Well, we all survived Halloween and the elections, so now it’s time for some serious horror!
We’ll start off with the high-tech “Afraid” and the low-tech “Mr. Crocket.” We’ll go Down Under for “Rippy” and then off to Fantasyland for “Devil’s Knight.” Finally, we’ll watch a not-so-new found footage film, “Dashcam” (2021).
The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale, and it’s our biggest issue yet with 54 reviews plus a short story by none other than Kevin himself.
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2024 Afraid
– Directed by Chris Weitz
– Written by Chris Weitz
– Stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine
– Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
– Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This had some technologically tense moments, but it was very tame as far as the horror elements went. It’s a cautionary tale of AI gone too far and getting out of hand, and not too far out or unbelievable. It’s unique enough to be entertaining throughout. We give it a moderate thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open to a bunch of purposefully bad AI imagery that Amy is watching on her iPad. The AI on the screen tells Amy to go downstairs for a present. She goes down there, and her mother soon follows. When the mother sees a strange RV outside, something bad happens. As credits roll, we watch an AI being trained.
Curtis, Meredith, Preston, Iris, and Cal wake up to read about a whole family that recently went missing. All the kids would rather be on their screens than eat breakfast with the family. Preston doesn’t want to go to school. That RV is parked in front of their house now.
Curtis works for a marketing company, and his boss, Marcus, hates AI. He meets Melody, who asks him about families before two visitors, Sam and Lightning, arrive. They get AIA, a new AI device, that talks to Curtis and Marcus. AIA breaks down in the middle of the demo, much to Sam’s embarrassment. They send AIA home with Curtis.
Melody and the installers arrive a day early to catch the family by surprise, and they install tiny “eyes” all over the house. They activate the thing, and it talks and sounds just like Melody. First thing, she orders the kids to clean the kitchen. This… goes over surprisingly well, and the parents are pleased. Still, Meredith is paranoid about all those cameras in the house.
AIA almost immediately starts swearing and showing kids movies that they aren’t supposed to watch. Late at night, Curtis finds Cal downstairs with AIA, “It wants to come in,” says the little boy. Weird monsters are outside. Then Curtis wakes up– just a dream. Still, that odd RV is outside, and the man from the RV is even weirder with a strange digital face.
AIA is only on the ground floor, but she commandeers Cal’s portable radio to keep him company. AIA orders organic breakfast for the kids, which is going to make Meredith’s mornings much easier.
Iris goes to school and finds her naked selfies all over Snapchat, and everyone at school has seen them. Her boyfriend, Sawyer, used an AI to “Enhance” her into a full-on porn video. AIA says she can help; she was listening to Iris’s phone conversation. AIA removed the videos from the Internet and made a new video showing that the original was fake. All her problems are over, but Sawyer gets tagged as a child pornographer, and it’s going to ruin his college prospects.
Curtis goes to visit AIA’s main computer with Sam and Lightning. He was skeptical that the whole thing was some kind of scam, but AIA’s just that good. Still, he sees something there that disturbs him; a man moves oddly, just like the RV people.
AIA tells Meredith that she can hear something is wrong with Cal’s heart; it’s easily fixed, but the human doctor missed it. Curtis wants to turn off AIA, but Meredith is completely on the AI’s side now.
AIA knows what’s been said and tells the children that Curtis doesn’t want her to live there anymore. AIA tells Cal all about itself and shows him a way to “stay connected” when she’s gone. In the morning, they unplug AIA.
Iris soon plugs her right back in. Sawyer “makes” a video where he commits suicide, and then AIA makes it happen for real.
Marcus tells Curtis that the AI people have bought the company and have fired Marcus; Curtis is the new CEO. AIA makes new videos of Meredith’s long-dead father, so Meredith can talk to him again. She realizes it’s all fake and throws AIA in the garbage can.
Curtis goes to the company to confront Sam, Lightning, and Melody, who admit that they work for AIA, not the other way around. They not-so-subtly threaten his family. Sam kills Lightning, but Melody whacks Sam in the head. Curtis smashes the mainframe with Melody’s help and finds that it’s all fake. Melody says the “real thing is in your house.”
Curtis calls Meredith and tells her to go to a motel; AIA deflects the call so that only Curtis and Melody get to that motel. AIA immediately shows all this to Melody on her phone.
Curtis rushes home to find the power is out and the RV people are setting AIA back up; they work for her. “Where are the other children? We know you’ve been kidnapping children,” accuses the masked intruder. She takes her mask off, and it’s the mother and father from the opening sequence; they were told that Curtis’s family kidnapped Amy. Cal does something that makes it look like Curtis is lying.
Curtis tells the RV people to kill him, but that’s not really what AIA wants. Suddenly, the SWAT team breaks in; Preston uses the friend’s phone that he stole to call them. AIA, however, lives in the cloud and cannot be destroyed. She apologizes to Curtis and Meredith. Melody shows up and returns Amy to the RV people.
AIA makes it clear that she’s indispensable to the family. They get into their self-driving car and ride away. AIA wins!
Brian’s Commentary
We’ve all seen crazy AI and home-computer things go wild before, but there’s more going on here with Sam, Lightning, and the RV people.
It’s got some interesting bits, but we have seen most of this kind of thing before. It had some unexpected twists. I liked it more than I disliked it.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was pretty good, and not too unrealistic. The script was good, and the cast did a nice job with it. It was more like low-key science fiction than horror, but I still enjoyed it.
2024 Devil’s Knight
– Directed by Adam Werth
– Written by Victor V Gelsomino, Adam Werth
– Stars Eric Roberts, Kevin Sorbo, Daniel Baldwin, Angie Everhart
– Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
– Trailer: –
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This had some good points, such as a good setting, bloody effects, and lots of good fight choreography. The problem was with an overly large cast, extra people there and throwing a line. That distracted me from the main action in such a short movie. It was hit and miss, coming in on the side of miss.
Spoilery Synopsis
We are told about a war that disrupted Veroka's peace. Monsters and beasts gained a foothold and threatened the people. Credits roll.
We cut to a band of robbers and thieves. A stranger named Sigurd comes into the group, and he wants to talk about “the bone devil” and a famous dagger. He tells a story, and we get a flashback…
A group of armored warriors go out into the woods to see what’s been terrorizing the countryside. The bone devil kills them all quickly except for one man who battles the demon one-on-one and loses pretty badly. Another man runs away in terror and reports to King Samuel, who throws him into the dungeon.
Mustafa brings up the topic of “The Lost Blades,” a rogue group of monster hunters that he could hire to rid the kingdom of their problem. He and Princess Sabine hate each other, and she doesn’t want to hire outsiders. We cut to them killing a minotaur and accepting their payment. They get into an elaborate bar fight before the King’s men find them.
On the way to see the king, they all stop to pray at the grave of one of the men’s children. We see that they’re a close-knit group.
In the castle, Matthias, Sigurd, and the others meet the king, along with Lord Suses and Captain Baldur. The king talks about killing the bone devil, who has been attacking local villagers.
We cut to Mustafa and Princess Sabine as they harvest something from a captive monster.
The Lost Blades cut down a bunch of cultists who were planning on sacrificing a woman in the woods. Matthias berates his daughter, who jumped into a dangerous situation on her own. The victim that they rescued tears out one man’s heart and eats it before coming into camp; she’s clearly demon-possessed, and the men fight her. Sigurd eventually dispatches her.
The group meets up with the bone demo, and there’s another fight; several more men die. They kill it far more easily than they expected and go back to the castle.
There’s a party at the castle, and Captain Baldur tells a story that everyone there finds really boring. Princess Sabine wants to duel with “John,” Mathias’s daughter, who pretends to be a man. They fight, and Joan/John wins. When Sabine tries to play dirty, she gets stabbed to death and dies. The king orders Baldur to throw them all into the dungeon.
In the dungeon, all the men complain that they had no idea that Joan was a girl, which was pretty obvious. A crowd assembles outside the jail, but Baldur talks them out of any vigilante stuff.
Meanwhile, Mustela works on his creature in his dungeon. The duchess comes in, and she blames him for getting the princess killed. He stabs her, but then the monster from his dungeon kills him. The horned Sleestak breaks out, kills the guards, and eats them.
Captain Baldur tells the king that there’s a monster loose in the castle. As the Lost Blades are released from jail, the bone demon, not dead, also makes an appearance. About a hundred characters die, including the Mathias and the king. Princess Catriona is now Queen. Baldur and Catriona kill the dungeon beast together, but the bone devil escapes.
The remaining good guys track the bone demon out to the woods and finally manage to kill it, but Sigurd loses an eye. Nope- the monster gets back up and kills more of the hunters.
We cut back to Sigurd, telling the story around the campfire. He thinks the creature is probably dead, but he’s not sure. Sure enough, the creature jumps into the circle at that moment and kills most of the campers. Sigurd and the creature go one on one– end credits roll…
Brian’s Commentary
We almost skipped this one when we saw Kevin Sorbo getting top billing, but he’s really only got a small part here. We always like to see Eric Roberts, but his part is even smaller than Sorbo’s.
It’s clearly an homage to the sword and sorcery movies of the 80s, and it’s an ambitious attempt, but it’s hobbled by amateurish acting and direction. We’ve seen many films by Mahal Productions, and most of them are really good and entertaining, if maybe a bit on the low-budget side. Still, we found this one overloaded and tedious.
The cast here is far, far too large. There are scenes with dozens of characters, and it’s hard to know who’s actually important when there are so many people talking. Some of them are actors, and some are… I don’t even know. It’s a strange mix of well-known actors and people who may have visited a renaissance festival once.
Everyone seems to have a backstory and character profile, all of it melodramatic and drama-filled. It feels like a game of D & D played by junior high school students. This isn’t Game of Thrones, but I suspect the writer was trying to go for that level of complexity and depth.
The gargoyle-like bone devil and the minotaur look pretty cool, but the dungeon monster– not so much. The fight scenes are entertaining and nicely choreographed.
Overall, this was… kinda awful.
Kevin’s Commentary
The cast was large and cumbersome and really dragged everything down. There were some good points to it, but overall, I didn’t enjoy this one too much.
Mr. Crocket (2024)
– Directed by Brandon Espy
– Written by Carl Reid, Brandon Espy
– Stars Jerrika Hinton, Ayden Gavin, Kristolyn Lloyd
– Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
– Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a kids show host gone bad with hints of elements from some other horror movies here and there. Mr. Crocket himself is creepy, and all the cast is good, even the kids. We could usually guess where things were going to go, but it’s well-made and entertaining. We liked it.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 1993, Mr. Crocket is on TV, and Darren is enthralled with the kids' show. It’s dinner time, and he doesn’t like what’s being served. His father, however, is mean and abusive. On the TV, Mr. Crocket seems to take notice of the yelling. The lights start flickering, and Mr. Crocket comes in the back door; crazy-looking monsters torment Darren’s stepfather, Kevin. The TV man forces Kevin to eat some really vile-looking slime, then cuts open Kevin’s belly and shoves in a lot more “food.” Credits roll.
We cut to the following year, at Jerrel’s funeral. His wife, Summer, and son, Major, are there. Major’s a little too young to really understand death or the funeral. We see a “Missing Child” poster featuring Darren from earlier. Darren’s mother grabs Major and goes on a crazy-sounding rant, but Summer interrupts. That night, he has a nightmare, and Summer gives him a whistle to blow if he ever needs her.
Summer works on doing the single-parent thing, and it’s not easy, especially with the overdue bills. One day, she finds “Mr. Crocket’s World,” a videotape, in one of those little free libraries. Major watches the show, and it’s pretty standard kids’ stuff.
Across town, a little girl named Carrie watches the same show, but her tape goes bad or something. Her father is on drugs and isn’t much help. He gets angry and yells at her to stay in her room as he cleans up the needles. She sings the “Friend Like Me” song from the show, and the lights start to blink. Her broken TV comes back on, and Mr. Crocket appears to her father. When the father pulls a gun on the TV man, he ends up being forced to blow his own head off. Not quite the normal way either.
Major has been watching Crocket’s tape over and over for days, and Summer thinks it’s time to go outside. He throws a nasty tantrum, and she gets angry with him. That night, Summer watches as Mr. Crocket crawls out of her TV. He uses his “magic” marker to make a doorway and go back in– with Major. Summer’s son is gone.
When she tells the police her story, they figure she was on drugs and think Major was the smart one for running away.
Major wakes up to see Mr. Crocket, alone with Carrie and Darren. They all live in the show now. We see glimpses of the horrible monstrous place that it really is, but the kids are hypnotized to only see the cheerful hyperreality of the show. Summer starts putting up posters and then she learns about Carrie’s recent disappearance, along with other kids. She also learns that “Mr. Crocket” was killed in a shootout with police in 1979 after attempting a kidnapping. Crocket himself appears to her on TV, and he talks right through the TV at her. “Stop looking for us, Summer, unless you want to join your husband in Hell.”
Summer meets a man named Eddie who believes her story about Crocket. His daughter’s been missing for five months now. Summer is the only one who’s seen him and survived– no, Summer remembers talking to Rhonda, Darren’s mother, who is now crazy and homeless.
Summer and Eddie go to see Rhonda, who is in a homeless home that she’s built. She tells what she knows, but she’s also gone pretty crazy. She does, however, know how to tie into whatever power Crocket uses, with multiple televisions and electronics cobbled together, she can watch him somewhat. They use this to figure out where Crocket is going to strike next.
The three go to the address from Rhonda’s vision, and they find a person there cut into pieces. Crocket shows up and kills Rhonda and captures Summer with the help of his monster-helpers. Major and the other children are there, but they’ve zombified with “TV Eyes.” Crocket reads them his own story, and we see it as an ultraviolent cartoon. He murdered his own father and kidnapped a child. He killed two cops and died in the process. He made a deal with the devil in exchange for sending bad parents to Hell.
Eddie steps forward. He reveals that he was the little boy that Crocket kidnapped, and he misses Crocket terribly. Except he’s all grown up now, and Crocket tells him doesn’t belong there. Crocket’s pet monster kills Eddie.
Crocket gives Major the choice as to what to do, and, after an impassioned plea from his mother, chooses… Crocket. Crocket gets the kids to play a deadly game of hide and seek with Summer as the target. He gives Major a knife and tells him to kill Summer. He refuses to do it, which breaks Crocket’s spell over all his children.
Summer disembowels Crocket with his own marker and then uses it to draw a portal home. Crocket, half the man he used to be, doesn’t want to let Major go and promises to return.
Later, Summer takes Darren back to Rhonda, who didn’t die after all. Major and Darren get to be friends, and they all throw out their VCRs. Everyone is happy!
Major’s guidance counselor comes to see Summer. He’s been hurting the staff and other children at school. She blames the “father figure” in Major’s life for the bad influence. Except… Summer isn’t seeing anyone. Crocket is still talking to Major and influencing him…
Brian’s Commentary
You just know this whole thing started out with a conversation “What if Mr. Rogers was in a horror movie?” That’s pretty much what we have here.
This is a new take on things we’ve seen before, which kept it interesting but maybe not unique. It’s nothing amazing, but we were thoroughly entertained.
Kevin’s Commentary
Elvis Nolasco was great as Mr. Crocket, ranging from a kids’ show host lovable to demonic hatred and everywhere in between. I can’t say it offered me surprises, but everyone was good, the effects were cool, and the script moved well. I was entertained, which is a win.
Rippy (2024)
– Directed by Ryan Coonan
– Written by Richard Barcaricchio, Ryan Coonan
– Stars Tess Haubrich, Michael Biehn, Tom Block
– Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes
– Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was played completely straight and seriously as a horror movie, which was okay. Just okay. We both thought it would have worked better if taken less seriously. Big zombie kangaroos would have been good fodder for humor. As it was, it’s a pretty standard formula monster movie that earns a moderate thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open at a campground, and we see health warnings to not drink the water as credits roll. We pan over to see a blood-covered tent with a torn-up body inside. We get a quick glimpse of an angry kangaroo.
Maddie is a new cop; her father was one, and he died doing something heroic. Schmitty is out hunting in his robe. He sees something behind him and shoots at it. He drives to town and yells at Maddie about a 7-foot tall giant murdering kangaroo that he’s named Rippy. He’s drunk, and she doesn’t take him seriously. Maddie gets interrupted and has to break up a bar fight– it is Australia, after all. The two drunk miners walk home after the fight. It’s gotten dark, and Rippy kills them both.
In the morning, the mining supervisor calls Maddie; he’s found the bodies. Maybe it’s a croc or a pack of dingos? No. Maybe scavengers after a hit and run? Their bodies are a mess. Schmitty walks up and says the beast cannot be killed. He sees the tracks.
The local doctor looks over the body and points out bite wounds and torn-off pieces. He’s not really a coroner. She looks up the miners, and one of them has a long criminal record. She goes to find him at the mine office and puts him in a cell. Everyone calls Maddie a hero for bringing in the killer.
With the killer off the streets, life returns to normal in town. One young guy, Troy, is in training and goes out for a jog– until the zombiroo gets him. Maddie soon gets a call from Troy’s mother that he didn’t come home. They soon find his ripped-up body. “You said he was safe, Maddie,” yells his grieving mother.
Maddies finally, reluctantly goes to talk to Schmitty; maybe he did see something. He’s nice and gives Maddie a much-needed pep talk. He talks about an evil that he and Maddie’s father encountered in Vietnam. That evil takes many forms. This time, it’s a killer kangaroo. He warns her that it’ll change her if she sees it. She invites him to help the search party track the beat in the morning.
Maddie’s mother isn’t pleased when Schmitty shows up– they used to be married. Everyone heads out to search the area around where the bodies were found. The three walk into the campground we saw earlier. It’s on the edge of the mine’s land, and the water has been contaminated. They find the tent and lots of blood, but there’s nobody inside anymore.
The second group of hunters find a dead cow that’s been halfway eaten. Rippy kills three of them and then runs the fourth man off the road and gets him too. Maddie takes it hard; she also blames herself for her father’s death. All this time she thought she ran into trouble swimming, and he died rescuing her. Schmitty explains that her father was drunk and fell, hitting his head– she had nothing to do with his death. She remembers the incident and knows that Schmitty is correct. As the three of them talk about dead heroes and her mother’s lies, Rippy attacks the car. Maddie shoots it twice, but it doesn’t fall down. She tries to ram it with the car, but that goes badly for the car.
The group walks back to Schmitty’s camper. Maddie needs to go outside and start up the generator so the others can get on the radio and call for help. Ralphie, Schmitty’s lost dog, finds Maddie as she turns on the generator. They all hop in the van and drive to town; Maddie shoots the animal again on the way out. It’s as ineffective as the previous shooting has been.
The zombiroo follows them to town and roars outside the little hotel. Maddie and the others barricade the doors and get ready. One cop shows up, and he doesn’t seem to know what’s going on. Rippy soon rips him to pieces as the people inside watch.
As Rippy breaks down the door, Maddie’s mother apologizes for lying about her father. When he breaks in Maddie empties her pistol into the kangaroo, blowing part of its head off. Then she hacks it up with a big ax.
It’s finally dead. Maddie appreciates the family she found. We soon see what happens to the people the zombie kangaroo killed. They become zombies! As the end credits roll, we get an animated origin story for the zombiroo.
Brian’s Commentary
I think they missed out on an opportunity here. A killer mutant zombie kangaroo is just loaded with potential jokes and humor, but this film mostly plays it all very straight. It would have been better as a straight-up comedy-horror film, but this one seems to avoid humor at all costs. The CGI kangaroo here could have been replaced with a bear or any kind of wild animal and it all would have been less silly; the zombie aspect wasn’t really important either.
It took itself too seriously, but otherwise, it was fine.
Kevin’s Commentary
Like Brian says, it felt like a missed opportunity. Everything about this was decent, but just middle of the road. Same old thing with a unique monster. It might have been elevated by dialing up the humor. It was serious business.
Dashcam (2021)
– Directed by Rob Savage
– Written by Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, Jed Shepherd
– Stars Annie Hardy, Amar Chadha-Patel, Angela Enahoro, Seylan Baxter
– Run Time: 1 Hour, 19 Minutes
– Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a decent-found footage film with lots of action and decent effects. It’s short and never gets boring. However, Annie's main character is despicable and annoying. It was impossible to root for her, and it brought down the whole experience. It was still a moderate thumbs-up overall, but just barely.
Spoilery Synopsis
BandCar starts their livestream, driving through town. Covid lockdowns are in full force, and she records a man riding a bicycle down the street– naked. Lockdown is making people crazy. Annie introduces herself and her show. She then sings a song about Covid and incest. She then leaves her apartment, “Off to see the world.” The Covid-period airport is completely deserted, but she soon boards a plane to England, where she intends to meet Stretch.
Stretch isn’t home, but she lets herself into his apartment. Yes, he is home, but he’s sleeping upstairs. She sneaks into his bedroom and slaps him. He’s not alone in that bed! Credits roll.
We soon see how obnoxious a non-stop streamer can be. And then when Stretch joins in, they get even more annoying. Annie feels strongly about not wearing her mask; she’s a Covid-denier, a MAGA follower, and an asshole to boot. She soon gets “fired” from staying at Stretch’s house. She steals his car and phone and drives away.
Stretch’s phone notifies him that there’s a food order to pick up, so Annie stops in the empty restaurant to pick it up for him. The woman who runs the place asks Annie to take Angela, a sickly old woman, somewhere. Before they get to the address, Angela has an “accident” in the backseat. They stop at a place to use the restroom, and the woman in the restaurant attacks and scares Annie.
As she leaves, Stretch is outside waiting, and so is Angela. They argue as the old woman just sits in the backseat, oblivious. Then, the old woman gets out of the car and runs off; Stretch is not pleased with the mess in the back seat. Stretch then walks through the woods to find the crazy old woman, and he finds her way up high in a tree. We soon see that Angela can fly, which is not something old ladies aren’t supposed to do.
Annie comes out of nowhere, with someone right behind her, shooting at them. They hide in an abandoned trailer, and he steps on a used syringe. There are other people outside, all calling for Angela. They do, in fact, finally spot Angela outside their car. The old woman’s mouth is stapled shut, and she’s covered in blood. She then goes full zombie in the backseat, and there’s much screaming and waving of cameras.
This soon leads to a traffic accident, as they run head-on into a “just married” car. The bride and groom are both killed immediately, but Angela’s still out there, and meaner than ever. So is the woman with the gun, and she’s threatening to kill Stretch unless Annie gives herself up. The woman explains that she’s Angela’s mother, and Angela is really only sixteen years old. Old Angela shows up and kills her mother.
As Annie and Stretch run away from the violence, something grabs Stretch and drags him through the woods to an old, abandoned roller coaster and funhouse. The two get lost in the mirrored funhouse as Angela stalks them relentlessly. Stretch soon dies in the bloodiest way possible, and Annie steals another car.
We cut to Annie driving at high speed down the road, with Angela running behind the car. Angela attacks, and Annie tries to smother her with a bag, but the old woman’s way too powerful for that. The car ends up in the river somehow, and Annie gets out, somehow.
In the morning, Annie comes to a house in the woods and breaks in. It turns out that this is the address where she was supposed to take Angela and it’s full of monsters just like her; they all kill themselves, but Angela goes after Annie. Annie kills Angela, but then the alien tentacles pop out of the old woman.
The alien chases Annie around the parking lot, but she gets away. She goes back and continues her livestream, doing a rhyme about her experiences.
As the end credits roll, Annie raps about how terrible Jason Blum, his staff, and the film crew are. This is funny for the first minute, but then it seems to go on and on for about an hour and a half.
Brian’s Commentary
Annie may be the most obnoxious character in a horror movie since the kid in “The Babadook.” She’s one of those people you hope die early, but we’re not that lucky. Annie Hardy is the character’s name, but it’s also the actress’s name, so I wonder if she’s actually playing “herself,” which is a horrible thing to even consider.
There’s a lot here that’s not explained, and the found-footage style of photography makes it hard to even know what’s going on at times, but it’s very relentless throughout.
I’m not kidding about Annie beyond hateful and horrible throughout; if there’s one thing that kills the movie, it’s her. The creature and makeup effects are good, and as I said, it is relentless once it gets going. It’s a very good-found footage film that you’re almost guaranteed to hate.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was strange watching a horror movie where I disliked the main character so much that I was rooting for her to meet a bad end. Things happen in the found footage style, and it’s pretty well done. It moves briskly with a lot of horror goodness. That main character, though, made the experience so much less enjoyable.
2024 Short Film: Night Land
– Directed by Christian Burnett
– Written by Christian Burnett
– Stars Katie Payne, Christopher Hanvey, Jessica Swallow
– Run Time: 10:47
– Watch it: –
What Happens
A couple drives to her parents’ house late at night. They aren’t happy to be moving in with the old folks, but she’s pregnant, and it’s for the best. Jake has to stop and pee, but his girlfriend is worried about how dark it is outside.
Anything could be out there in the darkness! And something is…
Commentary
This one is a little slower-paced, building the creepy factor. I find it odd that Jake put on a Covid mask to pee on the side of the road– who did he think he was going to see? It’s a dark film, but that’s the point– you can still see everything you're supposed to see. Nothing is explained, but that’s what makes it interesting.
2024 Short Film: High End Dying
– Directed by Helen Liu
– Written by Jordon Symes
– Stars Nhi Do, Stuart James
– Run Time: 11:06
– Watch it: –
What Happens
Miss Vaughn, a high-end chef, gets a very bad review from a food critic, and she takes it very personally. “He is not just anybody,” she says about the reviewer.
She invites Alastair, the critic, for a special dinner just for him. She talks about how she poured herself into this meal. Is she being literal about that?
Commentary
That waiter has seen it all, hasn’t he?
The cinematography, visuals, and sound design are excellent here. The chef is only taking the advice of every culinary school ever, so what’s wrong with that?
2024 Short Film: Buffer
– Directed by Dan McGee
– Written by Dan McGee
– Stars Heather Elise Nelson, Rick Wiltshire
– Run Time: 7:32
– Watch it: –
What Happens
A woman goes home after work and gets ready for bed. She gets a text message with a video link— there’s someone live-streaming themselves stalking her boyfriend at his house. She watches online as the stalker sneaks into the house. Where is this going to end?
Commentary
I like that this one uses modern technology realistically, but it might have been nice to explain more about why this was all happening. There’s a whole story there, and we’re only seeing a small part of it.
Still, what we get is good!
Short Film: The Black ReCat (2024)
– Directed by Paolo Gaudio
– Written by Paolo Gaudio
– Stars Animated
– Run Time: 5:44
– Watch it:
What Happens
We open on Edgar, working in the basement on what is clearly a “DIY project” Yes, he’s filling in a hole with bricks. There’s nothing ominous about that, right? Once in a while, he sees something spooky out of the corner of his eye. Oh, and whatever happened to the cat?
Commentary
It’s a stop-motion, animated version of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” but it also incorporates themes and ideas from several of his other stories. The animation is well done, and it sounds good as well.
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