Starring Brandon Schrader, Jazz Securo, Kaitlyn Maria
Written and directed by Gianni Cordi
Released on Youtube (Disco Puma Entertainment) 10/30/26
Further distribution and festival dates TBD
Nick Cattone (Brandon Shrader) feels listless in his life. His sister Casey (Kaitlyn Maria) couldn’t be more different, a mechanic with an aura of confidence. Is Nick doomed to stagnation? Sometimes it takes challenging circumstances to test our mettle, and Nick is about to hit the jackpot. After a date with love interest Jeanie, Nick discovers a VHS dropped by a mysterious (and very Hellraiser coded) vagrant. The tape details the final, grisly broadcast of a masked horror host known as The Ghoulmaster. In playing the tape, The Ghoulmaster and his familiar are transported back to their mortal world. Their goal? Presenting a horror show with Nick and his pals as victims!
GHOULMASTER is the little horror short that could. The acting isn’t going to win any awards, and there are budgetary constraints, but the concept and execution overflow with an honest love for the genre. The Ghoulmaster himself feels like a fusion between Freddy and Sammi Curr, his summoning bringing to mind everything from Brainscan to The Video Dead. What truly brought a smile to my face was his Boglin-adjacent familiar. A bite-happy rubber scamp, every scene with this fella gave me a kick borne of a strong Ghoulies trilogy (we don’t speak of part four) fandom. At around half an hour, the movie doesn’t overstay his welcome, and I long to see what other cinematic horrors come courtesy of Gianni Cordi’s horror appetites.
