The first short on Hasty Horrors today is a beautiful experiment in stop motion cinema entitled "Rot" from Erica Luke.  The film basically takes us from freshly dead to rotten in just over 30 seconds.

Our second short today features a slow burn tale that gives us good reason to be afraid of the dark.  "Lights Out" is a David Sandberg & Lotta Losten creation that was submitted to and won "Best Director" in the "Who's There Film Challenge" contest.  This one might be best viewed in full screen mode as suggested by the original youtube uploader.

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The San Diego Comic Con is something that I plan on attending every year and without fail plans fall through. The next best thing for me to do is to follow SDCC online like the ravenous nerd that I am.  Now that Comic Con is coming to a close this evening, I thought that I would share some of the highlights of the show that were more geared towards the horror side of things for those who weren't there or following it as closely as I was.  All of the pictures below are "clickable" if you want to enlarge them for further detail!

American Horror Story

Ryan Murphy and company brought the goods when it came to American Horror Story: Hotel.  Still shots (courtesy of FX) were shown that supposedly represent the actual Hotel that will be used during the season.  One of the odd things is how rundown the outside of the Hotel looks in contrast to the shiny white renovated look on the inside.  Hotel will not feature Jessica Lange as the previous seasons had but will add Lady Gaga to the mix.  What wasn't made clear regarding these stills was if they were of the attraction at the Comic Con itself or if they actually represent the Hotel itself from the show...probably a mix of both although I can't really see them using a single story Hotel during the show itself.  Also featured is a promotional AHS: Hotel key that was handed out to visitors of this panel.

Source: http://fansided.com/2015/07/10/american-horror-story-comic-con/


Ash vs. Evil Dead

Ash vs. Evil Dead was a huge hit at Comic Con this year due to the debut of the first trailer for the show.  The trailer features all of the main characters including Raimi regular Lucy Lawless as well as some of the co-stars of the show.  We also get a huge sampling of Bruce Campbell returning to the Ash Williams role he made famous so many years ago.  I have to say I'm really digging just how sharp and crisp the footage looks and the humor just fucking nails it!  Ash vs. Evil Dead premiers on Halloween night on Starz.

Krampus

If you don't know who Krampus is you are totally missing out on some good ole' Christmas horror.  Go ahead and wikipedia that shit while we all sit here and wait......Got it?  Yeah so Krampus is like the evil version of Santa or even Santa's evil helper in some lore and Mike Dougherty who brought us the perennial Halloween favorite "Trick 'r Treat" is moving on to bring us a new holiday classic in the form of a Christmas horror film.  Krampus was described by Dougherty at Comic Con as a throwback to the 80's similar to Gremlins.  No footage has been shared online but was shown at Comic Con and as soon as something official hits I'll be sharing it here.  In the meantime check out the bad ass one-sheet that was released at SDCC.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of the SDCC 2015 Horror Highlights!

For any HalloweenOverkillers who weren't around for Hasty Horrors Episode #1 this is a new twice a week feature of HalloweenOverkill that will showcase a curated list of my favorite horror & Hallowen shorts/commercials/trailers.  Come back to HalloweenOverkill every Tuesday and Saturday for new episodes of Hasty Horrors!

First up on today's list is a short art performance from Olivier De Sagazan.  Sagazan is a performance artist who's work focuses on existentialism through many modes of art such as painting, sculpting, photography and live performance.  The artist who performs many of pieces live has been quoted as saying: "I am interested in seeing to what degree people think it's normal, or even trite, to be alive."  The piece featured below from Sagazan is titled "Transfiguration" and is frightening, melancholy, and pure and a physical representation of pure madness (at least that's the way I interpret this piece).  Check it out and be sure to comment letting me know what you felt while watching it!

Today's second video is a horror short from the folks over at FEWDIO who specialize in short horror films. You can find a bevvy of FEWDIO's short horror films over on youtube but today I wanted to bring to your attention "Bedfellows".  I won't say much more for fear of spoiling the short but pay close attention to the face and eyes of the thing...........I'll never sleep again.

The final featured short of Episode is a completely fucking gonzo version of an early 90's commercial.  You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones shown during the commercial break of an episode of saved by the bell and featuring Capri Sun or Dunkaroos or Fruit Stripe gum, except this one takes a turn towards the bizarre.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Make sure to check back daily for more Halloween and horror updates and don't forget every Tuesday and Saturday HalloweenOverkill features Hasty Horrors - the best in horror short films!

I hope that by now you've seen the trailer or promotional material for the Halloween nostalgia trip, "The Barn".  If you've somehow been living in a hole on the internet and haven't, you can click on the one-sheet for The Barn over on the right to be taken to the official Nevermore Productions homepage.  On the official page you can get all caught up on watching the trailer and checking out the amazing promotional material for The Barn that includes an actual NES game (cartridge and all), action figures, and an official board game.  After you've seen some of the goodies that are being distributed to help promote The Barn I'm sure you're asking yourself but where oh where can I score some of that amazing swag?  Fear not fellow HalloweenOverkillers, for I have your answer.  If you head over to The Barn's IndieGoGo page you can donate money to help with some of the finishing costs of the film and be rewarded with some of the stuff you saw on the Nevermore homepage. It is here on the IndieGoGo page that you can earn the right to be one of the first to own a DVD copy of The Barn, since it has yet to find distribution.  Head over and donate anywhere from $3.00 to $7,000.00 and maybe, just maybe this will be enough to get The Barn finished and into your home video collection!  Below you can watch a video with writer/director Justin M. Seaman (who also plays one of the killers in the film - The Boogeyman) with Dr. Rock played by Ari Lehman - yes the first Jason Voorhees!  Click The Barn

Horror shorts never seem to be in short order these days thanks to you-tube and relatively low cost of high tech equipment and production fees (again, I say relatively). Because of the abundance of fantastic horror shorts on the web it's becoming harder and harder to keep up with them. To this I say don't bother, let me do it for you!  Hasty Horrors is a new feature on HalloweenOverkill that will act as a curated list of my favorite horror shorts from the web.  These may be short films that I come across on some of my favorite blogs, website, or just randomly discovered shorts.  Hasty Horrors will be featured twice a week here on HalloweenOverkill on both Tuesdays and Saturdays.  Please comment or send me an email letting me know what you think of these shorts and feel free to pass the links on to other fans who may be interested and let's perhaps get these talented filmmakers some well deserved buzz going!

The first short to be featured here on Hasty Horrors is a mind melting take on the cosmic horror trope or Lovecraftian genre as it is often referred to as.  "Thresher" by Mike Diva is the kind of film that dares to do more in a short amount of time than most Hollywood films, and I personally found it more successful at translating the usually the cosmic horror story into film than many attempts I have seen in the past.  During Thresher a man is locked in a room and his attempts to unlock the chained door holding him in are what make up the bulk of the short.  Only once he finally begins to crack the combinations on the locks does the horror begin.... look for some jump-scares as well as an ending that you may just want to hit the pause button on to behold all of the Lovecraftian goodness packed into the scene.  Thresher proves that not every door allows for safe passage.....

For short number two we have a fan film trailer for a new "IT" film entitled "Pennywise".  The trailer clocks in at a short five minutes and 49 seconds but packs quite the punch in its short length. James Cawley and Filmmakin.com do a great job of re-imagining the Pennywise character, and hey now that Cary Fukunaga is off of the official IT remake perhaps the film should be handed over to Cawley!  Also props to Andrew Johnson for a stunning job of bringing Pennywise to life and making sure that our coulrophobia is as prevailing as ever.

Check back Saturday for another episode of Hasty Horrors and please leave me some comments below if you have suggestions for horror shorts that you'd like to see featured in the future!

EDIT: It was brought to my attention by someone in the know that Fleeting Fear wasn't technically the correct usage of verbiage so I have thus changed the name of this new feature to Hasty Horrors!