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The Overlook Film Festival, held in New Orleans earlier this month, cast no looming shadow with its selection of feature films. The festival also offered a little horror with a collection of short films that brought a sense of unease to the Big Easy.
Naturally, short films became the lifeblood of the horror industry and blockbuster filmmakers like Fede Alvarez and David Sandberg made names for themselves in the medium. Given the accessibility of hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo, short films and the filmmakers behind them have developed increasingly loyal fanbases, with viewers returning to the films in search of answers or bits of lore, and creating entire Reddit threads dedicated to the seven-minute works. Studios are catching on to this trend more quickly than ever before. Many of the filmmakers who made the latest and most anticipated horror films of the year built their audiences through short films: RackaRacka (Return it), markuplayer (Iron lung), Carrie Parker (mania), Damien McCarthy (to rule), Ken Parsons (Back rooms(Casper Kelly)owner).
The 26 horror shorts screened at the Overlook Film Festival were grouped into categories: “Feral,” “Freaky,” and “Static.” The “Ferral” category showcased films about sexual and gender-based horror ranging from romantic to taboo. Freaky introduced what is more commonly viewed as monster horror into folklore. Static wanders into liminal, inexplicable spaces, and the horror is sometimes best left unspoken. Each film offered something worth admiring – an image, sound, or performance that stuck with me. There is no doubt that many of these directors will gain prominence before major feature films in the coming years. These eight short films were my favorites:
hint monastery. Beautiful Eddie – terrible
As restoration workers take over her neighborhood, Gullah Geechee woman Annabelle (Melanie Nichols King) enlists the help of ancestral knowledge, with disastrous consequences for the newcomers who begin taking over the land, ignorant of its history. What Annabelle unleashes puts her at odds with her cop daughter, Cassie (Imani Lewis), as the two women confront their chosen means of protecting society. Thanks to a strong sense of setting and an outstanding performance by Nichols King, hint Seems like the perfect concept for a feature film, especially in postSinners Horror scene.
Nail biting monastery. Joseph Burch – terrible
It has 18 on ity On her birthday, anxious young woman Amy (Alexa Swinton) faces a family curse that has destroyed her lineage. Despite her mother’s (Amy Cropsey) constant warnings, she can’t stop biting her nails. Is Amy merely vulnerable to her mentally ill mother’s controlling issues, or does the curse herald a more horrific discovery? Nail biting It captures the enduring quality of gothic folklore and creates a wonderful sense of space in Amy’s dimly lit home, allowing the shadows to play their tricks to a well-deserved climax.
scissors monastery. Hannah Allen – Feral
A man (Ethan Embry) with a grudge against women crashes a bachelor party ready to brutally murder everyone. When he finds out, this group of women, portrayed by Georgia Bridgers, Jenna Cannell, Najah Bradley, Hannah Allen, Anissa Matlock, and Hannah Aslesen, are all eccentric and no one takes him seriously. scissors is a smart, funny romp that turns the tables on the slasher format and deconstructs the phallic symbolism associated with the genre.
Ghoststory Monastery. Alex Jacobs – Constant
In an old VHS recording of a woman (Gabriella Ortega Ricketts) talking about a ghost she saw in the woods next to her house while growing up. These shots are interspersed with eerie images of a low-resolution ghost (Luke Chamberlain) slowly approaching the camera. Ghost story It’s deceptively simple and a woman’s refusal to fully tell a ghost story can seem frustrating. But as she begins and repeats her story, each time with a different tone of voice and a different emphasis on words, a sense of dread about what remains unsaid grows. Ghost story Sounds like something fans of Gene Schönbrunn and Kyle Edward Ball will enjoy.
Man eats pussy monastery. Lee Lawson – Feral
Freddie (Julian Richings), a dying old man, pays a visit to a mysterious sex worker, Kitty (Grace Glowicki), who offers him freedom from pain and pleasure. I wasn’t expecting the title to be so literal, but… Man eats pussy It is a wild example of body horror that is beautiful, disgusting and bizarre all at the same time. Stunning special effects and voice acting create a creature that is both sympathetic and disturbing at the same time. It is definitely one of the most original and memorable short films from the festival.
Super aware monastery. Christian Heidtke – fixed
In the early 1970s, two people, Sybil (Natalie Bolte) and Harvey (Matt Olson), come to the Center for Human Potential to conduct a scientific study of psi energy. As Sybil and Harvey question the limits of her psi powers, she is placed on a secret mission to penetrate a world beyond human knowledge. As the longest short in the festival, 22 minutes long, Super aware It seems the most complete in terms of narrative and characterization. There is a maturity to the storytelling and time is well spent establishing a connection to the characters and central mystery. Super aware Seems like the perfect starting point for a movie set in the world of psi energy.
circular monastery. Christopher Kosakowski – Awful
Aspiring actor Charlie (Samuel Dunning), stuck at a clown party, receives a zoetrope for his birthday from his strange colleague Mickey (David Sitler). His reality descends into a nightmare as images seen in the zoetrope appear in his apartment. Short, scary, and based on one concept. circular Reminiscent of the early works of James Wan, it’s easy to imagine the zoetrope clown becoming a cursed artifact in a feature film.
Homemade Gatorade monastery. Carter Amelia Davis – Awful
Susie (Amelia Davis Carter) searches for a buyer on social media for her homemade product Gatorade, which she describes as creamy and filling. She receives a letter from Daniella (Lauren Davis) who wants to buy every gallon if Susie can deliver it. On her five-hour road trip, Susie receives increasingly strange messages from Daniela, none of which are threatening but the feelings are definitely gone. And they become even more worrying as Susie gets closer to her destination. Homemade Gatoradethe festival’s only animated short, was produced using both Photoshop and After Effects, giving the film an eerie look accentuated by great voice performances that highlight the strangeness of what’s being shown on screen. Homemade Gatorade It feels like an artifact of the early Internet, or something you might find a link to on a sleepless night at 3am. There’s something vile, yet engaging, about the film, a summation of the fact that people and the Internet are just plain weird.
