If the short film world needs all the backing it can get right now – in the face of a UK arts funding crisis and short film festivals going bust left, right and centre – then genre shorts are in arguably the most need of some love. Not only are they the most underrepresented on the circuit, they’re also a real who’s who of “next-big-thing”s. A goldmine of renegade storytellers, ballsy choreographers, and all-round future commercial artistes who are but one decent budget away from making something seriously explosive.
So Forbidden Worlds introducing their new ‘Genre Filmmakers of the Future’ showcases for 2024 – giving up and comers a chance to project their stuff on the biggest screen in the South West – is a very exciting prospect indeed. And the 12 selected films certainly don’t disappoint, covering a broad spectrum of genre treats from sumptuous animations to stupendously silly B-movie send-ups.
Below are the best of the best, which is to say, all of them:
Starting with one of the most ambitious in the inventively shaped genre mashup, Another Day in Buenoseres, a wide-eyed, neon-tinged spin on the classic western, that fires the stuffy old genre into space and pays more attention to the smokey, noir-ish backrooms than the more boilerplate gunslinging. Made on a nothing budget with sensational effects and production values, the fact that it’s the first film from locals Cameron Medford-Hawkins and Benjamin Scrase is even more impressive.
Also local is the ludicrously silly Badger! from Bristol-based sicko Barry Wilkinson; a bizarre creature-feature that plays like a hellish crossbreed between Dog Soldiers and Basil Brush. An incredibly British take on the B-movie, complete with severed heads, buckets of goo, a dog called Coachella, and a flesh-eating badger played by a ball of fluff that’s chucked at its victims from off-camera. Outstanding.
In a similar vein is Nick Hearne’s gloriously forthright Don’t Fuck With Dolphins (an early contender for best title of the entire festival), an uncannily animated cautionary tale of forthcoming dolphin supremacy, with a frankly hideous sense of humour, acting as a clever little PSA that puts the ‘mental’ back in environmentalism.
Most unique experience of the block goes to Jericho Rock-Archer’s gorgeously kitschy VHS rom-com Echoes of Ecstasy: The Passcode Paradox; a Kiwi Tim & Eric in space, almost entirely set within the glitchy memories of Earth’s last hope – a horny middle-aged woman who just wants to cyber-fuck her dead husband.
Somewhat (see: very) different but very much embracing the space theme is smartly-made galactic thriller Lost in the Sky, which drops a Wall-E type robot into deep space, caught between a nasty-looking black hole and finally fulfilling its destiny. Director Simon Öster mixes glossy animation with cleverly designed practical sets and puppets, and really milks the emotional beats for all they’re worth.
While a bit of an outlier, mystical 2D animation The Hounds of Annwn sits for a more reserved and emotional beat, but proves a playful standout too; directors Beth B. Hughes and Bryony Evans bringing a Welsh sensibility to the Cartoon Saloon style, in a powerful folktale of a wounded soldier finding their way through the beyond, with the help of some strikingly designed canines.
Winner of the ‘bestest boy in show’ though definitely goes to the cel-shaded beagle in Jay Marks’ A Walk in the Park; an unusual, gothic animation that proves to be anything but its title. Marks pits a man and his dog against a sinister (and potentially apocalyptic) force; the grungy score and black and white, Camberwick-Green-goes-to-hell aesthetic is already a great sell, but the storytelling here goes fully bananas in the short’s second half, and must be seen to be believed.
Also narratively bold is Noomi Yates’s grimly effective stalker horror Only Yourself to Blame, that comes with an added thumbs up from executive producer Rose Glass. A recognisable set-up soon morphs a young woman’s lone walk home at night into a vicious, adventurous, deeply unsettling psychological journey, with echoes of Annihilation and Zulawski’s Possession.
Dreary post-apocalyptic Peterborough really shines in KIN, where familiar world-building opens up into a stunningly kinetic, very literally hard-hitting brawler, pitting Lauren Okadigbo’s mother against a revolving door of brutes. Director James Waterhouse jacks the stakes in the simplest but most effective of ways, and Okadigbo absolutely nails both the ferocity and scrappiness of a mother pushed to the edge, in the first of a triptych of excellent beat-em-ups.
The second being ferociously directed super short Welcome to the Party, a tightly-cut proof of concept actioner that’s better staged, better designed and better edited than a great deal of genre movies a hundred times the size. Director Jack Downs and his team do a lot with 90 seconds, put it that way.
And last of the trio is the impressively athletic martial arts concept The Hitman and the Assassin, which certainly puts brawn before brains, but offers a mighty central fight set piece and some fun laughs along the way.
Grimmest of the bunch though, is the particularly grisly shocker Three Baths, a devilishly simple exorcism ritual that very happily steals the title of being the nastiest short of the fest, with its exceedingly creepy demon and piercing penchant for blood-curdling screams.
A fantastic show from a whole block of very exciting genre filmmakers.
All of the above shorts were screened as part of Forbidden Worlds Film Festival 2024. For more info on the festival and future events, head to forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk.
