My last round of shorts.

Chickenboy (2024): When a lonely farmer accidentally makes a chicken-human hybrid by jerking off in the chicken coop, he must decide what their fate will be. Directed by and starring Matthew Rush — as both the farmer and the chickenboy — this is something else, a world where humans and chicken can create something together that is ready for sideshows. Are those still a thing? I want them to be a thing.

Human Resource (2025): A financial horror comedy, this is all about Shae, a millennial HR manager who has brought her total self to work, giving everything to her beloved company. In return, she has been given purpose, friends, bountiful perks and an on-staff barista. But when the market crashes and her company is taken over, will she still matter? As a private equity firm begins to restructure, Shae soon learns that by saving the company, she may be damning their souls. This short, directed by Henry Chaisson and written by Max Coyne-Green, rings so true to me after a week spent at a company retreat. I went through a similar ripping of a company to pieces and I still have PTSD. Thanks for making me have flashbacks.

Tether (2025): On the first day of her job manning an isolated space station all by herself, Mickie (Geffri Maya) receives an emergency transmission and has to decide whether or not she should put her career on the line by answering it. This has the voice of Ming-Na Wen as another captain and offers several lessons for viewers and the lead. This was directed and written by Meredith Berg. It could be a full movie with the universe that has been created here.

Wake (2024): Directed and written by Sean Carter, this is one dark and tight short. As a hurricane grows in power outside the hospital, two nurses have one last job before evacuating. They must put a DOA corpse on ice in the downstairs morgue as the hospital floods. However, that will be anything but easy, as one of them is the caretaker for their grandmother, who claims that the dead woman is the same person who stole her purse. Man, this was awesome!

Slow (2025): A field recorder meets a sinister being that can change her perception of time. How can you run when your ability to feel reality has gone away? Directed and written by Rebecca Berrih, this is the kind of thing I often worry about walking into.

Arson (2025): Once a popular boy band — maybe — Actual Size — Drake (Jai Benoit), Nick (Thomas Johnston), Leo (Jeff Pearson), and Kenny (Jerik Thibodeaux) — can’t seem to reach the level of stardom they think they had. Or maybe feel that they deserve. Stuck gigging at pizza joints and dive bars, they sell their souls to Ms. Black (Olivia Peck) for success but forget to read the contract. Directed by Erin Broussard, who wrote it with Donny Broussard, this balances some awesome music numbers with plenty of humor and practical effects. Awesome!

OK/NOTOK (2024): Loretta (Bairavi Manoharan), a working-class British Asian woman, has a new man in her life. Unfortunately, he soon breaks down and she learns that even customer service in the future will be AI. Maybe it’s easier to just have a robot that doesn’t work sitting on the couch in silence than a partner that doesn’t understand you. Directed and written by Pardeep Sahota, this film creates a future universe that feels so close to now that it’s naturally where we’re going. Do androids dream of electronic sheep or do they get sent back in for repairs? This film attempts to answer that question. I’m not sure what I would do.

Daughters of Evil (2024): In 1966, a girl group — Mary Sue (Ariel Ditta), Mary Jane (Natasha Pascetta) and Mary Beth (Jenessa Michelle Soto) — consults a spirit board to come up with the best band name ever: The Daughters of Evil. Then they got possessed by His Unholy Darkness Beleth, who can play a mean tambourine, and who became their manager. Directed by Pascetta, who also wrote it, and Adam James Taylor, this is shot as if it’s a YouTube video and has some fun moments, even if I’ve been spoiled by Late Night With the Devil and Pater Noster and the Mission of Light, two movies that walk the same left hand path and do it with more style. Still, this is a fun watch.

Howl If You Love Me (2023): This new short from John R. Dilworth, the beloved creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog, is a romantic horror comedy about a man named Jim and his werewolf girlfriend Jules. Werewolf hunters show up and almost ruin everything buty our couple figures it out. This world is so sweet and nice that the Twin Towers never got hit by a plane. And there are werewolves! How can I go to this place? Are they taking applications? Do I need a Real ID? Are all werewolves this nice? Man, I have so many questions. One more: when do we get more of this? This seems like such a fun idea for a series and we always need more cartoons.

The Flacalta Effect (2024): Keesha (Rochée Jeffrey) and Toya (Tristina Lee) are black sisters whose house is being infiltrated by the undead who have been created by an anti-aging diet drug called Flacalta. Now, the beautiful undead are ruining their lives. Yet Keesha doesn’t really want to live, because as she sees it, being a black woman in America was never that great. Toya is an optimist who wants a better world and to have an orgasm. Directed and written by  Jeffrey, this definitely needs to be a full-length film. And they both need to survive!

Sempre Avanti (2023): Two U.S. soldiers — known as tunnel rats — plunge into a suspected enemy combatant tunnel system during the Vietnam War only to awaken unparalleled horrors. Like Shelter Half, this was directed by the Barber Brothers, written by Nathaniel Barber and shot by Matthew Barber. Both brothers appear in the story, unlike the above mentioned short.

This is appropriately claustrophobic and has a monster in it that looks like it was a lot like the one in Shelter Half, which if that’s true, props to these guys for extending their budget. It’s less a story than a framework to get said monster up against some soldiers, but it looks great and would probably make a great extended film.

The Traveler and the Troll (2025): Directed and written by Adam Murray, this has a traveler who has stopped to rest in a haunted forest. They soon learn they are not alone and have stumbled upon the lair of a terrifying troll who demands gifts for passage.

With no coin or treasure to give, the traveler must answer three of the troll’s riddles to survive the night and leave the forest with their soul intact.

Riddle 1: I have no fangs, yet I bite: The wind.

Riddle 2: I rise from the sea, I rest in the hills only to rise again from the sea: The sun.

The troll doesn’t have a third riddle because no one gets these right. The traveler makes the troll sad because, well, he is so used to these questions and doesn’t come off as frightening when he has memory lapses.

The filmmakers said that they were inspired by Legend, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. You can see that in this as well as a great mix of animation, puppetry and live action. Troll law doesn’t work out as well as the steel of a sword in the end, though. I totally loved this!

Her House (2024): Gina (Taylor Joree Scorse) and her estranged mother Helen (Gloria Gruber) have to go back to the home of Gina’s grandmother (and Helen’s mother) Jane (Lexa Gluck) to put things in order after the funeral. What’s my first rule of horror? Don’t go back home and definitely don’t go back home if you hate your family. Directed by Will Lee, who wrote it with Ian Hedman, this has the grandmother wanting to take Gina and Helen revealing where this cycle of mother and daughter trauma has begun. This short does so much in ten minutes. Definitely hunt it down and watch it.

Forever Yours (2024): Following a devastating accident that leaves the love of her life, Sebastian (James Tuft), paralyzed, Valeria (Andrea Ariel) becomes his caretaker. But is she devoted or obsessed? Directed by Elliott Louis McKee, who wrote the story with Andrea Ariel, this really is something else, a movie told by Valeria, who tells the entire story of how they met and we learn just what she tells us. I have to say, at least the human got it and Benny the dog was safe. I can forgive human being violence, but Benny is a good boy.

All Kinds of Animals (2024): Hannah (Carmen Sage) is an experienced hiker who is working her way up to the summit when something unexpected happens. Directed and written by Becky Sayers, this brings up the question of whether most women would rather face a man or a bear in the woods. Or maybe the guys should worry about our heroine and her bear mace. What a great and unexpected close to this! I feel like I see things like this happen on true crime shows all the time — often to women — so I am not sad at all when I watch it happen to men in movies. Ladies, get your revenge, at least in cinema. Seems like mom was all in on this plan too!

Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! (2025): When a broke birthday party clown named Bobo (Zachary Solomon) finds out in the middle of the gig from hell that his mother is on her deathbed, he has to figure out how to get home. “Stupid, we’re going to use magic!” is a great line in this. Also: Laura (Rivkah Reyes), the other clown who randomly called him a homophobic name with a hard g — wow. Everyone is against Bobo and why is he even at this party dressed like Porky Wiggles the pig and why are kids punching him Directed by Zen Pace and written by Zachary Solomon, this is the kind of short that I love. Strange, otherworldly and weirder as it goes on. I had to do a birthday party once where I was hired as a pro wrestler — which I was — and there was no ring. I just had to come out in full costume and talk about wrestling. Another time, I had to do one and actually have a match in a public park and get thrown into a tree. None of those things are as upsetting as the things that happen in this.

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 watched films.