[REVIEW] Fun Size Treats for BIPOC Halloween Shorts on Huluween
With Halloween fast approaching, we’re in no shortage of sinfully delicious horror films coming out or already on our screens and in theaters. But there are hardly any shorts or anthologies that we’re able to sink our teeth into and devour straight-away.
Enter Bite Size Halloween on Huluween.
It showcases 21 shorts of horror and sci-fi variety with some social commentary, while others are just plain good stories being told for the fright of it. They run at most 10 minutes long, or shorter, and are easily digestible pieces. With stories such as Nian, Nzu, Incomplete, Remote, and Angels, the directors cut the chase to deliver some really wonderful work.
For Nian (Chinese for “new year” or “year”), a Chinese-American young woman deals with racist and prejudiced remarks against her, but her amah (grandmother) lets her know to let them know to “eat her pu**y, racist!” It ends up having minor consequences that backfire for the racist who seeks to exact punishment for her standing up for herself. She is rescued by the Nian mask that is said to ward off evil spirits and is used as a warning for bad children. In her case, it saves her from the rude young lady. Nian shows respect for Chinese culture and the roots thereof, with a bloody ending that is quite humorous but satisfying.
In the case of Nzu (in Nigeria it is the popular word for Calabash chalk), a young interracial couple are meeting with the daughter’s father, the boyfriend wanting to ask for the woman’s hand in marriage. Instead, he is put through a Nigerian ritual that allows him to see gruesome visions of the past. The father asks him why he has come, and the young man who is quite liberal in his views of the world can’t seem to get it out, blurting out instead that he shouldn’t be made to feel bad for the doings of his forefathers, that the past is the past. The father eloquently states, “you cannot move forward until you acknowledge what is behind.”
With Incomplete, we witness a black man having to do random sobriety tests via a breathalyzer machine that takes a photo once the test is completed. However, this machine is never complete, and it seems something is stalking him. The man appears to keep missing his tests, each time it shows ‘incomplete’, resulting in a sheriff to come and check on him. He does let the sheriff know something is wrong with the machine and the sheriff remarks that he told them about that machine, that it’s old and the men keep disappearing because of it. He then dismisses this and asks for the man’s BLM shirt because he’s always wanted one. He lets the man know that the other person in the photo needs to register. “There’s no one else here but me,” the man says. The sheriff doesn’t believe him, and when he leaves, the man is left to see just how wrong he is.
Remote features a family of a father, son, and daughter who own a pawn shop. While they seem disconnected with distractions of video games for the son and the daughter on her phone, by the end of the short, you can see they are still a tight unit. When the father is away picking up food, a triangular object from space makes its way to the dumpster in the back of the shop where the boy happens upon it. It opens itself to the boy, a box coming out along with a sphere-like item that saves them from would-be robbers. One particular element of the short will echo Terminator for those who are fans of the Terminator films.
Another sci-fi piece in the collection, Angels, showcases a young woman caring for her sickly mother, taking on house and land duties. When she accidentally cuts herself, the sky shows a beam of iridescent lights slowly descending from the sky and to a wooded area. The young lady goes to investigate and finds a visitor who takes on her wound with just a touch. What she does next with the visitor’s body will help us understand the ending.
Each tale has its own flow, and the stories are interesting and thoroughly entertaining. They are what flash fiction is for writing but in film form, and leaves the watcher riveted and wanting more. Each director exhibits their talent in a fun and pleasurable way, even with some social commentary concerning respecting different cultures, combating racism, facing prejudices, and how they affect minorities. They are shorts, but they tell a story from beginning to end in a satisfactory manner.
This October, if you choose to brave the short pathways laid before you, you can set your sights on these stories shared here and more on Hulu.
