Short Films block 1 w/filmmaker Q&A

Type: 
Film
Location: 
Main Theater
Date and time: 
Friday, October 2, 2026 - 7:30pm to 8:47pm
Location: 
Upper Left theater
Date and time: 
Sunday, October 4, 2026 - 9:25pm to Monday, October 5, 2026 - 10:42pm
 

Amygdala

West Coast Premiere
Directed by
William Frankenstein
starring
Amy Puente, Tris Ikeda, Audrey Morrison
10 mins
 | 2026
 | United States
 | English
 

When Zoe is violently attacked by a strange woman, she begins to experience horrible visions. She has only minutes to get help or uncover the mystery behind the madness that surrounds her.

 

In Case of Fear

World Premiere
Directed by
Aaron Sauerland
starring
Johnny Berchtold, Jack Martin, Jesse Merlin, Vaughn Armstrong
18 mins
 | 2026
 | United States
 | English
 

A new resident at Dr. North's suspicious lab discovers a creature that feeds on our fear.

 

Out of the Peat

West Coast Premiere
Directed by
Tabby Carless-Frost & Theo Rollason
starring
Roo Gehring
12 mins
 | 2025
 | United Kingdom
 | English
 

An amateur archaeologist arrives on a desolate peatland in Lancashire, their mind filled with the strange power that peat-bog waters hold to preserve organic matter. They have come to excavate the peatland. They have come to exhume a body. But, in digging into the peat — and into the past — they unearth much more than mere relics.

The peat holds forgotten histories, uneasy truths, and vast stores of climate-change-accelerating carbon. Reflecting the attempt to document and preserve this landscape via the moving image, the film becomes both a lament and a call to action for local peat-bog restoration and protection.

Inspired by the stories of Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James, shot on black and white Super 16 film by Morgan K. Spencer (Ungentle), edited by Anthony Ing (director of Jill, Uncredited) and scored by Richard Skelton (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead), Out of the Peat is a queer eco-horror which reflects on what it means to bury, to archive, to capture, to unearth.

The film was supported by the BFI Network Film Fund, and shot in collaboration with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

 

Flush

Directed by
Raphaël Treiner
starring
Eléonore Gurrey, Christophe Ntakabanyura
21 mins
 | 2024
 | France
 | French
 w/English subtitles

Abominable plumbing and violent deaths. MARIANNE, extremely pregnant, and BEN, a plumber and one-night stand, team up to survive an epic night and face the monsters of a building beset by an unknown evil.

 

Midnight City

Regional Premiere
Directed by
Bill Watterson
starring
Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt
9 mins
 | 2026
 | United States
 | English
 

Dutch Lazarus is a detective who specializes in strange cases. When a new client walks into his office and stymies him at every turn, we begin to wonder what her game is, and if Dutch already knows a lot more more than she's telling.

 

Feed The Dark

Pacific NW Premiere
Directed by
Rob Himebaugh
starring
Emily Mutimer, Timothy James Willard
8 mins
 | 2025
 | United States
 | English
 

Snowbound high in the mountains, a lone ski patroller races to save her injured colleague, only to find herself hunted by a cosmic cannibal demon bent on finding its next meal.

Owner: 
H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival - Portland, OR