[CFF 2020 Review] The Dangeous Visions Shorts Block is Full of Awesome

Here are my mini-reviews of a bunch of kickass short films in Chattanooga Film Festival’s “Dangerous Visions” shorts block.

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Beauty Juice 

Director: Natasha Halevi (5 mins)

Sarah (Jennifer Holland) received an invitation “for beautiful girls to a boutique shop called Beauty Juice and as she waits her turn to get juiced, she realizes that the regulars in the room are a little...off. 

This is a fun little short with some fantastic staging. The room of Beauty Juice looks ripped from a bordello from the 30s as a record player crackles as it plays soft jazz. You’ll probably guess where it’s going but it’s a fun little darkly comedic five minutes. 

Best Friends Forever

Directors: Emily Gagne and Joshua Korngut (13 mins)

It’s November 15th, 1996 and a group of teenaged girls are gathered around a sofa, telling scary stories. Eden (Addison Holley) tells the story of Nancy, a girl from the 70s who just wanted friends and was tormented by a group of mean girls who invited her to her first party and then pretended to not be there. All they ever found of her was a box with a locket inside. But what happens when a campfire ghost story is actually real…

The way the story is told and the short is filmed felt reminiscent of The Ring, in a good way. It feels like a throwback to the 90s slumber parties and it’s a cute little morality play. The acting’s good, the creature designs are neat and while it doesn’t do anything new, it’s a solid piece of filmmaking. It also has a killer credits song called “Nancy’s Back!” and it reminds me how much I miss when movies have a song made specifically for them, referencing the film. 

Decapitato: Consequenze Mortali

Director: Sydney Clara Brafman (1 min)

A man plays a video game that plays back. GAME OVER.

There’s not much to say about this very brief joke. The design of the video game in question looks like it took inspiration from the old Castlevania games and the brief gore gag is fun. Just a quick, little 1 minute gag. Entertaining.

Fatale Collective: Bleed

Directors: Lola Blanc, Megan Rosati, Danin Jacquay, Francesca Maldonado, Natasha Halevi and Linda Chen (13 mins)

This short film is actually six micro-shorts directed by some up-and-coming female directors that dive into a variety of subgenres and styles. From Lola Blanc’s “The Safe Space”’s look at women creating a space for each other and what happens when that space is betrayed to Danin Jacquay’s “Subscribe” and its use of body horror to illuminate the latest make-up YouTube and the unhealthy expectations it can give young women, the shorts are quick, acerbic and biting. 

My personal favorite is Megan Rosati’s “ASMR,” starring Brea Grant that is about an ASMR session gone disturbingly awry. Watch this one with headphones on for an incredibly uncomfortable and darkly comedic experience. But each one is refreshingly fantastic and Linda Chen’s animation in Panopta is fantastic. 

Go Back

Directors: Matthew Barber and Nathaniel Barber (6 mins)

In 1978, a man drives through a country road listening to a radio program where a woman tells a man to “turn yourself around and go back to her.” The man in the car doesn’t think it’s that easy. But when he’s threatened by ghosts that haunt the road, he realizes that there’s more to fear than relationships.

I enjoyed the minimalist nature of this short and its use of mannequins which are scientifically proven to be terrifying. It has a fun gore gag and it sets up the narrative quite well. I wanted to know more about the character, his backstory and the ghouls that haunt the road.

Live Forever

Director: Gustav Egerstedt (4 mins)

Live Forever is a musical tribute to the victims in horror films and it is catchy and fun as hell. It opens with a woman geting an axe to the head by a bag-wearing killer and as she bleeds out on the forest ground, she looks at the camera and sings, “for no real reason I was chopped in the head.” From here, it tackles a lot of horror subgenres, mixing some gruesome and fun visuals with catchy lyrics. My favorite is about possession as a Linda Blair-esqe girl sings, “A demon possessed me and now I’m fucked. I guess that old priest really sucked.” 

The thing I loved most about “Live Forever,” is how it takes familiar tropes and does something completely and refreshingly different with it. And it’s catchy, too. 

Love Bite

Director: Charles de Lauzirika (17 mins)

Taking refuge in an abandoned truck, a dysfunctional couple and their poodle whose tongue just stays flopped out of her mouth the entire time, end up bickering about who’s right. But how far will they go to prove the other’s wrong?

This one didn’t really do it for me. It’s a lot of buildup for what’s really a two minute gag. In between the squabbling and The Question mentioned above, they talk about how everything went to shit when the government defunded science education. And while it’s a funny moment and it definitely wants to make jokes about our current culture, it’s at odds with the more emotional bit of the story that leads to its punchline of an ending. That said, I did enjoy the last five-ish minutes a lot. 

Mære 

Director: Daniel Hamby (10 mins)

A sleep doctor suffering from sleep paralysis and lucid dreams understands the science behind what’s happening to him but it doesn’t provide much solace when he sees a woman standing in the corner of his room. 

This one is shot really well and has a few nicely subtle moments of horror where, if you’re not paying attention, you might miss something. It’s staged nicely and shot well, I just couldn’t connect with the character and I was hoping for a bit more of a bite. That said, those who are afraid of snakes might want to pass this one.

Megan, 26

Director: Brea Grant (5 mins)

Megan (Megan Rosati) has been on a lot of bad dates, but tonight’s is the worst. While she’s dealing with a date who thinks women in LA are terrible, she’s also swiping through Tinder and keeps seeing the same guy, over and over…

This is probably my favorite of this shorts block. It has a fantastic concept, a relevant theme and it executes it with precision focus. Particularly loved the use of technology and how swiping on the app ends up having ripple effects in the real world. Also the idea that eventually everyone on your dating app ends up being the same person, over and over is a biting critique on modern romance that I think a lot of people can relate to. Also has a gnarly final sequence. Highly recommended.

Separation 

Director: Rebekah W. McKendry (7 mins)

On the final night of a heated divorce, a husband and wife acquire a disease with gooey repercussions. 

This is a very close second for me, after Megan, 26. It starts with the perfect casting of Justin Benson and Austin Highsmith as the two leads. What begins as a cough soon turns incredibly gnarly with some fantastic body horror thrown in. What a terrible short to watch while quarantined…I loved it!

Thorns

Directors: Sarah Winser and Sean Temple (6 mins)

Gwen and Jade argue about the trip they’re having when a man slams a rose on their windshield. They’ve pulled up to a creepy roadside motel for the night and when they receive a freaky phone call they realize their argument is the least of their worries…

This is the second short I’ve seen from directors Sarah Winser and Sean Temple and I really thought this one was a treat. I particularly enjoyed the turn it takes at the end that had me cheering at the subversion. This is a good one. 

Voices

Director: Keith Samples (5 mins)

A troubled man deals with competing voices in his head that are rendered quite literal. 

I wasn’t a huge fan of this one because of its use of mental illness as a means for committing murder. That said, it was filmed incredibly well and the way they shot the same actor as multiple voices, in the same scene a lot of the time, gives Orphan Black a run for its money. 

What Daphne Saw

Director: Lizz Marshall (19 minutes)

In the future, violent criminals are no longer imprisoned for life or executed. Instead, a new company called Nugenesis reprograms them to be used as servants. Like their tagline says, “giving you a second chance at a productive life.” They’ve had their tongues removed and, after a lobotomy, are reprogrammed to be a servant in the household as a caregiver or a maid, etc. But what happens when a bad man gets his hands on one?

At first I was bothered by this one because it uses sexual assault in a particularly nasty way, but then I saw that it was produced by Not In Our City, a company that provides community awareness of sex trafficking through the use of media. It uses genre trappings to tell a very real story and bring to life a terrible truth. It’s incredibly well-shot and acted. And while it comes with a myriad of content warnings, it’s a powerful watch. 

The Boogeywoman

Director: Erica Scoggins (18 mins)

When Sam (Amélie Hoeferle) gets her first period, she’s drawn into her town’s local legend of “The Boogeywoman” and discovers that some legends might be real…

If Megan, 26 and Separation are my top two favorites, this is easily a very close third. And in some ways it’s more impressive because, at 18 minutes, it’s longer, much more sustained and tells an intriguing narrative. It’s stunningly shot by cinematographer Albrecht Von Grünhagen and is just dripping with atmosphere. In particular, the performance Erica Scoggins manages to get out of Amélie Hoeferle is incredible. I hope we see more from Amélie and Erica.