This is the shortest of all the short films featured during the 31 Nights of Halloween film festival. It's also one of the subtlest. Blink and you'll miss something really creepy....
Jack (2010)
Starring: Abigail Daywalt
Director: Drew Daywalt
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
A serial-killing couple go looking for victims in the wrong house... and find something worse than they are. (Writer/director Michael Golderman says that today's film was made in six hours with a three-person crew--and one of said crew also appeared in front of the camera.)
Getting used to sleeping in a new place can be challenging... especially when you have a roommate.
First Night in the New House (2015)
Starring: Katelyn Marie Marshall and Mariam Roth
Director: Marc Fratto
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars
This is one of the absolute best shorts you'll see during this festival of mini-films. The attention to detail in it is amazing--especially the sound design. (I thought I'd spotted a flaw and the evil critic in my shot to the surface with 'AHA! Only Nine Stars for you!"... but when I watched it a second time, I realized that it was *me* that hadn't paid quite enough attention.
Fratto and the rest of the gang at Insane-o-Rama Productions are releasing this short film as an invitation to contribute to a Crowdfunded feature film that will star Katelyn Marie Marshall in a similar role, but the dangers threatening her and her family in the new house are far more numerous and deadlier than in "First Night in the New House."
A pair of sisters plan a surprise for their Mom on her birthday; what could possibly go wrong? (Well, this IS the Terror Titans blog, and IS a mini-film from Drew Daywalt, so whatever goes wrong, it's probably pretty horrifying.)
The Closet (2011)
Starring: Brea Grant, Kaylee Score, and Bonnie Aarons
Director: Drew Daywalt
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Emma Roberts, daughter of B-movie icon Eric Roberts, is on the verge of making the transition from child star to adult A-lister. It remains to be seen how her future career unfolds.
She made her horror movie debut with "Scream 4" (2011), and she currently appears in the television horror/comedy series "Scream Queens" She was fated to be among the Saturday Scream Queens here at Terror Titans, especially taking into account that she will have a recurring role in upcoming and will have a recurring role in upcoming episodes of the horror series "American Horror Story" and is the star of "Nerve", a thriller slated for release in 2016.
It's not a Halloween film festival (even a mini one) if there isn't at least one creepy clown film. So... here we go! It even has the bonus of featuring a Babysitter in Trouble (which was a common theme the last time we did 31 Nights of Halloween here at Terror Titans.).
The Clown Statue (2013)
Starring: Meghan Smith and Brad Mirtes
Director: Aaron Mirtes
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
I've noticed that cell phones are a central feature of many of the shorts I've looked at this year, and many of the ones I've selected. Do we perhaps have the sense that even though the ability to call for help is closer than it's ever been before, we are just as isolated and exposed to the monsters as we've always been?
A cell phone is center to the horror in today's selection (including the habit they have of going missing...)
By the way... this one got knocked down from a Nine to an Eight rating due to some odd choices in sound mixing. It was distracting the way voices moved from left to right in stereo for no reason.
Today's offering is really creepy, but also a little unsatisfying, because it ends without the viewer getting much of a hint as to what might going on. But everything up to the very end is very well staged and executed.
Photo by Mike Irish of Firechariot Design
Cold Feet (2014)
Starring: Christian Martin, Abidur Rahman, and Zerleena Kahn
Director: Faisal Hashmi
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
