The Green Inferno (2015)

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Justine joins Alejandro’s social activists group after seeing that they had real results at her university getting janitors health coverage. Soon she finds herself going to the Amazon forest in Peru to save a small village from being destroyed by a company wanting the natural gas found under the area they occupy. The group goes to Peru, does their thing, and then heads back home. However, they do not make it home as their plane crashes in the Amazon. A part of the group dies in the crash in various horrible ways. As the survivors escape the wreckage, the villagers they came to save attack them killing a few more and taking the six last survivors with them. It quickly becomes clear that the captives are meant to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner as the first member is dispatched gruesomely and cooked.

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The Shorts of Horrible Imaginings 2015

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[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Every year, Horrible Imaginings Film Festival in San Diego offers a carefully selected collection of genre short films. At this festival, the shorts are organized by blocks instead of being each paired with a feature length film each. The blocks at this year’s festival were “Child’s Nightmares”, “Horror-Comedy”, “Creature Features”, “Youth and Student Showcase”, “Horror for Humanity”, “LGBT”, “Natural Born Killers”, “Supernatural”, and “Animation”. Due to prior engagements and obligations, it was not possible to see all of them. Missed were the “Child’s Nightmares”, “LGBT”, “Natural Born Killers”, “Animation” blocks and most of the “Supernatural” one. 30 shorts were viewed and enjoyed and 33 were missed. Here are the best ones, the ones you should track down from the ones viewed (in no specific order):

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The Shelter (2015)

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A homeless man who used to have everything and lost it all wanders until he finds an unlocked house which beckons to him. This house is perfect, food and booze waiting for him in the fridge, a warm place to stay, a nice bath … However, soon he realizes that the house will not let him leave. As he explored the house and spends some time thinking, he starts to question why he is there, what brought him to this point in his life, what he could have done differently? To give away more would be to do the film and the viewers a disservice.

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Caedes: Forestglade of Death (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

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Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015

Forest, zombies, Germany, sounds like a match made in horror-comedy heaven. Caedes: Forestglade of Death, or Caedes – Die Lichtung des Todes, follows a group of friends as they go to Happy Camping for a weekend of relaxation and beer, lots of beer. Quickly a leader is established in Dan who approaches a blond babe named Leen only to be shot down. Everyone settles in, meets their camping neighbors, and parties all night. When morning comes, some awake with one hell of as hang over while others wake up as zombies, something clearly having happened overnight. Zombies go looking for food where they can, attacking the remaining campers who defend themselves as best they can. San and his friends Manesh, Jose, and Jorrun all survive along with Leen, Fritz, Tina, and a few others. This band of survivors then works together to live, finds the zombie source, and get out of there.

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Some Kind of Hate (2015) [Film4 FrightFest 2015]

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Film4 FrightFest 2015

Lincoln Taggert is a loner metal head who is regularly bullied at school. After a particularly brutal event, Lincoln loses his cool and hurts one of his tormentors badly. Following this incident, Lincoln is sent to a meditation based reform school where he encounters a new group of bullies and eventually wishes they would all be dead. This awakens the vengeful spirit of Moira who attacks his tormentors one by one as she herself being highly disturbed by past bullying she was a victim of before her death.

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Thanatos (2015) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

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[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Thanatos is partially inspired by the personification of Death in ancient Greece. Hsin-Yen LU’s student film of the same name follows a young photographer who captures an image of Death as a young woman. He becomes captivated and enamored with her, his interest becoming obsession as he stages his own death multiple times to be able to see her again and again and to photograph her each time. He desperately wants to go with her but she cannot take him as it his time has not come yet.

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Mexico Barbaro (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

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[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Mexico Barbaro is an anthology film containing 8 short films by Mexican filmmakers all based on traditions and legends. It is however more like a collection of shorts as the movies are not interwoven and there is no wrap around story. Each of the shorts here can stand on their own and the only thread connecting them is the theme. As with any anthology, some of the shorts are much stronger than the others. Here the best three are the opener Tzompantli, the second one Jaral de Berrios, and the closing short Dia de los Muertos.

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