October: the month you drape your house in fake spiderwebs, plan your frightening costume and wait for corn mazes, haunted houses and inanimate objects that talk. It’s also the month Audience Awards launches its Horror Short Film Festival. For the filmmakers who submitted their frightening shorts, that kind of excitement is a yearlong thing.
“We’ve loved scary movies since childhood,” say Romain and Thibault Lafargue, the two brothers who won the 1st place Horror Shorts audience award. “Especially those with suspense and tension.”
Their true and freaky love is apparent in their 13-minute short The Scared One. This film, as beautiful as it is disturbing, tells the story of a father, a son and a scarecrow. From the beginning, it’s impossible to figure out who should be frightened by whom. One Audience Awards staffer couldn’t help but shriek with fear while watching.
Watch The Scared One by Romain and Thibault Lafargue
Sam Falco, who came in third with his film Survivors Anonymous, says, “Horror as a genre can make you laugh, cry and scream all in the same movie, something which most other genre films don’t have the ability to do, and I love that.” He calls his film a “love letter to the slasher genre.” We’re so pleased to have given him a place to send that missive.
Competing against 47 other films gave Falco a chance to find out if Survivors Anonymous would be well-received. “Audience Awards really gave me a great platform to explore the film’s ability to reach larger audiences, which is invaluable to a filmmaker … it’s very gratifying to be able to see whether it sinks or swims in a sea of other very talented filmmakers in the same genre.”
Watch Survivors Anonymous by Sam Falco
Brock Grossi agrees, “The main reasons for competing in the Horror Shorts Festival was to share our work with like-minded filmmakers and see if anyone out there besides us liked what we created.” His film Brainsick the Hammer Killer reaped benefit from the festival’s collective 7,591 views and 2,453 votes to become one of three jury winners.
Watch Brainsick the Hammer Killer by Brock Grossi
“Our team is currently working on a new short film, something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Deathwish 3.”
We’ll all be looking forward to that.
Well… at least some of us will. (eeek!)
