The cheerful critique

Dark Mountain

Dark Mountain is an old New Hampshire tale about the Dreadful Doc Benton, a man who was a grave robber and found the secret to immortality in the early 19th century.

Monster Encounters

Humans encounter various monsters, but each encounter has a consequence.

Violet in Red Silk

When Violet inherits a cabin by the lake after the death of her father she heads up to the cottage to take one more look. Unfortunately for Violet someone is waiting for her and this new guest is about to plunge Violet into a terrifying nightmare that goes deeper than she could have ever imagined.

Black Dog of Bouley Bay

An old man tells the tale of his dark past in Jersey. After warning two young men not to go to the bay, they do... and they regret it.

The Strange Entrance

A footage of a strange door.

Those Who Wander

What are they? What do they seek? When all the lights go out, they will wander. And you will never see them.

Optical Memory

In a dystopian future, a recluse uses VR to live vicariously through the memories of a dead couple.

Smile

A regular at an early morning coffee shop begins to get a little too friendly with the young woman working there.

Myrna the Monster

A heart-broken alien dreamer from the moon transitions into adult life in Los Angeles like any other 20-something.

Abenteuer im All

Düse, a clever tinkerer, has built himself a toy rocket. Due to the clumsiness of his friend Moppel, an uncontrolled launch is triggered and the rocket flies away. As it is nowhere to be found, the children and the tractor driver Hans suspect it is on its way to the moon.

The Astronaut And His Parrot

An accident causes a spaceship to explode and an astronaut tumbles out of it.

Sparks!

A happy, code-typing worker android falls in love with his human female supervisor. Just one problem: every time he sees her, his heart literally explodes.

All Hallow's Eve

A man is hunted by The Boogeyman

Puzzle Box: The Glitch

Two friends buying drugs find their world starts to glitch when the deal goes horribly wrong.

Evolution

A depiction of the past, present and future of evolution.

Mamá

Lili wakes her sister Victoria and insists that they both leave the house.

Hacktress

Ruth will stop at nothing to play the part of the villain, even if it means casting her friend Lucille as her victim.

Hiraeth

Hiraeth is a heart-breaking film that explores one woman's grief at the edge of the solar system. Amber Jones, a British astronaut on the first manned mission to Europa. She's a controversial choice with a checkered background.

Smash Cuts! Super Sci-Fi Shorts Fest

Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.

Books of Blood

A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.

The Return

After the death of his father, a brilliant college student returns to his family home where he learns that the horrors from his childhood aren't as dead and gone as he once thought.

Containment

Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?

Zygote

The two remaining crew members of a mining operation in the Arctic Circle fight to survive against an alien creature.

The Wailing

Andrea, in search of her biological family, feels stalked by an invisible threat. Other women before them have suffered the same fate. Twenty years earlier, on the other side of the world, Camille, fascinated by Marie, tries to warn her of a threat hanging over her.

Whisper

Sinister things begin happening to kidnappers who are holding a young boy for ransom in a remote cabin.

The Resurrected

Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.

Prodigy

Jimmy is a committed child psychologist who uses his own playbook, but when he is brought in to work with Ellie, he is completely unprepared for his subject—a 9-year-old psychopathic genius with nothing to lose. As he begins to understand the extent of her capabilities and the fate that has been planned for her, he struggles to overcome her defenses before it is too late for them both.

Code 8 Part II

In a world where superpowered people are heavily policed by robots, an ex-con teams up with a drug lord he despises to protect a teen from a corrupt cop.

Margaux

As a group of seniors celebrate their final college days at a smart house, the house's highly advanced AI system, Margaux, begins to take on a deadly presence of her own. A carefree weekend of partying turns into a dystopian nightmare as they realize Margaux's plans to eliminate her tenants one way or another. Time begins to run out as the group desperately tries to survive and outsmart the smart home.

Abduction

A man steps out of a park fountain in Ho Chi Minh City with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he wanders through the city, piecing together clues to his past, he is relentlessly pursued by mysterious figures.

Awareness

Ian is a teenager who lives with his father on the outskirts by running small scams using Ian's ability to generate visual illusions upon unsuspecting victims. When one of his cons goes awry, his abilities publicly spiral out of control and Ian becomes the target of two rival organizations, each seeking to exploit his powers.

Year 10

After the fall of civilization, the few survivors have been driven to cannibalism. A young man must confront a violent tribe that has murdered his father and stolen the medicine that keeps his girlfriend alive.

Daylight's End

Years after a mysterious plague has devastated the planet and turned most of humanity into blood-hungry creatures, a rogue drifter on a vengeful hunt stumbles across a band of survivors in an abandoned police station and reluctantly agrees to try to help them defend themselves and escape to the sanctuary they so desperately need.

Slash/Back

In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.

The House of Snails

A writer secludes himself in the mountains and falls in lust with local Berta. After realizing the oddities of the rural community the author starts to question the lines between reality and fiction.

Jekyll & Hyde

Henry Jekyll is a troubled man. His wife died of pneumonia. He wants his sister-in-law, but her father forbids any contact. And his experiments into the dual nature of man have yielded a personality-splitting drug that he has tested on himself, changing him into an uninhibited brute who seeks violent and undignified pleasures. Jekyll quickly becomes addicted to the sordid freedom induced by the drug. He can commit the most enjoyably revolting deeds, then return to his laboratory and use an antidote to change back to his original form, so that his lofty persona remains untarnished.

Cranston Academy: Monster Zone

An intelligent 15-year-old high school student is unexpectedly transferred to a boarding school where he opens a portal of monsters from another dimension.

Z

A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.

Frankenstein Unbound

The ultimate weapon, claimed to be safe for mankind, produces global side-effects including time slides and disappearances. The scientist behind the project and his car are zapped from the year 2031 to 1817 in Switzerland where he meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and others.