Best Short Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films in General Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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Best Short Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films

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Dr Acula	Best Short Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films	Lead	[-]
Nov 19 09 10:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It seems like short films these days are usually played at festivals, and then disappear or wind up on YouTube or as DVD extras on other films. What I'd like to know is, what are the best of the best short films (less than 30 minutes) are out there that fans should be seeking out, or demanding that they be put on DVD? I've seen the fun but not super-great Star Wars parody Hardware Wars, and I saw a lamentable big-budget short film (made by somebody with connections) called Irving, the Jewish Vampire that actually had ILM-style effects and a Jim Belushi cameo (or somebody like him). Neither ones are exactly the Mario Bavas or the David Lynchs of short filmdome... but surely there are some noteable, great short films we should know about... right?
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ryanbrennan		#1	[-]
Nov 20 09 12:32 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When I was programming The Fort Worth Film Festival from 1997-2002 I'd get an enormous number of short film submissions. Many of them had genre subjects and many of those were comedies. I've got most of them stashed away in boxes somewhere but don't remember any titles. One serious short was about time travel and had a novel twist. Several came from the Fox Movie Channel and were very slick, well produced shorts. One involved a guy around who the entire world revolved. He'd get up in the morning and read his plans for the day emblazoned on the front pages of the newspaper. Everyone, everywhere knows him and all about him. It all changes when he becomes less self-absorbed in himself and falls in love. Another one was about a guy who is on fire going on a date. He comes out of his house screaming, gets in his car, screaming, and drives away screaming. He pulls up at the florist to get some flowers, his screams unheard while inside picking up the bouquet. He finally arrives at the girls' house, rings the bell and is greeted by his date, who is also on fire and screaming. A match (no pun intended) made in heaven. One favorite short film I can name is THE TELL-TALE HEART, the cartoon version with James Mason narrating. There's also the Tim Burton stuff which is easily available.
Dr Acula		#2	[-]
Nov 20 09 9:56 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interesting stuff! The IMDB page for Irving is bare-bones: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113439/ And Hardware Wars in Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlFOiFLLd0g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UVVBctvylU I wonder if the films you mentioned had anybody who went on to make professional level films? And those are the kinds of things it would be great to know about, the short films we'd never otherwise encounter except at a film festival.
Ardley Remlap		#3	[-]
Nov 20 09 11:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Chris Marker's LA JETTE (1962) is SF, under 30 min, and it's an unforgettable experience. ...And they used Bon Ami!
Dr Acula		#4	[-]
Nov 20 09 11:47 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ardley Remlap wrote: Chris Marker's LA JETTE (1962) is SF, under 30 min, and it's an unforgettable experience. Cool - I have seen this, it's very cool, and I had forgotten it was just 28 min (I thought it was about 40, putting it in that no-man's land between short and feature).
hermanthegerm		#5	[-]
Nov 20 09 2:43 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Electric Grandmother is cool, but I think it is over 30 minutes. The was one titled The Navigator, about a bunch of medieval/post-apocalyptic people traveling thru the Earth, I don't know how long it was. The Quest (Saul Bass) was recommended in Harlan Ellison's Watching, but I haven't seen it. Also, check out the short films that inspired or were lengthened to feature length such a s Dark Star, THX 1138, etc. Animation Festival type collections always have one or two outstanding horror/fantasy type episode. The Animation Show vol. III has Rabbit (a Dick and Jane art inspired short that is just really horrifyingly cool,) Mt. Head and Katedra are in vol. I , Ward 13 and Rockfish are in vol II. If you go to Amazon and type these titles, Alexeieff , Spike and Mike, Jiri Trnka, Tezuka Osamu, Anxious Animation, Starewicz, Masters of Russian Animation , Quay Bros. Extreme Animation, Svankmajer, Alexeieff , Kihachiro Kawamoto, Wallace & Gromit, Bill Plympton, Avant-Garde Experimental Cinema, Academy Award winning short films, Norman McLaren etc. you'll start getting recommendation after recommendation of DVD and VHS collections. After that it's just up to you to decide what direction you wanna take. "There is a lot of money tied up in this film and people expect to hear a boom when something blows up, so I'll give them a boom." George Lucas as quoted by Harlan Ellison's WATCHING
Doc Dynamo		#6	[-]
Nov 20 09 4:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Music of Eric Zann is quite good.
Richard		#7	[-]
Nov 21 09 11:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Some of the BBC's "ghost stories before Christmas" were under an hour and very effective. I believe most of them were adapted from short stories by R. Chetwynd Hayes. A pity they've never been gathered into a box-set because the quality each episode is very high. Richard "... little by little the look of the country changes because of the people we admire." dialog in HUD (1963)
Dr Acula		#8	[-]
Nov 21 09 1:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Let's see - the Navigator was turned into a feature, if I remember correctly. Is the Electric Grandmother part of a TV program, or an actual short film? As a Bradbury fan, I'd like to think it was pretty cool whichever way it was done! The Quest is one I've heard of before, and I want to say that it stared one of the famous kid actors from the 80's, but I don't think it's commercially available (though I need to check on that). It's also the exact sort of thing I'm looking for, quality short sci-fi/horror/fantasy films worth looking for. I'm less interested in animation shorts, just because it does seem like they are more out there and easier to find in compilations or festival films, like Spike & Mike. And based on the Academy's proclivities and past biases, I'm going to guess there are very few sci-fi, horror or fantasy films getting an Academy Award nomination. I'm on too slow to know for sure that this is the film, but this is supposed to be Saul Bass' The Quest online: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50xaz_quest-01_shortfilms I've seen multiple Eric Zahn shorts on Lovecraft short film compilations, is there one in particular to be aware of? I'd love to see the ghost stories for Christmas get a release stateside!
hermanthegerm		#9	[-]
Nov 21 09 5:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am not aware that The Navigator was turned into a feature film. I only saw the short from a public library tape., and I don't think it is available on DVD. Grandmother is a made for TV film (not taped), but at this point it is only available on OOP VHS. I own a dupe from Ebay, but local libraries may have a copy. I think The Quest is available but it won't be cheap. "There is a lot of money tied up in this film and people expect to hear a boom when something blows up, so I'll give them a boom." George Lucas as quoted by Harlan Ellison's WATCHING
Doctor 1313		#10	[-]
Nov 22 09 11:20 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"Panic Attack" or "Ataque de Panico!" is the short that is the talk of the net right now. Directed by Fede Alvarez and amazingly done for $300, he is currently being courted around Hollywood. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk But the first short that sprang to mind was "Bugcrush" directed by Carter Smith. It's about a lonely teenage boy's crush on the new boy in school, and in his efforts to get closer to him, he soon finds himself in the middle of a deadly entomological secret. Smith later went on to direct THE RUINS. "Bugcrush" can be found on the dvd collection BOYS LIFE 6, but you can see a deceptively dull trailer for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExFp8VT9eE DOCTOR 13
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Cadaverino		#11	[-]
Nov 22 09 5:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In no particular order: 1. LA JETTE (1962) 2. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928) 3. THE TELL-TALE HEART (1953) 4. PARIS QUI DORT (1925) 5. THE SKELETON DANCE (1929) 6. ICARUS MONTGOLFIER WRIGHT (1962) 7. SUPERMAN (1941) 8. THE MECHANICAL MONSTERS (1941) 9. POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINBAD THE SAILOR (1936) 10. SNOW WHITE (1933) 11. BIMBO'S INITIATION (1931) 12. DUCK AMUCK (1953) 13. THE PLAYHOUSE (1921) 14. GERALD MCBOING-BOING (1951) 15. MAGICAL MAESTRO (1952) 16. ONE FROGGY EVENING (1956) 17. PORKY IN WACKYLAND (1938) 18. THERE IT IS (1928)
hermanthegerm		#12	[-]
Nov 23 09 12:02 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Incident At Owl Creek should count. "There is a lot of money tied up in this film and people expect to hear a boom when something blows up, so I'll give them a boom." George Lucas as quoted by Harlan Ellison's WATCHING
ryanbrennan		#13	[-]
Nov 23 09 12:03 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Let's see - the Navigator was turned into a feature, if I remember correctly. Yep. The Vincent Ward film. I liked it.
Grant		#14	[-]
Nov 23 09 12:56 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	On one of its anthology shows, PBS had a version of the story "Moon-Face" by Jack London, which certainly qualifies as a kind of horror story.
Dr Acula		#15	[-]
Nov 23 09 9:50 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Dr Acula wrote: I'm on too slow to know for sure that this is the film, but this is supposed to be Saul Bass' The Quest online: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50xaz_quest-01_shortfilms That was indeed part 1 of Saul Bass' The Quest, here is part 2: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50xku_quest-02_shortfilms And there are many great episodes of many shows that are wonderful, to be sure, but what I'm hoping to uncover in this thread are short films that have fallen through the cracks. I'm also (for the purposed of this thread) more interested in live-action, because the best animation will usually crop up in animation festival films. Here is the feature-film Navigator on IMDB. There is no indication I can see for a short film version of it, but for some reason I think that I had heard of it being based on a short: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095709/ Panic Attack is quite nice, though it does remind me a bit of the short that inspired Sky Captain. Haven't seen Bugcrush, but I can actually heard of it before (I assume it's similar to Sick Girl)!
Dr Acula		#16	[-]
Feb 24 10 11:20 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just found out about this 2006 Shane Black-written short, A.W.O.L.: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138992/ Vietnam. 1972. US Army Special Forces Major Cliff Marquette leads a squad ordered to investigate unusual reports and secure a remote jungle temple locals believe has mystical powers. The Marines guarding the temple have withheld provisions for days from a Viet Cong prisoner. Despite severe mistreatment, the prisoner mysteriously shows no signs of suffering. Marquette confronts the Marine in charge, Garris for torturing a prisoner of war when suddenly enemy forces attack and mortar shells rock the temple. An exceptionally heroic, but losing battle lands Marquette in the hands of a merciless Viet Cong torturer. His men are dead; his screams unheeded. At the height of agony, Marquette's world is turned upside down. In an instant, he finds himself a stranger in the midst of an American life that apparently belongs to him - an idyllic but unrecognizable life complete with a loving wife and two children he's never seen before. Marquette struggles to take in what is happening to him. First is paranoia. Soon uncertainty and fear give way to relief and acceptance. But the twist of fate that delivered Marquette into this life from the hands of his enemy has granted him only a reprieve. The cruel pain of war is not over. As the clock strikes midnight Marquette is back in Vietnam where his torture resumes a few minutes each night. Desperately trapped between two worlds, Marquette must endure;unless, with the clock counting down, he can cheat fate. Escaping will take his wits;and it will require a gun.
MikeTheMook		#17	[-]
Feb 24 10 3:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	THE LOTTERY (1969)
rvoyttbots		#18	[-]
Feb 24 10 8:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Check out the funny Chad Vader shorts.
Crow T Robot		#19	[-]
Feb 25 10 9:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here's a cool Batman short produced a few years ago. Andrew Koenig, who plays the Joker in it (and is the real-life son of Star trek's Walter Koenig) has gone recently gone MIA. He suffers from depression and was last seen in Canada, and has not been heard of for about 2 - 3 weeks now.
bipolarber		#20	[-]
Feb 28 10 1:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Which reminds me... I remember seeing an animated short, years and years ago, about these aliens who land on an alien world, and find the civilization there decimated... they barely make it back to their ship, when a waiter comes by and picks it up, thinking one of his lady customers left a compact behind... so the adventure of the aliens exploring the "alien planet" was them actually exploring the tabletop of a recently finished dinner at an outdoor cafe... The story was told in a sort of "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" style by one of the alien characters, and the whole film was done stop motion... Ring any bells with anyone? "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
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