Short Film Showcase Two - FrightFest 2020

Werewolf – Director: Marcus Meedt
Middle-class, right-on hipster types playing a game called werewolf with dreadful consequences. Well made, acted but just a bit too smug and knowing to be enjoyable as a satire or as a horror/comedy. (2/5)

The Motorist – Director: Ciaran Lyons
Hands down one of the best shorts in the programme. This very strange variation on the villagers with torches and pitchforks trope as a motorist refuses to get out of his car after a serious incident with macabre consequences. (5/5)

Love Bite – Director: Charles de Lauzirika
There’s a pandemic and zombies force bickering a couple to coup up in a truck. Home truths and egos play a big part in this tightly written and directed short that actually ends up being quite unpleasant. (3/5)

The Gift – Director: Laura-Beth Cowley
Short animation rich in pagan symbolism and metaphor as the film imaginatively explores the significance and the power potential of the menstrual cycle. (3/5)

Wash – Director: Kiggs
Swedish weirdy that features a grubby house, gaffa taped washing machine and soft toy bunny on wash day. Very dark images in this one and very, very creepy. (3/5)

Fuel – Director: Hermione Sylvester
This is a very strange film, in three acts, that is wilfully abstract possibly to the detriment of the thrust of the story. It does however look excellent with a fantastic design as a female actor deals with the unwanted attention of a man from her past by channelling it on stage. (2/5)

Polvotron 500 – Director: Silvia Conesa
Seedy offering from Spain that builds on the Woody Allen orgasmatron in Sleeper taking it in to a room where a holograph tries to entice a man who just wants to get some sleep. Good production values and witty script drive an original short. (3/5)

Keith – Director: Alex Baro-Cayetano
It’s an unlikely name (or is it?) for the childhood creature of the under-the-bed nightmares, though he strikes up a rapport with the little girl and his modus operandi leading to a great twist. (4/5)

Death Walks on Nitrate – Director: Kevin Fermini
Shot on Super 8mm with a lurid palette a la Giallo which looks lovely. A photographer captures an old lady in the park which turns into a nightmare once she gets back to the dark room. Excellent visuals and sound maybe overly reverential technically detracting from the overall story. (3/5)

Afterlife Bureau – Director: Dimiter Dimiroff.
One for the civil servants and how even in the afterlife there is paperwork, someone trying to get around it while others look to play the system. Excellent film that plays with all sorts of stereotypes with a great sense of humour. (4/5)