This second horror short in our series, Widow, is one of my favorites. Steven J. Mihaljevich wrote, directed, and edited the film in Perth, Australia.
Widow is rated MA 15+ (minimum age to watch unaccompanied by an adult is 15), a classification that cautions of material “strong in impact.” Examples of this given on the Australian government’s (Department of Communications and the Arts) website are sex and drug use, neither of which figures significantly in this film. There are no sex scenes at all, and the extent of the drug use is merely the protagonist taking sleeping pills. You won’t find violence or excessive gore in Widow, either. The horror is psychological; in terms of being “strong in impact,” I can only say that yes, Widow is superb, and therefore it is harrowing. Mihaljevich left no room for dead space in its 14 minutes and 39 seconds. Every second is meaningful, resulting in a cinematic density rarely found in the horror genre. Such density is a defining aim in the making of short movies, in general, and Mihaljevich smashes it.
Ahem. I have an important Public Service Announcement before I jump into our first Short Horror October post. TAKE NOTE! Creepshow (2019), a Shudder Original Series, has arrived, and I’m sorry that I’m just now telling you about it. You’ll see this anthology horror series listed in my October Favorites post, but what good would it do to find out about it in November? Creepshow is glorious, campy, spooktacular fun that’s perfect for right now, in October, as Halloween approaches.
Shudder gives us new episodes on Thursdays. With two unique stories within each episode, you’re all set if you have just half an hour at a time to escape into a complete comic book horror story. The animated character who presents the stories is quite a character, by the way, and the stories are told wonderfully as comics come to life. We’re so into this series, we’re impatient for the new episode each week. We’re three episodes in as of today.
In case you’re not familiar with it, Shudder is an online streaming service mainly for horror content, but you’ll also have thrillers, suspense, mystery, etc. at hand. A Shudder subscription is only $5.00/month, and less than that if you get a one-year subscription! (This is not a sponsored post. I just can’t keep Creepshow to myself. You’re welcome.)
Now for Short Horror October post number 1!
(Bloody Kisses, haha)
I’m thrilled to finally start posting short horror films again! I’ve been watching them all summer (okay, spring and summer) in anticipation of the decision-making challenge. This year, you’ll find many of my picks to be thought-provoking, layered in meaning, and fleshed-out with metaphor and symbolism… the kind of films you’ll want to give a second viewing. Many of them represent the psychological horror sub-genre.
Today’s short horror film, however, is a simple one, and time-wise, it’s on the shorter end of short horror. It’s best to watch this film – all of these short horror films – in the dark! Dark is more visible in the dark. Don’t ponder that. Just enjoy The Coatmaker:
In OCTOBER, of all months, my mother-in-law – “Maman” – came from France having never been to the States. She was here for ten days.
Immediately bewildered, suspicious, and dismayed when she saw skeletons, jack o’lanterns, ghosts, and other Halloween figures hither and yon, I remembered my experience living in France: in dramatic comparison to the States, Halloween doesn’t exist there. With Maman visiting, I realized exactly how seriously we Americans take Halloween. We have a lot of popular holidays here, and Halloween is up in the top three.
Halloween in the States is ubiquitous. It’s in your face. At the bank – skulls! The supermarket – more skulls! At the Arizona Territory store – skulls, skulls, skulls! (Garden-variety skulls in addition to Dia de los Muertos skulls.) At Target – forget about it. A good quarter of the store is dedicated to Halloween, including a section of Halloween children’s books about hauntings and creatures of lore.
Poor devout Maman, crossing herself and literally kissing her imaginary rosary crucifix everywhere we went.
Target, Halloween 2018
Target, Halloween 2018
I’m happy to report that skulls did not stop Maman from having a grand time. For one thing, we got her into sumo. This happened by accident, the same way Dad accidentally got us into sumo. Maman sat down with us in front of the T.V. when we were re-watching the highlights from the last Grand Sumo Tournament. Next thing we knew, Maman was on the edge of her seat holding her breath during the bouts to see which wrestler would hit the floor or exit the ring first. She got totally into it. Heheh.*
*My work here is done
Getting on with today’s horror shorts, then, I’ve got a random assortment. This being the last day of our horror short series, and me being loathe to exclude any of the following films, I’m posting all four of them. That’s right – I’m coming at you with 32 minutes of horror on this final day!
1). The Drain is the second of the two films I’d said did not strike me as belonging in the horror genre, but in the horror genre, it is. In any case, The Drain is an exceptionally well-crafted, original short film. I do find it to be psychologically haunting.
2). Next up: Brother. You knew there had to be at least one Japanese horror story in this series!
3). Then we have Larry, who teaches us to bring our own electronic devices with us to work. I’ve read that this horror short is being developed into a full-feature film, by the way.
4). I’m throwing in The Jester especially for Halloween! Moral of this story: clap in appreciation after a jester performs a trick. Jesters like applause.
Leaving the gym last night, a friend stopped and pointed at the sky. The full moon could be seen rising above the horizon… a colossal, intense moon poetically aglow with inner fire and lore. In honor of this year’s Hunter’s Moon – a perfect Halloween moon if I ever saw one – I bring to you the horror short Luna.
The moral of this story: pay attention to the lunar calendar.
We set the alarm for 3:00am this morning, but when it went off, I hadn’t slept. We’d gone to bed at 1:30am. It was like my body knew that I only had an hour and a half, so it said, why bother? We got Maman (mother-in-law) to the airport, came home, and went back to bed. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the gym. We got up at 8:15am, but my brain wasn’t fully awake for another hour.
Thus, our 10-day house guest stint came to an end. It was a great ten days, I’m happy to conclude! It was over before we knew it.
October, too, will screech to a halt when November comes around next week. The month of horror short films will be over. There are still so many I’d like to share, and hundreds more I haven’t seen yet. My horror short film marathon will continue, but I won’t have an excuse to post my favorites here after the month turns next week.
Today, I bring you three horror shorts equaling 14:00 minutes. Going from shortest to longest, I’ll start with Whisper. It’s exactly two minutes long. Moral of this story: turn off all of your devices before going to bed.
This next horror short, Mama, so impressed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro that he was inspired to make it into a full feature film. Here, he provides an intro before the short:
Lastly, we arrive at Mulberry Night, which teaches us absolutely nothing. There’s nothing to learn from this. That’s part of what makes it scary. This could happen to any of us.
It’s Thursday, and I’m sure of it. Contrary to what I’d said on Facebook, Tuesday was not Friday Eve. My mother-in-law is here for a ten-day visit, and I’m frazzled. I only sometimes know what day it is.
I’m terrible at hosting house guests. I might seem okay from the outside, but on the inside, I’m frantic with the change thrown into my routine. This sort of circumstance reminds me that my routines are actually essential to my mental health. PTSD loves routine. PTSD needs routine.
However, the stress I manage to create for myself when hosting a house guest doesn’t preclude my enjoyment of said guest. My mother-in-law is adorable and endearing. She may sometimes express her motherly love in perplexing ways, but it’s motherly love nonetheless. As challenging as it can be at times, a mother’s love is phenomenal. I’ve spent the week observing it.
Maternal love is a protective love, a force unparalleled.
This brings me to Pieces, a horror short film of the supernatural variety. May I say again that I’m delighted to share these short films with you? This is what creative talent can accomplish: it can bring us important messages through art. I’m hooked on short films. It’s just pleasing when a complete story unfolds and wraps up within a well-paced 15 minutes.
I have a horror-related tidbit to share before presenting today’s horror short film. A part of my brain will be indelibly scarred thanks to Engrenages season 5, episode 2. We watched this episode last night. All I can say is I hope actress Caroline Proust was paid EXTRA for what she had to endure while filming that scene. You could not pay me enough to do it.
You must know? While conducting an apartment search, a plastic bag FULL OF LARGE ROACHES fell onto her head and boiled over. Roaches crawled over the lead investigator from top to bottom, getting into her clothes and running down her back as her partner frantically tried to swat them off of her. We had to see the roaches caught and sticking in her hair. We had to see them piling up on the floor. We had to see close-up shots of roaches all throughout the scene.
I was on the floor hyperventilating and clawing at my eyes with the edge of a scarf as I wanted to watch and NOT WATCH at the same time.
Roaches are the worst of my two phobias, as many of you know, and these were the worst of the worst. These were of the sort that terrorized us during the Great Roachpocalypse of 2016 wherein hundreds (not exaggerating) of huge sewer roaches rose up en masse from our front yard lawn and hovered a few feet above the ground in a gigantic, shimmery, oily, reddish-brown cloud. The insect guy who inadvertently flushed them out took great satisfaction in this result as it exemplified how in the summer, sewer roaches will gather and hide where there’s water (the roaches had been attracted to the drain on the lawn). The lawn’s days were numbered after that. I believe we had it ripped out within two weeks of the incident.
In comparison to all of the above, I have Recon 6 for today’s horror short film October post. It’s one of the two horror shorts on my list that I wouldn’t call “horror.”
Recon 6 offers a fresh take on a very tired subject. If there’s a current “overplayed song” of the horror sub-genres, it would be this one. I used to enjoy it, and I’m still prepared for the worst, but I’ve long since lost interest in watching or reading anything of this sub-genre. That is why Recon 6 so wonderfully surprises me.
It’s actually lovely, judiciously poignant, and even metaphorical, don’t you think? Also, the story has a moral: always carry a handbag with a secure (i.e. zipper) closure.
In a regular cardio kickboxing practice, you sometimes have more to sweat out of your system than others. We usually carry a normal stress-load into the workout, getting to the gym eager to kick and punch the week into smithereens because it just feels so good. At last night’s Body Combat class, though, I wanted to kick and punch it clear into the next century.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with politics and the way the current overall situation has divided even family members. Our political climate is a wrecking ball. Fractures sustained one, two years ago have refused to heal, if not worsened… and it’s hard to imagine how a complete break can ever be mended. When this kind of helplessness builds to fury, you get an extra visceral kickboxing workout. Politics, meet my straight right/cross punch. I’m over it.
I don’t know where this little rant came from. Oh, yes! I was going to say a little something about adrenaline and how it can fire you up, whether it’s slow-burn adrenaline or the kind of adrenaline blast you get when you’re shaken.
Or when you’re trying to escape a killer such as the ones in slasher flicks like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and their ilk.
I’ve got a good, old-fashioned slasher flick to share with you today.
Never fear: this one’s tame for what it is! Slasher flicks are notorious for their gore, but as promised, there’s very little gore in this excellent film that runs for only eight minutes and 42 seconds. I’m talking about The Quiet Zone.
To balance things out, this next short-short horror film is supposedly based on a true story… loosely based, I would guess, with the urban legend factor doing the rest. This is 2AM: The Smiling Man.
Last week at Target, a man approached the woman behind me in line and starting talking about vampires.
With childlike wonder, he spoke earnestly of “the undead.” He remembered that in Interview with the Vampire, the vampire thought it would be best to turn the child into a vampire when her mother died. He mused on the psychological implications of being a child vampire, and then he apologized for talking too much about vampires. He explained that it all started with Count Chocula cereal, which is “undead because it’s a chocolate-eating vampire.”
This had to be the best one-sided conversation I’ve ever overheard.
Well! My last post flushed out enthusiasm for horror short films, so for those of you who wanted more, you got it. (Much arm-twisting occurred.) In honor of Halloween season, every TALC blog post in October will include at least one horror short film.
To this end, I’ve had to watch tons of horror shorts. The things I do for you guys. It is, after all, my responsibility to vet the films and to share only those that I enjoy and find impressive in some way. As with all art, this determination is subjective… you may not like what I like.
Please also note:
–I’m only sharing films with no profanity, no nudity, and zero to minimal gore.
–I’ve chosen from sub-genres ranging from psychological horror to fantastical horror to the supernatural and to the psycho killer, though even in the latter, there’s not much in the way of killing.
–There are two films in the bunch that I wouldn’t even say are horror films. They might be a little dark, but they’re much more drama than horror, in my opinion. They’re just excellent, beautiful short films. I’ll indicate those when I post them.
–Whether I share one or two films at a time, I’ll keep the total viewing time to less than 15 minutes. You can watch them in the space of a coffee break.
That said, here’s today’s spooky horror short film: Itsy Bitsy Spiders. (Moral: encourage your child’s artistic inclinations.)
That Asian-Looking Chick 