Every year, I look forward to the Sundance International Film Festival’s collection of Midnight Shorts more than most anything else. Yes, I loved Josephine, and Leviticus is the talk of the town, but few things bring me as much joy as being introduced to burgeoning talents with a knack for the uncanny, the bizarre, and the gross. This year’s round-up boasted six stellar short films from across the globe, so read on below for my thoughts on one of the strongest line-ups in years.
Prime – Dir: Meagan Coyle
Meagan Coyle’s Prime is best served hot. It’s a premise that lives and dies by its reveal, and boy, does it have a good one. It’s tender, juicy, and raw. Coyle’s Midnight Short conceptualizes the best of what this category can be– short form horror that satiates while leaving you wanting more. While its story of a woman seeking refuge in a cult (erm, utopian society) might seem familiar, Coyle’s stylish impulses and sharp writing keep the tension thrumming until the end.
The Worm – Dir: Tom Noakes
It’s not fair to pick a favorite short, but if I had to, I’d go with Tom Noakes’ The Worm. It’s my exact brand of weirdness. Kieran (Joe Bird) is surprised to find his family staging an intervention. It’s not drugs or alcohol, but instead Kieran’s use of his father’s trust to hire an expat to dig up the backyard for a worm. Not just any worm. According to him, this worm has been sending psychic signals, telling him to kill himself. Put simply, in his own words, it’s him or the worm. The Worm is hilarious, kinetic, deliciously odd, and off-kilter while boasting considerable technical merits to boot. It’s an Aussie gem.
Taga – Dir: Jill Marie Sachs
Jill Marie Sachs’ Taga has a solid premise, though among the Midnight Shorts selection this year, it’s the most conventional of the bunch. Sachs mines some astute comedy from a largely American cast of conservationists invading a remote Filipino village to right perceived environmental wrongs, though its inevitable pivot into creature feature territory, while augmented with some exceptional gore, feels uncharacteristically familiar despite such a strong opening beat.
Homemade Gatorade – Carter Amelia Davis
Carter Amelia Davis’ Homemade Gatorade will no doubt be the buzziest short from this year’s festival, and there’s a future where I can see their name under a list of Neon or Mubi acquisitions. Homemade Gatorade is exceptionally animated, but it’s weird (affectionately). There’s some live-action, but this insane tale of a young woman offloading 11 gallons of homemade Gatorade to a stranger six hours away is regularly unpredictable, odd, unsettling, uncanny… onward and onward. I loved it. There’s an almost divine and singular vision at work, and I’ll certainly never forget it.
UM – Dir: Nieto
Following Davis’ animated triumph is UM, a French/Japanese collaboration (also animated) about bird gods and their demigod children fighting for the next egg generation. It’s hard to explain, but the roster of talented animators credited do exceptional work. Inspired by the work of elusive Japanese artist Daïchi Mori, UM won’t be for everyone—and I’m not entirely sure I got it, though that’s rarely the point of art—but it’s worth watching just to see some kick-ass bird creatures duke it out.
¡PIKA! – Dir: Alex Fischman Cárdenas
Spanish-language ¡PIKA! is a slow burn. A man awakens with an incurable itch and desperately seeks a cure, namely the titular cream that’s a hot commodity in his community. It’s gross and gory, tailor-made for the body horror crowd, and the ending is an absolute hoot. It’s also the longest of the shorts, and one I could easily see make the transition to feature-length. There’s something about sweaty desperation in horror that just gets to me. This is weird genre cinema at its grossest (and best).
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