Today was the last day of the festival and I am knackered. I arrived just before noon and the start of the Human Killers & Psychological Terrors short film block. This is a sub-genre of horror that usually doesn’t speak that much to me, even though I have a fascination with the real life examples, and I nearly skipped the starting block because of that. However there were some of the shorts that stood out me and that I enjoyed.

Surgery – is the story of a man being tortured by an older man apparently without rhyme or reason. The film’s resolutions provides reason and context and what the story is rather used, a plot that I have seen a few times before, the execution was well-done and satisfying. This movie was a good example of the power of restrain in creating a sensation of horror, terror, and revulsion for the audience.

Little Boy Blue– another great entry from down under this movie is about a little boy being raised as a girl on a chicken ranch in the 1950. She discovers a terrible truth about the neighboring form and in the end resolves the terror. graphic and disturbing this film works on several levels and I hope to see more from these talent people.

Bunker Game – an entry from France this would play as an excellent short before the feature 10 Cloverfield Lane. The set up is simple a man keep and starves a woman in his bunker forcing her to playing endless games of Connect 4. This film turns on the woman’s performance and she delivers.

The last block I attended was the Supernatural Horrors short film block. Many of these movies did not work as well for me, though several had a lyrical quality that bordered on dreamlike. For me there was one stand out short in this section.

Leshy – from Slovenia is the story of a young girl, her forest ranger father, and the power that lives in the deep dark woods. This film rides on the back of its young actress who pulled it off beautifully. The style and story were very much like Guillermo del Toro and fans of his work would almost certainly enjoy this piece.

There was more to the festival, two more feature films and the awards, but my energy flagged and I surrendered to the inevitable returning home for the evening. I regret nothing save not taking Thursday off from my day job in addition to the Friday. The Wednesday night reception looked lovely and the food appealing but an early rise forced me home that night as well

All in all I had a wonderful time. I looked forward to next year with anticipation.

#HIFFSD