The Overlook Film Festival, held in New Orleans earlier this month, didn’t simply cast looming shadows with its feature film selection. The festival also offered bite-sized terror with an array of short films that brought a sense of unease to the Big Easy.
Of course, short films have become the lifeblood of the horror industry and blockbuster filmmakers like Fede Alvarez and David Sandberg made names for themselves in that medium. Because of the accessibility of hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo, short films, and the filmmakers behind them, have developed increasingly loyal fanbases, with viewers going back through the films to look for answers or pieces of lore, and make entire Reddit threads dedicated to seven-minute works. Studios are catching onto this trend more quickly than they ever have before. Many of the filmmakers behind some of horror’s most recent hits, and this year’s most anticipated films, built their audience through shorts: RackaRacka (Bring Her Back), Markiplier (Iron Lung), Curry Barker (Obsession), Damian McCarthy (Hokum), Kane Parsons (Backrooms) and Casper Kelly (Buddy).
The 26 short horror films showcased at the Overlook Film Festival were categorized by “Feral,” “Freaky,” and “Static.” The Feral category offered films about sexual and gender-centric horror ranging from the romantic to the taboo. Freaky delivered on what is more commonly perceived as horror from monsters to folklore. And Static wandered into liminal spaces, the inexplicable, and terrors sometimes best left unspoken. Every film offered something to admire – an image, sound, or performance that stuck with me. And there’s no doubt that many of these directors will get prominent billing in front of major feature films in the coming years. These eight short films were my favorites:
Haint Dir. Jahmil Eady – Freaky
As gentrifiers take over her neighborhood, a Gullah Geechee woman, Annabelle (Melanie Nicholls-King) calls on ancestral knowledge, which has dire consequences for the newcomers who have begun to take over the land, ignorant of its history. What Annabelle unleashes puts her at odds with her policewoman daughter, Kassie (Imani Lewis) as both women are confronted by the means in which they’ve chosen to protect the community. With a strong sense of setting and a standout performance by Nicholls-King, Haint feels like the perfect concept for a feature film, especially in the post-Sinners horror scene.
Nail-Biter Dir. Joseph Burch – Freaky
On her 18th birthday, an anxious young woman, Amy (Alexa Swinton) is faced with a family curse that has ravaged her bloodline. Despite her mother’s (Amy Cropsey) insistent warnings, she cannot stop biting her fingernails. Is Amy merely a subject to her mentally ill mother’s control issues, or does the curse portend a more awful revelation. Nail-Biter captures the ageless quality of gothic folklore and creates a great sense of space in Amy’s dimly lit house, allowing the shadows to play their tricks until the well-earned climax.
Scissors Dir. Hannah Alline – Feral
A man (Ethan Embry) with a grudge against women crashes a bachelorette party prepared to brutally kill everyone there. As he comes to find out, this group of women, portrayed by Georgia Bridgers, Jenna Kanell, Najah Bradley, Hannah Alline, Anissa Matlock, and Hannah Aslesen, are all queer and none of them take him seriously. Scissors is a clever and funny romp that turns the tables on the slasher format and deconstructs the phallic symbolism associated with the genre.
Ghoststory Dir. Alex Jacobs – Static
On an old VHS recording of a woman (Gabriella Ortega Ricketts) talks about a ghost she saw in the woods by her house growing up. This footage is interspliced with haunting images of a low-res ghost (Luke Chamberlain) slowly approaching the camera. Ghoststory is deceptively simple and the woman’s refusal to ever fully tell the ghost story may seem frustrating. But as she starts and restarts her story, each time with a different tone of voice and different emphasis on the words, the feeling of dread about what’s being left unsaid grows. Ghoststory feels like something fans of Jane Schoenbrun and Kyle Edward Ball would enjoy.
Man Eating Pussy Dir. Lee Lawson – Feral
Freddie (Julian Richings), a dying, elderly man pays a visit to a mysterious sex worker, Kitty (Grace Glowicki) who offers him a release of both pain and pleasure. I did not expect the title to be quite so literal, but Man Eating Pussy is a wild example of body horror that is simultaneously beautiful, gross, and strange. Incredible special effects work and voice acting make for a creature that is both empathetic and alarming. It’s certainly one of the most original and memorable shorts from the festival.
Superconscious Dir. Christianne Hedtke – Static
In the early 1970s, two individuals, Cybil (Nathalie Boltt) and Harvey (Matt Olson) attend a human potential center to conduct a scientific study on psi-energy. As Cybil and Harvey wonder about the boundaries of her psi capabilities, she undergoes a secret mission to breach a realm beyond human knowledge. As the longest short of the festival, at 22 minutes, Superconscious feels the most complete in terms of narrative and characterization. There’s maturity to the storytelling and the time is well spent creating a connection to the characters and the central mystery. Superconscious feels like the perfect springboard for a film set in the world of psi-energy.
Carousel Dir. Christopher Kosakowski – Freaky
An aspiring actor, Charlie (Samuel Dunning) stuck with a clown gig receives a zoetrope for his birthday from his strange co-worker Mickey (David Sitler). His reality descends in a nightmare as the images seen in the zoetrope manifest in his apartment. Short, scary, and built around a single concept, Carousel is reminiscent of the early works of James Wan and it’s easily to imagine the clown zoetrope becoming the cursed artifact in a feature film.
Homemade Gatorade Dir. Carter Amelia Davis – Freaky
Susie (Carter Amelia Davis) is looking for a buyer on social media for her homemade Gatorade, which she describes as creamy and filling. She gets a message from Daniella (Lauren Davis), who wants to buy every gallon, if Susie can deliver it. On her five-hour road trip, Susie receives increasingly weird messages from Daniella, none of which are threatening but the vibes are certainly off. And they only get more unnerving as Susie approaches her destination. Homemade Gatorade, the only animated short of the festival, was made with both photoshop and After Effects, giving the film an uncanny look that’s accentuated by great vocal performances that highlight the strangeness of what’s shown on screen. Homemade Gatorade feels like an artifact from the early internet, or something you might find a link to on a sleepless night at three in the morning. There’s something vile, yet attractive about the film, an encapsulation of the fact that people and the internet are downright weird.