It’s been an interesting year and we’ve manage to cover a few of the usual film festivals and found some favorites along the way. We were thankfully able to compensate for last year by really digging our heels in to the indie movies and festivals, and we’ve combed over some really talented directors, and writers.
These are five of the best short films we saw in 2023.
In 2013, pop music artist Robin Thicke released a massive hit song alongside music producer Pharrell called “Blurred Lines.” The song became almost iconic, but it also instantly became infamous. Robin Thicke was accused of stealing the tune to Marvin Gaye’s “Gotta Give it Up” by Gaye’s family estate. Despite their initial denial, Robin Thicke and Williams were taken to court and forced testify, leading to a startling musical precedent that also ruined Robin Thicke’s career momentum.
It should serve as no surprise that heavy metal and horror go hand in hand. If there’s horror there’s bound to be a heavy metal fan. If there’s heavy metal, you’re sure to come across at least a dozen hardcore horror geeks. But why do the music and the genre work so well together? Mike Schiff’s documentary “The History of Metal and Horror” is a great look at the history of the genre and the roots of heavy metal that are deeply embedded in the roots of horror. Schiff leaves no stone unturned going back to medieval times and dropping us right down in to modern times.
Oliver Harper’s origin of the iconic “Street Fighter” video game is just the right rush of nostalgia that gamers and nineties kids just might end up loving. As someone who was notoriously bad at the game but still loved it, “Here Comes a New Challenger” is a wonderful deep dive in to the making of a franchise that impacted pop culture greatly. While some may be put off at the notion of this documentary Harper spends a lot of time on exploring what inspired the initial video game, and shockingly a lot of it is derived from the movies.
Now Available at Vinegar Syndrome.
The best way to summarize “Shredder Orpheus” is if “Gleaming the Cube” and “Videodrome” had a torrid violent, sexual love affair while high on shrooms that projected new wave music videos in to their brains, all the while the pair ended their rendezvous with a round of skateboarding. Courtesy of Boom! Cult and AGFA, Robert McGinley’s VHS SOV genre film is simultaneously oddly entertaining but also incredibly mind numbing. It’s a dystopian tale that seems to be working toward some kind of coherency at times, but occasionally gives up in exchange of using the budget to showcase skateboarding. In lieu of story there are just aimless scenes of people skateboarding.
Virality seems to be the new aide to indie filmmakers these days. Especially with movie studios treating films like disposable products that they can use as a simple tax write off, many times the best way for filmmakers to get traction on their work is through viral means on the web. Among one of the more notable is J. Zachary Thurman’s short “Finley.” A horror comedy with a genuinely interesting story, “Finley” recently went viral on the likes of Youtube and apps like Tik Tok, the latter of which has inspired many horror tik tokers to post live reactions to Mr. Thurman’s short.
Genuinely funny, and downright fun, “Finley” is the tale of a haunted doll named Finley that comes to life to torment the owners of a new house. The problem is that Finley is really bad at trying to kill people, and eventually becomes an utter nuisance. Filled with great puppetry, a genuinely fun concept, and oodles of clever humor, “Finley” (now available on youtube) is a short film deserving of huge attention. J. Zachary Thurman took time out of his very busy schedule to discuss the short and his thoughts on horror comedies and filmmaking.
