Short films are like Hi-Chews — bite-size flavor explosions that should be savored before moving onto the next one, and the one after that. Given the bottomless well of compelling shorts that exist, we decided to carve out a space where we could gush about our favorite discoveries. Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off is an ongoing series of articles exploring underseen short films from all centuries. The only criteria for inclusion is that each one has to . . . well, tear our heads off. Every volume will cover five shorts in chronological order that deserve to be appreciated and re-watched anywhere from three to fourteen times before you die.
Hold onto your head!
Living Dolls (Todd Coleman, 1980, YouTube)
To this day, there is no scientific proof that mannequins aren’t sentient beings with a secret plot to make us extinct. For proof, look no further than Living Dolls—the story of shop dummies that come to life to enact revenge on an abusive creep named Melvin. Feeling like an avant garde industrial film that was made in someone’s attic, this short conjures visions of everything from Aroused to Maniac. But it also establishes its own weirdo vibe, one that packs a surprising amount of tension, fun, and chills into nine short minutes. Living Dolls would have felt right at home as an episode of George Romero’s Tales From the Darkside TV series. Instead, it’s only available thanks to a home recording of a USA Network broadcast from 1992. And that makes it even more alluring.
Red & Rosy (Frank Grow, 1989, Film Threat VHS, YouTube)
Crank has nothing on Red & Rosy. Eighteen minutes of spasmic fury shot on beautifully decayed 16mm film, this is the story of “legendary drag racing champion Richard ‘Big Red’ Friedman” and his addiction to a self-made drug that simulates adrenaline. That, and a garage full of monsters that resemble a gene splice between Belial from Basket Case and The Muppets. Red & Rosy is an outstanding melting pot of underground Gen X aesthetics—crude animation, dildo props, gory murders, found footage, op-art collages. It’s fitting that this black and white daydream was only ever distributed on VHS by Film Threat in the early 1990s. Because watching it evokes the same warm feelings I get after reading a vintage ‘zine and discovering that my fingers are smudged with ink. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this is a movie that you can watch . . . and also smell.
Godzilla Vs. the Netherlands (Sietske Tjallingii, 1999, Vimeo)
Redman was a 1970s tokusatsu TV show from Japan. It consisted of 138 episodes that ran 3-minutes each and featured nothing but Redman fighting monsters. For real. It was just fights! Godzilla Vs. the Netherlands does for kaiju movies what Redman did for tokusatsu. Shot in two weeks by prolific DIY filmmaker Sietske Tjallingii, this is five minutes of a bootleg Godzilla trouncing landmarks in the Netherlands that were created with adorable miniatures. And it’s sublime. In her film, Tjallingii finally gives the King of Monsters what he’s always wanted: a human-free limbo where he can destroy everything for all eternity. My favorite scene was when Godzilla literally juggled three boats and then got mad when he dropped them. He’s a cutie no matter what country is getting demolished.
Homer_B (Milos Mitrovic & Conor Sweeney, 2017, Vimeo)
If you’re looking for a Black Lodge version of The Simpsons, this will get the job done. Homer_B is a 3-minute Analog Horror short that reimagines characters from America’s longest-running sitcom as arbiters of terror in rubber masks. Directors Milos Mitrovic and Connor Sweeney most likely conceptualized this as a goof. But it’s still genuinely eerie. Like the best Analog Horror projects, Homer_B provides suggestions without conclusions: robotic text-to-speech for Krusty’s stream-of-consciousness punchlines (“He would like to make the pigs vomit and then he would vomit”), a shot of Bart holding a gun to his father’s head, and a vague threat of a murderous Homer being inside the viewer’s home. ¡Ay, caramba!
A.I. Mama (Asuka Lin, 2020, Vimeo)
The year 2020 wasn’t all bad, because it gifted us with this movie. A descendant of the cyberpunk dynasty established by Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Anatomia Extinction, A.I. Mama is a haunting, multilayered experiment that explores grief, trauma, and identity through the comforting nostalgia of outdated technology. Filmmaker Asuka Lin steeps their 5-minute short in wires, tubes, CRT screens, stop-motion animation, and metallic soundscapes, all abstracted through the immersive haze of black and white Super 8 film stock. The result is familiar but distinct; a photocopy of reality that ingratiates rather than alienates, thanks to the strength of Lin’s messaging. My only criticism is that A.I. Mama isn’t fifteen times longer.
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 1!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 2!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 3!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 4!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 5!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 6!
Read Shorts That Tore Our Heads Off: Volume 8!
