Category Archives: Short Films

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: SHORTS BLAST #5 // WAKE UP & BLAST!

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An insane and eclectic collection of animation, comedy, music, and whatever else to wake your ass up.

Pile – Born at Night (2025): Directed and written by Joshua Echavarria, this is a video for the song by the Boston band Pile. Stereobar describes their music as a “philosophical exploration of existential nihilism, wrestling with the idea that perhaps there is no ultimate enlightenment or end to human suffering.” This black and white video matches the song so well — nearly a mix of light and dark, softness and noise. I’d never heard this before and came away really liking it.

Froggy Style (2025): This was directed and written by Jonathan Riles and is basically non-stop animation and images of frogs, well, having sex. The frogs are also gay. Such is life. If you’re upset about the frogs being gay, you’re probably Alex Jones.

Purple Patrol (2025): In Jessica Q. Moore’s film, “a vigilante trio summons an otherworldly being to help protect the queer community.” Pinkle (Oliver Herfact), Winkle (Charlie Wo), Dot (Dick (Richard)) and The Dyke (Sapphrodite) are ready to keep people safe from the straights. Great music, great message, and it looks really good along the way.

The Litterbug (2025): Park Ranger Charlie (Lillian Alexander) and her recruit, Casey (Lillian Alexander), track down a serial litterer known as “The Litterbug” (Travers Britt), who turns out to be not a man, but something else. Something horrifying. If anything, this has made me not want to throw any trash out the window of my car ever again. 

Christ Dance (2025): Directed by and starring Taylor Nice, this takes the music of Life Appreciation Renewal and creates a black and white canvas for this noise and sound. I’m sure that someone, somewhere, will be offended.

The Fly Squatter (2025): This movie by Vincent Vinãs claims that the original soundtrack was deleted during the 1980s Sergio Mendes disco craze. Through a mix of low-budget filming, costumes, dubbed dialogue and use of stock footage, this tells the story of a war between humans and flies, a battle that I feel like I’ve been in forever.

Burned Cans for Aluminum Children (2025): “The distant sound of church bells signals the beginning of an apocalypse.” With that description, I’m excited for Robert Kleinschmidt’s film. Good news. If you like to see cute claymational characters blow up real good and suffer in many other ways, this is for you.

Pizza Time Pizza (2024): This movie by Nicholas Thurkettle has pizza that comes to you based on your thoughts and what you want. They know your name. They know what they must know to fulfill their purpose. I was wondering why destiny and quantum theory were coming in with pizza — “the truth can be unsettling, but pizza brings comfort” — but then again, I realize that when I’m high, I want pizza. Actually, I’m not high now, and I still want pizza. This movie gets it; in a world of infinite diversity and complexity, pizza is perfect. I loved this. So much. Seriously, what an ideal short.

The Time Capsule (2025): Four childhood friends reunite to dig up a time capsule after 30 years… and encounter some unexpected visitors. Made by Michael Charron, this made me consider what I would have put in a time capsule in 1995. I would not have placed a Wendy’s Value Meal into it, hoping that it would last that long, but I have seen that fast food hamburgers do take forever to go away. I just had a Double Baconator the other night, and it may be inside me forever, if this movie has given me any insight. Well done.

Tortured Artist (2025): “An aspiring artist struggles with negative self-talk and unfair comparisons with his peers. Can his only fan save him from himself? It’s Art Attack gone very wrong in this crude comedy short.” Hey kids — would you like to see a clown shit all over a canvas for two minutes? Good news! You got it! Sometimes, art can be painful, and this shows us that. It has some great animation, and wow, the sound effects!

VHX (2024): Directed and written by Scott Ampleford and Alisa Stern, this film features a collection of VHS tapes gathering dust on a shelf, wondering why some are picked over others, only for one of them to come back as a zombie. This made me miss the times when all I had were tapes with handwritten labels, bootlegs of movies that were nowhere near 4K, fuzzy blasts of weirdness, mix tapes, utter strangeness that could fall apart at any moment because VHS was so fragile. I loved this!

Alpaca (2024): Filmmaker Sylvia Caminer has taught me that there’s a whole social media just for alpacas. Additionally, you should not feed them chocolate, as it will cause them harm and potentially lead to your own demise. Who knew that I could be terrified now of alpacas? Thanks, Syvia, and your co-writer, Matthew Wilkins! I really loved Fernando Martinez in this, who gets to say things like “Tap in, alpaca fam!” Just a hilarious — if frightening, I mean, there’s an alpaca down the street from me and now I’m eyeing him — movie. 

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: SHORTS BLAST #4 / BINGE & CRINGE: RETURN OF THE FRIDAY NIGHT FREAK SHOW

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There are no trigger warnings and there are no safe spaces within this collection of WTF shorts.

Sugar Tits (2025): Director Heath Benfield has created something, well, crazy. A teeth-obsessed killer kidnaps a new victim to complete his deranged masterpiece, Sugar Tits, a doll with real human parts and teeth. This movie has seen some reviewers calling out unpleasant, but it’s a slasher movie, you know? So if it’s beyond over the top, who cares? This feels like it could be a whole film packed with this level of insanity.

Wanker (2025): Directed and written by Lorenzo Mazza, this is the story of a boy who just wants to sit in his bedroom and well, jerk off. But soon, he must leave all that behind and make his way into the outside world. I don’t want to say I get it, but you guys know me. I get it. We all have to wash our hands and get out there into a very scary place sometime. 

Take It to the Grave (2024): Director and writer Jamal Hodge, holy shit! This was incredible. I honestly don’t want to spoil much of it, but the story of how a couple met, hooked up and fell in love is quite different from the way that Carmello (Jahlil T Hall) and Dawn (Adwoa Duncan Williams) remember. He’s confessing to Father Clemens (Tony D. Head). She’s telling her friends (Anna Mayo and Brenda Raquel) the big news. Somewhere, there’s true love. I had so much fun with this and was so stunned with each twist and turn in it. It has to be a trust story, right? 

GENREBLAST FILM FEST: SHORTS BLAST #3 // THE KOLESNIK METHOD

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This series of shorts is curated by acclaimed author and filmmaker Samantha Kolesnik, featuring LGBTQ+ and documentary genre shorts.

The Shaver Mystery (2024): This is an examination of the strangest and most controversial episode of sci-fi history: The allegedly “true stories” of writer Richard Shaver’s encounters with evil underground aliens; stories that are collectively known as “The Shaver Mystery.”

Richard Shaver first encountered Lemuria when the tools at a factory where he worked allowed him to hear other people’s thoughts, as well as torture sessions going on beneath the Earth. He quit his job and became homeless for some time, but on the other hand, he may have also had paranoid schizophrenia, and this was all the result of electroshock treatments.

Shaver disappeared for some time, then began writing to the pulp magazine Amazing Stories, claiming to have discovered an ancient language he called Mantong. Editor Ray Palmer (the namesake of DC Comics’ Silver Age version of The Atom) thought that Shaver was onto something.

Shaver then wrote “A Warning to Future Man,” in which he discussed cities within the Earth, populated by the benevolent Teros and the malevolent Deros. Palmer rewrote Shaver’s allegedly accurate account and created the fictional story “I Remember Lemuria!” which appeared in the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories. That issue instantly sold out, and then something peculiar happened: thousands of letters began appearing saying that they’d had the same experiences as Shaver.

The Shaver Mystery also boasts Fred Crisman amongst its believers. The real-life inspiration for TV’s The Invaders, Crisman is a conspiracy nexus: he was supposedly one of the three hoboes in Dallas during Kennedy’s assassination, one of the first people in the U.S. to report a UFO and he battled the Demos in a cave during World War 2.

Amazing Stories‘ readership either loved or hated the Shaver stories. According to Wikipedia, “Palmer would later claim the magazine was pressured by sinister outside forces to make the change: science fiction fans would credit their boycott and letter-writing campaigns for the change. The magazine’s owners said later that the Shaver Mystery had simply run its course and sales were decreasing.” One of the most prominent critics of the Shaver stories was a young Harlan Ellison!

That didn’t end the Shaver stories. Palmer credits these tales with the public fascination with UFOs. John Keel’s 1983 Fortean Times piece “The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers” claims that “a considerable number of people — millions — were exposed to the flying saucer concept before the national news media were even aware of it. Anyone who glanced at the magazines on a newsstand and caught a glimpse of the saucer-emblazoned Amazing Stories cover had the image implanted in his subconscious.” Indeed, Palmer was quick to defend the Shaver stories and claim that “flying saucers” were their validation.

Directed by Dean Bertram, this interviews Joshua Cutchin, Maxim W. Furek, Nathan Paul Issac, Gabriel McKee, Bryan Shickley, Tim R. Swartz and Steve Ward, as well as showing interview footage from Richard S. Shaver and Ray Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories that published all of the Shaver stories. This is an early look at the entire movie, The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers, and I’m excited to see it. You can learn more at the official Facebook page.

Fisitor (2024): Directed and written by Llyr Titus, this is about Ioan, who is stalked by grief for his husband and a nightmarish creature from Welsh folklore, trying to survive Christmas Eve. Made entirely in the Welsh dialect, this is a folk horror that is — here’s that word again — completely of the Welsh tradition. It’s also gorgeous, a black-and-white, stark film that keeps you watching in terror.

Shadow Dancer (2025): A proof-of-concept film by Nikki Groton, an underestimated tap choreographer (Kelsey Susino), battles against surreal and violent hallucinations while trying to come back to her life before she loses the most significant opportunity of her career. Obviously, the nightmares that she sees coming to life — and hears, the sound design in this is fantastic — she isn’t just battling the supernatural. She’s fighting a sexist world that she’s trying to break through. I’m eager to see how this develops into a full-length movie. You can watch it here.

It Burns (2024): Directed by Kate Maveau, this is a short suicide prevention film about a woman dealing with her grief and trauma after her partner’s suicide. I loved the touch of this being dedicated to those who have lost the fight. This brings you into the story straightforwardly and directly, trying to fill in the emotions within something that we all face, as the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) claims that over 49,000 people died by suicide in the U.S. in 2023, which is a death every 11 minutes. Can one life matter? I think that it can.

Drainomania (2025): Directed by Christopher Greenslate, this finds Katie (Sally Maersk) at a crossroads she never realized with her girlfriend L (Gabrielle Maiden). She’s been asked to do something simple: clean the bathroom. Instead, she’s spiraled into a dream sequence that could trap her and destroy their love story. I think this movie is a good reminder to anyone in any type of relationship to respect your partner and always volunteer to clean the bathroom. Maybe it helps that I was once a janitor, because I don’t mind getting things nice and clean. Handsies and kneesies is the only way to clean.

Bath Bomb (2025): Directed by Colin G. Cooper, this starts with Dr. Jordan preparing a bath for his lover, Grant. Grant’s been cheating on the doctor and thinks he doesn’t know. Oh, he knows. This is totally a Giallo, and cinematographer Jeremy Benning gets the most out of the short running time and pushes the colors, the action and the dread with each moment. I learned that you can’t talk your way out of things when you’re naked, in the tub, and a sizzling bath bomb is about to be dropped on you (amongst other things). Totally amazing and one of the highlights of GenreBlast!

The Night Kills Lovers (2025): Jonathan Brito puts together a quick and fun slasher here, as The Caretaker (Daniel-Paul Sampson) introduces the story of lovers the injured — and sick — Wesley (Adam Wesley) and Francis (Matt Gallagher), who is taking care of him but also driving him crazy by putting on a mask and refusing to listen to him explain how dangerous the city is. Even worse, Francis left the door to their apartment open all day, which already had Wesley freaked out. Things aren’t going to get any better! This was a ton of fun!

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: SHORTS BLAST #2 // RETURN OF THE SCI-FANTASTIC

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The best sci-fi and fantasy shorts GenreBlast has to offer.

The Man That I Wave At (2025): Directed and written by Bob Hylan, this hit on something that I think about all the time. Sam Pamphilon keeps wondering why a neighbor, Marek Larwood, waves at him. They don’t know one another. How has he become so familiar with him? Why does that waving guy in front of the store, those air blowing things, stay at his post all day? Why are people trying to drive him insane? How can we know anyone outside of ourselves, except on a superficial level, and even then, we only know them based on the outward perception and our own unconscious bias? Maybe I’m thinking too much…but this was a great short with a perfect punchline at the end.

Supercritical (2025): The place? A post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout shelter. The issue? A young scientist (Misha Brooks) bothers the team leader (Amanda Bruton) with a series of progressively inane HR requests, including how many days off he gets at the end of the world. Directed and written by John Osment, this does a perfect job of showing off the inanity of the workforce, what it’s like to be an older leader and how the world doesn’t end when they tell us that it’s all over. The struggle of your job will remain.

Song Is a Spell (2023): Director and writer Cameron Kit is “a feminist sci-fi filmmaker and video artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She has directed over 30 films. Cameron is the host of the podcast and radio program They Came From Outer Space, a sci-fi movie review show airing on WRIR 97.3 since December 2018. She is the founder and CEO of YOYOS, a documentary storytelling company focused on future tech like AI, nanotech and Urban Air Mobility.” In this short, an all-girl band, Caliban, accidentally unleashes a spell during band practice when Ana brings her spell book to practice and uses it for lyrics. This almost causes Flow and Rosemary, her bandmates, to split the band. Can they solve problems and actually improve at playing? I had a lot of fun with this one, as it really gets across the yearning of being in a band.

The Weatherman Who Knew Too Much (2025): Directed and written by Kaylin Allshouse, this has washed-up weatherman Barry (Beau Roberts) finding out how to predict the weather from a fortune teller named Great (Catherine Collier). All he really wants is Anglie (Angela Katherine), the bartender whom he sees every night, but as he becomes famous, he must decide what is most important to him. I really could see this as a full-length film and enjoyed this one quite a lot.

Connection (2025): In this short by Tom White, Agent Carsons (Joshua T. Shipman) is tasked with interrogating an extraterrestrial (Trip Rumble), but learns that he himself is the experiment, as the sessions begin to cause visions of his ex-wife (Maggie Gough) and leave a voice inside his head. I really liked the unexpected nature of this — it seems as if you’re being set up in one way and White takes you down a completely different path. Definitely a head-scratcher in all the best of ways.

Deb & Joan (2025): Isaac Rathbone directs and writes this short, in which a scientist (Leah Nicole Raymond) is surprised that a robot (Gabby Sherba) has developed not just a sense of humor, but feelings for her. The lead scientist, Dr. Roman (John Austin Wiggins), demands that she see the astronaut robot as just that, a machine, before a four-year mission to Ceres, a moon of Jupiter. Rathbone said, “Our team is developing a retro-future aesthetic for this project. No ray guns, beehive hairdos or mylar jumpsuits. Instead, audiences will see the future from a perspective of the past. The world and technology of Deb & Joan will have a feeling of continuing evolution as opposed to being polished and sleek.” This film lives up to its promise and succeeds despite its short running time and small budget.

Astrovan (2025): Matt Heder directed and wrote (with Bryson Kearl and Will Hunter Thomasan) this film, one of my favorite shorts that I’ve seen at GenreBlast, in which Max (Andrew Lindh) and his pet pig Cliff want to watch a Trailblazers game, which causes them to get the help of Roger (Steve Agee) and then…aliens.  Van life, cooking recipes, promises to fathers, conspiracy theories…this is like my YouTube Watch Later but all in one well-made short. I loved this and want more of these characters and this story.

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Ripe and Marriaginalia (2025

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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.

 

Screenshot

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.

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: SHORTS BLAST #1 // FOUNDERS FEAST

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A selection of darkly humorous genre shorts that match Chad & Nate’s sensibilities perfectly.

In Old Ranchos (2025): Directed by Matthew Lucas, who co-wrote the story with Patrick Flynn, this is the story of an old west lawman (Krymis J. Fernando) on the run who meets a seductive siren (Natalia Berger) who offers him a chance to fix his past. This is absolutely gorgeous, and that short description will not prepare you for the film you’ll watch, one that combines what feels like the Italian West with horror, multiple realities, and a shocking ending that, although you’ll see coming, is the perfect payoff. Wow — one of the best shorts I’ve seen in some time.

 

Olga’s Eyes (2023): Olga (Viviane de Muynck) is a vampire who loves music but is trying to settle into her old age, and with that comes a dislike of killing. Her daughter, Simone, thinks that she can still help people, so she places her in an old folks’ home where she can assist those close to death in crossing over to the other side. Directed and written by Sarah Carlot Jaberthis, this film, shot in black and white and nearly silent save for its soundtrack, offers a loving look at the vampire genre while illustrating that age catches up with all of us, even those who claim they will remain young forever.

Baby Blues — Going Dark (2025): James P. Gleason directs and writes this short, in which Barney (Tyler Poelle) needs a tooth out and turns to a substitute dentist, Dr. Carroway (Shanti Lowry) and her assistant Penny (Aliya Victoriya). Having a tooth pulled is bad enough, but what happens when the power goes out? How about no anesthesia? Maybe going to the dentist isn’t a big deal for those who have experienced BDSM, but there’s no pain like tooth pain. Those shots in the gumline hurt now, and I haven’t been to the dentist in months. This short may frighten you more than any other horror film this year, depending on how you feel about your molars.

Boiling Point (2025): Doug is having the worst day of his life. Guy Time is on their way to a boy band competition. A car crash brings them together, and nothing will be the same again. Directed and written by Nathan Declan Gallagher, this film boasts incredible character work, as nearly everyone in it has a fully formed personality, and the production seems way more informed and intelligently written than many full-length films. This was quite the start to my movie fest watching at GenreBlast!

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2025: The Metal Band’s Guide to the Black Hole (2025)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!

During a fiery highlight performance by the metal band Iron Puppy, the lead vocalist and bassist Jeong-cheol’s long hair caught fire. How does a metal band continue with a short-haired singer? The fans have left, no one cares, so metal god  O.G. Osborune (Xavier Liaudet) guides the band to a black hole and reveals a divine mission: to find hair from a virgin ghost and perform with it, therefore returning to all that is metal fame.

Directed and written by JEON Ah-hyun, this South Korean short combines loud music, video games, Japanese pop culture and so much more into quite the stew. It also made me very protective of my hair and thankful that it has stayed with me for so many decades.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Even More Dangerous Visions

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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.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Bride of WTF

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WTF got married and here are more shorts.

Beef Creek (2024): Occultist Mr. Petrulo runs a New York-style deli in middle of nowhere Wyoming with Horace, Sandra, Lily and Ralphie. That’s the quick description, and as I always write, hijinks ensue. In this pilot, Ralphie falls into a pocket dimension inside the deli’s dumpster and is seduced by a trash-dwelling succubus — “horny dumpster” — who lures in “white male saviors” to steal their souls. Horace has a past with this demon, one that almost ruined his relationship, but sometimes being a hero means getting hit in the penis. I absolutely loved every minute of this — it feels like a great Adult Swim show and has fully realized characters that I want to know more about. When do we get more?

Endzgiving (2025): Directed by Tina Carbone, who co-wrote the script with Patrick T. Dorsey, this is the tale of friends getting together after the end of the world. Will even brought a pie, but forgot to tell everyone that he was bitten by a zombie on the way over. He has around six minutes before he becomes one himself, but he’d like to spend one more meal with his best buddies and get some quiet before he wants to eat them. This is a cute idea, has a great cast and is well-made. It flies by and remains entertaining throughout!

A Divine Comedy: What the Hell (2025): When even Dante’s classic Hell is falling to pieces, what are we to do? Well, if you’re a harpy named Charlotte, you leave this plane behind and try to get to Earth. But there’s still the matter of her stalker ex Asterion, who keeps bothering her and wants to know what she did with the egg they made together. I loved this — it has the animation style of a Fleischer Studios cartoon at times and has some wonderful music. A joyous effort and what a wonderful lead!

Randy as Himself (2025): A Hollywood production crew comes to West Texas to recreate the murder of a local woman. Using locals to reenact the crime means that old emotions are brought back. Directed and written by Margaret Miller, this proves that even during a blood-soaked reenactment, you can find true love. This film has such a unique look and while its fully contained, it would really make a great full-length that could go deeper into how the media reports on small towns, reducing their trauma into content that plays all night on Pluto channels.

A Forest (2024): The second Isabel Nola movie I watched at CFF — I Dreamt of Being an Actress is the other — this is about a couple taking part in the hunt for a cryptid. There’s also an alien baby, documentary-style footage to introduce it and great sound design throughout. Nola did so much of the work on this and from everything I’ve seen at CFF, I’m going to have to start hunting down more of her work.

Beast of the Northwoods (2025): In a rural northern community, a monster — well, a beast — born of radioactive fallout has developed a taste for human flesh. After the discovery of multiple victims, Sheriff Bob Jenson calls in young game warden Joe Miller to help identify — and stop — the creature responsible. With the help of local guide Elaine Skogland — Ms. Elaine Skogland — they go into the woods, ready to stop the monster. Directed by Harrison Reeder and written by Laura Berg, this gets the look and feel of 1950s science fiction right. And yes — that’s Mystery Science Theater‘s Trace Beaulieu, who was Dr. Clayton Forrester and Crow T. Robot.

Empty Jars (2024): After the last two shorts I watched, this brought back the love I have for film. Director Guillermo Ribbeck Sepúlveda has crafted a fantasy world where a woman (Ana Burgos) deals with the loud guests at her hostel by freeing a ghost from a jar, a spirit that, well, fills her with something else, giving her an experience that she hopes to replicate again and again. Yet, as this movie shares with us, the dead are even less trustworthy than the living. What a gorgeous looking and feeling short. I can’t wait to see what else Sepúlveda can do!

Pumpkin Guts (2024): Directed and written by Bryan M. Ferguson, this leans in hard to the John Carpenter influence in looks, feel, story and music. There’s a Pumpkin Pitcher who destroys your pumpkin and then curses your life. This has such a strong feel to it, as it even has the giant phone that yes, I can assure younger readers that we really had and used at one point in the past. Plus, this has more than just pumpkin guts, it has some real ones, too. I guess there’s a Haddonfield, even in England.

Krakens Maw (2024): A stubborn young metal musician named Taylor (Rose McAvoy) has been struggling to meet her mentor, Theodore McKinnis (Andrew Carl), a man who recorded what she believes to be the heaviest album ever. After trying as hard as she can to get through to him, he agrees to let her be part of his next project. It’s not what she thought, though. He’s found Atlantis and is ready to battle Nazis and Satanist ninjas to get there. Is she ready to board his ship, the Black Mary, or does she just want to be a metal star? Is rock and roll dead? This was great — what a speech about the adventure to Atlantis!

Manny Wolfe (2024): Directed by Trevor Neuhoff, who wrote it with Sean Kennedy Moore, this movie hits on so many things that I love. Manny Wolfe is trying to get into Hollywood, but as a werewolf, he’s already typecast. He wants more and yet even the biggest projects just have him howling at the moon, something that real werewolves refuse to do. I want this to be a full movie so badly; I love the idea that Manny wants to be in a regular movie and for no one to wonder why a lycanthrope randomly shows up. This may have been one of my favorite films of CFF.

The Confection (2025):Two friends — Lisa (Simone Norman) and Chuck (Alex Ptak) — are just goofing off when a freak accident kills him. Lisa is unable to process what has just happened, but maybe his ghost can help. I love the tagline for this: “What if your friend died in the stupidest way possible?” Director and writer Christopher Jason Bell has put together one strange story here. After all, how many people die by radio waves that send them crashing face-first into a cake? Also: This has some incredible camera work near the end as the woods around the house seemingly are alive and start to envelope Lisa in a Bava-lit nightmare.

The Key Club (2024): Val seems to be hitting it off with Chad on their first date. You may find him cringe, but that’s the whole point. She gets him back home — Fireball roofie — and that’s when the dating torture begins. Directed by Lee Boxleitner and Sam Boxleitner and written by Lee Boxleitner and star Vanessa Branda, this is one of the first movies where I’ve seen a drill torturing someone be followed up with a tampon.

The Vanity (2025): “In the near future, a young couple makes their living as influencers for a new social media platform: THE VANITY.” That’s all there is to do once AI takes your job, I guess. Trust me, I worry enough about this, as I write hundreds of words every day for a dwindling audience of people who no longer care about words. Directed by Megan Rosati and written by Evan Watkins, this has its leads being forced to choose between creating content or one another. How many streams a day can these guys do in a day, anyway?

You Wake to Find Yourself Alone in the Woods (2024): Directed and written by Brad McHargue, this has a hiker lost in the woods with only an omniscient narrator for company. Oh yes — there’s also a slasher villain. You know how they love those woods. There are also bears and mountain lions and moose. Just a moose. “Are they dangerous?” asks the man. “Maybe,” responds the voice. Also: If I had a voice narrating at me while I tried to pee, I’d pee my pants. Also also: The bad guy has a mask that looks a lot like Kane. What a fun concept and film! I loved it!

Sick Day (2024): A burnt out assistant has the perfect plan to get sent home for being sick. Then, a swarm of locusts invades Los Angeles. Directed and written by Hughes Ransom, this doesn’t just look good. It sounds amazing with a really strong soundtrack. The budget for this had to be crazy as it looks like a big budget movie. Also: Billy Jr. is the kind of boss I’ve worked for in marketing for years and man, this was triggering. But that’s OK! This was fun!

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.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Salutes Your Shorts Again

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DiMore shorts? Yes!

Bloody Marian (2025): A bartender with a bit of an attitude faces a significant challenge when a customer arrives whose taste for drink can’t be stopped. Directed and written by Sommar Ashleigh Boulware, this film has a great visual look, reminiscent of Sin City, and a fun premise.

Dead Pet Shark (2025): Directed and written by Misha Gankin, this was inspired by a real-life incident. The filmmaker said, “When I was a child, I found a dead reef shark. I took it home and played with it until my mother made me throw it back into the sea. It wasn’t a particularly profound day then, but 15 years later, I’ve found the story to be a prime source of inspiration for this short film. I made this comedy to highlight the power of curiosity, the price of wisdom, and our responsibility to care for the planet.” In the film version, young Arthur finds the shark and keeps trying to bring it back to life, even feeding it on the blood of his bully friend. We all learn about the environment in different ways.

Deadly Duels XII (2025): Directed by Justine Bead and written by Nick Grant, this is all about a super religious kid — what we used to call Jesus Crispy in my hometown — who starts to think that his sister is possessed and goes to extreme lengths to save her. Between video games, heavy metal and corpse paint, this kid thinks that Satan is honest and in his living room. I loved this and feel like I lived it, because back in 1989, I was investigated by my high school under the suspicion that I worshipped the devil because I wore lots of black shirts and went out with someone who wore goth makeup. Such is life.

Don’t Screw This Up (2025): In this short film directed by Nathan Evans, a student screenwriter struggles to finish her script as her peers wait to actually complete the movie. As someone who is continually writing for other creatives, I felt the worry and nerves in this.

Elegancia (2025): A misguided filmmaker is transported into a dark fairytale world of her own creation, a place where the dance never stops. Directed and written by Maria Shevtsova, this is a fully formed vision that could totally be a full-length film all on its own. It looks gorgeous while also being frightening at times; how many of us who watch movies all day also wish that we could lose ourselves in our fantasy worlds? I loved this, even though the majority of my dancing consists of interpretive routines to the theme songs of true crime shows that my wife watches.

Rouge (2025): Directed by Nicholas Jackson, this short is an “absurdist comedy taking place on May 4, 1937, in Paris, France, when Detective Jean Martin is called to a local apartment building to investigate the murder of painter, Arthur Dubois.” It has such a unique look and feel, really setting itself on its own as a film that’s ideally suited for a short instead of being a truncated full-length or a test of an idea.

Something’s Wrong With Kit (2024): Directed and written by Lida Everhart, this is all about a newly turned teenage vampire and the issues that she has to deal with, from keeping her vampirism a secret from her only friend, Maria, to dealing with her horrible mother. Even having the power to rise from the dead to feed on others means that you’re still going to have to deal with your family.

Strings (2025): “Sally joins a dream summer trip to Sicily with her childhood bestie Poppy, hoping to reconnect before they start university. Confronted with Poppy’s volatile new friend Alex, Sally is strangely drawn to the traditional puppets decorating their villa, and the strings that bind the two friends threaten to rip them apart.” Directed by Ava Pearson, Eleanor Smith and Nina Zandvliet, this feels like “What if Stuart Gordon made a message movie about bullying” and I mean that with all the magic that question should make you imagine. Also: If you go to a villa and it’s filled with dolls, find another villa.

Two Breaths (2024): Directed and written by Kateryna Kurganska, this takes place in the not-too-distant future. A small-scale nuclear weapon has ruined an island paradise, sending everyone away but young Ava and her grandfather, who believes that he can save their dying home. He can’t and passes away himself, leaving Ava stranded with only a stuffed manta ray named Mr. Fish. Luckily, she also meets Two Breaths, a real manta ray who keeps her alive and helps her to finally leave this all behind. Several of the CFF films focused on the destruction of our ecosystem this year, a concern I’ve had for some time. Luckily, there is some hope.

The Pledge (2024): Charles and Sam are lifelong friends on their last day of pledgeship to a fraternity. Charles is worried, but Sam tells him that as long as they’re together, everything will be OK. I wish that were true, but when the frat brothers dose them with LSD, Charles goes out of control as he struggles to be alone and just get through this bad trip. Directed by Jackson Stofka, who co-wrote the script with Trenton Hancock, this film features murder by keg and an atmosphere that makes me realize I’m glad art school didn’t have fraternities. I want to see a full-length version of this!

Terroir (2025): A young wine critic (Madison Hu) returns to a French vineyard one year after giving it a bad review. There, she and her friends become the target of a masked maniac. Is he trying to get back at her for that review? Directed and written by Casey Rogerson, I’ve been waiting for a murder movie set in a winery ever since the opening of Heart Eyes. Well made!

The Humming Grows (2024): Directed and written by Aughbar, this short finds MMA fighter Jodie (Jewelianna Ramos-Ortiz) breaking into her sister’s home to save her family. Why is her niece all chained up? Why is there a bloody family photo? What will she have to do to save everyone? Ramos-Ortiz is a capable actress and stunt performer, with this short serving as an excellent showcase for her to demonstrate her dramatic and athletic abilities. While a student film, this looks significantly better than you might expect.

The Things We Keep (2025): Directed by Joanna Fernandez, this finds its main character, Kate, forced into a caretaker position for her estranged mother. As she comes home to clean the hoarded house where her mother has lived alone for years — and where Kate has avoided — she learns that within these walls, the horror of her mother’s sickness remains. This movie made me think deeply about the ways that my wife has changed since the death of my father and how there are parts of my old family home that I haven’t visited in some time.

Tin Soldiers (2025): What is normal? That’s what this movie asks as a young man named Caius is put on prescription drugs that will influence the rest of his life. Directed and written by Aris Federman, this film about ADHD prompts you to consider other lives and the struggles people face.

to write the ending (2025): Directed and written by Shaler Keenum, this is the story of Soren, a street poet (Ali Alsaleh), who uses a magical typewriter to find true love with Cassiopeia, the girl of his dreams (Leigha Sinnott). I really liked how this takes the male ideal of romance and confronts it with the truth, that no woman wants the rest of the world to stop. Guys get too literal. The love language we learn from movies can sometimes lead us to become stalkers or incels. Luckily, it seems she may be able to help Soren work it all out.

What’s Left (2025): This is a short set in a future Tennessee where the consequences of global warming have drastically altered the world, as the ocean moves inland. Society collapses, as does the United States, as people struggle to get together. Directed and written by Ryan Gentle and Austin Quarles, this is science fiction for a very limited time; the coming soon on the poster is ominous because this is the place where we’ll all be living sooner than we’d like to believe.

Did My Heart Love Till Now (2025): Love potions never work, you know? I’m not sure, as I’ve never used one myself. But in this, a witch is so desperate for a lover that she drives the man of her dreams to mania. This didn’t go as planned. Directed by Veronica Tullo, this film boasts a gorgeous look and tells a compelling story. I wonder if the lead actress was cast because she bears a vague resemblance to Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic.

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, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.