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5 Awesome LGBTQ Horror Short Films for Pride Month

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**Editor’s Note: 5 Awesome LGBTQ Horror Short Films for Pride Month is a continuation of iHorror’s Horror Pride Month Celebrating the LGBTQ community and their contributions to the genre.

I love a good short horror film. There’s just something astonishing about the amount of tension one can build in such a short amount of time.

In the last several years we’ve seen a whole host of short films that we so good they were developed into features, but who can ever forget the sudden fear of Lights Out, for instance, in its short form? I, personally, had the time of my life introducing friends to the film just so I could see them freak out.

With that in mind, I decided that our latest entry into Horror Pride Month should put some of those amazing short films in the spotlight. The films you’ll read about below all feature queer characters and many were made by queer filmmakers.

Pyotr495

Directed and written by Black Mawson, Pyotr495 stunned audiences on the festival circuit for over a year with its brutal storytelling and unexpected twists and turns.

Set in the all too real setting of modern-day Russia and its intolerant laws against the LGBTQ community, Mawson highlights one of the terrible side effects of this prohibitive environment. It seems that following the signing of these laws, small groups of anti-gay nationalists would lure gay men and women to their homes in order to beat and humiliate them, videotaping their exploits and uploading them to the internet.

Pyotr495 takes viewers inside just this kind of situation, but this group had no idea who or what they had brought into their home until it was too late.

It won numerous awards all over the world.

Check out the short below, which was featured on the Short of the Week YouTube Channel last October.

Daisy

Directed by Camille Dunn for Crypt TVDaisy is the story of a young lesbian couple of who have recently moved into their first home together.

Of course, this is a horror film, so one can anticipate pretty quickly why they got such a good deal on the home. It seems that a family of extreme religious conservatives lived there before…and they might never have left.

Daisy is a taut little ghost story that is well worth a watch.

Tonight It’s You

Dominic Haxton created one of the most terrifying and beautiful short films I’ve ever seen when he brought Tonight It’s You to life.

The film is a sequel of sorts to Haxton’s previous Tonight It’s Me but he went in antirely different direction than that first film.

CJ sets out for a hook-up late one night but soon finds himself in the middle of situation he never could have imagined. This is a tale of possession, religious fanaticism, and so much more.

Check out the film featured on the ASPD Films YouTube Channel.

Final Girls

What if the final girls in a horror film were a lesbian couple? If there could be only one survivor, how would you decide that?

Those are the questions Michelle Hanson asks in her short film, Final Girls, a hilarious horror-comedy short that grew out of a sketch she wrote for her theater troupe in Ohio.

in its own way, Final Girls approaches the questions that I’ve based our Horror Pride Month series on. If we want to be in the genre, and we want to be equal, shouldn’t we get used to the fact that we’re going to be both victims and villains from time to time?

Check out Final Girls from Fearopoly below!

The Quiet Room

Written and directed by Sam Wineman, The Quiet Room is an intense look at mental illness and its effects.

A gay man named Michael (Jamal Douglas) attempts suicide and wakes to find himself in a mental hospital. That’s only the beginning of his problems however, as he soon learns that an evil spirit by the name of Hattie haunts the quiet room of this particular hospital and she has a acquired a taste for hopeless men who attempt to take their own lives.

The film is gorgeously shot and features a stellar cast, including Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5) as a nurse in the hospital who makes a connection with Michael and helps him begin the healing process.

The film also boasts none other than “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Alaska Thunderfuck in the role of Hattie. Alaska is simply amazing as the spirit who isolates and slowly drains the will to live from her chosen victims.

The film, which only premiered this year is at the beginning of its festival run and therefore cannot be included here, but you can check out the trailer below and keep your eyes peeled for it to play at a festival near you!

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News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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