A roommate stuck in a codependent cycle finds her burgeoning romance might lead to something unexpected. And when she brings her new man home, perhaps both she and her roommate might find some enjoyment out of him. Sure, I should have expected the ending, but it hit me just right. And I’m not going to spoil it for you.

Director and writer Avra Fox-Lerner knows something that very few filmmakers do this day: brevity is the soul of wit. This is just the right length and I’m not saying that in the way women do to make us men feel better.

I saw The Lovers as part of Salem Horror Fest, where you can watch several shorts and features with their virtual pass now until the end of October. You can read more about Meta at the official site.

During senior prom, Artie is excited to see if he’s won prom king — despite not believing that his school would vote in a transguy — just as he gets his period. And then, well, he transforms all over again in order to deal with bullies.

I’m somewhat fascinated that the prom scene in Carrie gets referenced in transgender narratives. Someone asked me the other day why so many in the LGBTQ world love horror so much and my assumption — I’d love to learn more — is that the fear of the other is something dealt with every day. Enjoying a world where the other is everyday and often triumphs against normalcy seems way better than normal life.

That said — this is an interesting film and it’s great to see so much representation within Salem Horror Fest. Directed by Sydne Horton and written by Savannah Ward, it has the right tones of humor, horror and understanding.

I saw Meta as part of Salem Horror Fest, where you can watch several shorts and features with their virtual pass now until the end of October. You can read more about Meta at the official site.

Are the movies trying to tell me something?

I’ve watched multiple films in the last few weeks where people try to go back home again and set things right. This never works out.

What am I to learn?

Directed and written by Paul Owens, LandLocked brings his family into the film, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, as well as appearing in their old home movies which have become part of the narrative.

When Mason (Mason Owens) takes on the task of clearing out his father’s home, he discovers those films on an old video camera and begins to grow obsessed with the footage that he starts to watch and learn and document the past.

So yeah, you may be watching a family’s old films and the film feels long even though it has a short running time. But the idea of a camera that can show you any moment in time you ask for is solid, the footage works within the film and you can see what the director was going for. Nostalgia is dangerous (or a profitable place to make a movie) is the message and yes, while you can go home again, you probably shouldn’t.

I saw LandLocked as part of Salem Horror Fest, where you can watch several shorts and features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

Ben (Oded Fehr) is in prison for murdering his wife and daughter, but his lawyer Wendy Coulson (Alexandra Gilbreath) is convinced that demonic possession is the cause. So how do you prove that in court? Steven, whose cursed object may have made Ben a killer, has created an apartment filled with multiple objects with the same demonic hold and rents it out to Carly (Alana Wallace), Maria (Aislinn De’Ath) and her daughters Joey (Anya Newall) and Lilly (Lara Mount). Now, that family’s demons are about to meet very real ones.

Adam Ethan Crow has some interesting ideas in here and it feels like this inhabits the same world as The Conjuring films while having a more progressive family at its center. While Steven and Ben have been faking ghost incidents for years, the air bob filled with occult objects actually begins to show them what the unknown really is.

Steven is as repellant a character as you’ll find, his plan is one made to unravel and woe be to the normal family caught within. If you enjoy possession and paranormal films, you’ll definitely enjoy this one, however.

Lair is now playing Salem Horror Fest, where you can watch several shorts and features with their virtual pass now until the end of October.

When a hotel hallway is ravaged by a mysterious virus — yes, if you’re looking for COVID-19 escapism, perhaps this is not your movie — pregnant tourist Naomi (Yumiko Shaku, Lt. Akane Yashiro from 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.) and Val (Carolina Bartczak) bond over more than just their bad marriages. They’re also stuck in a hallway filled with victims, all to find Val’s daughter Kelly and perhaps get through the horror.

Made as an ode to 70s and 80s horror — obviously, this Canadian project that tells of an isolated building dealing with a disease within is going to get a Cronenberg association — the guiding question behind this film was “What would happen if vaccines were created intentionally for purposes of government control and for the profit of the pharmaceutical industry, not necessarily to cure viruses?”

Director/co-writer Francesco Giannini first full-length feature shows a confidence many won’t have five movies in. This is a claustrophobic and dark movie that just plain works.

Hall is now playing Salem Horror Fest where you can watch several shorts and features with their virtual pass now until the end of October. You can learn more about Hall at the official site.

Directed and written by Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum, Koreatown Ghost Story starts as what feels like a comedy, with Hannah (Lyrica Okano, Nico Minoru from the Marvel series Runaways) getting acupuncture from Mrs. Moon (Margaret Cho, who executive produced this movie). That’s because Mrs. Moon is checking her teeth, commenting on her weight and generally asking some odd questions.

That’s because she wants Hannah to marry her dead son Edward (Brandon Halvorsen) from beyond the grave so that she has done right by him before she dies.  The needles inside Hannah have shut down her ability to move and even cause her to openly weep at times.

Then, the movie completes its move from farce to terror, as whatever Mrs. Moon has made is now in our existence and ready to find its bride. As for our heroine, she wants out so badly that she’s willing to tear the skin off her ring finger to lose the chains that have bound her. But that shambling mass of flesh coming up the steps covered in cupping cups may have something to say about that. After all, their parents promised Hannah to Edward years before he lived and died.

Cho is absolutely perfect in this, as is Okano, whose face is tightly held by the acupuncture table. She acts a good stretch of this film paralyzed, which limits movement but really shows off her range. This is one of the best shorts I’ve seen in awhile and I urge you to track it down.

Koreatown Ghost Story 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.

Kostas Gerampinis hasn’t made a full-length feature as of yet, but this short proves that he has strong storytelling skills, an eye for powerful visuals and confidence beyond his experience.

When a veterinarian is called in to treat a mysterious disease in a remote farm in Greece, he determines that all of the animals on the farm must be put to death to keep any chance of an infectious disease outbreak to a minimum. The farmer argues that no one will compensate him for his troubles, but then a storm breaks out, leaving the animal doctor no choice but to spend the night.

Between the visuals and the score, this seems like it’s ready to be a full-length film. It kept my attention the entire way and I kept looking at the clock. Usually, that happens when a movie bores me. With this, I was hoping that it would play longer.

Iskioma 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. You can learn more at the film’s official site.

Can a relationship be too perfect? Can a lover be so great at everything that their very devotion to always doing the right thing be too much? What if you got the exact relationship you always wanted and found that it was too much of a good thing? And what if that lover was also a demon planning on sucking out your brains after continually making you the best iced coffee you’ve ever tasted — that may have tennis root in it?

Director and writer C.J. Arellano’s short moves quickly, as if you’re being relayed relationship gossip by one of your most entertaining friends, even when things take a darker turn. James Dolbeare anchors it all with his narration and even when things seem like they could be, well, perfect at the end, we all know how most love stories turn out.

Griffin 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. You can learn more about this movie at its official page.

A young girl’s fantasy becomes the playground for a gang of women who set to create the perfect man, one limb at a time. One very, very gory limb at a time. Dystopia is a neon-hued cotton candy dreamland where body parts can be plastic, where beauty is all and where director Laura Ugolini and her co-writers Maria Galliani Dyrvik and Anja Skovly Freberg can make a camp yet solid statement on how  today’s generation views beauty.

Set in an imaginary pop-glam world of dolls, young social influencer Linnea and the four women inside her mind transform not only the bodies of others, but their own as well, pushing parts well past the typical standards of today’s beauty.

The film’s distribution site says, “Dystopia invites us to revisit, rethink figures, stereotypes and social mandates; both those that involved the same creators, who grew up in the 90s, and what the exposure, pressure and anxiety imposed by social networks implies for Gen-Z.”

It looks great. I’m not the first to mention that the subtitles need some color tweaks, but otherwise, I had fun watching this.

Dystopia 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.

A film made by Maya Kane in quarantine, this is an animated short that “sets out to put immaterial feelings into visuals” The director has stated that, “The short is meant to materialize complicated and contradictory feelings about the land we exist in and how we relate to it, and about acceptance and kindness.”

While not a length story, there’s obviously some authentic emotion behind this. I’ve watched it several times and feel a sense of strain and unease with the world, yet always come away with more hope, if that’s possible from this experience.

Driver 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. You can also watch this short on Vimeo: