Director Christian Anderson’s short horror film is a short I hope turns in to a feature film. I intend to buy it. And re-watch it. Every time I think there can’t be any new material mined from the horror hero gamut, someone always surprises me. “Hell’s Belles” is a fantastic short horror film about two ghost fighting babes named Adria and Helena.
This is a side of director Shane Ryan that I’ve never seen before. Intended to be in competition for the winning slot in the highly publicized 2013 horror film “The ABCs of Death,” Shane Ryan gives us “T for Tag.” Now known as “Tag,” Ryan’s short film is a spooky, unnerving, and gruesome bit of revenge cinema that channels the likes of Takashi Shimizu for a short that’s based heavily on violence, murders, and the ever merciless demon of guilt that plagues our young protagonist.
Director Rodrigo Blaas’s short film “Alma” presents the illusion of whimsy and magic at first sight, but deep down “Alma” is one of the spookiest short films made in years. Its entire premise seems to be a metaphor for child endangerment and how easily children could get sucked in to the darkness of the world and disappear forever. The sentient store in the story could very well double for a stranger offering a child a treat, while the young girl in the movie is the child submitting to the temptation and paying a deadly price.
With “Rain Dog,” director Jordan Wippell really refines a great style of neo-noir storytelling for his audience. He does so by providing some interesting flashbacks set to black and white shades set to the slow motion that really do help tell the story. While I’m not always a big fan of slow motion, “Rain Dog” has exception due to its neo-noir callbacks and it works wonders in producing mood and urgency.
The only problem I had with director Andy Dodd’s romantic dramedy is that it wasn’t a little longer. With another fifteen to twenty minutes added, “It’s a Love Thing” could have really become an excellent feature. But that’s a mere nitpick, because “It’s a Love Thing” could have been four hours and I’d still be complaining that it wasn’t long enough. “It’s a Love Thing” is a beautiful and engaging drama about two children in a big world that find one another in the midst of the randomness and find out that love is better than anything around them. Including Star Wars.
Whomever cast actress Nikki Estridge for the role of escort Adrianna is a genius. “On Top” is a short film that’s reliant on casting the perfect woman for the role of the insatiable and professional escort who is wholly unapologetic in what they do. Star Nikki Estridge is excellent in her performance as professional freelance escort Adrianna who strives in pleasing her clients and loves what she does.
It’s rare that fan films can present a premise for a simple concept that can be stretched in to a feature length film. It’s also rare that a fan film that can pay tribute to a beloved icon while also adding a creative twist to it that gives it a special flair that fans would love. “Pac-Man: The Movie” by James Farr changes the concept of Pac-Man while also adding a new flavor to it that works wonders. Pac-Man is, of course, the iconic video game from the eighties about a yellow disc eating pegs and avoiding various colored ghosts. What director Farr and Steelhouse Digital do is add a science fiction twist to it that’s not only incredibly entertaining but pretty damn brilliant.