Sundance 2022 Premiere – On paper, a story about a young gymnast who watches over a strange egg until it hatches into something wild and deadly seems silly. But the execution works brilliantly. Hatching is a creature feature loaded with stunning set designs, a monstrous mother, and an engaging narrative. Directed by Hanna Bergholm and [...]

Sundance 2022 Film Festival - It's best to go into writer/director Aria Covamonas' wildly experimental Socrates' Adventures in the Under Ground with no clear expectations. This is not a short that pays any mind to typical narrative conventions. Instead of trying to follow a straight storyline, it's best to simply enjoy the ride, in all [...]

Sundance 2022 Film Festival - Carter Smith's Bugcrush is a good example of using restraint in a horror film. There's not a single drop of blood spilled in all 35 minutes. And yet, this is a frightening and uncomfortable film. This short has a way of luring you in and building to rather jarring implied [...]

Sundance 2022 Film Festival - Writer/director Wen-Ming Hsieh's Night Bus is a 19-minute trip with a whole lot of bloody twists and turns. The animation impresses, but so does the unpredictability of this film. This is part noir and part splatter. The shifts in tone and genre-bending make for one unforgettable ridge. When passengers board [...]

Sundance 2022 Film Festival - Something's growing inside a young fashion designer (Rachel Sennott) that's either an actual creature or a manifestation of her anxiety and self-doubt. No matter, Appendage, written/directed by Anna Zlokovic, is an entertaining six minutes. It's an inventive creature feature with a perfect bit of body horror. Sennott's performance here is [...]