Horror Short Film Festival 2021

These are a random selection of horror films I found on YouTube of varying quality. While all may not impress me, it is nice that creators have an easier outlet for their work and we as entertainment consumers have the chance to watch in these modern times.

Enjoy!

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THE SMILING MAN

• Directed by A.J. Briones
• August 2, 2018

The Smiling Man runs at about six minutes. Not much happens for the first two minutes or so other than the little girl (Abbi Chally) following a trail of balloons (think IT) and baggies. You are not even really frightened but you are curious because you know something weird is coming at the end. The payoff is the discovery of the Smiling Man (Strange Dave-performance/Richard Dorton voice) crouching behind a kitchen island who has murdered the girl’s mother (Mellisa Chally body/Mikki Foster voice).

While this does have horror elements, I am hard-pressed to call it a horror film. It is just weird. Not bad for six minutes but I had hoped for something a little more.

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The Sky

• Directed by Matt Sears
• March 27, 2020

“As the world commences its end, a young runaway must figure out if she has chosen the right person to spend her final moments with.”

The above description comes from IMDb because without that I had no idea what the story was about. What is going on here is not exactly clear.

Two women are watching the sky and it’s dark and foreboding but is there an apocalypse going on or they are just two friends hanging out or what. Telling what’s going on gets a little harder after they consume mushrooms because much of what is seen and experienced can be explained as a hallucination.

One of the women is estranged from her mother or at least the relationship is tense with every new boyfriend that she gets. Why this is an issue is a mystery. It is implied that the one friend killed the mother but once again why is not clear. Did it have something to do with whatever the events of the movie are?

The acting is good, and the cinematography is quality. This doesn’t look like it was done on the cheap. This has a very professional polish for something I just stumbled across on YouTube. But professional polish does not make up for a lack of information. You should understand the narrative without having to dig up extraneous information. This is a short film so you do not need much nor should you have much as it would crowd out whatever is the rest of the story but we get nothing here.

The Sky is not bad, but it is so much less than it could have been.

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3 AM

• October 1, 2017

Truthfully I’m not sure what is supposed to be so frightening about this. It’s weird and at times awkwardly humorous. Not funny awkward. Just awkward. It looks good but it’s really not frightening.

I would like to give a little more but this movie does not appear to be listed anywhere and what I got from the film told no real story. There are several possibilities to clarify things online but nothing that can be confirmed. It is that obscure. Again this is another short that requires extraneous info to appreciate and in this case it is lacking.

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I have come to the conclusion that filmmakers, at least those releasing on YouTube, have yet to really master short form horror stories. There is plenty of weird and interesting out there but nothing that leaves you with a scare.