{"id":41413,"date":"2023-10-19T01:08:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T05:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41413"},"modified":"2023-10-19T22:12:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T02:12:51","slug":"home-invasion-1-shorts-block-brooklyn-horror-film-festival-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/19\/home-invasion-1-shorts-block-brooklyn-horror-film-festival-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Invasion 1 Shorts Block [Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2023]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Home Invasion Shorts block for the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is a mixed bag this year with some gems and some missteps. In either case, there\u2019s some genuine talent and interesting ideas on display for festival goers.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

All Your Women Things (2023)
\n<\/strong>Director Madison Bloom\u2019s short is a dark horror tale, but one that\u2019s reliant on feminine metaphors around idealized beauty and fashion that sets the stage for what I assume is cannibalism. \u201cAll Your Women Things\u201d suffers a lot from the cryptic direction and editing, leaving a lot of the attempted metaphor and symbolism to feel hazy at best. I was never sure if director Bloom was setting out her message for the audience in plain view, or if she wanted us to leave her film with our own interpretations. In either case, there\u2019s light shades of \u201cThe Neon Demon\u201d here with some grotesque results, I just wish the film had a more definitive commentary in the end.<\/p>\n

Beneath Cracked Pavement (2023)
\n<\/strong>Director Marcus Fahey\u2019s film is more dark comedy centered on a trio of teens selling candy who happen upon a wealthy couple in the midst of concealing a murder. They\u2019re then held hostage and forced in to their basement as the couple do everything they can to justify their heinous acts, and inevitable executions of the trio of friends. \u201cBeneath Cracked Pavement\u201d feels like a commentary on gentrification, especially considering the final scene. It\u2019s an okay short film with some decent humor, but the whole film feels like a misfire and clumsily handled.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florence<\/strong> in Customer Care (2023)
\n<\/strong>Directors Jordan Sommerlad, Corey Stonebrook\u2019s short isn\u2019t so much conventional horror as it is workplace horror centered around Tiffany Trainer\u2019s character. She plays Florence, a passive customer service rep for a furniture company and the stress has manifested in to sores on her body and self mutilation. Her dreams of escaping to her own private area on a beach become much more recurring and her maddening job eventually begins to take a darker toll. This is an okay short all things considered even if it isn\u2019t what I\u2019d think of as scary. Star Trainer is at least very good in the lead performance.<\/p>\n

hArmless (2023)
\n<\/strong>Director Elizabeth Cappuccino\u2019s short is a great and clever bit of workplace dark comedy that I just loved. Cappuccino has ace comic timing and great leading lady potential as a young convenience store clerk who is preparing to close up shop for the night. When a man is in the store\u2019s bathroom lingering and taking a very long time, she prepares for the worst. \u201cHarmless\u201d is such a good short with excellent build up, some great suspense, and a pay off that left me smacking my forehead in disbelief. Star Cappuccino understands her own premise well, thankfully, and I easily could have watched this whole scenario stretched in to an entire ninety minute feature.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mercury (2023)
\n<\/strong>Director Clara Dubau\u2019s short is more science fiction drama than horror, even if the scenario itself is terrifying. Most of us wax nostalgic by virtue of distance and can often forget the pain that came with childhood at times. In this short, Ellio is a man who has volunteered to use a machine that allows him to relive his childhood memories. When he dives in to his memories, he realizes maybe the past should stay in the past, sometimes. \u201cMercury\u201d is weird and bizarre, but it\u2019s pretty sad nevertheless. It\u2019s an interesting view on how we can tend to romanticize our memories, sometimes for our own protection.<\/p>\n

Rejoice in the Lamb (2023)
\n<\/strong>I have to admit that I really did like Will Carington, Courtney Bush,\u00a0and Jake Goicoechea\u2019s short even if it\u2019s not entirely a horror film per se. It\u2019s all more of a situational drama comedy revolving around a young girl who thinks that the new friend in her circle of friends might be a vampire. Told through flashbacks, character V.H. confronts an Oracle who offers her an ear when she recollects the entrance of a new girl in her life and how every bit of instinct she has signals that she might just be a vampire waiting for her chance to strike. Although a little messy, \u201cRejoice in the Lamb\u201d is an engaging twist on the vampire tale with shades of \u201cLet\u2019s Scare Jessica to Death\u201d embedded within the comedy and romantic overtones. I wouldn\u2019t have minded a more definitive resolution, but it\u2019s a very good take on the modern vampire.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ties (2023)
\n<\/strong>Director Esteban Bailey\u2019s dark comedy is a not too subtle allegory about marriage and commitment toward family that comes with marriage. John is meeting his girlfriend Lisa\u2019s mother for the first time, and after it goes well, Lisa and her mother decide to introduce John to her father. He happens to be a feral disheveled man tied to a tree tasked with grilling John about his intentions. Truths and confessions are spat out prompting John to assess if he really wants to marry Lisa after all. The whole short film is one big take on marriage even ending on an ambiguous final scene punctuated by the absolutely straight forward actions Lisa and her mom take with John. It\u2019s all completely on the nose symbolism, but it\u2019s at least thankfully saved by the great performances.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival runs from October 12th through October 19th at the Nitehawk Cinema Screens #1 and #2.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Home Invasion Shorts block for the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is a mixed bag this year with some gems and some missteps. In either case, there\u2019s some genuine talent and interesting ideas on display for festival goers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,7,12],"tags":[367,477,501,938,1008],"class_list":["post-41413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-foreign","tag-horror","tag-indie-film","tag-short-film","tag-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41419,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41413\/revisions\/41419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}