Chris McInroy is the director of Bad Guy #2, Death Metal, We Summoned A Demon and the segment “One Time In The Woods” in Scare Package and if you’ve seen that, you have some idea of just how bloody and brilliant this short is going to be.

GUTS is all about Tim, who is in love with a girl in his office, wants a promotion and has to deal with all manner of bullies during his day because, well, his guts are on the outside of his body.

Do not watch if you are grossed out by guts, eating guts, drinking guts, eyeballs ala Fulci, whittling awards killing people, spraying blood, ooze, gristle, gore, more guts and fun. I almost puked at one point and I thought I had a cast iron stomach, so Mr. McInroy, you can consider that a standing ovation.

Hunt this down, find it and fall in love. Or throw up. I mean, either way, you’re living, right?

GUTS is now playing Salem Horror Fest and you can watch this short and all of the features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

Filmed in one of America’s oldest deep coal mines and featuring practical FX from Emmy award-winning makeup artist Santino Ferrese (Star Trek Discovery), Fire on the Mountain is all about the battle that a young woman must take on to stop a centuries old demon from unleashing hell on Earth.

Director Patrick Corcoran has recently made a full-length called Schimbarea that I want to track down after seeing this. I mean, how can you not love a movie where “a ragtag group of chainsmoking teenagers must join together to keep it from terrorizing their small Pennsylvania town.” Reading, PA represent!

It looks great and shows plenty of promsie. Exactly what you hope from when you check out a short film!

Fire on the Mountain is now playing Salem Horror Fest and you can watch this short and all of the features with their virtual pass now until the end of October. To learn more, check out this movie’s official Facebook page.

Within the structure of an album that teaches you how to scratch — and sounds like something out of The Avalanches — Chinese-American DJ Logan Lee is poised to make his live debut at his best friend Beatrice Pan’s house party. He’s a nervous wreck, she has a potentially evil — and cybernetic alien — boyfriend and his mom has given him perhaps the strongest strain of marijuana ever made.

Director and writer Raymond C. Lai has taken a small budget and short running time and infused it with plenty of big energy and bigger ideas. I had a blast with this and really hope that this becomes a full-length feature at some point. Great ending, too!

Logan Lee and the Rise of the Purple Dawn is now playing Salem Horror Fest and you can watch this short and all of the features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

Director and writer Matthew Avery Berg has created several shorts, with Marked being the latest. It tells the story of a tattoo artist named Sasha (Daniel Giacomini in his first film) confronting his past when a client (Eric Roberts!) knows what each mark means on his body.

While a very quick film, this is yet another reminder of just how good Roberts is as an actor. Of course, he just made four movies in the time that it took me to write that sentence and I’m sure we’ll watch as many of them as we can. Berg was smart to get him on board as he elevates this short into something beyond the average.

My only criticism is that the sound design is a bit hot and seems almost comical in some moments. But that’s a small thing and this short deserves your view.

Marked is now playing Salem Horror Fest and you can watch this short and all of the features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

When Brad (Hank Northrop) brings his liberal girlfriend Lane (Danielle Dallas Roosa) home to meet his conservative parents Marnie and Jeff (Cheryl Dent and Christopher Carroll) tensions escalate starting with her not wanting to eat the mole poblano — she’s vegan — and building as her career and even where they met get called into question.

You may — or may not — know that I’m married to the daughter of a very conservative family to the point that just the other day, I listened to me get referred as having “well, you know” politics. So yeah — I’m completely understanding of the nervousness that comes with a first dinner with the parents. However, I’ve never upset them enough to transform one of them into a literal fire breathing demon.

Director and writer Gregory M. Schroeder made a fun short here. I’d have liked a bit more tension before the giveaway, but it’s still well-made and worth watching. Here’s hoping that he expands on this and keeps building his career.

Welcome to Our Home is now playing Salem Horror Fest and you can watch this short and all of the features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

When six young and hopeful actors land roles in an experimental horror film shooting on a remote location with no crew present — what is this Makinov directing the Who Can Kill A Child? remake? — and only drones to film the events. Of course, before you can say snuff film, that’s exactly what starts happening.

Director/writer Bobby Marinelli has done just about every job there is to do on a set, so his knowledge of the way these characters behave is probably pretty well informed.

He told Timothy Rawles of iHorror, “A lot of my career as a reality television producer was based on manipulating ordinary people into extraordinary situations. I often wondered how far this could be taken and it developed into a really interesting premise for a horror film. With Death Cast I was able to blend reality docudrama tropes with those of a slasher flick, the result is familiar but unique to the genre.”

I got major vibes of a better David DeCoteau Full Moon production here, which is not a bad thing, so if you’re in the mood for a slasher that plays with technology and the need to be a star, this is the one for you.

Death Cast is now playing Salem Horror Fest. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October. You can learn more at the Facebook page and official site for the movie.

As they run from a botched robbery, four criminals — one critically injured — end up at a farmhouse. But the family inside may be more dangerous than waiting for the police.

The first full-length film from Kris Roselli, Hideout has families on both side of the character divide and cross purposes for the robbery. Shot in an Airbnb house in Millville, NJ, the foursome make their way into the home and are treated — at first — with hospitality as the grandma and granddaughter remove the bullet and treat Reed (Chris Wolfe, who is wonderful in this, going for sympathetic to menacing sometimes in the very same moment). However, once the fugitives realize the homeowners — and soon everyone in the neighborhood — know who they are, things begin to get violent.

Bryan Enright, who plays Kyle, is really solid in this. He expects to be able to control these civilians and gradually learns that he’s in over his head. This is a great opportunity for him to show just how talented he is with a big role and he makes a wonderful showing.

That word — gradually — comes into play here as the criminals start trying to escape   as the supernatural moments begin to increase. And there’s a really tense scene as a neighbor gives two of them a ride, realizes that he’s listening to a police report about them on the radio and ends up bleeding out at the hands of Reed.

Part criminals trying to escape, part home invasion, part occult horror — this film has moments for just about any genre fan to dig into.

Hideout is premiering during the Salem Horror Fest and will be available on demand November 9. Until then, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several unique films during October. You can learn more about Hideout at the official Facebook page.

Earlier this week, I shared my love for the WNUF Halloween Special. I’m happy to report that there’s a spiritual follow-up that goes from the wonder of UHF to the magic of found footage VHS tape trading and the start of viral videos.

A few weeks before Halloween, the crew at Click Clique — a click bait website that once did actual journalism — is struggling to get articles that keep traffic coming in and the lights on. June, who is in charge of this strange bullpen of social media influencers, asks them to gather the 13 most disturbing pieces of footage and give her a 15-second intro. There’s also the secret that the money has run out and anyone whose story doesn’t pass muster will be leaving the halls — such as they are — of Click Clique.

Where the WNUF Halloween Special expertly took aim — and created incredibly perfect UHF era TV footage — at past media, What Happens Next Will Scare You hits everything from dash cam videos to vlogs, re-edited listicle videos, old episodes of In Search of, Cops, the Warrens, urban legends, creepy pasta and serial killer obsessions. It’s like a barrage of YouTube clips with your eyes held open like Betty in Opera.

The music by Queen Wolf — you can grab their music and merch right here —  sounds raw and perfect for this movie and I was overjoyed to see Paul Fahrenkopf — but not as Frank Stewart — show up, as well as the return of Dr. Louis and Claire Berger.

How-to videos for exorcisms? Bigfoot on the loose? Killer clowns? A Beanie Baby possessed by a demon photocopying its ass? What Happens Next Will Scare You find director, co-writer and co-producer Chris LaMartina and co-writer and co-producer Jimmy George delivering on a high concept without falling into rote by the numbers parody. They deftly mix rather silly moments with horrific 911 calls. The vlog segments seemed too basic until the absolutely grisly fate of what happened to the teen vlogger. Throw in a cursed record and the urban legend and creepypasta bent of this film just wins you over.

I was beyond excited to see this, as I was sure that it was going to be exactly the type of movie that I get obsessed about. I’m happy to report that it lived up to everything I wanted it to be.

Kassi (Romy Boloix) needs money, so she starts working in a weed greenhouse, but the owner is soon murdered and she goes on the run directly into the curse — that we learn about in a flashback to the 1800s that has prominent cell phone towers present — that haunts the mountain.

Director Stephen Garnett’s IMDB bio states that he’s “known for developing talent and creative collaborations with the top branding companies in the world and working with artists of all walks of life.” That slickness extends to this film.

I heard a debate today about whether or not movies can be exploitation today and yet still feel ethically acceptable to view. That’s a good question and I think that there really isn’t a filmmaker ready to go full Bruno Mattei any longer.

This is a fine movie, but never goes fully into the muck of a woman seeking revenge film. Maybe we’ve evolved past that, but we should still strive to entertain.

If She Screams is now playing Salem Horror Fest and is also on Amazon Prime. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.

It’s kind of perfect that a movie called Witch Hunt is playing at the Salem Horror Fest. In this short, directed and written by Evan Gorski — who has yet to make a full-length movie but let’s hope that happens soon — a vengeful keyboard warrior named Jeff suddenly finds a mysterious woman from out the past at his door.

The title comes from the idea that social media attacks can feel an awful lot like, well, you get it. So when Jeff feels the rage of those he’s done wrong, he gets his very own Salem witch trials. Again, how appropriate for this month’s fest!

Witch Hunt looks gorgeous. I just wish it had a bit more time to stretch out its story and let us know a bit more about how we got here.

Witch Hunt is now playing Salem Horror Fest. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.