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Watch: Award-Winning Horror Short ‘Here There Be Monsters’

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Here There Be Monsters Horror Short

Australian horror is home to some creepy little creature features. When the entire country is full of animals that are probably trying to kill you, you’re bound to find some inspiration in nature. And then there’s the fantastic “fear thy neighbor” films that prove just how scary some people can be. In Here There Be Monsters — an Australian horror short — we’re introduced to these top two types of terror; the villains we know, and the creatures we don’t.

After incessant bullying on the bus ride home, a young girl falls asleep and ends up trapped inside the school bus at the empty depot. Her frustration quickly turns to dread when she sees something lurking in the vast dark yard – something big – and Elki’s going to have to summon up every piece of courage she didn’t know she had if she’s going to survive the night.

Here There Be Monsters is free of dialogue, which makes the sound and music so very important. Erin McKimm does an incredible job with such a simple musical theme that’s woven throughout the short. It’s heartbreaking and honest, and communicates volumes of emotion alongside Savannah Foran-McDaniel’s delicate yet powerful performance as Elki.

As you watch the opening sequence — Elki being bullied on a school bus — you want nothing more than to throw your arms around her in a gesture of support and protection. It’s a brief snapshot of Elki’s life, but it’s effective in communicating a deep level of pain. Foran-McDaniel is commanding as the short’s lead and focus, drawing the audience along with her as we feel her fear and frustration.

The short showcases a satisfying practical monster design, which was designed, built, and operated by the team at Steve Boyle FX. The monster’s spine-tingling sound was born from the vocal skills of world famous beat boxer Tom Thum and engineered by sound designer Pete Christie. The result is a real down-to-earth terror that could feasibly crawl right out of the Australian muck (from whence it ostensibly came).

The film has played at 50+ festivals around the world, including Sitges, Hollyshorts, Screamfest and many more genre favorites, winning multiple awards along the way. Writer/director Drew MacDonald describes it as “something of a throwback creature feature mixed with a contemporary story about bullying”. But Here There Be Monsters is not just a cool creature feature, it carries a weight through its theme, focusing on the transference of anger.

There’s a complexity that runs through the short’s approach to bullying, demonstrating the cycles of anger and fear we fall into. MacDonald airs the dirty laundry of the bully’s situation in just a few seconds, offering a balanced and humbling angle to a once abhorrent character. The final moments are impactful, daring the audience to find the monster on screen.

You can watch the full Here There Be Monsters film on YouTube below, courtesy of Alter.

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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