Beautiful Creatures: Tiny Terrors 2!

Tell me, is the rematch ever better than the original fight?
-John Crighton, Farscape

Beautiful Creatures ran a special piece last summer about short films. It covered a list of gory, off the wall horrors including Velvet Road, Brutal Relax, and Don’t Move. These are movies with smaller budgets, shorter run times, and far less mainstream acclaim than your bigger studio films unless they end up in an anthology series like V/H/S but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t every bit as fun and terrifying as their feature length counterparts. On the contrary, these are vignettes written, directed, and performed by some of the most creative filmmaking talents in the business today. And, because the only thing people seem to love more than a good listicle is a sequel, I’ve compiled another collection of some of the best short horror films to watch, this time with an added twist. I’ve decided to drop names on four groups continuously bringing us these Tiny Terrors through their YouTube and Vimeo channels and other social media outlets. Follow the links and enjoy these great shorts and be sure to check out the original short film piece I did featuring even more original content by some great filmmakers.

The Bad Cookie (Daywalt Horror)

No, not the Full Moon, Gary Busey starring 2005 horror romp but a shorter, less ridiculous story full of witchcraft, romance, and killer confections. A young woman, a devotee of Halloween, decides to make Jack-O-Lantern cookies while watching horror movies on All Hallow’s Eve. But an accident while cutting the pumpkin shapes imbues one cookie in particular with life and, fresh out of the oven, it falls madly in love with her. The two have a brief evening together, playing and watching television the way you might expect someone to do with their dog or a small child. But when her boorish, disrespectful boyfriend arrives, the cookie goes from being grotesquely adorable to murderous. The cookie/monster is a puppet with bulging eyes and a hideous looking set of tiny dentures inside its grinning mouth that makes it both loveable and creepy at the same time. Drew Daywalt, the writer/director/actor has an entire channel devoted to some of his bizarre and terrifying tales and you’re missing out if you haven’t given him a look.

The Birch (Crypt TV)

You gotta love a story where people get what they deserve. It’s even better when what they get is an ancient, terrifying tree monster ripping them apart in a shower of blood and viscera. A young man is tormented by a bully who, on this particular day, has decided he’s going to escalate things from ridicule and physical abuse to outright murder. The bookish lad takes off into the woods with the villain in pursuit but it soon becomes apparent that, thanks to an ancient tome our hero has been reading, the tables are turning. Remembering that “the birch will protect you”, words he never fully understood until he dove headlong into the forest in fear of his life, he awakens an ancient guardian spirit that graphically obliterates the bully. The make-up and effects on this piece are as sensational as the writing and overall cinematography with the towering monster, a tree spirit made flesh, appears like the mythic Golem to save its creator.

Monster Problems (Ariescope)

I make no excuses for the fact that I’m a bit of an Adam Green/Airescope fanboy. If you’ve ever visited the Ariescope Youtube page you’ll find some really great, entertaining shorts that range from actors and directors sharing brief stories to all out horror short films and vignettes. Monster Problems is one of my favorite horror-comedy shorts on the page. A young boy is lying in bed doing exactly what any kid will do late at night, seeing monsters in the corner, closet, and underneath the bed. Following yet another time honored tradition, his initial response is to turn on a bedside lamp and hide under the sheets, thus stymieing the would-be child eaters who now have to discuss their options. The make-up effects are awesome, the acting is solid, and the story itself is entertaining and funny. Featuring Derek Mears

Astaroth (20 Seconds to Live/Ariescope)

20 Seconds to Live is a series hosted by Ariescope with a unique twist. Each short has a countdown timer that begins 20 seconds out from an impending death. Most of these shorts are horror-comedy while a few are straight up brutal. Astaroth is on the lighter side of things for this particular collection but it’s a fantastic introduction to the 20 Seconds to Live that features Ariescope favorite and Friday the 13th alum Derek Mears as a demon conjuring metal head who, in true horror movie style, misreads the words of an ancient incantation designed to summon the demon Astaroth. The make-up and effects work in this piece is light and the actual dialogue is brief, it’s still very entertaining and more than a little bit funny. The entire first season is only about 20 minutes long and, thanks to crowd funding and support from an amazing fanbase, season two is in production and releasing this year.

If you haven’t bookmarked these groups, you’re really missing out on some creepy, cool stuff. These are some of the more popular, more easy to access channels and groups releasing short horror films today but they’re far from the only ones. Any combination of “Short Horror Film” or “Short Horror Movie” can open up a treasure trove of original, inventive, and truly terrifying tales to satisfy every taste. From no budget productions made by high school kids, film students and aspiring movie makers to side projects by directors like Neil Blonkamp like his latest Rakka, there’s no end to the incredible short film finds you can get on Youtube and Vimeo.