Directed by Jonathan Shander, who wrote the film with Joe Wolff and produced it with Sage Bennett, Box starts Max Rubin as a doomsday prepper whose life is routine, routine, routine. Well, a strange box shows up and throws his whole life into a toe shooting off frenzy.

It isn’t about how the box got there or who sent it, but why the prepper had to even be there in the first place, as the film posits that once things were much more normal. I kind of get it through — I’m still eating all the hundreds of canned meat that I bought when the pandemic started.

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Six minutes, two characters and incredibly unsettling, Smile is a simple metaphor for depression told in an incredibly stunning way.

Anna (Konstantina Mantelos, who was in one of my favorite recent horror films, Anything for Jackson) is the only human we see in this movie — we hear Ashley Laurence (Kristy from the Hellraiser films) as the voice of her mother — and we’re with her as she struggles to smile and then deals with Moros (Tyler Williams), who in Greek mythology is the living and personification of impending doom and a demon destroys mortals fated to die.

Director and writer Joanna Tsanis has made several shorts, but this is the first of her work that I’ve seen. She also has the benefit of great cinematography by Jason Han and magical special effects makeup by Carlos Henriques.

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I live in the sticks, the literal south of Southwestern Pennsylvania and I’ve taken under five rideshares in my life. And I’m also a stocky and furrowed-brow-looking guy. But this movie made me realize the sheer terror women face getting a ride — hell, even just trying to exist — every single day.

Every driver that Charlotte “Charlie” Wilson (Mallory Rose Diekmann, who wrote the film) interacts with demands more — where do you live, what do you do, who do you date, why are you afraid — and her space remains invaded from the very opening of this short.

Director Megan Gorman does a great job of compounding that terror in every single successive scene until the worry feels oppressive. But isn’t that the point? Off Limits made me consider how women feel in the world and how lucky I am to never experience these feelings, all within the confines of a low budget short.

Well done and I am sorry.

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Look, I know that we do a streaming show every Saturday night but man, I still don’t get Twitch streamers. Maybe I grew up in the 70s when video games were new and we wanted to fight people for the chance to be up next, but I despise watching anyone else play, much less talk nonsense the entire time. But hey, media changes and grows and gets dumber, so who am I to be an elitist?

Touchmytoaster (Connor Del Rio, who co-wrote the script) is a streamer so popular that people track down his house, ask for his blood and pay him money to even watch him sleep. Somehow, he still has an interesting partner named Meghan (Allison Landi), even if she sleeps in the guest room now that those streamers watch every single snore of her man.

Can fans go too far? Trust me, as someone who has been a pro wrestler — even on the indy and Japan level — for a quarter of a decade, yes, a thousand times yes. None of them have ever come to my house and ask if they can take a dump or get a hug, however.

There’s so much cringe in this in the best way, cringe becoming part of horror, the fact that we have to leave behind our screens to actually interact with humans and then remember exactly why we hide behind screens. Yes, I’m connecting with you, but please leave me alone.

Director and co-writer Gaelan Connell has somehow made a better movie in 14 minutes than the Tubi exclusive First Person Shooter did about the same idea and they had 90 minutes. And yet both films feature a very awkward bathroom scene.

That said — this has the most frightening use of a toaster ever.

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Robyn Carmack (Robyn Carmack as Audrey DeRossett) is a non-binary vampire who is preparing for their next date, brushing their fangs and prepping themselves for not just romance, but the hunt.

They soon meet Tyler Cates (Evan Vihlen) but for most of the date, all they can think about is the time afterward, scratching and clawing and biting through Tyler’s flesh to his lifegiving blood underneath.

The problem? Tyler has the same plan. What happens when two vampires meet cute — or bloody — and have so many past romantic issues to work through? Can they at least enjoy a great meal — of sorts — together?

Directed by Tom von Dohlen and written by Brant Lewis, this has some twists you can see coming and a few you can’t. It’s certainly got some cute ideas and could lend itself to way more than just a short. With some more budget and time, I’d love to see that happen.

You can learn more about Livin After Midnight on the official Facebook page.

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Two sisters — Sam (Sophia Capasso, East Enders) and Caitlin (Annie Knox) — end up battling one another as a leech creature begins to influence and control them both from within. Is it a metaphor for how real world events cast a wedge between families or just an opportunity to have horrifying creatures and no small amount of muck, bile and whatever fluids can be spit and puked up?

I mean, in a perfect world and in a great movie — like this short — it can be both.

Director and writer Alix Austin has done just about every job you can in film — acting, directing, producing, on the crew, second unit, casting, editing, writing and more — and if this film is any indication, we’ll soon be seeing a lot more of her talented work.

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Justin Reager and Shane Spiegel have worked on a lot of kid-friendly projects like Sci-Fi Test Lab and Junk Drawer Magic. They had to have done all of that to get to this, because this feels like a very passionate short film.

It’s a really basic story — a bunch of teenagers breaks into a vacant house just to play seven minutes in heaven — but the telling and the look of every scene — particularly the sound mixing by Katie Harbin and Carli Plute — just makes this work just right.

This feels like it is inspired by Creepshow while at the same time being way better than the recent reinvention of that show. That’s high praise.

You can learn about 7 Minutes In Hell on its official Facebook page.

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This movie has three minutes to win you over and it uses every single second. It’s filled with distorted voices asking for help burying their wives, late night phone calls, neon goop and a dark mood that begs for more than just a few moments.

Directed by Jeffrey Owens and Dillon Vaughn, with Owens also writing and directing, as well as appearing in the film, this has tight execution and a close that makes you want to find the next part.

Tell me there will be a next part!

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This is a well-shot film, directed and written by Evan Enderle. It’s his first short and he’s acted in a bunch of things — a Law and Order apperance, four episodes of the show The Walker — but this proves that he definitely has an affinity for setting up tension and drama.

He also takes two of the biggest no no’s — don’t put kids or animals in your movies — and says screw it and makes something really great. It has a young girl staying overnight at a rural daycare and coming up against something horrifying. It also really demands to be expanded to a full movie, because there’s so much more here to explore.

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Dan (Dan O’Brien) gets arrested for being drunk in the streets and that means community service wherever he can get it, the easier the better. His lawyer (Ken Forman) tells him to try and find something where he can just get someone to sign that he was there and to get on with his life.

That job ends up being delivering spaghetti. So much spaghetti. Spaghetti hasn’t had a horror role like this since The Lost Boys. “You’re eating maggots. How do they taste?” Oh Michael…

Anyways, Grayson Tyler Johnson has directed and written a strange little morality tale here, particularly when Shecky (Angelo Muto) closes the door telling Dan that he’s her favorite for now. Maybe drink at home from now on, huh?

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