ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Here’s a double-feature review of two genre-film–adjacent short films screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.   

Ripe (Chín; Canada/Vietnam, 2025)

Official synopsis: A young woman must decide if she will enter into an arranged marriage in order to support her family of durian farmers — all while the land and the spirit realm weave a mysterious influence over her choice.

Writer/director Solara Thanh Bình Đặng blends superstition, economic realities, the possibility of romance, and a touch of the supernatural in her gothic-flavored short Ripe. The film has an aura rooted in both waking life and dreaminess, with a gorgeous retro-feel color palette beautifully captured by Cinematographer Chananun Chotrungroj. Hayley Ngọc Mai does wonderful work leading a solid ensemble cast. Đặng weaves a lyrical spell with Ripe and invests her short film with plenty of food for thought for viewers.

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Marriaginalia  (Canada, 2025): 

Official synopsis: Marriaginalia is a surreal portrait of married life told across a day in three parts. A couple navigates life’s smaller ruptures — the world distorts, the body surprises — but their bond holds, serene and slightly off-kilter.

Described in press materials as a “grotesque comedic short,” you won’t get any argument from me about that description for writer/director Hannah Cheesman’s Marriaginalia. Kayla Lorette and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll do an amusing job portraying a married couple having a highly unusual day, to say the least. Boasting body horror gags — the initial one will surely have some viewers’ stomachs churning — and some humorous wordplay, the three-and-a-half minute short boggles the mind as it elicits laughs. 

Ripe and Marriaginalia screen as part of Toronto International Film Festival 2025, which takes place from August 5–14.