Alex (Katreeva Phillips) is a reporter. After her father dies, Alex finds a cassette tape from 1978 among his belongings. It turns out dad had been something of an amateur UFO investigator. The tape contains an interview with Mario (Billy Blair) about some mysterious "ghost lights" in the west Texas desert. Lights that abduct people. Alex smells a story and sets out to complete her dad's work.

The Ghost Lights is an example of what I call minimalist horror. It's creepy and suggestive, rather than loud and gory. Writer/director Timothy Stevens makes effective use of his desert location to create an atmosphere of otherworldly isolation; even a sense of being trapped in a time warp. (Are the lights from another time, rather than another world?) The black & white flashbacks to dad's 1970s UFO hunting days evoke The X-Files's flashbacks to the Cigarette Smoking Man's youth.

Yes, all the UFO tropes are present. In addition to lights in the desert and mysterious abductions, there's also a Man in Black who's pursing Alex. She later discovers that both her father and Mario were interrogated by Men in Black. Perhaps that's why dad dropped his investigations?

Despite its low-budget, The Ghost Lights boasts some nice, at times haunting music, and decent production values. More importantly, it tells an intriguing story with some original twists on the old tropes. Plus a weighty theme interwoven into its tale. Alex feels guilty over not being there for her dad during his final, medically difficult years. She hopes to make amends by finishing his work.

The closure at the end is a bit sappy and convenient, but the ride itself was worth it. Timothy Stevens has a website.

* Best Horror Documentary: Rondo and Bob

Joe O'Connell's Rondo and Bob is a dual biography about two men who never met. Horror actor Rondo Hatton (1894-1946), and Robert A. Burns (1944-2004), whose long career in low-budget horror filmmaking began as an art director for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. O'Connell uses parallel editing to contrast the dramatic and emotional similarities and differences in their lives.

Hatton was relegated to horror roles by his deformed appearance, the result of acromegaly. He had no particular love for horror. Acting was a gig. Burns also claimed to have no love for horror, though he made much of his living from it.

Rondo and Bob is a highly ambitious work. O'Connell's extensive research includes much archival footage and many interviews. A vast array of horror professionals and celebrities offer commentary on Hatton, Burns, and the genre itself (e.g., Dee Wallace, Stuart Gordon, Fred Olen Ray, Joe Bob Briggs, and too many others to mention.)

But this is not solely a talking heads documentary. O'Connell has actors recreate scenes from both Hatton's and Burns's lives. Ronda and Bob is a cinematic scrapbook composed of photos, film clips, interviews, archival footage, and recreations. One minute we're seeing Burns discuss his life, then we see Ryan Williams portraying the adult Burns, then a photo of Burns as a child, then Josiah Swanson portraying Burns as a child.

A unifying theme emerges, linking the two men. Both Hatton and Burns felt distanced from people. Hatton was physically deformed. Burns was likely autistic. Both men desired human connection but felt barred by personal circumstances from fully participating in human life.

Rondo and Bob is an important historical work, and an engrossing viewing experience for fans of horror and filmmaking in general.

* Best Dramatic Horror Short: Part Forever 

Huei and her husband, Wen Hsiung, attend a wake for Huei's sister, Yi-Ting. They are the only ones in the room, alone with the corpse. Huei slowly combs her dead sister's hair, apparently grieving. But she has a secret. And after Wen Hsiung leaves the room, Huei reveals her true feelings to her sister, followed by blasphemous acts upon the corpse. Whereupon Yi-Ting takes revenge.

Part Forever is an excellent film on many levels. Its stark black & white cinematography creates a darkly atmospheric mood. The sudden switch to sickly red and green hues when the supernatural manifests is arresting and imaginative. The story and editing are well-paced. The slow opening with Huei combing the hair, shushing Wen Hsiung, is ominous and intriguing, and the pace quickens as events become ever more shocking. The soundtrack includes appropriate traditional and modern music, but also makes effective use of periods of silence. The acting is first rate.

Although from Taiwan, Part Forever apparently takes inspiration from the previous 20+ years of Japanese ghost films. Long, stringy black hair covers part of the ghost's face. Her googly staring eyes evoke The Grudge and its ilk. Yet Part Forever is so well made, its visuals so powerful, and Huei's character so memorable, the film breathes new life into a horror subgenre that appeared to have run it course a decade ago.

Directed by Chung-An Ou Alan. Written by Chung-An Ou Alan & Wan Chun Ling Wan Wan.

* Best Comedic Horror Short: Annita and Every Child Deserves a Family

 

A couple desiring a child are having difficulty finding one to adopt. In desperation, they turn to the Serrano Foundation which prides itself on turning away no one. Their motto: "Every Child Deserves a Family." That includes possessed dolls who, after all, still "need the love an affection of a family."

A great comedic horror short film is like a classic Saturday Night Live skit; it holds up to repeat viewing. This year it's the Spanish film, Annita and Every Child Deserves a Family (aka Annita y todos los ninos merecen una familia).

 

 

The script is well paced, without padding or flab. The premise is quickly established. The jokes and surprises follow in quick succession. Visuals are bright and colorful, as is appropriate for comedies. The music supports the events on screen, changing as the story dictates. The talented cast give broad performances (again, as is appropriate for comedies). This is a low-budget affair with mostly hooky special effects, but even that works in the film's comedic context.

In short, Annita does nothing wrong. The result is an immensely funny and entertaining film. Written and directed by Marc Velasco.

 

 

* Best Avant-Garde Horror Film: Melusine

 

Melusine is what some call "pure cinema." It has no dialog, no voice over. It's hard to say if there's even a story. Rather, it's a visual experience.

A man runs through the forest in a medieval era, blood-stained shirt. His dash is intercut with shots of deer. Is the filmmaker saying that the man is hunted prey, much as are deers? The man comes upon three seductive women in red capes. Witches? He drinks their offering and has visions.

Melusine has the ambiance of a David Lynch film. Much like Lynch or Stanley Kubrick, director Matthias Simonet lingers on his images, allowing events to unfold slowly. His images are intriguing, hauntingly beautiful, mesmerizing, their power enhanced by his staging and composition. He uses colored nondiegetic lights not merely to be pretty, but for aesthetically valid reasons: to heighten the surrealism.

 

 

 

 

Melusine invites both Freudian and Jungian analysis. Much of the imagery is sexual. A closeup of the man's eye staring through the keyhole at himself making love to the witch. A serpent in a now empty bed. The witches now naked, rising from the water.

Is the woman, or witch, Eve, offering the man the fruit of the Garden? Is she Lilith? She's certainly a sexual temptress. His visions imply that he's been driven mad. Or fallen from grace? Is that why his shirt is bloodied at the start of the film? (Why not at the end?) Is he being driven out of the Garden? That he is running alone implies that the woman is Lilith, Adam's first wife and the serpent's lover.

But this is all speculation and might be completely wrong. Melusine is not only the title of the film, it's also the name of the woman according to the credits. Even so, she seems to be a Lilith archetype, a tantalizing temptress instrumental in man's destruction.

Melusine is technically proficient on every level -- cinematography, sound design, production design, music -- with every element coalescing into a surrealistic piece of pure cinema that excites both our conscious and subconscious minds.

 

 

* Best Animated Horror Film: To Raise Her Spirits

 

The year is 1938. An Englishman goes to a medium to contact his dead wife, Evelyn. She's been haunting him and he wants her to stop. At first the man thinks the medium a fraud, but then Evelyn appears. And she's not happy. It seems her hubby murdered her.

That's hardly the end of it. Despite its short ten minutes, To Raise Her Spirits is full of surprises. The tale moves at a brisk pace, with engaging characters, a bit of spooky atmosphere, and much humor. The colorful cinematography enhances both the humor and eeriness, while the classic green ghosts and Victorian era decor evoke Disney's Haunted Mansion.

 

 

To Raise Her Spirits makes creative use of both stop-motion animation and visual effects. Its music score sounds as if it was created using a xylophone and an accordion. Whatever the instruments, their appropriately old fashioned sound aesthetically supports the story and helps in creating the right mood.

The film ends on a neat closure and a funny quip. Altogether, To Raise Her Spirits is a gem of a film, with no shortcomings. Directed by Joe Dearman.

 

 

* Best Trash Horror Film: Pretty Creepy Dolls

 

A man in a skull mask and black robe commands scantily clad women to torture captive prisoners in his mansion. No real reason. He just happens to identify as "the epitome of evil," as he tell his lady friends. And being so wickedly evil and all, he's hardly satisfied with painful torture. To spice things up, he also practices voodoo and black magic.

That mondo bizarro story is only the beginning of Pretty Creepy Dolls's descent into the gutter. The acting ranges from wooden to hammy. Some of the dialog seems badly dubbed. There's the crude blood and gore, gunplay, and cheesy visual effects. The film looks to have been shot in the 1970s and passed through too many projectors. There are scratches, an occasional hiss, crackle or pop, and missing frames (as will happen when a projectionist repairs a break in the film strip).

 

But as with all good trash horror, Pretty Creepy Dolls is highly entertaining and never dull. Despite its intentional cinematic defects, it avoids any real mistakes such as slow pacing or padded scenes. Its outre tale is gruesomely funny, not because of any jokes -- there are none -- but in a so-bad-it's-good sense.

That's not as easy as it looks. Trash horror gold is usually serendipitous and unintentional. Trying to make a film that's so-bad-it's-good usually results in a film that's so-bad-it's-unwatchable. Yet Pretty Creepy Dolls succeeds both as intentional trash, and as a carefully crafted homage to 1970s occult horror cinema.

Written and directed by James Dimitratos.

 

* Best Horror Web Series: Demonologist for Hire

Bryn Owen is The Demonologist. Each episode he investigates the paranormal. Unfortunately, he's no Fox Mulder or Carl Kolchak. Owen shoos a hipster ghost out of a warehouse with little effort (even in the afterlife, these slackers lack the requisite ambition for a truly tenacious haunting), and he sweet talks an ancient deity to forgo her plans to exterminate mankind. But his carelessness allows an evil puppet to escape, and a client to be killed by her own doppelganger. Oh well, win some, lose some.

Quality horror web series are in short supply. Apart from good content, to qualify a web series must be a series, not one or two episodes. Demonologist for Hire ran three seasons. Over the course of its nine episodes, it maintained strong production values, good acting, some gruesome make-up effects, and original, funny stories. Yes, it's a horror comedy.

Apart from starring as The Demonologist, Owen co-produced and scripted the show. The tales are lean and fast-paced, the dialog crisp and free of padding. Credit must also go to Uisdeen Murray, who directed, co-produced, and edited. If the show had any weak moments, they were left on the cutting room floor. We see only the good stuff.

Demonologist for Hire was produced and shot in Scotland. It has a website.

* Book

There's this ancient book. Open it and you will commune with demons, discover all the universe's dark secrets, and enter portals to other dimensions. No wait, that's the Necronomicon. When you open this book, well, it only does one thing. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but it's surprising, foul, and funny (in a sick sort of way).

Book is a short, lean, simple film -- and that's among its many merits. It doesn't try to be something it's not. No heavy themes or complex characters. Just an evil book with limited abilities. I mean, it's a cool looking book. It breathes and all. But unlike Necronomicon, this book doesn't even have a title.

Book is gruesomely hilarious. Skirting the fine edge separating comedy and drama, it's obviously influenced by such 1980s trash horror classics as Evil Dead and the gonzo fantasy monster movies of Full Moon Entertainment. It's also highly entertaining. Book wastes no time on exposition. No youthful banter or aimless chitchat to serve as filler. The action starts immediately when Mary (Lynn R. Guerra) asks Gemma (Kassandra Cruz) if she's brought the book.

Production values are first rate across the board, while also reflecting wise aesthetic choices. The cinematography's beautiful soft focus misleads the audience into expecting a highbrow suspense film, so the gross payoff is unexpected and that much funnier. The eerie but classy music also helps to misdirect our expectations.

The gore effects are especially bloody. The talented cast reflect wise directorial choices. Cruz's tearful breakdown amid the surreal carnage is heartfelt, thus all the funnier. She's bawling and shedding real tears over such silliness.

Book pulls some odd punches. I don't get the exploding pumpkins in the wintry field. But okay, I'll accept them. Overall, Book is a brilliant throwback to 1980s splatter cinema.