is telling.

My Soul To Take

Director (and writer): Laura Vandervoort

Cast: Jenny Raven, Colm Feore, Rainbow Sun Francks

Hopeless and lonely, Quinn accepts a software update on her phone. An update, which summons her into a dream world of antiquities, powerlessness and night terror. – IMDB

My Soul To Take is probably one of the best shorts that I’ve seen this year. It is the directorial debut for actress Laura Vandervoort (Rabid). She tells a tale about the current mindless reliance on technology which becomes the main avenue for Quinn, who relies on her sleep app to go to sleep and gets lured into a dream world that starts out to enchant her but soon turns into one that traps her by sleep paralysis. The film also has a decent cast with Jenny Raven as Quinn and Colm Feore as Fred, the man who seems to manage the dream world she enters.

Playing on modern technology in horror films isn’t unseen, especially with short films and most of them focus around technology like command programs like Alexa, however My Soul to Take goes right to the source to a dead cellphone update. Its one of those subconscious things that everyone does to keep their gadget up to date and functioning and one of those things that no one really thinks twice about and that is what makes this tale all the more scarier in a very psychological way.

Second Life

Director: Darrin Rose

Cast: Ava Julien, Suresh John, Darrin Rose, Nigel Downer, Arwen Humphreys, Natalie Dale, James Mancini, Chris Violette, Daniel Woodrow

Second Life is set in a future where everyone is given a chance to finding a second life for their loved ones with replacement robots. The truth as revealed when  robot replacement wife tried to find a way to break free after her human husband leaves her. This leads to the discovery and truth of what is actually going wrong.

Overall, Second Life has a creative setting for the future. It feels like the premise also could use an expansion with a full feature so it can explore the nitty gritty of the situation completely. The acting and cast is decent. Theres some action and mystery. It does come together pretty good. What does make this short work how it builds from the first reveal to building its story from that point on.

Viewfinder

Director: Tiffany Wice

Cast: Becca Clapperton, Jakub Zieba, Patrick Ritcey

Running at a swift 4 minutes, Viewfinder is a short about a nighttime shoot that goes wrong when the photography notices a mysterious entity in its viewfinder.

Despite its short length, this short is honestly a ton of fun. There’s a good bit of sinister that builds up and the entity in the viewfinder is well-executed to create enough spooks but never truly knowing exactly what it is. There’s something so vulnerable about having to look for something in a small camera viewfinder. It creates the tension build-up of expecting it to show up anything from any angle and the person would never see it. Considering those moments are in first person perspective, the audience feels that same fear and tension.

One of Those Good Lives

Director (and writer): Joseph Carney

Cast: Sean Depner, Donald Sales

One of the Good Lives is about a young man Steve who is hit by a car and ends up appearing in a worn out opera house. There he meets the Ticket Taker who flips through his book and tells him that he is set for a good life and he is destined to go bring a muffin to the homeless man everyday.

One Of These Good Lives have two great performances by its actors. The script also is one that works really well and the conversation between Steve and the Ticket Master grabs attention right away especially since the audience somewhat jas an idea where Steve is but he seems to have no idea or a confused attitude towards it. What works the best is the build up of the conversation to the ending which is a fun turn of events and gives that final comedy and dark humor a nice wrapup. Its also takes hints (or maybe in its way a homage) from Inception and Donald Sales dialogue and expressions almost feels like an inpersonation of Samuel L. Jackson. One of Those Good Lives is a short full of dark humor that has an incredibly strong script.

Fishbowl

Director (and co-writer): Ryan M. Andrews

Cast: Michael Joseph Delaney, Watson Rose, Katisha Shaw

Fed up with the limelight, a rock legend hides out at the apartment of an overzealous fan. But he will soon learn that he can’t hide from his struggles with addiction and his enabling wife forever. – IMDB

Fishbowl starts off its short a tad odd. It does set up the situation pretty well and gives the overzealous fan character a rather mysterious vibe throughout the whole short. When the wife character appears, it turns into a rather annoying phase and then takes a very comedic turn of event, which isn’t but because it turns the tone around so quickly, it actually has this bizarre but comedic moment to it. Its a decent execution since that gives the final reveal a lot more footing and a lot more shock value.

The Fall

Director: Desirae Witte

Cast: Brian David Gilbert

Leafie is a plucky little maple leaf who loves to groove. But when their latest performance takes an unexpected turn, the harsh realities of the season come crashing down. – IMDB

Running at 2 minutes or so, The Fall is absolutely the most creative animated film. It manages to flip an event that everyone loves of watching fall colors until they fall to a comedy about the leaf itself as it enjoys its beautiful colors dancing around to the absolute fright of falling down. Its done in a comedic way and ends on a really clever dark humor moment.

Mindful Meditation

Director: Louis La Vella

Cast: Monica La Vella

Mindful Meditation is a 2.5 minutes short about a woman who sits down to listen to a meditation session when it connects her with an entity.

There’s not a whole lot here to talk about. Mindful Meditation is very straightforward in its narrative. Its basically one scene that happens through a guided meditation. The only thing happening is the voice doing the guided meditation and the girl emoting to what she is hearing. At the same time, things are happening in the background at certain cues. While its a fairly short short film, this one does do some pretty cool things. One of them is how it treats this entity and second is using the surrounding to create tension effectively.

Mother Tongue

Director (and writer): Shelly J. Hong

Cast: April Park, Shelly J. Hong, Eilish Shin-Culhane, Mara Pupp, Phil Kim

Mother Tongue tells the story of Grace, a woman who returns to her childhood home seeking answers from her mother that had abandoned her when her daughter starts to show some unusual behavior.

Mother Tongue is an intriguing short. There’s something really intricate about the affair at hand between this belated conversation between a daughter and her mother as she tries to find the answers to help her own daughter. Its a bit vague on the spirit front but there’s enough here to be pulled into the story and the relationship between the mother-daughter as she faces the reason for her abandonment. These also a short that truly could be turned into a full-length feature to dive deeper into the religious/spiritual elements of the whole narrative.

Not Another Serial Killer

Director: Angela Hanna Goulene & Alessandro Russotti

Cast: Angela Goulene, Thierry Gauvin, Jean-Philippe Thériault, Xavier Truong, Max Laferriere

Tessa Fey is a young millennial with many assets; only one problem, though, all the men she attracts are serial killers. – IMDB

Not Another Serial Killer is an incredibly fun short. Tessa breaks the 4th wall as she talks to the camera throughout the whole experience. Its a pretty fun dialogue overall. The only issue here is that Angela Goulene seems to get a little caught up and doesn’t quite enunciate as well so some of the dialogue feels a little rushed and jumbled. Other than that, there isn’t much to criticize here as her point of attracting serial killers is one that becomes increasing real as the cop shows up and the audience soon realizes that its not just male interests that the equation works. Its a pretty fun and comedic short and despite some enunciation problems, the short is an outstanding job overall.

Consumer

Director (and co-writer): Stephanie Izsak

Cast: Eden Summer Gilmore, Jill Morrison, Jude Wilson, Princess Davis, Henry J. Mah

Tortured by toxic beauty standards, thirteen-year-old Rein discovers an unconventional and disturbing way to lose weight. She thinks she’s found a fast track to perfection…but ends up biting off more than she can chew. – IMDB

Consumer is a wild viewing experience. Its cuts to the chase about the toxicity of beauty standards especially for teens and the inner self who constantly body shames mentally. The eating disorder demon that lives in the mind and how we our usually our worst enemy comes into play here as Rein, a girl who has no reason to feel ashamed about her body feels that her lack of popularity is because of it and ends up going to desperate measures to acquire a very intense medicine which we learn early in school that this specific thing is pretty bad and without actually knowing the details perhaps, rashly tries it and ends up with some very horrific consequences as things go out of control. Its a well-executed short since its the inner voice that dominates more than actual conversation.

BITS 2022: Emerging Screams

Emerging Screams is a shorts program of Blood in the Snow Film Festival which features new or first-time Canadian genre directors.

Gnaw (2022)

Director: Rosalee Yagihara

Cast: Bethany Brown, Luvia Petersen

As romantic tensions consume Cote and her girlfriend, a pesky hangnail triggers a downward spiral into obsession. – IMDB

The most spinechilling premises are the ones surrounding the subtle things in life. In this short, its about biting your nails and hangnails to almost an unstoppable state where the more her girlfriend says not to do it, the worse it is for her temptation. Gnaw eventually decides into body horror to a certain extent and it is both cringey and disturbing all at the same time.

Folk (2022)

Director: Gabriel Miron

Cast: Sara Sue Vallee

Folk is a much more extensive short which takes place on Halloween night when two kids in creepy masks ring at her doorbell for candy and won’t go away. Except they end up finding a way in and making her join some kind of ritual.

Creepy kids is almost always a winning element in horror films and this one is no exception. Add in the nicely crafted creepy atmosphere and this short has a good horror film to it with decent elements of home invasion and use of both sounds and silence as well as lighting. While the narrative and what the ritual actually did feels a little unclear, its hard to waive the fear of this whole situation.

Smiley Face (2022)

Director: Francois Ricard-Sheard

Cast: Alice Clément, Sara Sue Vallee, Anais Damphousse Joly, Devin Swift, Jérémie Garipépy Ferland

Three young women fight for their lives as they fall prey to a flesh-eating humanoid creature. – IMDB

Something of a creature feature, Smiley Face takes on both creature design and a narrative that starts at the end and circles back at how it gets to that point. The narrative and execution style is one that is pretty good (but then I have a bias towards anything that does a clever little play which creates the feeling of going full circle). The creature itself isn’t really scary even if its running stance looks like a little like a human imitating a chicken or an ostrich running but the film does have a lot of gore as it does eat humans.

While there’s a certain creepiness to this and some odd humanoid creature eating these girls and then at some point they get dragged away by someone, who we learn in the credits is a dwarf, there’s a lot of unexplained elements here. Granted the short is only 9 minutes long so its understand. It would have been nice to have a little bit more context.

444 (2021)

Director (and co-writer): Alexandre Nachi

Cast: Felix-Antoine Cantin, Alexandre Nachi, Jules Ronfard, Sandrine Bisson, Evelyne de la Cheneliere, Isabelle Vincent, Sylvain Cantin, Felix Beaulieu-Duchesneau, Laurent Allaire

444 tells the story of man who wakes up with no memories in an unknown house and unfamiliar family that seems to be constantly changing and is asked to “Trust the protocol”.

444 refers to the 4:44 on the clock which is shown a few times in the film perhaps the time things reset in real life or his memory. Its a pretty odd and trippy narrative but the acting is pretty decent and theres some clever moments and good cinematography playing well with the lighting and color palette to bring out the mood and atmosphere.

L’Abattu des Vents (The Wind Down, 2021)

Director (and writer): Félix-Antoine Garneau-Chouinard

Alone on a secluded island, a lightkeeper is prisoner of his own madness. – IMDB

L’abattu du Vents is a rather unique one as it has no dialogue and is an animated film using clay figures or at least the main character is like that. This short is fairly straightforward in its portrayal and rhe execution is decent as well.

Stitched Up (2022)

Director: Keisha James

Stitched Up is about a friend who buys a sewing machine for his sewing friend to find out that the sewing machine is alive and they must find a way to retaliate.

Stitched Up is something of a horror comedy and feels very campy however with the premise its going for, it all fits well together. Its fairly silly as a whole and everything seems deliberately done to embrace the campiness completely. While the story is simple and the acting is a tad over the top, its fits well with the overall feeling and tone of this scene.

Cruise (2022)

Previously seen at Toronto After Dark HERE

The Cradle (2022)

Previously seen at Toronto After Dark HERE.

Darkside (2022)

Director (and writer): Spencer Zimmerman

Cast: Blakely David, Siobhan Connors

Darkside tells the story of an astronaut who struggles to complete his mission to find a lost crew after a devastating tragedy.

Darkside is probably the best of the program as a whole. Its about a space expedition that goes wrong. The story backtracks to his memories and conversation that leads him there to eventually reveal what he had lost in the tragedy. From the visuals amd cinematography to the acting and depth of the script, Darkside has it all and keeps the balance and pacing in this 10 minute short.

***This Blood in the Snow Film Festival short film program is available on Super Channel on November 22nd at 12am EST.***

BITS 2022: Mournful Mediums

Mournful Mediums is a short films program in the Blood in the Snow Festival which is a selection of the best in Canadian medium-length shorts.

Vicinal (2022)

Director: Andrew David Osborne

Cast: Katherine Ross, Nathan Bigec, Daniel Coo, Ryan Heffernan

Vicinal is a 20 minute short about Thom and Romina who moves into an apartment in the city when a former tenant Walter shows up to pick up a package and asks for a tour to see what they’ve done with his old place when things get weird after he claims he forgot something in the little cubby hole in the upstairs bathroom leading to the attic.

There’s quite a bit to like about this one particularly the atmosphere as it plays really well on the mysterious and dark attic and what it could hide. It starts building right from the beginning and is reinforced when Walter arrives and strange things happen. It plays well on hiding what is really hiding in the shadows. While some of the creepy moments are fairly expected, it still manages to send chills down the spine as they all struggle to go into the attic and whenever they disappear inside, most of the time its all behind the ceiling until the very clever reveal.

While the acting could be better and more natural for Thom and Romina, Walter is just the right amount of eccentricity and odd to make this uneasy feeling with his presence and making his warning about the attic all the more valid and creating this lingering uneasiness. Its a well thought out story.

Spark (2022)

Director: Camille Hollett-French

Cast: Christina McInulty, Eugene Lipinski, Nneka Croal, Pam Kearns, Kyra Weston

When a disillusioned woman is implicated in the disappearance of a lonely aging scientist, she must convince the police that hope has the power to bridge dimensions. – IMDB

Written by its female lead Christina McInulty, Spark is a fairly slow-paced and wordy tale as a woman recounts the events of the disappearance of a lonely scientist. The concept behind it is pretty good and the execution also works pretty well. The tale is one about hope and belief specifically about bridging dimensions so it all dials down to whether the woman’s story will convince the police. As she recounts the events, what happens plays out in the short which is pretty good.

There are some nice cinematography in this and the script is pretty decent. The only deal with this is that it doesn’t seem to pack enough of a surprise. In the end, its about what consequences she would have is the police didn’t believe her because it felt like it was set up for the audience to already believe that she witnessed this unbelievable event so it made the story feel like the premise was really promising and fun but the payoff was a little lackluster.

AlieNation (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Ray Raghavan

Cast: Maria Frazer, Margarita Iturriaga, Reece Presley, Christian Lagasse, Kyal Scott, Claire Johnstone

A family of immigrants is chased through the woods by border patrol. But they’re not alone. – IMDB

The first thoughts when reading the synopsis is that we will be watching some sort of Predator inspired short. In some ways, it did feel that way and nothing makes me happier than living up to my expectations and actually AlieNation kind of surprised it as well. There’s a pretty decent flow of events here. With the mother and daughter separated and the mysterious monster lurking in the forest relatively unknown and unseen until the big finale. Its a good use of keeping things mysterious. At the same time, they are being hunted by border patrol. The tension and adventure is who will get to them first.

While the acting for the border patrol cast seemed a little rigid, the mother and daughter did do a pretty good job. As they run all over the forest and sneak here and there to avoid the border patrol, they slowly figure out that there is something else there. The whole story is overall well put together.

The Fore-Men

Director: Adrian Bobb

Previously reviewed for Toronto After Dark HERE.

Angakusajaujuq – The Shaman’s Apprentice (2021)

Director: Zacharias Kunuk

Cast: Madeline Ivalu, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Jacky Qrunnut

A young shaman must face her first test-a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. – IMDB

The Shaman’s Apprentice is one of the unique shorts of this batch. One because its an animated short and two because it features an Inuit tribe and uses their language as well. Its makes it rarely seen and very unique. What also makes it stand out is the stop motion animation which is done really well especially with the facial expressions of the Shaman and the apprentice.

The premise of going to the underground brings in a fantastical element and plays on the dangers and death. There’s this really wonderful moment as they climb down where they leave the shadows of the skeleton behind and it goes away when they go back up after the task which is very stylish.

I’m not particularly familiar with Inuit tradition or folklore but it definitely feels like some of that is injected here especially when the front of the entrance to the underground is guarded by a giant dog who can sense fear and the story revolves around a taboo while also could be interpreted as their beliefs.

I don’t know how much of this is fantastical and how much is actual Inuit tradition but this was a fascinating short film. It is really stylish and some part of the story feels like it doesn’t elaborate enough but the main message of the message is easy to catch.

***This BITS Film Festival program Mournful Mediums are going to be available on November 21st on Super Channel at 12am EST***

TADFF 2022: International Shorts After Dark

Tistlebu (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Simon M. Valentine

As a young urban couple on a working holiday hopes to connect with nature at Tistlebu farm, a primordial power comes into play, changing them both forever. – IMDB

Tistlebu is an interesting and creepy setting. It sets itself in the mountainous wilderness in a rural farm where two city youngsters are there to help and while one of the tasks given to them is normal, the other one is taking care of this odd mushroom thing which seeps white ooze occasionally. Things start getting very odd of how they react to this giant mushroom. However, the film takes a twist when it feels like it was reacting to one when actually the other falls prey to it. Its not really prey I guess but the consequences are rather creepy especially as it builds to the final scene.

The premise, the setting and the living thing works together to create a rather spinetingling and oddly profound message about nature and at times, the ugliness that people seem ignore. It works because this same message can be applied to anyone incredibly familiar with their own setting compared to how visitors feel about it. This one feels prime for a feature as there leaves a lot of mystery behind this mushroom entity.

Role Play (2022)

If our parents hasn’t engraved the concept of stranger danger when we were young, horror films and the abundant documentaries of serial killers should have. Role Play is exactly that when they have two men who met randomly assumingly at a club go back to one of their homes and is asked to do role play. I mean, logically in my mind I don’t know why anyone would accept this weird request by a stranger. If we look past that point, everything sinister starts as the host disappears and starts conversing through questions written on cards. What does in Role Play is how the whole situation is set up. We have sufficient information about the two men and as one of them follows along, the house’s decor changes and the atmosphere builds through this odd conversation with questions of the 4Ws. There’s this oddity and tension in the air that something is going to pop out and yet it all leads up to a well-deserved scare. Its does take an odd turn and its never quite certain what happens specifically but this one has a really great execution.

O (2022)

Director (and writer): Dominik Balkow

Jasmin sees a fist-sized hole in a brick wall. She’s hypnotically drawn to it and can’t focus on anything else. An increasingly morbid obsession begins, until the hole suddenly disappears. – IMDB

O is an incredibly weird one and yet, looking at its description, it does make sense that its about the downward spiral of obsession. This is a no narrative film so every shot is so important to getting the emotions across. The creepiest part of this which never faded away were the constant close-ups of Jasmin. At the beginning, it would be focusing for a long time on her huge smile. Its an interesting piece since it plays along the curiosity as well of wanting to put her fist into the hole to the part where after it disappears, she was obsessing over anything with a circular depth to it. It gets very intense and morbid by the end. There’s a lot to appreciate in O since it doesn’t have any narrative and still manages to keep it very poignant to the viewers.

The Blood of the Dinosaurs (2021)

Director (and co-writer): Joe Badon

Uncle Bobbo teaches children where oil comes from. – IMDB

Picture Mr. Dress-Up (that’s what I grew up with but this is compared to Mr. Rogers) making a very disturbing educational program and this what Blood of the Dinosaurs is. The film is like those children programs as it jumps through a lot of different scenarios and topics and sandwiched in between is the main piece of what the blood of dinosaurs is. I do have to say that there’s one specific part that I felt incredibly disturbed and honestly felt like it went a little far, maybe slightly distasteful in some ways. For that, I didn’t really like this one so much. However, I do understand what the film is trying to achieve and in many ways, it does achieve creating this very creepy children’s program figure that feels completely wrong in all ways.

Mantra (2022)

Directors (and co-writers): Pascal Bourelier & Stef Meyer

When a couple moves to an suburban mansion and the husband ends up leaving for work, the wife ends up finding companion in one of her husband’s insects, the praying mantis. The slow descent to this friendship with this insect is the focus of the short.

The short is a quiet setting. The film follows her loneliness and need for companion in an insect that is also under covers all day. What takes place after is a rather disturbing spiral of events. The film itself is pretty powerful in their narrative. The praying mantis is such a great choice for a horror story.

Smile (2022)

Director: Ryan Joseph McDuffie

There are honestly no words to describe how bizarre this 2 minute short is. Its packed with a lot of smiling and instrument. Its rather silly and to be honest, a short that I am not quite sure how to place.

Shut (2021)

Director: Niels Bourgonje

Jonas visits his father Arend after a long time. Jonas is startled when his father is almost unrecognizable. Has he deteriorated badly or has something taken possession of him? – IMDB

If we are talking about a coherent story and some great cinematography, Shut is the short in this set of international films. The film makes use of its setting and plays the story towards the mysterious nature of the father but the ending takes the audience for a spin. Shut tells a compelling story about possession and makes use of smokes and mirrors incredibly well. The creepy feeling sinks in very well by the end. This is a Netherlands short that I’d honestly love to see made into a feature. While the possession idea isn’t all that new, it feels like there’s an interesting angle to it here that could be explored further.

Bug Bites (2021)

Director (and writer): Daniel DelPurgatorio

Some house guests are a real pain in the ass. – IMDB

Bug Bites is a weird one to talk about. It takes on this genre that feels like it will go along in the veins of Fly (or Canadian feature Bite) however it quickly takes a turn into dark humor town when she calls on an exterminator to fix her possible bed bugs problem. Humor is a tricky thing and this one plays a little on the over the top expressions. Its a very wild story to say the least and while it starts off feeling uneasy and possibly going down as a disgusting body horror, the short takes a left turn down comedy lane. The tone shifts quickly when the final scene is the big reveal of what is literally hiding under your bed. At that point, it plays on a moment of quick camera through the different people and the WTF moment. While it could have played off as an annoying overly long moment if not executed right, somehow the feeling got overcome by the cleverness of the execution.

TADFF 2022: Pre-feature Shorts

The Cradle (2022)

Director (and writer): Massimo Meo

An angry mob interrupts a witch as she prepares breakfast for her collected children. – IMDB

The Cradle is a short running at a swift 3 minutes. The film is quiet for the most part and only pans through the titular item for a few seconds and then moves around the house of where this is set before it hits a final shocking reveal at the end. While the story itself feels a bit abstract to understand, it does have some pretty nice cinematography as it pans through the house and the items following a woman. Even if its a bit of a question mark why its called The Cradle, the film does have some good visuals and nice reveal at the end which gives some nice creepy vibes.

Cruise (2021)

Director (and writer): Samuel Rudykoff

We’ve all received scam phone calls, but what about the person making the calls? Cruise is a dark workplace satire about a hapless telemarketer trying mightily to give away a free cruise. And if he fails, there will be dire consequences. – IMDB

Cruise is a fun little dark humor short which looks at a possible scenario of what’s going on at the other end of a scam call. Maybe its not all that we think it is and the people making the calls really are there for other reasons and have their own obstacles and consequences. Its a pretty clever take on the scam calls story which looks at the callers and their bosses. Maybe it will make you think twice before you hang up on a scam call…

Anything, Anything (2022)

Director (and writer): Emma Higgins

Anything Anything is a short that starts itself with a conversation between two girl friends when one comes to visit the other to make sure they are okay after some abusive issues before. As the conversation goes along, the question now becomes whether the abusive danger still exists. Its not until after the friend leaves that we get the answer of what is actually going on. The setup of the story and the lighting works together to create a suspicious and sinister atmosphere.

The Ratcatcher’s Daughter (2022)

Directors (and co-writers): Jim Bryson & Adam Jeffcoat

Based on the short story “The Rat-Catcher” by Alexander Grin, The Ratcatcher’s Daughter is a 15 minutes short which definitely feel much more fleshed out due to the longer runtime. This animated feature follows a revolutionary who meets the plague ratcatcher’s daughter spontaneously and ends up running from the military and walk right into a sacrificial ritual. There’s a lot of nice animated cinematic style here as it chooses a more darker palette for the most part and chooses to only highlight the blood red colors so for example, the bloody moments and red eyes of the mice really pop. The story has depth and carries a pretty intriguing story that it almost feels like a prologue to what could become a full length animation. In some ways, the atmosphere and narrative execution reminds me a little of South Korean animated film Seoul Station.

In The Dark (2022)

Director: Bronson Allen

In The Dark tells the story of a girl who has been consistently unlucky with men who ends up going for a date with a man who seems to be normal. When she gets there, everything seems to be going fine until she starts to realize that all the light switches have been anchored to stay on. In further conversation, the man confesses that because of a child experience, he now has a monster that lurks in the darkness that wants to hurt him.

Everyone wonders whether the monsters that we think we see in the dark are real. We’ve seen some decent movies that navigate imaginary friends and monsters in our bedroom with kids. Rarely do they follow them into adulthood but this brings up the question as a seemingly pleasant date runs off course when the man tells the story of why he can’t close the lights. This short truly plays on the audience being the more knowledgeable group who believes the story more than the woman in the date and the question remains what will happen if the lights turn out. While the creature design here is a little funny (just the low budget feeling which is normal) more than creepy, the story takes a clever twist for its ending.

Dissós (2022)

Created by Unreal Engine, Dissós is a three minute short film that feels like a video game as you follow its protagonist who wakes up outside an abandoned house and goes inside to investigate to soon realize that there’s something odd at work.

Being a gamer myself and being very familiar with the horror genre in gaming, the film had a predictable moment and then the big reveal was also quite obvious as it came around but then, it is the type of surprise reveal that I personally enjoy a lot, where the beginning and end are connected to each other. The animation was done well and the atmosphere of the house was pretty well-structured. There was a good unsettling feeling at the start and it could be fun concept to experience further either as a full flesh story or a game.

Les Dents de la Maison (Paws, 2022)

Director: Austin Birtch

Les Dents de la Maison starts off its story with a man looking for a cat sitter for an evil cat. The film switches to a narrative format as the sitter comes to do his job and gradually the real deal is revealed. It flips also from English normal film to the French narrative with subtitles which isn’t a huge deal. The film in general right away delivers the uneasiness of this cat who seems to right off the get-go be evil because of how they portray the eyes and then as the sitter narrates, it seems to set it up whether its his paranoia or just that the cat actually is evil. It sure feels like cats are never used enough in horror films as the main villains and its only ever seemed to appear in short films once in a while. To be fair, the execution doesn’t make it scary even if the ending is pretty intriguing and unpredictable as didn’t quite see it going in that direction either.

Diggin’ A Hole (2022)

Director (and writer): David Bragg

I feel like talking about cats in the last short and jumping to this one seems so suitable as this short is basically the cautionary tale of “curiosity killed the cat”. A woman is digging a hold in the middle of a field when a man walks by and starts pressing her for an answer as to why she is doing it. The conversation doesn’t really get anywhere as it seems like every answer she gives is either avoiding or isn’t the truth. It takes the audience for a loop as she starts talking about one thing and then it all leads up to the actual reason. There’s a bit of dark humor embedded in the dialogue and how its executed but for something that is about a conversation in a middle of a field, it has decent pacing to keep the intrigue going.

Horse Brothers (2022)

Directors (and writers): Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco

Two paranoid brothers are consumed with murderous fantasies after a horse convinces them that they are each others’ enemies. – IMDB

Horse Brothers is a trippy and weird short. There’s a grainy texture to the scene like its in the past. As the short moves along, the camera and lighting effects are really where it creates the more psychedelic sort of feeling. The story itself a little odd in general especially with the beginning where I can only assume its the horse talking to the brother which happens to be in a screen with Italian (I think). Because of the trippy feeling, the whole film also has this mysterious and unsettling feeling with how certain effects are used. While the film is a little too much for myself personally since the narrative is all a bit too odd, the last shot on the lake is very captivating.

TADFF 2022: Canadian Shorts After Dark

The Flying Sailor (2022)

Directors (and writers): Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

Inspired by true events, the highly anticipated new film by Oscar-nominated duo Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis is a meditation on a sailor’s unexpected voyage. – IMDB

The Flying Sailor tells the tale of a sailor that flies out after two ships collide near the harbor and ends up rumbling and tumbling through the sky and into outer space before falling back onto Earth. In the process, he reflects on his life in flashbacks which blend both animation and real life.

There’s a lot to love about The Flying Sailor aside from watching a man fly through the sky completely naked right down to private part flapping around in all directions. Of course, that is besides the point but its a compliment on the attention to detail. In the process of flying through the sky, its flashbacks that bring him back to where he is now. While the process itself feels like it does flash by rather quickly, it still carries a ton of creativity. There’s a wonderful use of colors and the beautifully drawn visuals of the animation element. While its inspired by true events, there has to obviously be an exaggeration of the situation.

Black Forest Sanitorium (2020)

Director (and writer): Diana Thorneycroft

Starving for companionship, Quinn pursues an unorthodox approach to resolving her intense loneliness. – Letterboxd

Black Forest Sanitorium is a stop motion animation which follows a creature that moves around a sanitorium with a cart and stops to explore the patients. Perhaps the plot itself if I hadn’t read it in advance would be rather confusing. The big reveal does piece together what Quinn had planned for this visit. Perhaps its the stop motion animation element but the story never feels very creepy, maybe macabre and bizarre might be more correct to describe it. The different creatures that are in the sanitorium for the nature of the location definitely feels fitting and what Quinn sees suitable is also rather specific.

The Temple (Le Temple)

Director: Alain Fournier

The Temple is an animated short film about the crew of a German U-boat that sinks into the depths to avoid an enemy attack when they realize they can no longer go back up to the surface. As the U-boat drops into the depths, madness strikes the staff until he drops to the bottom and sees a temple.

The Temple is a really well-done short. The story it tells at the beginning with the war and attack creates a good start for the story. It combines both a narrative style and dialogue between conversations. As they sink lower underground, the imagery that is shown is pretty good since they start seeing all kinds of creepy thing, much like how the crew also slowly falls into their own craziness. The titular Temple isn’t really part of the film but rather shows up very late in the film and yet, it manages to feel meaningful to the story and the purpose. The animation, the visual, the premise: The Temple does a really good job in all these elements to create a memorable film experience.

The Fore-Men (2022)

Director (and writer): Adrian Bobb

Weeks after a mysterious time-compression event violently splices environments from the past and future into the present, two survivors encounter the foreboding figures responsible for the event and experience firsthand their sinister nature. – IMDB

The Fore-Men is one of the more mind-bending and future apocalypse sort of feeling to the whole story. It follows a woman who is a researcher to see what the world has suddenly become and what lurks in the land creating this new environment. Its one of the shorts that feel like its a snippet of a much bigger scope and world building which would be suitable to expand into something much bigger to explore. This world is rather fascinating. At parts feeling a little like the enchantment of Annihilation with its big snails and creatures hanging around while there is something much more dangerous lurking around and while that form seems to be made up of many table lamps combined together, it still has this interesting imagery at the last scene when the camera pulls away that is very neat.

Nude (Nu, 2022)

Director (and writer): Olivier Labonté-LeMoyne

Nude is a French Canadian short that follows a couple driving into the woods looking for a secluded spot to make love. When they finally feel like they have found it, they start to realize they are being watched.

Nude is an odd and creepy short. In some ways, the couple themselves have some interesting dialogue but once things start getting weird the story gets a little creepy. There are some unsettling moments as what the man is worried about comes true in abundance. Not to mention, as they try to escape, the whole process has a certain creepy element to it. The film does jump from daytime to evening very quickly which is something that feels a tad odd in terms of flow of events but overall, the story itself while doesn’t quite explain what happens in the end, it gives room for the audience to draw their own conclusions (unless its just me not getting the point). However, the atmosphere is well created that the shadows and darkness are used to their advantage.

The Trunk

Director: Travis Laidlaw

The Trunk is a short about a father and daughter who finds a chained up trunk in the woods and brings it home to see what valuables are inside. Right from the poster above, you can tell that what they found is not valuable and pretty horrific in general. While its never quite explained, it sure feels like what they unleashed is some kind of witch (or something along those lines).

The Trunk is an interesting one to talk about. While the premise of the trunk and the unknown of what’s inside is what creates a lot of mystery especially against the dark backdrop as its set at night. The story does have a certain level of predictability especially when it comes to what appears in the trunk is sinister and what happens afterwards to the father and daughter.

In The Shadows (Dans l’ombre)

Director (and co-writer): David Emond-Ferrat

Melanie, a newly separated mother, is spending a weekend at her mother’s house with Tom, her 8-year-old son who is still unaware of the breakup. In the shadows, a creature in search of fresh flesh lies in wait for them, examines them and searches for their loophole in order to lure them into its lair. – IMDB

No doubt the best short of the entire program. Dans L’Ombre packed in some well-executed horror moments and had a really good flow to their story and its pacing. For a short, it had a solid narrative structure and a few nice tricks up its sleeve that made it truly stand out. There were some decent unsettling and creepy moments and some other moments, the atmosphere had this dread and impending danger feeling throughout. The use of the danger that lurks in the shadows created some nice scary moments as well. Well-executed, well-acted and a good story: Dans l’Ombre is an exceptional horror short.

The Community

Director: Milos Mitrovic

The Community is about two men who go to find a secret in the woods which goes a bit against their expectation when they end up finding something else more than they expected in the process.

The Community is a comedy short. It tries to build up some mystery as to what they are looking for in the woods which basically has its big reveal when they meet other people in the woods doing a similar act. What they find is a community as the titles hints at of a group of men having a shared hobby together. You go and piece together what the possibilities are. This one’s downright silly and not exactly my type of humor but that’s just how it is with comedy, it just doesn’t work for everyone.

TADFF 2021: Canadian Shorts After Dark

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2021 goes completely virtual this year as it kicks off its 15th annual edition milestone filling five days of horror, sci-fi and action films from October 13th to 17th. If you are in Canada, film festival access is nationwide so you probably don’t want to miss out! You can find the schedule line-up HERE.

Kicking off the festival on Day 1 to start off in a little bit of a unique way and probably the way I’m used to previously covering TADFF is with its short films selections. Nothing like some Canadian Shorts to kick things off with 9 short films in the Canadian Shorts After Dark showcase. There’s a few that I have seen before in film festivals but the majority are first time watches.

Morbus (2020)

Director: Kerim Banka
Cast: Nicole Hrgetic, Benjamin Liddell, Konstantina Mantelos

Morbus is a second watch and one that I remembered fairly well except I can’t remember from which festival I first saw it and then didn’t end up reviewing. However, better late than never as Morbus does have a rather intriguing premise.

Morbus tells the story of a young couple that is halted on an isolated country road by blocked cars in their path. When they get out to investigate, the woman notices something in the distance and they follow in pursuit to find a woman in the woods who has some weird growths and attacks them.

There’s so much to love about this. The isolated road is a fantastic setting. There’s a lot of mystery with this type of body horror-esque phenomenon where its not certain what is going on but yet, it shows the signs of humanity of the woman’s infection causes the man to react in his own ways. As much as its horrific and a tad disgusting in terms of the whole body changing, there’s also a human element at play that gives the story a little more depth. Its only a short and yet, there’s so many things to explore with this one.

Le Reflet (The Reflection) (2018)

Director: Louis-David Jutras
Cast: Laurence Anais Belleville

Alone in her apartment, Anais realizes that something is wrong with her reflection. Trapped, she tries to escape this entity that manifests itself only through reflection. – IMDB

Reflections and mirrors are such a great tool when it comes to horror films. Le Reflet does a great job and using its sound design, a lot of quiet moments and the different reflective surfaces to play with this reflection premise. While some of the scares are rather predictable, it all depends on the timing and anticipation that it manages to ramp up before executing the scare that makes it rather effective. Plus, it creates this unknown of why this is happening.

I’m a big fan of films with this sort of horror style which is much more subtle and atmospheric. For myself, this short was absolutely outstanding. Plus, it leaves such a mystery that it feels like the premise could be expanded into a full film and potentially be a rather fun horror experience.

Maybe You Should Be Careful (2021)

Director (and writer): Megan Robinson
Cast: Dan Beirne, Brittany Rae Robinson, Kelly McNamee

Maybe You Should Be Careful is about a young couple trying to reignite their passion and intimacy when the boyfriend finds a post about a female killer in the neighborhood that is shockingly similar to his girlfriend and starts building paranoia and fear towards her in his mind.

Paranoia and fear is such a great pair to use when doing a horror film that it adds this whole psychological element to it that works incredibly well especially in this case. This is a quirky little short. There’s a weird dynamic between the couple but then the suspicions start to form, its quite fun to see how it progresses. In many ways, its simply a miscommunication between the two and a different type of focus during the entire encounter that drives to a finale that is fairly expected once it happens but does leave a lot of space during the entire short of whether the girlfriend is or is not the killer preying on the men in their neighborhood.

Family (2020)

Director (and writer): Mark Pariselli
Cast: Neil Paterson, Tarick Glancy, Peter Campbell, Tracy Woods

An accident on the way to the cottage has horrifying consequences for an interracial gay couple contemplating parenthood. – IMDB

The elements of the road trip are pretty well set up at the beginning from the relationship between the two and their many stops which fit this season especially with pumpkin stalls and corn mazes. Plus, for those familiar with the dark country roads, there’s really nothing quite as spooky as its only lit up by the car headlights making what’s ahead a complete mystery. The mood is set up really great with the isolation and quiet rural area while adding in this dire accident which needs to be taken care of. It takes quite the alarming twist as the film progresses which is a pretty neat turning point. For gamers like myself, it might actually feel very familiar giving hints of Resident Evil 7 especially with a dialogue. I’m not sure whether that is deliberate or just a coincidence but its pretty fun.

Kweskowsiu (She Whistles) (2021)

Director (and writer): Thirza Cuthand
Cast: Sera-Lys McArthur, Aiden Devine, Sebastian Bertrand, Eileen Li

On the way to her girlfriend’s place, an Indigenous woman is assaulted by her cab driver. Amidst the struggle, she discovers a deadly supernatural power that may help solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. – IMDB

There’s a lot to love about this short. For one, it dives into Native American beliefs and/or myths about the Northern Lights specifically regarding what happens when you whistle at it. Using this as not only a faux-pas in conversation but also afterwards, using it to the main girl’s advantage. Second is the familiar face of Sera-Lys McArthur who is really good here especially after seeing a good performance of hers earlier this year in Don’t Say Its Name (review). The conversation between the cab driver and her character during the taxi ride is actually rather unnerving especially awakening some fear about how much privacy is being pried but also touching on the prejudices towards Native Americans in the community as well.

Whether its the thriller element or the other messages portrayed in this short film, its a very intriguing one overall and one that opens up unfamiliar myths which adds to the intrigue and at least for myself, lead me to do a little more research.

Sang Jaune (Yellow Blood) (2019)

Director: Julie Roy
Cast: Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle

Sang Jaune crafts a story of Jenny whose life is relatively routine as it revolves around work and collecting sports cars. One day, she wakes up in a yellow field in the middle of nowhere when she starts realizing that her belly is growing abnormally and things start getting weirder after that.

Sang Jaune is a second watch for myself. I believe that I had seen it in Fantasia 2020 but never got around to reviewing it. There are some great ideas here which center around some kind of unknown creature or alien as a subcontext. It revolves around one character. The area and the premise is rather intriguing overall and leaves a lot of space to connect the dots. However, it is one that feels a little abstract at times.

The Silent Lay Steady (2020)

Director (and writer): Travis Laidlaw
Cast: Katrina Elmsley, Spencer Hanson, Justin Hay

A woman finds herself alone with the body after a funeral in her 1860’s farmhouse. – IMDB

The Silent Lay Steady is definitely one of the standout shorts in this programming. The premise and the story is very multilayer as it plays around with this starting point that loops back at the end. Its a rather fun play on the supernatural element and some shots actually remind me a little of The Haunting on Hill House (review). There’s a lot of different horror elements executed really well where there’s a bit focus on sound design to create the atmosphere.

The most outstanding element has to be its cinematography. Each shot is framed very uniquely that creates this different feeling, leaving some things hidden behind the walls. Whether the camera is following the character or its framed on one spot while the character moves in and out of rooms or keeping sounds and lighting coming from off screen, there’s a lot of really great visuals that make the whole short film even more engaging.

10-33

Director (and writer): Alexander Maxim Seltzer
Cast: Alison Louder, Andrew Chown

Ava’s quiet date night out at the cinema turns into a nightmare when she’s trapped in a toilet stall during an active shooting attack. With only a thin door separating her from the gunman, she is forced to confront him and try to find a way to survive. – 10-33 Website

Shootings anywhere is always a scary scenario to imagine. The films crafts it in one location when Ava is hiding into the toilet stall after hearing the other girls in the washroom being shot. As she tries to stay quiet, unnoticed and stay calm, things don’t go exactly as plan. The interaction between her and the gunman is through the stall door. Its a rather normal sort of conversation but reveals quite a bit about both Ava and the gunman which also works to build up the tension.

To be fair, the film premise and execution is overall very engaging. Ava’s fear and the gunman being an unknown factor other than his voice makes it all the more nervewrecking to watch. Whether its to show an aggression or frustration or to highlight the type of person the gunman is, the dialogue has a lot of f-bombs. At one point, it felt necessary but over time, it felt a little annoying as pushing something too much feels like an overuse. Its just a little observation for myself and very much nitpicking at the details since 10-33 really did standout a lot.

Crawl Space (2021)

Director (and writer): Andrew Ellinas
Cast: Andrew Ellinas

A man battles a giant spider in his garage. – IMDB

Wrapping up the Canadian Shorts After Dark is this creature feature which centers around this man finding this crawl space and digs through the spider webs to find a giant spider living in it and it ends up battling it. There’s a definite budget at play here that makes the spider a little funny-looking but spiders are really unnerving in general especially then its a big one. Its uses the things in the garage at hand for the fight and it is pretty fun overall in a silly sort of way.

Not exactly one that I’m especially impressed with but spiders as creature features seem to be wildly underused. I definitely appreciate that this one plays on that creature but also adds a little twist in the end.

TV Binge: Love Death & Robots (Volume 2, 2021)

Love Death & Robots (Volume 2, 2021)

Creator: Tim Miller

A collection of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy. – IMDB

The first season of Love Death and Robots (podcast discussion) was an absolute treat with its 18 episodes or so and having a variety of different short films that explores the three themes: Love, Death and Robots. Thinking back to it now, there are still many segments that are memorable. In comparison, the second season is much shorter running at a swift 8 episodes with some stories feeling more familiar however, the animation style has shifted to some refined visuals that for some almost look real and also, some unique animation art style. The stories itself also has overlapping themes in some in some interesting settings.

Anthology volumes are always going to have hit and miss. The good news is that the second volume of Love Death & Robots is overall pretty good with some segments landing better than others but nothing that is lackluster. Looking at more specific segments, the art style and story of a few do stand out like the horror creature feature of The Tall Grass which had painting-like illustrations or Ice with its world building and comic book/graphic novel illustration style that brings in creative designs and a outer space setting with normal humans being in a world of modded humans. There’s also a Christmas short All Through The House which has its characters almost like dolls while playing with who Santa is and leaving it with a rather troubling question.

In terms of overall stories that seem to be a great basis for a bigger scale movie to some kind of full-length feature, some of these definitely have the basis and foundation for it. Coincidentally, these also have some good voice cast behind it and some more renowned names. The first, of course is for Pop Squad which sets up a future where humans have traded the rights to have children for living forever and being young forever also where having children is now a crime and when found, said children will be killed in order to maintain the population balance. Its a well-structured story with a lot more to explore especially when its voice cast includes Nolan North and Elodie Young. Much like Snow in the Desert which also has a barren wasteland setting and manages to blend all three themes of this volume together.

Two other ones well worth mentioning is the starting episode and the final one which both contrast from the rest of the series in tone. The first called Automated Customer Service carries in a different setting of a futuristic senior residence where a cleaning robot goes rogue and packed with a comedic element mocking the future of automated customer service. Its one that sets an upbeat yet sinister tone but is rather entertaining overall and pretty fun. The final episode, The Drowned Giant is a slow-paced one that leaves room for reflection on humanity in general as it circles around the discovery and gradual deterioration of a drowned giant washed ashore with a monologue from the scientist that observes it over time. Its one that might not fit the general one of the entire volume but does end with a more meaningful and thought-provoking point.

Overall, the second volume/season of Love Death and Robots is a pretty good one. Most of them are well worth a watch and each have their own value whether from visuals and art style to storytelling and world building. It is a short season but one that is still bingeworthy.

BITS 2019: Emerging Screams Shorts Program

Emerging Screams Shorts Showcase is a collection of Canadian horror short films featuring either brillian first time directors or the most promising student filmmakers. It features 10 short films over a variety of horror subgenres. There’s a lot f unique visions here whether in script or atmosphere or tension respectively in each of these.

Emerging Screams Shorts Showcase is screening at Blood in the Snow Festival on November 24th at 2pm. 

Spectre (2019)

Director: Gabriela Diacon & Mariana Diacon

Cast: Julia Krikorian & Alina Lapteva

Things turn sinister at midnight when Anna realizes a presence in her house. – IMDB

Running at 4 minutes long, Spectre is a very quick short that sets up its atmosphere really well. There are some creepy background details that go on. What is very  nice is how they set up the whole scene of each one, leaving space for the expectation of something to happen to ramp up some dread. Its a bit predictable in how the whole short runs, it uses the off screen and sounds to add to its atmosphere and mood.

Solitude (2019)

Director (and writer): Andrew Fleming

Cast: Andrew Fleming

Solitude is a very short thriller, running at 5 minutes, about a man who disconnects from the city life while campy and canoeing on his own through the Ontario backcountry. What starts out as a calm and mundane trip takes a turn when he discovers something very unsettling. The moment of change from nothing to something takes it off guard. It uses its single tone lurking and building intensity of the soundtrack to fill in the void and quietness and then ends it on a wonderfully clever ending, leaving a lot to the imagination. At the same time, it uses its lighting and darkness to build up the atmosphere and emptiness of being in the wild. Its a wonderfully executed short.

The Acrylic (2019)

Director (and writer): Daniel Pike

Cast: Athena Kaitlin Trinh, Wendy German, Jarrett Siddall

On the hunt for some new art for her apartment walls, Rosie acquires a bizarre painting from an equally bizarre art collector… – IMDB

The rule of life we can all learn from watching horror movies is to not buy anything too ancient because its probably not going to be too good or something that looks ominous, like a completely blacked out painting. Just like the painting, The Acrylic is rather ominous. There are some very inexplicable things that happen to it throughout the course where as the owner of it probably wouldn’t dismiss like the one in the short. There’s a little leap of imagination to get past that point. However, the great part of this is the creativity in how the story goes and the creativity behind creating the unknown here. There’s some foreshadowing in the dialogue and then it really takes a creepy dark turn and does ramp up the tension very well in how the cinematography works and how each scene is set up to garner its focal point.

Snack Time! (2019)

Director: Kaw Tay Whee School students

Full of hand puppets and made by students from Kaw Tay Whee School which is located in Yellowknife, Snack Time! is all kinds of weird. Running at a mere 4 minutes, its a rather horror comedy sort of deal. There’s flesh-eating puppets with a plan to pretend to be kindergarten kids to find their next snack. Its honestly a bit wild and there are really no words to say about its execution but as a student project, its oddly entertaining. That’s probably the best way to describe it.

Experience Machine (2019)

Director: Ivana Bittnerova

Cast: Joanna Caplan, Nicholas Koy Santillo, Jonathan Davies

A young mechanic and his family lead comfortable lives in a sleek underground bunker. His life of futuristic luxury begins to deteriorate when the medical device strapped to his wrist is corrupted, revealing the reality of their true dystopian world. – IMDB

Experience Machine is a much more refined short. It has a decent cast with pretty good acting. The story itself builds up the futuristic world that it is set in, giving the setting a background and foundation. The science fiction elements of this future also works with the broken down elements of technology and the luxuries it can bring as well as the escape from reality in the dystopian world. There’s quite a lot to like about the depth in the world created here which leaves a lot of space for its premise to be expanded if ever desired.

Death’s Toll (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Spencer Hetherington

Cast: Nick Nylen, Rob Hetherington

When the bells toll, the heads roll. A bell tower becomes the harbinger of death at the hands of an ancient creature, Mortuus.

Running at less than 4 minutes, Death’s Toll is a rather peculiar one that doesn’t have much dialogue but lets its own lore to told through the course of events. While I am personally unfamiliar with ancient creature or if Mortuus is a real thing or a figment of the writer’s imagination, the short does achieve a nice cinematography in executing the film to build up on the suspense and the fear. The creature itself is also done rather well. Its a simple and straightforward horror story and there’s a lot of appreciation in creating something without a lot of dialogue.

New Woman (2019)

Director: Benjamin Noah

Cast: Rhiannon Morgan, Stephen Oates

New Woman is a gothic tale about a mysterious wealthy woman living in a castle that has recently moved into the area and her invitation to a male pickpocket to her home which ends up into a descent into a labyrinth of terror in 1888.

Definitely one of the more polished short films presented here, this short starts off with a quick note on the whereabouts of the scenario and then follows the woman, their encounter, the invitation, the dinner and then what happens afterwards. The film score is so enchanting and beautiful and a little haunting as well, creating a fantastic atmosphere. At the same time, as the story progresses, there is an edginess and ominous feeling to the beautiful woman and then hints of what she might be. The cinematography of both capturing the beautiful snowy setting all the way to each interaction and focus and when to pull away for the each shot is set up so intricately. This is well-shot, well-executed and well-paced and very mysterious and captivating as a whole.

Trash (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Suzanna Etheridge

Cast: Ian Etheridge, Suzanne Etheridge, Heather Nice, Michael Russer, Braedan Alexander, Sherri Young

They thought the dump fires were behind them, but something has emerged from the flames. Actions have consequences in this dark fairy tale, reminding you to take care of your trash, before it takes care of you. – IMDB

Starting up a broadcast about the current news and trash and dump fire issues and the focus on missing dog flyers in the area followed by Moonlight Sonata playing, Trash is set in Iqaluit where trash isn’t being taken care by its community well and comes to life to start take action on its kids causing a lot of missing kids. Dark fairy tales are always a welcome sight (in my world). It always anchors itself on a greater issue of the society that calls out for a dark force (that might not be completely right in its execution) and uses its way to share a message. In this case, its about trash and the importance of its being treated and taken care of properly. The Creature here is actually done pretty nice and suitably in shredded garbage bags and such. The quick rundown of the situation is set by its voiceover and the conversations between its members of the community so see the situation. Its a bit disjointed in its execution but the message sent is well worth a watch.

What’s Within (2019)

Director (and writer): Haad Bakshi

Cast: Risa Cohen, Kaija Kalev, Vijay Mehta, Ali Shmaisani, Connor Atkins

When everyday problems in a home are seen as routine, Jane, a 16 year old is locked in her room in need of help. Her parents Amelia, and Zach approach her problems as normal teenage behavior. – IMDB

What’s Within takes a clever twist in the dynamic of what is seen as a troublesome teenager daughter behavior and her parents when the expectations or routine of doing wrong causes her to be neglected when she is actually in danger. Call this something of a The Boy Cries Wolf sort of deal but at the same time giving it a lot of suspense to give children the benefit of the doubt. Its a fairly extreme situation presented here and yet its executed with a lot of tension as it lands as a edge of the seat thriller to see how Jane will get out of the situation. A lot of credit goes to how well Risa Cohen does playing Jane as her fear truly comes through. This 7 minute short packs in quite a unexpected experience full of suspense and thrills.

Willa (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Corey Mayne

Cast: Kelsi Mayne, Adrian Jaworski, Bex Carney, Nick Szeman, Gar Reid, Madison Seguin

A classic, haunting ghost story based off of Stephen King’s original tale. – IMDB

Willa is a 15 minute short about a man David who insists on leaving the stalled train in the middle of nowhere to find his fiancee Willa. Stephen King stories are always such great source material to work with. While I’ve never read this short story, Willa is really  nice ghost story. Its about a couple and then about their discovery of the situation on hand. The flow of this short works very well as well as the play of the light and darkness in contrast with the setup of the situation. The little details and the twist in the story all come together. The cinematography of the smoke and how the camera pans over the different scenes adds a lot of depth. Its one well worth watching.

BITS 2019: Funny Frights (Shorts Program)

Funny Frights is the first BITS 2019 Shorts Program to kick off these collection of premieres of Canadian genre shorts. In this case, its a look at shorts on the lighter side of horror. The showcase includes 10 shorts which we have the opportunity to look at 9 of these.

The Video Store Commercial (2019)

Director: Cody Kennedy & Tim Rutherford

Cast: Joshua Lenner, Kevin Martin, Jesse Nash, Tim Rutherford

A desperate video store owner hires a crew to shoot a commercial in his shop. But when they accidentally destroy a cursed VHS, suddenly, all their lives are in danger.- and worse yet, the commercial may never get finished. – IMDB

The Video Store Commercial is a fun little horror comedy is all its best moments. It has some of the fantastic VHS static that builds up the film. It also has an over the top performance of the owner doing the commercial which is pretty entertaining in itself. The whole situation plays on what the viewer knows will go wrong and does in the form of something like a VHS monster of sorts which while looked low budget, actually fit into the whole shorts style and aesthetics really well. Its a satisfying short and one that fits perfectly in the horror comedy style with just enough quirk oddities to make it unique and memorable.

Video Vengeance (2019)

Director: Nada Cosovic

Cast: Madison Graves, Caitlin Nellist, Ty Hawley

Video Vengeance is a short about two stylish girls on the graveyard shift at a video store when an obnoxious customer enters to rent a movie. Just like the two female leads here, this short is full of visual style. It has fantastic color palette that highlights the more sinister bits. There’s also a great amount of quirk going on especially with the whole pause and play functions in between the scenes which adds a lot to the scenes itself. Plus, the obnoxious customer that comes in is fairly unlikable making it rather funny to watch the whole interaction go down.

Long Pig (2019)

Director: Nikolas Benn

Cast: Dave Walpole, Tommy Power, Mike Piwerka

Long Pig is a 7 minute short about an ex-con who lands an interview for a respectable well-paid job which takes a turn into something he didn’t quite expect. This short is one that focuses heavily on connecting with the dark humor that its using. The interview being a rather stressful experience and reflecting on how the ex-con in the hot seat is actually committing a lot of the faux-pas, the interview ramps up in its tension a little with the unsettling moments added in. Its not hard to imagine where it wants to go but having the interviewer role done so well to lead the short into some great territory while coyly keeping who and what this interview is for under wraps. There’s a great deal of finding the balance between subtlety and sudden over the top moments that make this short work very well.

Be Good (Sois Sage, 2019)

Director: Anik Jean

Cast: Sandrine Bisson, Nathan Jean-Huard, Anik Jean, Jean-Nicolas Verreault

Sois Sage is a French-Canadian short about Nathan, a six year old boy with a lot of imagination. He is constantly in costumes of everything from superheroes to werewolves. In his world of grown-ups, he longs for someone to play with and this time, he chooses it to be the new babysitter. Kids are always fun little additions to horror pieces as they can have that creepy and unsettling edge done rather well because of the contrast to their innocent expectations. The same applies to Nathan which adds the whole mystery of the extremities he takes his little play time with the nanny, not to mention that he is more clever than the grown-ups around him expect of him. Well-executed, properly unsettling and a great set of characters and dynamic set up between Nathan and his babysitter.

Docking (2019)

Director: Trevor Anderson

Docking is about Trevor’s reflection on his fear of dating. The picture above pretty much sums up the short, just think of it in a more sexual context…in space. Filming wise, its done pretty well. Context wise, its not clear exactly what it was about and the humor behind it (if it was intended) so we’ll just move on to the next short and let you all experience it when you get a chance.

Don’t Sneeze (2019)

Director: Ryan LaPlante

Don’t Sneeze is a very concise 2 minute short about a guy who sneezes during an inopportune moment and suffers some shocking consequences. Humor is a tricky thing and while this one takes a rather silly approach, the whole dialogue involved is actually rather on point in hitting those funny moments of sometimes there are things that can’t be controlled and then there are things that happen because too much of done. While this has some dumb humor elements (which isn’t exactly my cup of tea), its surprisingly enjoyable.

One Last Last Heist (2019)

Director (and writer): Darrin Rose

Cast: Suresh John, Darrin Rose, Ava Julien, Marito Lopez

The best cure for heartbreak is armed robbery. – IMDB

Its a bit of an odd selection to add to the theme of this shorts showcase but One Last Last Heist is an entertaining one. There are some over the top moments especially some over acting which probably does add to the humor of it all. The story itself aims to surprise in the small twist it has and in turn, takes an actual turn for the more comedic elements of a heist film.

The Trainee (2019)

Director: Ryan Couldrey

Cast: Marcella Young, Brian Quintero, Kira Hall

The Trainee is a 7 minute short about an interrogation of a criminal mastermind by an anti-hero that gets cut when her new trainee arrives on the scene. Shenanigans ensue and boy, are these shenanigans some hilarious time as it plays on the tropes of superheroes and their sidekicks from costume choices to the intimidating voices to the obvious question of whether violence to violence is the right way to do things. All this to bring it to a shocking wrap-up. Its a quick and well-paced short packed in with a ton of fun.

Asking For A Friend (2019)

Director (and writer): Kelsey Bollig

Cast: Victoria Lacoste, Jacqueline Bell

Definitely one of the longer shorts and much more fleshed out, Asking For A Friend runs at 25 minutes and tells the story of two best friend, Blake (Jacqueline Bell) and Q (Victoria Lacoste) who get tangled up in a murder by Q when they were just expecting to enjoy a relaxing night with nachos. Its messy with a body and won’t stop bleeding, drugged up and hallucinations and a crazy night of planning how to get rid of it. When problems come, thats what friends are for: to help without asking any questions. Asking For A Friend has high production value. The scenes are done well and the pacing is great. The two characters and what they go through, for so much blood is rather hilarious in all its graphic goodness. Getting rid of a body for the inexperience is clumsy and messy and they portray all of that so well but never forgetting that this is all a dark comedy of sorts and it delivers on every bit of it.

Not reviewed from this showcase:

Now Is The Printer Of Our Discontent (dir. Michael Peeling)

Funny Frights Shorts Program will be showing at Blood in the Snow Festival on November 23 at 4:30pm. You can find more info HERE.