Director Christopher Haydon’s short film is both a compelling drama, and a rather captivating mystery. In its own way it’s a horror movie, but more a horror movie about loneliness, isolation, and repetition. The entirety of “Martha” is meant to be cryptic, as Haydon begins the film on a single scene of a woman sitting in a hall with a single red balloon.
Tag Archives: Short Film
The Bootleg Files: See Ya Later Gladiator
BOOTLEG FILES 828: “See Ya Later Gladiator” (1968 animated short with Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzalez).
LAST SEEN: On DailyMotion.com.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It seems to have fallen through the proverbial cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at the moment.
Fans of the Looney Tunes animation series will probably wince upon learning which film is in the spotlight in this column. “See Ya La Gladiator” has the sad distinction of being the last (and perhaps the least) of the theatrically produced Looney Tunes animated shorts featuring the classic-era characters – in this case, the severely mismatched pair of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.
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Kalley’s Last Review (2020)
Man, Julia Bailey Johnson’s short horror film “Kalley’s Last Review” is gruesome. I mean it’s not just gruesome, but it’s also a sharp edged commentary on influencer culture and review channels on youtube. It’s kind of like watching someone just gradually descend in to madness, and while you really want to stop them, you can only just sit and watch them slide further.
Last Call (2022)
There’s a lot of head scratching moments during director Becca Kozak’s horror comedy “Last Call,” and that’s both a good thing and a band thing. Director Kozak definitely relies on not really leaning on expectations, but that leads us down a bizarre narrative that I, frankly, wasn’t too clear on. It’s unpredictable, and weird, which is a plus. But I couldn’t quite understand to what end our villains were working toward.
The End of the Squirrel (2022)
Death is inevitable. And it’s not too often we can stare it in the eyes and welcome it with open arms. “The End of the Squirrel” is a refreshing, kind of heartbreaking take on the zombie apocalypse, where everything goes wrong and its heroes simply… accept their fates, once and for all. They’ve done everything they could do, and now it’s a matter of how they go out.
Mukbang (2022)
One of the big sensations of the youtube age are Mukbangs: where people or a person sits on in front of a camera to eat food for the audience. Sometimes they’re usually discussing an issue or completing a challenge, but most times the attraction is watching someone eating food. “Mukbang,” from ACM Official, is a great twist on this formula that takes this trend and turns it in to a bonafide tale of horror.
The Bootleg Files – Agueda Martinez: Our People, Our Country
BOOTLEG FILES 825: “Agueda Martinez: Our People, Our Country” (1977 Oscar-nominated documentary short).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
For many years, the films nominated in the Academy Award categories for short subjects were the most mysterious titles in the annual Oscar ceremonies. Between the evaporation of the theatrical shorts market in the early 1960s and the relatively recent dawning of the streaming era, these films were unknown and inaccessible to the vast majority of movie lovers.
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