Reviewer: Christine Stanton
The opening night gala for the 9th Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival 2024 features eleven brilliantly varied short films from a talented bunch of UK filmmakers.
House Hunters – Joe Warner – 8.6/10
The housing market in the UK is enough of a nightmare as it is, but Joe Warner takes it one step further and turns it into a bloodthirsty fight to the lease. The combination of the cold estate agent, decrepit yet in demand house and desperate house hunters, with the light deadpan humour, alongside the suspense in how far they will go to secure the lease makes for a fantastic short horror.
Skulk – Max Ward – 8.4/10
This is brilliantly executed as a creepy, tension-ridden short film. Elina Gavare excellently conveys the realistic confusion, fear and discomfort that she feels, as she tries to figure out what the strange noises inside her house are. The bedroom setting is uncomfortably familiar, adding a creepily believable aspect to the storyline.
Inferis – Philip Wolff – 4.2/10
There is a nice amount of suspense and intrigue, with some well-shot close ups to elevate the unsettlingly mysterious location. The storyline is slightly lacking though, the secret door doesn’t grab enough attention, and the final scenes are too fleeting and inconsequential to really make an impact. Good concept, that just needs fleshing out slightly to really drill into the creepiness of the company.
Aurora – Rita Osei – 4.9/10
Aurora comes into contact with a strange woman on her way home from her City job, not realising that she’s changed her life forever. Transforming into a vampire, her daughter tries her best to be supportive, regardless of how terrified she is of her mums new personality. This is a slow-burn, that mainly focuses on family dynamics, with a straightforward, realistic approach to becoming a vampire.
The Cutbacks – Robert Sladden – 9.4/10
Our favourite of the night – absolutely fantastic! The simple concept of a work Zoom call is executed into a hilarious horror short. The Zoom split screen is great to capture everyone’s reactions, the script is comedically corporate and the scenes that focus on the ‘cutbacks’ are shot really well, including enough detail and gore, but still brilliantly blasé to further lean into a HR hellscape.
Cul-De-Sac – Francesco Gabriele – 7.3/10
Creepy neighbourhood and over-friendly, ever-present neighbours are horror inducing enough, but Francesco Gabriele ramps this up with their cult-like, multi-level-marketing scheme that captures everyone and turns them into spandex-clad carbon copies of each other. Although silly and humorous, it explores and expands on the unsettling atmosphere very well.
Nervous Ellie – David Yorke – 8.8/10
The cinematography of this short is what stands out most in this funny yet horrifying short. New to the dating scene – Ellie is anxiety personified. Kelsey Cooke is fabulous – really making her stressed out state endearingly uncomfortable. The final scene is beautifully impressive, and although horrifying so uniquely stunning that it will remain memorable for a long, long time!
Forever Flowers – Joe Solomon – 8.7/10
The characters are wonderfully introduced – all seemingly sweet and attentive on the outside, with the undesirable aspects of their personalities slowly revealed and wonderfully executed. The pace of the storyline is perfect, with a fun twist that wraps everything up with a satisfying conclusion. The cinematography is well done, with one shot in particular – a close up of the eyes, which is excellently impactful.
Safe – David Yorke – 8.3/10
Although only around 1 minute long, this is packed with action, comedy, suspense and intrigue. It gets straight into the fast-paced scenes, with the brief but humorous dialogue packing a punch and remaining memorable.
Unravelling – Aimee Willemse – 6.0/10
This slow-paced folklore horror features a ton of woodland location shots to really emphasise the isolation of the family at the centre of the storyline. The grandma and granddaughter are clearly characterised, with their ordeal laden with fantastical creepiness, while being wincingly uncomfortable to look at.
Killer Pencil: Curse of the Inanimate Objects – Samuel Lodato – 4.8/10
Leaning heavily into an 80s B-Movie style aesthetic, Lodato combines acting with animation, with his supernatural tale of a killer pencil and a cursed family. The addition of the animation is an enjoyable twist, but outside of this, it is slightly too formulaic and isn’t really engaging enough to stand out.
The 9th UVHFF runs from 28th October – 3rd November 2024
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