PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The Happenstance Horror Film Festival (Salem, Massachusetts) offered a block of films from the greater New England area. The eleven-film lineup covered plenty of ground, from surreal escapes and unsettling television to workplace frustration with a body count. Some stories connected with me more than others, but there was no shortage of strange ideas.
Catastrophe Model
Abandoned cars in the woods make an intriguing starting point for Catastrophe Model, which takes an unexpected turn into violence, paperwork, and insurance premiums. Two women fighting in the wilderness and an agent arriving with documents suggest a much stranger arrangement than an ordinary insurance dispute. I had some trouble following how everything fit together, and uneven audio occasionally made that harder. Still, the collision of bureaucratic business and backwoods violence gives the short a peculiar identity.
Artichoke
An eye examination device becomes a doorway between realities in Artichoke, which follows a captive woman named Cynara as she searches for escape. There are interesting individual pieces here, particularly the phoropter’s use as a portal and the possibilities it creates for a chase across worlds. I found the transitions difficult to follow, which kept me at a distance from Cynara’s struggle. Viewers with a stronger appetite for fragmented, surreal storytelling may find more to connect with.
Death Row Dog
A woman, a newly acquired dog, and a skin condition form the unusual setup for Death Row Dog. The suggestion that the animal might help treat her condition introduces an uneasy question about their relationship. This is a restrained entry, with little of the escalation found elsewhere in the block. I kept waiting for the premise to develop further, though the pairing of companionship and an unconventional cure offers an interesting starting point.
Face Crusher Legends
Restraint is considerably less of a concern in Face Crusher Legends. A collection of stories builds around a one-eyed killer whose approach to murder is pretty well advertised by the title.
The film moves between a woman trying to sleep before a trip, a storyteller bargaining for more time with a debt collector, and a man seeking story ideas from a virtual assistant. Its connecting thread is a monster who keeps finding increasingly excessive ways to live up to his reputation. The appeal here is the outrageous violence, including one particularly unpleasant use of a severed limb. This one is for the gore crowd.
Feral Girl Summer
Anyone who has endured a condescending client will recognize the frustration behind Feral Girl Summer. A woman tries to discuss business numbers with a man who makes the meeting thoroughly unpleasant. Her response goes well beyond anything human resources could reasonably mediate.
The short takes a familiar workplace aggravation and pushes it into sudden, bloody absurdity. Sometimes a horror premise only needs a table, an obnoxious client, and someone who has finally had enough.
Infectum (A Possession)
Infectum (A Possession) begins where many possession stories might end: a man emerges from the experience and discovers that his world is over. That starting point raises an unsettling question. What does regaining control actually mean when the damage has already been done? The premise turns attention toward the aftermath of possession and the terrible possibility that waking up may offer very little relief.
Alone in Here
Reality television gets uncomfortably personal in Alone in Here, as a woman watches a program documenting her own disappearance in real time. Then the narrator starts speaking to her.
That’s an effective hook. Television is usually something we put on for company, and the idea of that familiar background voice taking an interest in us has an immediate creep factor. Of the block’s more straightforward horror setups, this was one of the easiest to imagine happening in your own living room.
Noctis Monstorum
A man battles Halloween monsters in Noctis Monstorum, a short built around the gap between what he sees and what is actually happening. Its eventual reveal gives the creature fighting an uglier meaning. It’s a familiar kind of horror reversal, but the Halloween setting provides a fitting place to explore how dangerously someone can misread a costume.
Summoning Sickness (My favorite of the entire block)
And then there’s the demon stuck doing chores.
In Summoning Sickness, a man calls upon supernatural assistance for a pickle jar, toilet paper, laundry, and other tasks he could probably handle himself. Moving a remote closer is an especially good measure of just how little effort he’s willing to make.
The joke keeps working because the requests are so small. You start sympathizing with the demon, who has apparently been summoned into a very disappointing service job. An appreciation cake adds another funny wrinkle to their relationship. This was the standout for me: a simple idea that gave me the most enjoyment in the block.
Greenwitch The Lake
A woman enters a lake and finds herself unable to trust what she’s experiencing in Greenwitch The Lake. The setting gives the story an immediate vulnerability, with the water becoming part of her disorientation. It’s a troubling premise that moves toward a particularly dark confrontation, taking the block back into more serious territory after its comic detours.
What We Become
Set in a world overrun by the infected, What We Become follows a survivor facing an agonizing sacrifice. The circumstances are familiar territory for the genre, and I wanted something that would distinguish it more clearly from other infection stories. Its central dilemma, though, returns to an enduring source of horror: surviving long enough to face a choice you never wanted to make.
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My strongest response to the “Local Love” block came from its sense of humor. Feral Girl Summer found a bloody outlet for workplace irritation, while Face Crusher Legends went all in on excess. But Summoning Sickness was the one I’d most readily watch again. Apparently, even in a lineup full of killers and infected survivors, a demon being asked to fetch toilet paper can steal the show.
