By BRYAN CHRISTOPHER (@eviltaylorhicks)
Happy September, fair readers! Spooky season has arrived, and with it I have some new horror shorts to share with you all. This month an imaginary friend causes some very real mayhem, a couple takes opportunism to vile new heights, a new deputy finds that his small town Sheriff’s department has a pretty extreme hazing ritual, and a pair of messy people come together to complete a messy job.
As always, if you’re a short horror filmmaker, I want to hear from you! If you’d like me to take a look at one of your films for inclusion in a future installment, hit me up on Twitter or email me at remedialhorror@gmail.com.
Goodbye Old Friend (2019)
Length: 6 minutes Director: Rafael De Leon, Jr. Starring: Corrie Legge, Aaron Dalla Villa
When a girl finds herself trapped in her bedroom with her boyfriend dead in the living room, she soon finds out the culprit is her long, lost imaginary friend. It seems he’s not happy with being forgotten, and he’s got some twisted ways to get her attention. Director Rafael De Leon, Jr. has put together a dark, twisted take on Drop Dead Fred with this short. It’s also six minutes of distilled tension, with a set piece that had me white knuckling my arm rest through most of the duration. Kind of makes me glad I never had an imaginary friend.
Where to find it: Streaming on Vimeo.
Re-Home (2019)
Length: 8 minutes Director: Izzy Lee Starring: Gigi Saul Guerrero, Morgan Peter Brown, Kasey Lansdale, Steve Johanson
I think the most horrifying about Izzy Lee’s new short is that for as over-the-top as the climax seems (and it’s pretty damn gnarly) it’s not all that far removed from the horrible shit that we’re on record as doing to immigrant families in this country. In Re-Home, when a young woman seeks the help of a young, well-to-do white family near the border to help seek refuge for her baby through their eerily vague business Future Horizons, the family’s motives quickly appear to be less than altruistic. Lee leaves a lot to the imagination, letting our minds do a lot of the horrible legwork in envisioning the implications of how Future Horizons is making its money.
Where to find it: Making the festival rounds. Check out the trailer here.
The Thing About Beecher’s Gate (2018)
Length: 26 minutes Director: Jeremy Herbert Starring: Morgan McCleod, Alex Bryan, Chris Cipa
Sometimes its fun to just watch a good. old fashioned horror yarn, and that’s exactly what you get with Jeremy Herbert’s The Thing About Beecher’s Gate. It’s a creepy little tale about a new deputy who has to take part in a tradition of sorts for all new hires that involves spending the night at a remote shed and following three rules: 1. Wait 2. Don’t run 3. Let them IN. What I really like about this film is how Herbert does so much with so little. Just a small shed in the woods, a harrowed (but dryly smart ass) deputy, and a group of baddies that are so simple but so damn terrifying.
Where to find it: Making the festival rounds. Check out the trailer here.
Together (2019)
Length: 19 minutes Director: Ryan Oksenburg Starring: Arielle Hader, Clayton Farris
I really love stories about damaged people, and what I enjoy about Together is that it’s about how we can be damaged in different ways. There’s a young man whose damage is physical: a mysterious disease that gives him some very off-putting cravings. Then there’s a woman whose damage is spiritual: she’s a bio-hazard remediation specialist who not only looks to clean up the physical consequences of grisly incidents, but also looks to ease some of the emotional trauma that seems to hit her close to home. When these two people come together, the results are beautifully bittersweet, if not more than a little messy. This is one that will stick with me for a while.
Where to find it: Making the festival rounds. Check out the trailer here.
