Dogged (UK) (2015)
A young couple is being watched; soon the young man’s life takes a turn for the artsy weird as masked people chase him in this homage to Little Red Riding Hood. Director Richard Roundtree creates, with co-writer Christina Roundtree, a visually interesting short film that is disorienting. The story is unfortunately unclear which leads to being unsure as to the leads’ performances. The cinematography by Christopher Foulser, the editing by Foulser and Lee Wignall, and the music by James Griffiths team up to create a short that is memorable even with its story issues.
Tag Archives: Short Film
Izzy’s Terror-ific Shorts Program [Boston Terror ‘Thon 2016]
Filmmaker Izzy Lee gathered shorts films from different fellow short film makers and will be showing them to the crowd at Boston Terror’Thon 2016 this weekend. For those unable to attend, here’s a sneak peek of four of the shorts in small bit sized reviews.
Hag (2014)
“Old Hag Syndrome” is a state of paralysis where the sleeper usually awakens completely frozen, but conscious and is convinced a supernatural entity is among them and is sitting on their chest. This is where the origin of creatures like the Succubus stems from. Scott Somers is a seemingly normal man married to a beautiful wife named Marie, but every night he awakens to see his wife standing at the window and muttering to herself. Convinced she’s sleepwalking, Scott awakens yet again in the middle of the night, but this time incapable of movement.
GiverTaker (2016)
For the nineties kids that grew up with great YA horror fodder like “Goosebumps,” “Fear Street,” and “Are You Afraid of the Dark,” director Paul Gandersman and writer Peter S. Hall really seem to have done their research, building a pretty damn great short horror film around the mold of a series called “The Dead Kids Club.” I hope they can find the funding to continue producing films under this label, as I’d love to see a series of shorts or feature length films within “The Dead Kids Club” concept.
Mother’s Day (2016)
I’ll admit I wish I’d known more about filmmaker Nico Raineau sooner, as he’s managed to deliver some really interesting short films lately. “Mother’s Day” is a complete departure from the bone crunching action drama of “Brix and the Bitch” and it’s a fine drama comedy that I wanted more from. And you know you’re watching a great short film when you could have sat through two hours of the characters barely noticing the time pass. Lauren Schacher (who co-writes with Raineau) plays Mara, a young clubber who awakens in the house of the man she spent the night with one morning.
Supernatural Horrors Shorts Block Part 1 [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2016]
Mona (Kosovo) (2016)
This interpretive dance short by Lorena Sopi is a beautiful haunting piece about a dance reflecting on life and the accident that changed it. This short has fantastic, dreamy lighting and makes good use of Christmas lights and snow fall. The acting is soft and appropriate while the dancing is fascinating to watch.
Human Killers and Psychological Terrors Shorts Block Part 1 [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2016]
Dante’s Penance (Music Video) (USA) (2016)
A rap music video showing a man ready to commit murder for a beautiful woman based on the 9 circles of Hell, this video written and directed by Dante Moran who also did the cinematography, editing, casting, was a part of the effects team, etc is a visually interesting but its story feels as though it’s part of something else, something as of yet incomplete. The cast led by Thomas Gunter gives decent performances and the effects look good. It will be interesting to see how it ties into the bigger Penance project.