Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Midnight Shorts Block

Midnight movies are an absolute essential for a horror festival – those films that are best played to a slightly sleep-deprived and otherwise altered, but most importantly, enthusiastic audience.

Chicks

Polly (Nicole Marquez-Davis) is nervous, but excited, about attending her first sleepover. As she settles into the ultra-pink surroundings, sing-alongs and pillow fights it looks like her worries were unfounded, until dark motivations emerge from her fellow attendees. Honestly, I don’t think you can really predict where Chicks is headed at all but the film cleverly seeds visual references throughout, resulting in a cohesive feel. The bizarre tone never lets up and it is very cool to see something so unashamedly girly with that underlying darkness.

Meat Friend

Another of the Soho Horror Film Festival shorts I’d been lucky enough to see before, Meat Friend, as you can probably tell from the image above, is a difficult one to describe! Izzy Lee’s short is full of perfectly delivered one-liners from the titular Meat Friend. Just the perfect kind of film to watch with an audience to really appreciate every strange moment.

Big Weekend Plans

Tesha Kondrat takes a relatively simple concept about a woman deciding to end her life and takes it in a deadpan direction as her plans continue to go awry. At just over 5 minutes long the short is an ideal length to explore that idea, not needing to expand or fill the time, meaning every beat and scenario is pitched just right.

Maybe You Should Be Careful

Megan Robinson’s film features a break from the traditional narrative of a woman as a victim and swaps it so the male partner is preoccupied with a recent series of male disappearances in the area. Despite Alistair’s (Dan Beirne) concerns, June (Kelly McNamee) is keen to put a spark back into their dimming sex life, resulting in a series of misunderstandings. Both performers have excellent chemistry which makes this mainly dialogue-focused short work as they find themselves increasingly at odds. Those exchanges excellently weave doubt in the viewer, culminating in a great punchline.

Wild Bitch

Rebekka Johnson and Kate Nash take on triple duties in this hilarious short, writing, directing and performing. Johnson plays Barb – a woman who tightly wound TV news journalist Melanie (Nash) is sent to interview as part of a story about the impact of new development on the natural surroundings. Their interactions are great fun and paying attention to the background is so rewarding with a few excellently placed sight gags. Despite the laughs, there are also serious points to be made here in terms of the treatment of women and nature.

The Promotion

Rapid-fire dialogue underpins this witty, ever-escalating tale of two office workers desperate to secure a promotion. The barbs they throw at one another continue to grow in absurdity as they move around the cramped office space. At less than 5 minutes long, this is punchy and again, delivers a message along with sharp humour.

The Midnight shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Young n Deadly Shorts Block

The horror genre is no stranger to sinister coming-of-age tales and this group of short films uses excellent performances from young performers to capture the fear that comes with growing up as well as the ability for younger people to be just as dangerous as their adult counterparts.

Amygdala

Anna (Eva Samioti) is having a birthday party and her younger sister Melina (Panayiota Yiagli) is desperate to be involved. This atmospheric short hinges on Yiagli’s stoic, forceful performance as she attempts to retain closeness to her sister at any cost. The shifts between that gentle, coming-of-age story shot in soft-focus around Anna’s relationship with Maria (Donna Petropoulou) to the darker elements are accomplished with great skill, never quite letting you relax for the duration.

Spell On You

The sudden appearance of a wart on Salomé’s nose signifies a break from innocence, heralded by her father’s extreme reaction and immediate exclusion from childhood games. As she struggles with the continued appearance of skin lesions, she begins to notice other strange things within the house that no one is talking about. Slow pushes on near-static scenes allow a kind of quiet to wash over the film, echoing the secrets playing out within the household. The sedate pacing and rich colours make this an easy short to be invested in.

Lalanna’s Song

There is a real stylistic flair to Lalanna’s Song, especially as it switches from the relative mundanity of the character’s experiences dealing with daily prejudice and sexism into something otherworldly. Shoby (Parvathy Thiruvothu) and Miriam (Rima Kallingal) are mothers, trying to balance their own lives with that of their children. The pair share a fluid chemistry and their dialogue is free and easy, realised in a way not always captured on film. Shooting the same event from different perspectives and snap edits switching up images all contribute to a constantly shifting and relatively slippery short that is never short of intrigue.

Hiama

Hiama follows Vani (Elsie Polosovai) in her experience at a prestigious private school. Her race and that her mother is a cleaner at the school mark her as an ‘other’ resulting in abusive behaviour from her peers. Using the familiar trope of menstruation as signalling a change in a young person’s life, this film has such a powerful energy. With a focus on Polosovai’s face and movement, the intensity just grows and grows into something truly powerful.

The Young n Deadly shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Queer Horror Shorts Block

Final Girls Berlin has always dedicated a space to queer horror, platforming films that range between queer fears and a celebration of LGBT+ figures in front of and behind the camera. 2023’s edition was no different, with films exploring identity, fear and coming to terms with both.

Plastic Touch

Everything about this film is furthered by the complete commitment to the aesthetic. From the performance style and set dressing, the viewer is immersed in the world of two sex dolls who meet and imagine another life together. In embracing the stilted movements and exaggerated body parts this is instantly absorbing. It is to the film’s credit that it is able to be powerfully moving despite the stylistic restrictions placed upon it as the relationship is explored.

Apostasy

Identity and religion are competing within Tula -a young girl struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality and burgeoning feelings. Her internalised struggle comes to the fore through the inventive use of religious imagery that leaps off the screen. Maddison Dell’Aquila’s performance is excellent, able to balance both uncertainty and strength.

Ricochet

With a departure from more conventional narrative, Ricochet is a short (around 4-minute) exploration of a honeymoon gone wrong following the couple indulging in some acid-laced raspberries. This is a hazy montage of increasingly intense and sinister experiences that may alienate some, but there is no doubt that a real effort has gone into constructing the imagery that provides a hallucinogenic feel.

It Takes a Village

It Takes a Village also prioritises its visual style over anything more straightforward, constructing a candy-coated suburban village where something sinister is happening. Sound clashes and overwhelms, delivering on the uncanny nature of the situation while maintaining that clearly defined visual style.

Don’t Go Where I Can’t Find You

After an arresting opening sequence, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Find You envelopes the viewer in a highly sophisticated and tactile haunting. Centred on a composer who seeks to use music and sound to connect with her dead lover, this has a palpable mood, enforced by layered sounds as jarring chords leap over static hisses. The time afforded to the story and the treatment of the ghostly goings-on allows for greater impact.

Violet Butterfield: Makeup Artist for the Dead

It is no surprise that Violet Butterfield secured the Audience Award at the festival. This charming, campy short features the charismatic presence of Violet (Michelle Colón) who has a special connection with her clients. The mix of the macabre funeral home setting and Violet’s quirky manner and style perfectly marry, but above all the film’s overall message of acceptance is intensely meaningful and uplifting.

The Queer Horror shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: High Tension Shorts Block

The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival presented a shorts block guaranteed to raise heart rates and provoke intrigue. A mix of supernatural phenomena, claustrophobic traps and frantic chases await.

You Will See

A slow-moving creep-fest focused on a supernatural camera that gradually ramps up the tension to an almost unbearable degree. This is supported by lingering on the incredible detail in the photographs that pulls you into every frame. There is a constant sense of unease throughout that feels uniquely rattling, becoming as obsessed with the perfect shot as its lead character.

Face Not Recognized. Try Again.

It has been said that the now everyday use of mobile phones has taken a lot of previous tension out of horror films, with scripts having to find time to focus on why the phones do not work or take them out of the situation entirely. Face Not Recognised leans into the idea of the phone not always being a perfect solution. As a woman wakes up with her head encased she finds she cannot call for help because she cannot unlock the phone. For a relatively simple concept, this really dials up the tension and unpleasant details as she tries to free herself. The vastness of the forest surroundings and the fear of what could have been done and what lies within the casing sustain the concept brilliantly.

Nia Sol Nia Sombra (Neither Sun Nor Shade)

Another successfully stressful entry as Nerea (Yannick Vergara) finds herself in an altered state in the forest. Soon, she is proposed to, but this only seems to start a sequence of even more unusual events. This swirling, intentionally disorienting work unfurls the details as that tension rises, utilising the wide open space as a constant threat with themes of punishment.

Kickstart My Heart

Kickstart My Heart was easily my favourite short film of 2022 after a screening at the Soho Horror Festival so it was an absolute pleasure to see it again. Kelsey Bollig has delivered on every short film I’ve seen of hers so far and I’m very excited about her feature debut. Kickstart My Heart stands out for the dynamic way it deals with thudding action sequences and vibrant choreography while also weaving an intensely emotional narrative. Further added to by a credit sequence that confronts the viewer with just how personal the film is, this is horror being used perfectly as catharsis.

Unes (Bond)

Kicking off with a pleading phone call from Zola to her ex-girlfriend, Unes establishes multiple sources of horror in the first few seconds. Zola’s boyfriend is seemingly transforming into something dangerous and she desperately needs to be away from him. The slaughterhouse setting adds an extra layer of discomfort as characters duck behind hanging animals throughout the chase. Cleverly, the film doesn’t dwell on the details of transformation, instead putting all of the focus on building the atmosphere. A great credits sequences ties everything together, allowing a deeper connection to the characters.

Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria features a mysterious figure arriving in the wake of a death in the family. The family’s distance from the village allows the film to build this threat, keeping everything in close quarters. The emphasis on the verbal sparring between the younger woman and the stranger makes this gripping, continuously flipping motivations and the source of threat. The inherent claustrophobia of the house and the dim lighting all add up to a potent, stirring finale.

The High Tension shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Bodily Autonomy Shorts Block

That the fight for bodily autonomy is still ongoing is utterly depressing so it is no surprise that creatives are taking that frustration around real-world horrors into striking horror narratives. The anger of these shorts is clear, calling attention to different kinds of control over bodies and lives.

Marked

Anyone who has ever experienced the side effects of hormonal birth control will find resonance in Marked. Andrea (Lauren Summers) takes on a new, experimental treatment after finding the pill is causing too many problems. While the unnerving visuals are memorable, the scariest part of this is the medical gaslighting she endures and how much she is sidelined in her own healthcare. The apathetic men around her do little to help and even the doctor is keen to emphasise the benefit for her partners over her own experience. This is an excellent union of horror with an all-too-real concern for many dealing with birth control.

La Antesala (The Anteroom)

This excellently rendered sci-fi concerning a refugee fleeing with her baby uses that initial gloss and high-tech appearance to expertly pull the rug from beneath viewers. A chilling view of a post-apocalyptic event and the increase in control that comes with it, delivering so many unpleasant details in dialogue before a final jolt of horror that hits hard.

Yummy Mummy

Lillith is having a baby and it is all people want to talk to her about. She laments, ‘no one is interested in me anymore…just the bump’ as everything in her life begins to revolve around her unborn child. Shrieking intrusions and quick cut highlight her increasing loss of control and voice. The clash between the talk of the birth of a child being a brilliant thing while also detailing the intensity of the medical experience perfectly outlines how trauma and celebration are both dominant concerns. The special effects here are excellent, coming to represent Lillith’s fractured state.

Sleep

I am not even that sure I can review this adequately. Every now and then you watch a film that hits you with the kind of fear that I can only describe as primal. At only around 5 minutes long Sleep is one of the shortest films in the block, yet uses close-up, tightly wound photography to the most unsettling effect. Absolutely anxiety-inducing and functions as a short blast of a nightmare I’m unable to get out of my head even weeks later.

Lichemoth

When a photographer heads to photograph a notorious metal band, she gets more than she bargains for when on-stage theatrics could be something more sinister than she ever imagined. With a strong basis in folklore this explores the idea of possession via sexuality. There is a dreamy quality to the original concert setting that persists throughout, using flashing lights to add to the sinister goings-on. This is a film content to take its time before arriving at its macabre reveal.

Sangue Nero

Sangue Nero features a young girl struggling with a tense family situation that escalates into abuse. Seeking revenge and to take back control, Chiara is led by unusual forces to complete this. The low-lighting of the house is warm, yet claustrophobic, aiding in placing the viewer in Chiara’s restricted, tense life. As the forces unfold, the ties between generations of women and a connection to nature become an increasingly intense mix, offering an escape from her harsh reality. This almost-dreamy take on revenge is engaging and satisfying.

The Bodily Autonomy shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Close to Home

Taking something of a departure from the otherworldly elements of horror, the Close to Home shorts block features films that seek to explore everyday social, cultural and political concerns through the lens of horror.

Everybody Goes to the Hospital

Everybody Goes to the Hospital takes a distinctive animation style and marries it to an absolutely traumatising story of familial apathy and medical torment. Made all the more painful by hearing each detail in the voice of a child, the film unfolds in chapters that detail the medical issues of the girl, sometimes confused in her explanations as she tries to put together what is happening to her. Truly heartbreaking.

Merah Bawang Putih (Shallots & Garlic)

Generational divides, eating disorders and lockdown ennui all come together in this mix of family traditions and modern concerns. This adaptation of the folklore brings it to that modern setting and indulges in body horror (both external and internal, via calorie counts appearing on screen early in the narrative) along the way. An underlying soundtrack maintains a steady tension as the film unfolds.

Ethel

Like Everybody Goes to the Hospital, Ethel makes use of textured stop-motion animation to explore the nature of unpacking trauma as a child. In Ethel, the discovery of a box of outfits leads to a disquieting, fantastical dance with her mother’s passions surfacing in interesting ways.

Seafoam

Seafoam excellently uses extreme close-ups to constrict space and imbue a real feeling of claustrophobia throughout. Director and performer Izzy Stevens infuses the metaphor into every frame, with each moment increasingly feeling like an intrusion. Form and meaning are built well, with the splits in images and those close-ups contributing to a discomfort that grows ever more intense.

Scooter

I have been lucky enough to see Scooter a few times now and I appreciate it a little more each time. This story of a girl walking home alone at night is not what you expect and is all the more engaging for it. Anita Abdinezhad as Adrienne is a likeable screen presence and her reactions anchor the direction the film takes.

The Close to Home shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Menacing Presences

The Menaing Presences shorts block is full of films that leave an impression, whether they deliver on a well-earned jump scare or simply linger with heaps of unresolved tension.

L’appel (The Call)

Made from archive footage with a voiceover telling the story of a young woman seeing a notorious horror film and allowing the lasting fear and anxiety to fully influence her life. The footage used in the montage is interesting and the voiceover is calming, despite the serious nature of it. That idea of a film’s atmosphere being so penetrating that it directly changes someone’s trajectory is a very interesting one, speaking to the power of horror to strike chords with people far beyond the cinema.

Midnight Visitor

The premise of Midnight Visitor is a simple one – a woman in her apartment hears another woman outside in distress and has to balance her own safety and that of a stranger. In less than 4 minutes Abby Brenker’s Midnight Visitor manages to squeeze in a lot of nightmare fuel, along with a set piece that you definitely won’t see coming, despite the familiarity of the setup. That arresting moment is delivered perfectly, in keeping with the claustrophobic setting and sickly green tinge of the film. Definitely one of the ones that has stuck with me for the longest time.

Sleep Study

Pregnancy is terrifying when taken into the horror genre but the fear rarely stops there. Post-partum horror where sleepless nights and newborn anxieties dominate lives is full of opportunity for scares. Sleep Study takes this idea and runs with it in an appropriately jumpy and energetic presentation as a woman suffers from night terrors around her newborn baby. That energy is maintained throughout, pausing only to deliver on a sickly, well-realised finale that knows sometimes, the scariest things are the things you don’t see.

Night Work

Another eerie parenting tale in which a writer takes some time away from her 4-month old to catch up on work. As she continues to write, she can’t help but feel something else is with her. Night Work is so deeply ominous, thanks to excellent use of darkness and near-silence. Each frame encourages the viewer to explore the surroundings with longer, steady shots of darkened rooms that feel suddenly threatening. Keisha Mitchell does excellent work as an anchor to support those lingering looks and her performance is to be commended.

Mudmonster

While Mudmonster is a film that makes the most of uncanny visuals with simple yet effective design work, it is its sound design that most impressed me. The dips to near-silence are suffocating. The ability to genuinely provide a jolt without just turning up the volume on a jump-scare is one that should always be celebrated and this has several moments that utilise a lack of volume to incredibly disquieting effect. A music-box-style soundtrack later in the film further adds to the menace within the film, drawing all its threads together.

Knit One, Stab Two

I love a visual essay, so films like Knit One, Stab Two are always going to grab my attention. It is particularly interesting to see a focus on knitting within horror, allowing for the exploration of class, age and the impact of using a conventionally soothing activity to denote danger and even, as the film suggests, ‘a prop on the edge of madness’. More overt, knitting needle-as-weapon scenes are set against quieter scenes that merely hint at a character’s state of mind, but there is no doubt that this is an excellently researched and well presented piece.

The Menacing Presences shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Body Horror

Fear of the body, what it can do to you and what it can become is, understandably, a major preoccupation in horror. The Body Horror shorts block explores those fears in a selection of films that take that fear to extremes.

In The Flesh

Tracey has spent enough time masturbating with the assistance of her bath tap that she has started to take notes. Those notes are seen early on, reflecting how much of her time and other life, including work, is being taken up by her hobby. One plumbing disaster later and Tracey is forced to confront the reality behind her odd situation. Many reviews have made comparisons to the leaking fluid from Titane, which is understandable in some ways, although In The Flesh is a more individualistic tale, with Tracey’s state of mind at the centre. Her anxiety spiral, demonstrated by cuts to increasingly unhinged Google search results keeps us with her throughout the runtime, an effect that allows the rest of the film to stretch into other areas and fully bring this story together. The physical and emotional are interlinked in a way perfectly expressed by the film’s take on body horror, resulting in a pretty powerful message.

Violet Daze

Violet and Daisy’s long-time friendship is established early on within Violet Daze and the tension from their changing friendship resulting from a move is central. Daisy is keen to point out that they aren’t 8 years old anymore, but Violet is set on reaffirming their friendship, no matter the cost. This is such a skilful short in that it telegraphs its direction from the outset, yet manages to retain the tension, embracing the inevitability as another layer of horror. Director Marisa Martin drip-feeds the viewer, each moment laden with meaning and increasing dread. Bonnie Ferguson as Violet and Emma Horn as Daisy both portray their roles excellently, crucial when so much rests on their interactions.

Shlop

One of the block’s shortest films is Shlop, coming in at just over two minutes long. If body horror is about finding fear and revulsion in the body, this certainly taps into that, offering ultra close-ups full of movement and squelching. Deliberately difficult to pin down, this denies narrative in favour of feeling and the drive to evoke discomfort.

First Blood

A first period is a stepping stone in many coming-of-age horrors and First Blood functions as a particularly good example. Rather than feeling revulsion or unhappiness at her first period, Mia (Lauryn Sa) instead greets it with a muted, yet prepared response. That initial flatness soon wears off, however, as she finds herself increasingly curious about the process. Mixing music video aesthetics with provocative visuals that Lauryn Sa fully commits to this exploration of awakening female hunger really leaves an impression.

Swallow

On a purely personal level, this film was probably the most difficult for me to watch, such is the effectiveness of what it serves up. After a tense dinner, a self-absorbed actress is invited by another woman to a mysterious club to discuss the secrets of her continued success. The sumptuous visuals draw you in before switching to ever more skin-crawlingly effective imagery. However, it is the dark playfulness of the short that keeps you engaged, toying with punchlines and upping the suspense all the way through.

Love is a Fire

Intimacy issues and a particularly vicious yeast infection present an obstacle for the couple at the centre of Love is a Fire. The couple are presented as struggling with their physical relationship, pitching Olivia’s (Celina Bernstein) desperate attempt to connect against Andrew’s (Kenny Yates) reluctance. In many films exploring the dynamic of a struggling couple, female desire is often sidelined, so it is refreshing to see it front and centre here, even when deriving horror from it. This would perhaps benefit from being slightly longer to more fully explore the couple, although both performers do well to sell their relationship in a short space of time, a little more about them would assist. However, it is the memorable effects that you’ll likely take away with you – like it or not…

Legs

Pregnancy is pretty high on the list of body horror explorations, and for good reason. It is still one of the statistically most dangerous things for a person to do, even with good medical care, so what better phenomenon to mine than that? Joy and her husband are attempting to have a baby and the process is wearing. When Joy accidentally swallows a spider, she thinks there may be another way to be a mother. By mostly adopting the bright colours and peppy soundtrack of something much lighter, Legs gradually dials up the horror until a conclusion that is genuinely unsettling.

The Body Horror shorts block screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023. Find out more about the festival at their webpage.

Guiltea

Guiltea is a short film based around a sentient, killer teapot.

Charity shops are places you can find a real bargain, but in Guiltea, the owners of a secondhand teapot are placed in peril by the pot’s high standards and sinister ways. The teapot, named Terrence Tealeaf has very strict ideas about the kind of person he wishes to spend the rest of his existence with and will go to any length to find them.

Guiltea is well-constructed and feels a little like a sequence of skits that would be found over a number of episodes in a sketch comedy. The first segment introduces the idea which allows the filmmakers to toy with the format as it progresses, at times playing to expectations and at others, subverting them. The result is a swiftly-moving and entertaining piece of work.

The DIY-style effects are in keeping with the overall look and feel of the film, with the simple design of the teapot allowing an anchor for the rest of the action to revolve around it. This simplicity allows the voiceover from Professor Elemental to take centre stage, delivering witty monologues about his situation and surroundings.

This is a quirky and well-realised idea that will appeal to fans of British horror comedies.

Guiltea was released on YouTube on September 3rd. You can watch the short here.

North Bend Film Fest 2022

The North Bend Film Fest returns for 2022 from August 4th – 7th, bringing independent shorts and features that highlight both established and emerging creatives.

I was lucky enough to cover last year’s festival and am thrilled to be doing so again. You’ll be able to see reviews from the festival soon. You can find these posts by searching North Bend. Many of the short films made it into my favourite short films of 2021 with a huge variety of genre and genre-adjacent material available, from the impactful stop-motion The Expected to deeply scary podcast horror Skinner 1929.

The horror shorts advertised for this year include Baby Fever, Black Dragon, Bug Bites, Darker, Death in a Box, Scooter and They See You. Featuring some truly evocative imagery, these films represent a wealth of short film talent and celebrate the art form.

2021’s event brought fast-paced action in the form of Tailgate and a more introspective, quirky look at relationships between sisters in Superior. This year’s event is no different, offering several Centerpiece screenings, including Rahul Kohli-starring Next Exit and tense horror Swallowed. In addition, Next Exit Mali Elfman director will be awarded the Dulac Vanguard Filmmaker Award as recognition for her feature debut.

From opening film I Love My Dad to closing film Please Baby Please, plus an anniversary screening of Bubba Ho-Tep, North Bend truly has something for everyone. You can check out the Film Guide to attend if you are in North Bend and stay tuned to their social media channels for news and events.

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