More shorts? Yes!

Bathroom Spider (2025): Directed by Christine Weatherup and written by C.J. Hoke, this short finds a young bride (Ivy Strohmaier) having her heart callously broken by her husband (Logan Eller). With only her bathroom spider to confide in, he will soon find that he’s not the only one able to go through great change in a very short time. This is a very simple tale that’s told well and has quite the payoff for the audience after enduring just how rude that man has been.

Severed (2025): Megan Duffy directed, co-wrote — with Danielle Bauman — and stars in this short as Abigail, a woman who keeps finding fingers in the streets of her town. There’s been an epidemic of missing digits, whether that’s through accident, a finger cutter or a strange disease. Her partner Mark (Ben Giroux) doesn’t even want to hear about it, angered by all the sympathy that the fingerless have been getting. Yet those who look down on others often find themselves dealing with whatever they’ve been close-minded about. This is a fun, quirky and totally unexpected offering. Loved it!

A Haunting at Alma Drive (2024): “On August 1, 2023, Dalton Allen bought the house at 1310 Alma Drive. The listing said it was haunted. But it was within his budget.” What a fun take on the found footage genre, as this starts as you’d expect with one of those new homeowners discovering that his house is haunted by something that wants his Whataburger. Luckily, this doesn’t play into the cliches of those strobing and stuttering Paranormal Activity films and instead subverts them. Dalton Allen directed it, we must assume he lived to tell the tale.

Bulbber (2025): An uninvited guest at a funeral ends up being questioned by the dead man’s sister and soon they end up in a dance of grief or connection or abject terror. Who’s to say? Regardless, this short was completely unhinged in all the best of ways, at times feeling like it was about to descend into some Argento whirlpool and at others, just being about two lost souls trying to make sense of death and needing to be around it. I have so many questions and want to know more, but sometimes brief, analog moments are best undescribed. Amazing!

401 (2025): What starts as a date seemingly going well between Sue (Madison Cowmeadow) and Nancy (Lucia Towers) takes a dark turn when Sue goes to the bathroom before the check arrives and they head off to Nancy’s place. Inside there, a voice demands to know how she plans to pay for all the sins of her past and promises to give her a chance just as much as it swears that it is going to murder her. As someone who often ends up in the bathroom for long stretches of time, this frightened me.

Cease to Exist (2024): Two girls try to communicate with the ghost of Manson — get the title? — in this short directed and written by Taylor Nodrick. This looks gorgeous and reminds me of one very important lesson: If you are going to summon Charles Manson with your spirit board, just don’t. He’s totally going to stab you in the tummy. Nodrick followed Charlie’s advice: “If you’re going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.”

Supper (2025): A dysfunctional family — that’s really putting it oh so lightly — has sat down to dinner, but really, they’re kicking out their least favorite brother through a new legal process known as familial emancipation. This leads to them arguing about who their father’s favorite child is, why brothers hate the men that their sisters are having sex with and the subject of bringing a gun to said family dinner. Nothing works out well for anyone. Directed and written byJoshua Ryan Dietz, this has a great cast, including Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone), Jeff Perry, Sam Rechner, Aleksa Palladino, Henry Samiri, Andrew Perez and Joshuah Arizmendi.

Escape(2024): Directed and written by Lorenzo Manetti, this starts in a suburban bedroom at the start of an alien invasion. This looks as good as anything you’ll see in a Hollywood blockbuster this year but it has such heart and a truly inspired twist on the end that shifts the point of view. Obviously, three minutes is long enough for what it wants to do, but man, I can’t wait to see what its filmmaker does with a big budget and more time.

It Draws Closer (2024): Directed and written by Joshua David Matthews, this was originally titled Sketch. It’s such a simple idea: a woman is sketching at night and what she draws is coming closer and closer — hence the title — the more realized that her illustration becomes. This only needs four minutes to gradually build the tension and then pay it off in the best of ways, something that many other films take 90 minutes or more to do before never being able to stick that landing. Well done!

Loud (2025): This reminds me of the Ohio Players. An aspiring music producer (Shakira Barrera) records a violent event — as Travolta said, “It’s a good scream.” — she becomes haunted by its sound, trying to make it fit into the music that she’s creating. Directed by Adam Azimov, who co-wrote the script with Isaac Cravit, this is just 7 minutes long and reminds me that we need more sound-oriented horror. As you’d expect, the sound design is awesome in this and a major part of the story. Definitely hunt this one down.

Mr. Static (2024): “You didn’t watch. Time to die.” Samantha (Christina Elizabeth Smith) must watch a live video stream of household murders that are mysteriously broadcast to a CRT TV in her home. It’s the work of Mr. Static (played by Bill Watterson with the voice of Josh Petersdorf). Yet what happens when she looks away? Can she? Directed and written by Mike Williamson, I want this to be a full-length film. It really feels like there’s so much in here to expand on.

The Last Thing She Saw (2024): Directed by Anthony Cousins(Frogman) and Rebecca Daugherty and written by Brady Richards, this has a home invasion catch Emma (Bailey Bolton) and the criminals — Fritz (Nathan Tymoshuk) and Mastermind (Agatha Rae Pokrzywinski) — gouge out her eyes. Except she won’t go down easy and keeps running away, dragging her eyeballs behind her. As you can imagine, this movie is all about the gore. Lucio Fulci is somewhere laughing and so pleased, but wonders if you could please use more fast zooms? I’d love to see this in a crowded movie theater instead of virtually.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.