31 Nights of Halloween: Not Alone

Tonight's selection reminds us that the supernatural is always waiting to strike during the 31 Nights of Halloween!

Not Alone (2020)
Starring: Mariah Chileshe
Director: Skulo Banda

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A young woman (Chileshe) is settling in for a quiet night in front of the television... but a mysterious entity has different plans.

Like the previous short film from Skulo Banda that we've featured here at Terror Titans, "Not Alone" could have benefitted from a little editing to make it tighter and tenser. Banda also made the odd choice of putting more opening and closing credits against black screens. This might be just a pet peeve on my part, but opening credits on short films like this one that are longer than just the title and maybe the names of the stars and the director annoy me. Frankly, when it comes to something this short, I really don't want to have to sit through the list of creators involved before I can get to enjoying their work.

With all this negativity out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed the aura of weirdness that permeates this film, and I think you will, too. Just be patient with those useless opening credits... or skip them. You'll get the same information (and more) at the end of the film.)

Bloody Mary Monday

The first Monday of every other month during 2022 is Bloody Mary Monday here at Terror Titans; it's the day on which we bring you short films about young women trying to summon evil spirits in front of bathroom mirrors.

It's easy to see why the young woman in tonight's offering didn't get the result she was looking for: She does everything wrong.

Bloody Mary (2021)

Starring: Tiza Chibesa

Director: Skulo Banda

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

(I like the variations and mixing of spooky stories in this one, but I wish the filmmaker had either put a little more effort into the sound mixing or just omitted some of the sound effects entirely. The film could also have benefitted immensly if the second half had been tighter.)