A NIGHT OF HORROR 2011 - SHORT FILM HIGHLIGHTS

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A NIGHT OF HORROR 2011 - SHORT FILM HIGHLIGHTS

April 14th 2011 03:53

Film festivals are often the only chance you’ll get to see short films. Although these days some of them might end up on youtube, chances are slim. The best short films usually are, well, short. But there are exceptions to the rule. A Night Of Horror International Film Festival actually began as a three-night Australian short film showcase, and festival directors Dean Bertram and Lisa Mitchell have maintained strong support of the short film format with several mini-programs within the festival, including the Lovecraftian Lunacy selection of shorts that has been a staple of the festival since the beginning.

I’ve only been attending A Night Of Horror for the past three years, but I’ve seen some real doozies each year. 2011 was no exception. In fact I’ll be bold enough to say that this year that many of the short films have been giving the features a run for their money! A short film is a curious creature though, because there is less time for in-depth characterisation and certainly next to no time for any exposition. Instead a short film must work on several levels simultaneously right from the get-go, and work extra hard to impress the audience. Originality of script, acting, and atmosphere are paramount.

Over sixty short films (including a few music promos) screened during this year’s festival. Check my previous post for which short films won awards. Below are the highlights from each of the mini-programs; take note of the titles and their directors, who knows where these short films may rear their heads again, or better still, the director makes and releases a feature!

Shorts Program #1: Monster Mash-Up
Prano Bailey Bond’s egocentric Lynchian promo clip Poltergeist, Rory Lowe’s mosquito nightmare The Midge, Alex Epstein’s fresh vamp situation You Are So Undead, two very short animations; Phil Tippet’s Heavy Metal-esque MutantLand, and Nick DiLiberto’s colourful execution Medusa, and last but not least, Shireen Hinkley’s strange and creepy Hush.

Shorts Program #2: Lovecraftian Lunacy
One short stood head and shoulders above all the other Lovecraftian phantasms, and in fact, ended up being my favourite short film of the entire festival; from Mexico, Isaac Ezban’s Cosas Feas (Nasty Stuff), a darkly comic descent into a young boy’s nightmarish family life. Brilliantly deranged and grotesque, and although not really violent, certainly not for the squeamish! This half-hour short – and one of the few exceptions of a longer short film feeling much shorter than it actually is - took cosmic dread to a whole new level of phantastical expression. Shot entirely in ultra-wide-angle and treated with faux-cine-damage, Nasty Stuff was a crude visionary delight!

Shorts Program #4: Night Of The Evil Dead
Cameron McCulloch’s bittersweet love story Home, Vincent Templement’s humorous conversation piece Cabine of the Dead, Christopher Walsh’s blink and you miss it, Rise of the Living Corpse, Alex Horwitz’s melodramatic ‘til death do us part Alice Jacobs is Dead, starring Adrienne Barbeau, and Bill Palmer’s romp The Living Want Me Dead.

Shorts Program #5: Crazy Mofos
Michael Panduro’s graphically visceral and sexual death metal promo clip Ohrwurm, Damien Mace & Alexis Wajsbort’s scary babysitting piece Red Balloon, Federico D’Alessandro’s pitch black Recollection, and Gregor Erier’s oddly-titled example of Murphy’s Law in full-effect St. Christophorous: Roadkill.

Shorts Programs #5 and #6: Australian Showcase
Wade K. Savage’s tragic Hunt, Miguel W. Herrera’s groundhog day from hell, Day Before, Dylan Tilbury’s sly strangers with candy Hitched, Andrew Lane’s inspired spoof The Zombie Monologues, and Joshua Long’s backyard epic of the evil living dead Axed.

Two other shorts that grabbed my attention screened before features; William Prince’s weird Click (or should that have been Switch?), and Jason Bognacki’s lushly oneiric and Argento-esque The White Face (whose short The Red Door was my favourite short film from A Night Of Horror 2009).

A small gripe, but an important one: the one thing that stood out amongst the short films was the inconsistency in fake blood. Very few directors had the colour and consistency convincing. The other mention is the overkill of music. Only a few directors understood how important the restraint of music is in a short film (even a feature), and how significant sound design is.

Here are Horrorphile’s picks:

Overall Favourite: Cosas Feas (Nasty Stuff)

Creepiest: Hush, Red Balloon

Best SFX: Ohrwurm, Cosas Feas, Axed

Most Original: Cosas Feas, Recollection, The Zombie Monologues

Most Outrageous: Ohrwurm, Cosas Feas

Most Atmospheric: Cosas Feas, The White Face, Axed

Best comedy: Rise of the Living Corpse, The Zombie Monologues, Cosas Feas

Here’s one of the shorts, a few trailers, and a couple of promo clips:

Medusa (short film):

Trailer for Axed:

Trailer for St. Christophorous: Roadkill:

Trailer for Cabine of the Dead:

Trailer for The White Face:

The White Face - Teaser by Jason Bognacki from Jason Bognacki on Vimeo.