Terror on the Thirteenth: Transfigure

Horror stories and films have always been on the cutting edge of technology--not just when it comes to cinematic special effects, but also the technology that is commonplace in our lives. Partly, this is necessary because how can characters be isolated and stalked by a scary killer when all they need to do is use their cellphone and call for help? It is also necessary because part of what makes horror stories horrific is how they invade and corrupt our everyday safe existences.

Computers, smart phones, the internet, and all manner of instant messaging and video-chatting has been the fodder for horror films of varying lengths for quite some time now. It's natural, because over the past 15-20 years, our lives have grown increasing centered around them. This month's Terror on the Thirteenth selection is one of those, being brought to us by talents who have emerged as favorites here at Terror Titans--writer/director Dylan Clark and his frequent star Hannah Clark.

We love everything about how this is executed and we also love the fact that the main character doesn't just sit around and wait for doom to befall her, but we also wish that there was more to this film. There are so many unanswered questions by the time it ends that we want to see "Transfigure" developed into a longer piece. (More often than not, we're satisfied with having unanswered questions by the end of these short films, but not here! We want more!)

Transfigure (2021)

Starring: Hannah Clark

Director: Dylan Clark

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Terror on the Thirteenth: Overly Possessive

If you think you're having relationship troubles, you might feel better after watching this little tidbit.

Overly Possessive (2017)

Starring: Jon Robben and Colleen Kelly

Director: Russell Hansen

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

(For more short films, make sure you're back in here October for the 31 Nights of Halloween. We'll try to get something up once a month until then... but only the October festival is a sure thing!)

In Observation of International Dance Day

The Ballerina (2021)
Starring: Valeska Miller
Director: Aaron Fradkin
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A late-night rehearsal turns into a nightmare for a young dancer (Miller).

Since mid-2020, Aaron Fradkin has been putting a short horror film onto the Social House YouTube Channel every month. We came upon his excellent work while preparing for the 2020 31 Nights of Halloween, and we suspect his name will come up quite a bit during the 2021 Halloween festivities around here; his output has only gotten better over the past year. (Selections are already underway, but we start getting serious around late August.)

Fradkin released "The Ballerina" early in the month of April, and as soon as we watched it, we knew it had to be featured here on International Dance Day. (We'd already added a picture of star Valeska Miller to this year's observance at Shades of Gray, so this couldn't be more perfect!)  

And speaking of perfect, there isn't a second of wasted time in this film's 8-minute running time. It stars by establishing the lonely emptiness of the dance studio late at night and continues building the tension and mystery as the horror really starts. That said, there were a few moments at about the halfway mark, where I feared Fradkin might be losing his grip on the horror-mood as I found myself increasingly reminded of a famous scene from "Duck Soup" starring the Marx Brothers... but that ultimately made the horror more intense when it exploded in full-force.

The curiously long-limbed Valeska Miller is the perfect actor for this brief excursion into weird horror, especially because she is a classically trained dancer. The genius of the casting is even clearer during the last few minutes of the film and the end credits sequence.

"The Ballerina" is almost a Ten-star film. It misses perfection only because of a special effect near the end that doesn't quite come off as well as it needs to. Otherwise, it's spot-on technically, and brilliantly performed by its star. I encourage you to take a few minutes to check it out right now, by clicking below.

And when you're done, you can visit Shades of Gray for more celebrations of dancers and International Dance Day by clicking here. You can also see more Valeska Miller by clicking here. 

Terror on the Thirteenth: Devil's Door

 Today, Terror Titans brings you a public service announcement with an object lesson attached: Don't be stupid and play one of those "mirror games." Bad things always happen.

Devil's Door (2020)

Starring; Victoria Fratz

Director: Aaron Fradkin

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Fourteen on the 14th at 14:14

"The Deli-very" is only 14 seconds long, but it tells a complete story and provides a twist ending! This is an amazing little film! How it came in 15th in the competition it was made for I'll never know--the other 14 must have been Platonic Ideals, each and every one!

The Deli-very (2018)

Starring: Anonymous Actors

Director: Jason Michael

Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

Fear-filled Phantasms with Richard Sala

What happens if you mean to write a letter to Santa but accidentally send it to Satan? Richard Sala conjures up an artist conception of this terribly festive day!

Terror on the Thirteenth: Jamie

Writer/Director Dylan Clark was one of our featured creators during 2020's 31 Nights of Halloween celebration here at Terror Titans. We couldn't fit this little masterpiece in, but that's why we have the bi-monthly Terror on the Thirteenth posts! (We started these earlier this year, and we're going to continue them into 2021!)

Jamie (2018)

Starring: Ramzi McFarland

Director: Dylan Clark

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A teenager (McFarland) performs an occult ritual to contact a spirit from Beyond.

"Jamie" is one of those short films that relies almost entirely on the plot-twist to work. That's pretty common. What isn't common is that the twist is perfectly executed, as is everything leading up to it... and that comes after. The only reason this film isn't getting a Nine or perhaps even a Ten rating is because the creature in it is a bit underwhelming in its appearance--Clark and his ensemble of actors and technical crew have some along way in the two years since this film was made. (Although I loved the way the creature communicated.)

Watch "Jamie'" for yourself and let me know what you think!

Fourteen on the 14th at 14:14

The 31 Nights of Halloween may be over for now, but Terror Titans isn't going to go complete dormant until next October. Instead, we hope to bring you tidbits of terror at least once a month, starting today with this 14-second horror flick, posted at 14:14 on the 14th day of the month.

We plan on doing this every other month until the forces of Halloween are back in full force in late 2022! We're kicking this series off with "Sandman"!

Sandman (2015)

Starring: Chance Monahan

Director: Joseph Monahan

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

It's a Nightmare on My Street!

Enjoy this Halloween classic (inspired by a Halloween classic) from Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince!

31 Nights of Halloween: Happy Halloween!

Sadly, Halloween may be basically cancelled throughout the United States and possibly the world--why I can't figure out, since wearing masks is what Halloween is all about!--but I hope you have some candy on hand, just in case some trick-or-treaters come knocking. And if you don't... well, I hope you fare better than the subject of this tale.

Happy Halloween! (2020)

Starring: Victoria Fratz

Director: Aaron Fradkin

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

31 Nights of Halloween: The Jester, Chapter 3

The Spirit of Halloween, the Jester, is once again on the prowl, as the 31 Nights of Halloween come to a close for 2020. This is the first of a number of films that we'll be featuring today and tonight. It's a direct continuation of "The Jester, Chapter Two", which helped close out the 2018 festivities.

Writer/director Colin Krawchuck has done something very neat with this three-part series, in addition to making each installment better than the one it followed. If you have seen all three chapters, and have an exceptional memory, you'll notice what it is. If not, I'll reveal what it is after the film.

The Jester: Chapter 3 (2019)
Starring: Aimee Rowan, Mason, Rowan, Kyle Crowder, and Benjamin Rowe
Director: Colin Krawchuck
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

The Jester, while roaming the town in search of those with Halloween Spirit, encounters a little girl who has no one to go trick-or-treating with. He volunteers to escort her around the neighborhood.



There are many things I love about "The Jester: Chapter 3", but foremost among them is the way it loops back around to the beginning the first installment in "The Jester" series. If you go back and watch it here, you'll see that it starts where Chapter 3 ends. I also really loved the little touch that the home of the girl who can't go trick-or-treating already has a Christmas reef hanging on the front door! Maybe, if there's a Chapter 4 to this series, the Jester will be paying those parents a visit...

Saturday Scream Queen: Peculia

Peculia made her first appearance in "Evil Eye" #1 (Fantagraphics 1998), a quarterly anthology title featuring stories written and drawn by Richard Sala. Peculia went onto become one of Sala's signature characters, as well as a favorite of her creator and his fans alike.

Most of Peculia's adventures start with her just going about her day... and end up with her fighting for her life against cultists, monsters, or bodice-ripping villains who have learned some tricks from mad scientists and mad slashers.

Peculia in a world where the horror and thriller movies of the 1920s through the 1950s could all easily have taken place, and where no one thought twice about encountering the supernatural or the by-products of mad science.

Sala never revealed much about Peculia's background. All we ever learn is that she's an orphan who lives alone in a large mansion located on the outskirts of a town. Here, she is looked after and assisted by a short manservant named Ambrose. Meanwhile, a bandage-swathed mystic known as Obscuras watches her from afar--although he and his minions cause almost as much trouble for Peculia as they rescue her from. 

In 2002, nine of Peculia's adventures were collected in "Peculia" (review and some excerpts here, including the history of our heroine's lost shoes). After the cancellation of "Evil Eye" in 2004, Sala revised and expanded the Peculia story from #11 into the graphic novel "Peculia and the Groon Grove Vampires" (review here) in 2006.

Sala wrote in 2010 that he had several unpublished Peculia stories and "hundreds" of sketches and drawings involving her, and that he hoped to some day to a book collecting them. Sadly, Richard Sala passed away on May 7, 2020, and the Peculia collection he thought of never came to pass.

While many of Sala's Peculia sketches and drawings have made their way onto the internet over the years, there are at least two Peculia stories that have never been reprinted outside issues of "Evil Eye", and at this point we'll probably never get to see them, nor the treasure trove of unpublished material from his sketch- and notebooks.

But... Peculia lives on, wandering the countryside of the imagination and finding trouble, whether she is looking for it or not.

Finally, if someone has the good taste to make a Peculia movie, "Trouble is a Friend of Mine" MUST be the theme song for it. It's also great music to listen to get you in the mood to read any of Peculia's adventures... and the video has the added benefit that it feels like it could have been animated by Richard Sala!

31 Nights of Halloween: The Lonely Slasher

It's the night before Halloween, so it's the perfect time for this little gem about a Slasher who wanted a little more from life. (It's also a nice attempt at a homage to the cheap 1980s slasher films.)

The Lonely Slasher (2017)
Starring: Corey Michael Adams, Ben Smith, Sam Bird, Will Milligan, and Nicola Brown
Director: Jack Bentley
Rating: Six of Ten Stars