ARROW FRIGHTFEST (digital): SHORT FILM SHOWCASE
fright festWith Fright Fest 2020 bringing us twenty premiering Horror shorts to sink ourselves into – some good and some not so – here are five of the best to give your full attention too. Disclaimer: These films are all pending release, but you can at least follow the creators, watch the trailers and add them to that ever growing Letterboxd watchlist.
Breakfast (2020) (Dir: Paul Beattie)
Paul Beattie’s Breakfast is a uniquely subverted perspective on a sub-genre that has already endured much exploration: The Zombie film. What makes it so unique is that all of the pre-established tropes are avoided, substituting them instead with a mysterious degenerative illness, insatiably disgusting hunger and an atmosphere so revolting that it will cause you ill to recollect it. Big credit to whomever worked on the sound design; not only has cooking eggs never seemed so disgusting, but the sweat of every scene and every molecule can be felt throughout.
If you love a film that refuses to reveal itself till the climax, then you will find a lot to love in Breakfast. You just might not fancy a full-english anytime soon.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/breakfastashortfilm/about/
The Motorist (2020) (Dir: Ciaron Lyons)
The Motorist is a surrealist dream-like horror short from Irish director Ciaron Lyons. Featuring a soundtrack with a lot of resemblance to the Micachu's Under The Skin score, The Motorist kindles that energy of the modern ‘smart’ horror. The titular Motorist is stuck inside his car in the middle of a field, seemingly he has run someone down and now an angry mob is beckoning him to leave his vehicle. When he refuses to leave, the mob bolts the Motorist inside, leading to a cult-like ritual at his expense. It is a fabulous finale following that, and one that leaves more questions than answers. Whether it is a comment on the environmental impact of gas-powered vehicles, road rage guilt or simply just a Wicker Man-inspired fable, it at the very least deserves an audience.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13008074/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2
http://forestofblack.co.uk/director/ciaran-lyons/
Death Walks on Nitrate (2020) ( Dir: Kevin Fermini)
This was something special. Director Kevin Fermini’s Death Walks on Nitrate expresses so much depth within its brief 8 minutes of runtime. Filmed on a combination of Super 8 and digital, it plays out like a pulpy psychedelic-Giallo, unleashing the inner Dario Argento amongst the carefully knitted combination of medium influencing the narrative. As Rose, our protagonist in the story, becomes more obsessed with the control she has as ‘the one with the camera’, she begins to separate herself with the reality that she is filming. This all comes to a head when Rose begins to film an old lady dying on a bench, who, as it turns out, is not quite as frail as she seemed.
Beyond Death Walks on Nitrate simply being a great time, it has a brilliant subtext to its story, using every component of its formation as a means of critique and comment. If the choice of production being a means of storytelling is something that you vibe with, then Kevin Fermini’s short is one that you should most definitely seek out.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12278296/
https://letterboxd.com/film/death-walks-on-nitrate/
Guest (2020) (Dir: Finn Callan)
In hindsight, Director Finn Callan’s introduction to this short is particularly gruelling. As he explains, Guest is the product of a recurring nightmare of his. Considering the Junji Ito-like dread drenched all over this film, it does make you worry slightly for Callan’s sanity. Guest opens upon a shot of a girl with bandages obstructing her vision, and the sound of static as we hear the muffled sounds of a woman trying to get through to her. It is then that we begin to learn how she entered this situation in the first place. A Slenderman-type figure with no eyelids. Just big, ping-pong ball eyes and a pale, hairless face. It never speaks to you. It never attacks. It simply stalks you, and stares. Finn Callan totally nails the atmosphere of a nightmare. The kind of fear that can only seem irrational, because it holds so little weight in the realm of reality.
It is always a cliché to fall back on calling something ‘Lynchian’, because so often that label is totally misused to describe anything remotely abstract. Finn Callan is someone that absolutely deserves the label; as a director with a fine tuned knowledge of the dreamscape, he is certainly one to look out for in the coming years.
https://www.finncallan.com/guest
https://www.instagram.com/guestfilm/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnu3W0EOHEQlWvY9_S-l9YA
Wash (2019) (Directed by: Kristofer Kiggs Carlsson)
Considering how Wash lacks in terms of any clarity, it totally accounts for with the atmosphere and ambiguity that spin that into its benefit. This is director Kristofer Kiggs Carlsson’s second outing as a short filmmaker, and like his previous effort Spiritus Lepus (2017), there’s a slightly bizarre fascination with rabbits. Maybe that should be obvious given his production company ‘Atomic Rabbit Productions’ – perhaps suggesting some kind of Atomic Rabbit shared Universe – it is, however, not to be rendered as ‘silly’. Wash channels the ‘not so imaginary’ best friend dynamic with great subtlety and finesse. Nothing is explicitly explained, we are instead guided into the world of Wash. In many ways, it feels like the beginning of a terrifying third act.
Wash is a skin-crawling short that will leave you wanting to watch the rest of the film it feels a part of. Keep an eye out.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10941130/
https://letterboxd.com/film/wash/