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Octoberfest Horrorthon: Day 21
We all love October, and there's nothing like celebrating Halloween by watching horror movies all month long, but sometimes there's not enough time to sit down for a full-length feature. Fortunately, there is an abundance of short films available to watch on YouTube for those of you looking to feed that hunger for horror without cutting into your day too significantly. These shorts are all right around 10 minutes long, and they're all thoroughly enjoyable in one way or another (I certainly enjoyed them all anyway). So what are you waiting for? Get you comfiest blanket and get watching!
YouTube shorts triple feature: part 1 – The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon (2008)
When it hits its mark, this is a truly hilarious horror/comedy short and easily the funniest of the three. Dressed up to look like a trailer for a (nonexistent) 9-hour-long horror film, it follows a man haunted by a murderer who's trying to kill him—with a spoon. It's got a great premise and solid execution, with some surprisingly good makeup to boot. It lags a bit around the middle while it tries to pull off the Family Guy-style joke of continuing to beat a dead horse after the punchline has already hit, but this is a small complaint in what is otherwise a laugh factory of a short film.
Watch it here.
YouTube shorts triple feature: part 2 – The Sandman (1991)
If Laika made a silent stop-motion horror short in the style of German expressionism, this would be it. As a young buy struggles to go to bed, he's haunting by a bird-like man from the moon come to collect his sleeping sand. The animation here is absolutely gorgeous and definitely on par with the work of other stop-motion greats like Henry Selick and Tim Burton. It's more on the atmospheric end of the horror spectrum, but make sure you stay to the end of this one. Beautiful, surreal, and ultimately horrifying, and definitely the classiest of the three shorts.
Watch it here.
YouTube shorts triple feature: part 3 – The Backwater Gospel (2011)
This is a strange, unique, and darkly comedic horror short. A religious town with a single agnostic miscreant finds itself under the shadow of the undertaker, but its efforts to cleanse itself have tragically ironic consequences. The animation style is incredible creative: it doesn't look like anything else I've seen before (outside of video games and comic books), and has its own distinct sense of style. Its idiosyncrasies also extend to its tone, which oscillates from light to dark on a dime and may feel inconsistent for some viewers. Nonetheless I found it wholly rewarding, and its singular visuals make it an undeniable treat and the most interesting and potentially polarizing of the three (as well as my personal favorite).
Watch it here.
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Octoberfest Horrorthon
2014: New Discoveries | All Together
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