For new and independent filmmakers, film festivals present a unique opportunity to not only screen the films you worked so tirelessly on, but also form connections with managers, agents, distributors, and most importantly, future fans of your work. At the 19th annual HollyShorts Film Festival, I had the opportunity to check out an impressive variety of horror and genre short films from a talented group of filmmakers.

The Blue Drum

The Blue Drum marks the second time that writer-director Angelita Mendoza has been featured at HollyShorts. This horror drama follows Letitia (Crystal Hernandez), a woman grieving her father as she sorts through his belongings. Early in the film, Letitia is warned to not become her father and collect a museum of things; however, it is Letitia’s nostalgia and her exploration of her father’s house that leads her to a sinister secret that sours her father’s memory. From a technical standpoint, Mendoza and her crew expertly convey physical and emotional distance between grieving family members by cinematography alone. While the beginning of The Blue Drum was a bit too slow-burn for my taste, the contrast between Letitia’s love for her father and her relatives’ thinly-veiled contempt for him provides an intriguing hook that pulls us towards a devastating discovery; however, I think this film would hit harder with some restructuring of the beginning, as I wasn’t a fan of Letitia’s eulogy and think the father-daughter relationship could have been conveyed by the conversations we see soon after this scene.

In Too Deep

Chris Overton’s In Too Deep dives into the differing ways that a grieving couple handles the disappearance of their daughter. Recurring motifs and imagery quickly cued me into the premise as we contrast how the man and woman are dealing with the impending birthday of their lost daughter. In Too Deep is bolstered by strong, emotional performances, a clear directorial vision, and exciting, well-shot cinematography. Despite enjoying the film, I was slightly concerned when the film’s credits revealed that A.I. and deepfake technology was used to digitally create the couple’s daughter, considering the threat of A.I. to the work of writers, actors, and filmmakers.

CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man

Brian Lonano and Blake Myers’ CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man follows Brian Lonano, a film YouTuber who comes to discover that he’s been blue-pilled and forced to create content for sinister forces. Lonano discovers that he’s incapable of saying the word “film”, causing him to realize he’s being monitored by guards wearing dystopian Mickey Mouse helmets before he escapes the facility where he’s forced to create content. Our protagonist then teams up with several guerrilla filmmakers to fight the oppressive robots who milk them for content, using his favorite movie as a crucial weapon. This short is hyper-stylized, with the costuming, special effects, and production design creating a fully realized dystopian world, not too far off from our own current reality. I also liked that this film was humorous, but its comedy tied into the narrative arc as the power of movies is used to topple the society that controls Lonano.

Ride Baby Ride

Sofie Somoroff’s Ride Baby Ride follows a female mechanic (Celina Bernstein) who purchases a fixer upper Camaro off a pair of men. While the men advise her to be aware that “the car has some spice”, the men’s dialogue comes across as multi-dimensional, alluding to something sinister while being condescending enough that the mechanic mistakes this threat as run-of-the-mill sexism regarding her gender and profession. The film quickly becomes horrific as the mechanic finds herself trapped in the vehicle, attacked by its locks and seatbelts, and forced to fight off a sinister spirit. As a writer-director, I believe Sofie Somoroff’s script elevates some already excellent cinematography, special effects, and acting from Bernstein; however, while I recognize the limitations of short film making, I would have liked a touch more build-up before the car goes full-on evil.

Legs

Celine Cotran’s Legs tells the story of a couple who are trying to have a baby, only for Joy (Laura Carmichael) to swallow a spider in her sleep after a positive pregnancy test. This causes Joy to undergo a strange transformation, as she craves flies and weaves webs out of yarn to cope with the fact that she may very well be pregnant. I was particularly impressed with the production design and cinematography in this film, which successfully winds up the emotional punch of Joy’s arc as she begins to realize what’s happening to her and the child she hopes she is carrying. This film could serve as an excellent proof-of-concept, though in its current form, I wish that we would have got more time to connect with the couple before the horror/thriller elements got incorporated as this relationship felt a tad flat to me.

Mahogany Drive

Jerah Milligan’s Mahogany Drive demonstrates an excellent command of humor and how it can be used to advance plot and further characterization in a short amount of time. This film follows three Black men who wake up in their Airbnb after a night of partying, only to discover a white woman dead in the kitchen. The men argue about the path forward, but their emotions and conflicting opinions result in a comedic panic to conceal the body as an increasing number of white women stop by the house…only to also drop dead. I enjoyed how the men’s strategy shifted from trying to absolve themselves from blame to trying to prevent any other white women from crossing the house’s threshold and dying; however, the twist at the end that explains what was going on didn’t quite land, though it did surprise me in a pleasant way.

Even as the future of filmmaking is unclear, watching this block of shorts reaffirmed to me that indie filmmakers continue to innovate and make do with the resources they have. While these films clearly were produced on a variety of budgets, it’s clear how much work and skill went into creating so many fun, frightening films. Keep an eye out for these filmmakers, because they’re truly a group to watch!

[REVIEW] HollyShorts 2023: An Impressive Lineup of Frights and Humor