Written by Chris Keaton; Directed/Produced by Alex Lugones
The Devil’s Toy
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The Midge
Written by JJ Lowe; Directed by: Rory Lowe; Produced by Rory Lowe, Will Adams
You’re in the woods… You’re alone… And something wants your blood!
A young city girl seduces her new boyfriend on a camping trip in the Suffolk countryside. But the sexually inexperienced country boys worst fears are realized when he comes face-to-face with the scourge of the British wilderness…
Following a classic horror model, the film builds an atmosphere of slowly heightening terror, as its visual narrative moves ever inward, from wide establishing shots of the open landscape to super close-ups of sinister ‘weird nature’ and the miniature horror itself — the midge — a CGI marvel presented in microscopic detail. Shooting on the highest-quality digital format and using the latest developments in 3-D digital FX technology to achieve the highest level of creature design and animation, the film is a seamless blend of real footage and CGI, accentuated throughout by striking and original sound design and music.
Beautifully positioned within its genre, this twisted take on the horror movie toys with themes of sexual desire, environmental catastrophe, genetic manipulation and urban-rural relations.
11 min8 Butterflies
Written/Directed/Produced by Nick Narciso
A guilty mind trip or vivid nightmare, you decide. 8 Butterflies redefines the term ‘film noir’ as we know it. We will soon begin to find ourselves roaming lost in a place where hope and light are absent. A place which seems so dark and familiar, where we drift within a reality that may not even exist, as our sanity begins to fade.
17 minAlice Jacobs is Dead
Written/Directed by Alex Horwitz; Produced by Jacob Robinson
Dr. Ben Jacobs created a drug that allowed mankind to fight back against the Z-virus, which nearly destroyed civilization entirely. Now he’s trying to cure the last lingering strain of the virus. Working out of an abandoned, dilapidated hospital with George, his friend and assistant, Ben carries on with his research. But he harbors a secret at home. The last infected specimen of the Z-virus is Ben’s wife, Alice, secretly living in domestic quarantine. As Alice feels herself slipping away, Ben races to find a cure. George begins to suspect that Ben is hiding something, while Alice slowly becomes a monstrous Z-positive.
21 minLeftovers
Written/Directed by Paul Moore; Produced by Paul Moore, Todd Gilpin, Scot Tanner, Eugene Johnson
Claire has adjusted to life in the world of the dead. Alone after her husband and son fell victim to the scourge of walking corpses, she spends her days striving to maintain a normal life.
However, a ‘normal life’ is a relative term in this dark, new world. When Claire saves a family from a horde of the dead, all of them come to realize a terrifying truth…
There are some things worse than death…
17 minThe Duty of Living
Written by Brandon Hunt; Directed by Brandon Hunt; Produced by Brandon Hunt, George Retelas, John Meredith
A soldier must deal with his past when he returns home from fighting the undead after the apocalypse
“The Duty of Living” is a short film about a young soldier’s return to his family’s home after the zombie apocalypse.
Juan Riedinger (Jennifer’s Body, The Day The Earth Stood Still) plays Darren Stark, who’s joined up with one of the emergency squads dispatched to clear out areas with zombies still roaming the town.
As he makes his way back to his deteriorated home, he must contend with the memories of the last words he had with his family.
20 minEvery 28 Days
Written/Produced by Arielle Boisvert; Directed by Kenny Chow
When a newly patented birth control begins to show its side effects, Dr. George Manning must take to the streets with his wife and idiot brother in the hopes of finding a weapon against the most terrifying adversary imaginable: a PMS-driven legion of blood-thirsty zombies.
God help us all.
18 minZombie Team Building
Written by Nathan Blackwell, Bracken Batson; Directed by: Nathan Blackwell; Produced by Elyse Rukkila
Zombie Team Building is a comedy about the ultimate corporate team building experience … zombie survival!
It’s day seven, the final day of the retreat, and there’s only four survivors remaining. They’ve learned ‘synergy’ … they’ve learned ‘innovation’ … now it’s time to put their teamwork to the test with one final challenge.
10 minWritten By
Written by Matt Duggan, Trevor Boelter; Directed by Karni Baghdikian; Produced by Stephanie Bell, Mona Nash, Nicole Chamberlin, Trevor Boelter
Hotshot screenwriting duo Stephen Adiano (Matt Duggan) and Brian Harris (Trevor Boelter) might have let success go to their heads. Fired by the studio for failing to hand in a script, they plead for one more chance and lock themselves in a room to finish their draft about a haunted clown doll. In this horrific tragicomedy from the award-winning Annex Film Group, the duo learns how to write a killer story…but this time, it might just be their final deadline.
15 minTrick of Light
Written by David Page, Jennifer Page; Directed by J.A. Forbes; Produced by Jennifer Page
A young woman is pursued by a shadowy gentleman through a maze of forest paths. But is the pursuit a chase, or a trap?
4 minNight of the Punks
Written by Dan Riesser, Mike L. Kinshella; Directed by Dan Riesser; Produced by Dan Riesser, Christopher Stoudt, Michael D. Fuller
Small town punk rockers The Brain Deads have their first out of town gig. But there are a few problems: The venue is deserted, the promoter is a creep, their bass player has gone missing, and the only kids in the audience appear to be bloodthirsty monsters from hell. It’s gonna take a lot more than a few power chords and teenage angst to survive this night. Night of the Punks is a horror-comedy short film in the vein of fun 80’s classics like The Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Demons.
18 minNecromance
Written/Directed by Matthew Munson; Produced by Blake Myers, Matthew Munson
What would you do if you met a real zombie? Would you overcome your urge to run like diarrhea? Would you help the Zombie “B-movie” actress of your dreams get re-seeded by a virgin? Would you find the courage to fend off zombies trying to capture your B-movie princess? Would possess the skills to avoid the police officers who think you are just an obsessed fan dragging around her dead body? Would you have guts to rush into a voodoo sacrifice to save your zombie girl from death beyond undead? Would it be love, or just ‘NECROMANCE’?
29 minThe Necronomicon
Written/directed/Produced by Joseph Nanni
Do you want to be a nicer person? Are you looking for inspiration to do good things? Well keep looking. But if you’re into opening up terrifying vistas of reality then the Esoteric Order of the Old Ones and Cthulhu Cultists want to help. From Bad Advice for Good Times, the team that brought you Elder Sign and Casting Call of Cthulhu, comes The Necronomicon; a short and biting spoof of faith-based commercial advertising and accepted religious dogma.
2 minThe Pledge (Panata)
Written/Directed/Produced by Scott Wurth
Tap ‘Philippines’ and ‘Crucifixion’ into your computer and you will have no difficulty finding gruesome and disturbing images of men nailed to crosses, surrounding by rubber-necking tourists and locals determined to party.
Passion Plays and pageants are common throughout the Christian world in the week before Easter. In the Philippines, these bloody re-enactments of the passion of Jesus Christ have become notorious because they are so literal.
During Holy Week, hooded penitents walk the barrios, scourging themselves with whips until their blood runs into the dust.
On Holy Friday, dozens carry heavy wooden crosses through the streets. A chosen few are part of well-rehearsed pageants, which follow the 14 Stations of the Cross to a makeshift Calvary where three crosses are erected. The ‘nailings’ then begin.
For Westerners, sneering at a ritual they see as a mixture of religious kitsch, Big-Brother voyeurism and medieval mortification rites, conducted by the poor and ignorant, is the easy option.
Scott Wurth’s revealing documentary ‘PANATA’ (The Pledge) resolutely goes behind the clichés. Over five years, the Australian film-maker visited Pampanga province during Holy Week. By filming widely and speaking to everyone, from bishops and priests to the inmates of a local prison, a more complex and thought-provoking view of the practices emerges.
They will not easily give it up.
25 minConventional Wisdom
Written/Directed/Produced by Kenney Broadway
In 2008, I took a camera crew and a list of questions with me to Dragon* Con in Atlanta, Georgia on a mission to gain a better understanding of why everyday adults would travel from all across the country and spend outrageous amounts of money just to dress up in costumes and act silly for four days straight. What I found more often than not was that the costumes did not transform these enthusiasts, rather their fantastic outfits allowed them to express something fundamental and real about their personalities. As I came to understand their mutual respect for one another I realized they were more than a community. They are a family.
23 minWe All Fall Down
Producer/Director/Writer: Jake Kennedy
After a group of college kids run down and kill an Asian schoolgirl by accident, they decide to destroy her identity by cutting off her hands and smashing out her teeth; then burying the body rather than report it to the police and ruin their lives forever.
Five years later, due to new building works occurring where the girl was buried, the group decides to re-locate the body rather than take the chance of it being discovered.
14 minViolin
Producer/Director/Writer: Pat Yaney
How does one change classical music presentation to generate a broader appeal, while simultaneously making it seem too pretentious to be endured by anyone except the author? Violin is a computer animated two-man violin solo addressing just this concern.
What makes this cartoon disturbing to some, innocently funny to others? Why is it often found to be “just wrong” by the same people that cannot help but giggle? Why is it that this above description can apply to almost any two minute cartoon that can’t really be explained without ruining the cartoon for the viewer? Only the viewing of Violin can resolve these questions. Come. Watch. And wonder nevermore.
2 minValley of Gwombi
Producer/Director/Writer: Michael Granberry
Oh no! A time-machine malfunction has left Professor Marshall Gwombi and his two children, Wes and Polly, stranded in a mysterious jungle filled with hungry dinosaurs! Professor Gwombi says dinosaurs don’t eat people, and father is ALWAYS right…isn’t he?
Valley of Gwombi utilizes breathtaking claymation effects to tell a classic story of hope, courage, and why they don’t mean crap. It is a film destined to take up 5 minutes and 41 seconds of your life…if you sit all the way through it.
6 minTurn
Producer: Stuart Parkyn, Director/Writer: Michael Lucas
Turn is a surreal comedy about traffic, survival and love. Two drivers—ambitious Christine and struggling Leo—find themselves stuck in a side alley whilst trying to turn on to an impenetrable motorway. As minutes turn to hours, and hours turn to days, Christine and Leo realize they are completely trapped together and must find a way to survive.
Michael Lucas came up with the idea for Turn as he crossed a busy motorway. “I found myself stranded on a traffic island for ten minutes. After the frustration subsided, I began to see the humor in the situation. I realized I had walked into a classic ‘what if’ scenario: “What if the traffic never stopped?” I felt that this simple idea could be funny and captivating, but could also tap into universal themes.”
11 minTo Psigio (The Fridge)
Producer: Despina Mouzaki, /Director/Writer: George Siougas
George, a greedy selfish student has become a nightmare to his fellow roomies. When they decide to buy a new fridge to replace their old dysfunctional one, they assign lazy George to the task. On his way to the shop, George discovers a large, 1950’s fridge in a deserted alleyway with a note on it reading “I work”. Without second thoughts, George pockets the money and takes the fridge home. From that day on strange things start happening to George. Little does he know, the fridge is about to teach him a hard lesson…
25 min
