Her embodiment of the damaged and truly sad character is authentic and at points heartbreaking as well as chilling. With a delicate beauty, dark psychosis, and cringe worthy moments, the stylist is beautifully performed by the unique beauty of Najarra Townsend ( CONTRACTED). This truly tragic tale offers very little exposition on the origins of a very offsetting character weaving tension, mystery and detail that has engrossed and frightened audiences across the country and around the world at film festivals. Conceived effectively and fully planned on each level of the production, this short film was written by the fearless Eric Havens. This follow up short film to CALL GIRL shows such growth from filmmaker and hairstylist Jill Sixx. My overall favorite short film of 2016 is THE STYLIST, from the Los Angeles based Etheria Film Night. I won’t spoil the ending for you but I will tell you that I love what happens and it left me wanting more! It’s a “mystery” whether or not director Ama Lea will make a feature length version of this short, if only I had a “mystery phone” I would call her and ask! What I loved about this short is it’s like characters from “Clueless” were injected into a horror film! I dig the contrast between the vibrant hot pink room and wardrobe with the impending doom you sense is coming their way. My favorite short film of the year is Ama Lea’s MYSTERY PHONE. INTO THE MUD is just pure excitement, no questions asked. It’s a welcomed change…I can’t stand shorts most of the time because there’s too much room for interpretation. Once you’ve seen the short, you know the story beginning to end. INTO THE MUD is a little bit different because the story is told so thoroughly and eloquently without the lengthiness of a “first hour” where it’s explained. Most shorts give you a situation and expect you to draw out a backstory and come up with your own creative reason as to why the situation at hand is happening. What I noticed in this short film compared to most other short films I’ve seen (not just throughout 2016, but throughout all of forever), is that it has the ability to tell a story in just a few minutes. My favorite short films of the year has to be INTO THE MUD, which I actually very recently watched (just a short few weeks ago). This is what a horror short should be as the creepy atmosphere permeates the wicked story of the sinister trappings of curiosity. The ending itself is just so darn clever and morbid that I watched it more than once in sheer appreciation. There is something so unnerving about the simple conceit that allows for a nearly wordless short with a wonderfully dark impact. This short is AGATHA and it is a must see for any horror fan. Picking my favorite horror short this year proved incredibly simple as only one short made it onto my all time favorites list. Though the ending is finite for the short, it opens up worlds of possibilities if it were to ever be made into a full feature film, which I can only hope comes into fruition one day. It’s all fictional yet you are so moved to want to help knowing there is nothing you can do. It was hard to watch and not be able to help out at all, and that’s why this short is so effective. We watch as she struggles to maintain some form of leverage and just when we thinks she’s out of the woods (so to speak), it starts to rain. She has no recollection of how she got there or why she is there but she knows that whatever is waiting for her in the darkness below is not nothing she wants to encounter. It’s simplistic in nature, a woman, played by Laura Jane Turner, awakens to find herself on the ledge of a curve leading into pitch black darkness. There were a lot of incredible short films this year, but the one that affected me the most, that left me breathless and wanting more, was Tim Egan’s CURVE. The following are some of Nightmarish Conjuring’s staff pick for favorite horror shorts of 2016. Our choice of favorite horror shorts run from simple terror to over the top gore but each one effectively impacted us in different ways. As with full length films, horror shorts had a fantastic year.
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