Nightmares Film Festival 2019: Shorts Recap, Part 2

Part one of my shorts coverage of Nightmares Film Festival 2019 can be found here. These are the remaining shorts that I watched, though the list of great ones to see is much longer than the fraction of titles I was able to absorb.

• Prior to the first film on Thursday, Twig told the dark and desperate story of a young woman begging a wooden-faced creature for the safe return of her sister from his grasp. The story is simple but the creature design is quite impressive.

• To Enter You Must follows Phoebe’s initiation into a secret society that requires her to kill various people to advance to the last stage of acceptance seemingly with no remorse. Her dedication is tested by a task that she cannot bring herself to execute in this allegory for growing up and leaving home.  https://www.facebook.com/toenteryoumustshortfilm/

• The film that kicked off Friday was the highly impressive short from Justin Nelson. We are taken through the burgeoning relationship of a young couple that begins with a few ground rules from the woman. He is not to go through her phone, computer, or medicine cabinet. Nightly, he is to also check for monsters under her bed. Of course, the viewer wonders what happens if he DOESN’T check? (So impressed I was by this one that I immediately texted a friend who curates shorts for a web series.)  https://www.facebook.com/Check-110996837000867/

• A wheelchair-bound young man struggles to gain autonomy from his caring yet overprotective father. One night before bed, the dad finally realizes that he must give the son personal space. However, when the lights go out the son could use some major help from dad. This short features fantastic practical effects and was nominated for Best Horror Comedy Short at the festival.  https://www.facebook.com/sleeptightshortfilm/

• In this horror host throwback, Hipster Sasquatch tells a modern chiller of a woman who waits seven weeks for a table at a new brunch spot. The puppeteering and sarcasm in this short are brilliant.  https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=10159378968945117&_rdr

• Receiving an anonymous gift might be unwelcome. A woman answers her door to find a single heart balloon with eyes outside. At first, she is apprehensive but decides to bring the balloon for the party of a lifetime. When the party goes on too long and she cannot eject her new houseguest, she finds out that perhaps she should have never let it in. https://www.facebook.com/blowoutfilm/

• A woman with a rare rapidly-progressing genetic disease begins doubting her sanity in Fused. When a woman who helps her is found murdered and she cannot recount her evening, she feels like the twin sister she absorbed in utero may be acting on her own. She enlists the help of her girlfriend to monitor her in hopes of disproving her theory. This is truly a chilling tale of losing control of one’s own self.  https://vimeo.com/302110328

• A woman caring for her ill mother finds a secret her deceased husband had been hiding in the barn in this story set in the late 1800s. Though the machine brings comfort to both her and her sick mother, the conservative small town populous does not accept the innovation.  https://www.facebook.com/TheAutomatonFilm/