The Rougarou-
A ten-year-old girl vows to catch and kill the Rougarou, the fabled werewolf of Louisiana lore, after the monster wreaks havoc on her neighborhood.
This was a well-made if generally confusing effort. On the surface, it looks fine and the storyline is interesting enough only for several small questions to pop up. How none of the officers discovered the footprint or noticed the missing hole in the basement pack quite a few holes into the storyline here. Still, as mentioned the rest is enjoyable with a fun relationship at the heart of the short, some fantastic creature effects and a pretty chilling finale that manages to generate enough to like over these minor issues.
She-Pack-
Anarchy emerges at a public pool birthday party when a group of small girls pushes the limits of their strength and power. Underdog Ronja challenges the girls’ alpha female to battle for dominance. The game escalates quickly, and as the thirst for power grows, Ronja and the other girls lose control.
There was a lot to like here. That this manages to touch rather well on the issue of female dominance and superiority over each other throughout their games, initially escalating from harmless pranks and suggestions into far more dangerous and unstable antics as the two subtly battle it out for dominance over the other. Realizing where its going to go and the overall end result of their battle is pretty enjoyable to watch as it comes off rather well, although the final resolution that makes them out to be even worse is a bit to swallow happening in real life.
The Little Demon-
Two fathers struggle to find a way to cohabit with their possessed daughter.
While generally enjoyable, there's something missing from this entry. The central relationship between the fathers and her is a rather fine addition to the genre and everything is handled well technically although the lack of a build-up or even what the possession is making different in their lives makes some of the horror scenes come off weaker than expected. Still, that the main part here in how their relationship comes together as generally satisfying makes this one enjoyable enough in that aspect.
The Curse-
When a young girl becomes jealous of her little brother for receiving money from the tooth fairy, she hatches a peculiar plan to cash in.
Overall, there was very little to this one. The general weirdness of the fairy's design and the general idea of what's going on is about all this has going for it, as the sheer confusion as to what's going on watching this thing wander around on-screen messing with her things is just dull and the final resolution makes her out to be a psychopath in the making.
Bakemono-
Today is February 3rd, known in Japan as Setsubun. Families celebrate by casting out evil spirits from their homes. But this family's young daughter has other plans...
There were some enjoyable elements here. The idea of working in location traditions and customs with the topical connection and preparations they undertake is quite fun, much like the gradual reveal that the stories are true and she'd found a real being that their stories warned her about. The switch is quite obvious but comes off terrifying enough in their reaction to her which thankfully leads to a truly chilling conclusion.
Fish Whiskers-
A visit to a secluded family cottage takes a mysterious turn after three best friends discover a dying catfish by the hillside.
This one wasn't bad but wasn't as good as it could've been. There's mainly too much going on here with the various storylines involving the girls out behind the house to the strange antics in the house itself that are left unexplained leaving everything rather confusing. With no tie-in to the title but a shocking finale to rescue it, this one does come off rather disjointed overall.
This overview ran as part of our remote coverage of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival. Click the banner below to check out our coverage of the event:
This also ran as part of our Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out all of our reviews and interviews about the occasion:
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