One of the highlights of this year’s Mayhem Film Festival was the mammoth 16 film shorts showcase.
Here’s our recap on some of the best short horrors we’ve seen this year.
Creaker is super short at just over 90 seconds but builds up nice mood before a clever twist ending puts a whole new spin on the events.
Unmade was a clever take on the whole seance motif, with things going quite bonkers after a woman looks to summon the spirit of her recently deceased husband.
A Little Taste is a good old fashioned witch tale where a girl is being pursued through the woods by an unseen force. Although its finale is a little cliche, it still worked really well in a short format.
It’s Not Custard is one of those films that anyone who is or has been a teenager can relate to, with a darkly comedic twist and enough goo for a feature film this was plenty of sloppy fun.
Nom is a fascinating short which makes an ageing cyclist a bloodthirsty vampire. He feeds on other keen cyclists in the nearby mountains to survive. This felt like it had feature potential and would be a fresh take on the vampire sub-genre.
Souvenir was a UK premiere which gave us some old fashioned voodoo and mixed up with the stresses of being a single parent. An extremely original piece.
Frost Bite was a great take on the zombie invasion sub-genre with a character-centric story that left us clambering for more of this story.
The Procedure 2 was an extremely random film that certainly got plenty of laughs but made next to no sense. I don’t even want to know what the first procedure was.
Toe felt like one of the stories lifted from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, as a starving boy eats a mysterious toe and pays a heavy price for it.
One Last Meal takes us to death row where a cannibalistic serial killer is finally going to get fried, but before he goes he has one unexpected request. Mixing black comedy with a twisted motif, this was another highly original short.
Limbus offered another slice of pitch-black comedy as a man discovers someone burying a body in the forest, but all is not what it seems.
Dead Quiet felt like a wink and a nod to A Quiet Place as the world tries to survive in silence. Packed with social commentary on mental health, suicide and the human obsession with digital media, this was stunning.
Bill was another dabble into the dark arts as a widow looks to see her husband one last time.
Wild Love was an extremely original animated short which pitted a group of beavers against two star-crossed lovers. Funny, poignant and gory at times, this was barrels of fun.
Once again a big thank you to the Mayhem Film Festival for inviting us along to cover their fantastic event.
Bloody Flicks 