Seasonal Spooky Short Stories
Anthologies seem to be the new normal for the horror genre. They’ve always existed from The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories to Tales from the Darkside and the Outer Limits. In recent years, shows like Black Mirror and Electric Dreams have led the conversation. Bite Size Halloween isn’t as scripted or as formal as those. Instead, it is a collection of very different projects that are compiled to celebrate the Halloween season.
Horror films tend to run from 90 minutes to over two hours and when they do, they struggle to tell a story. Bite Size solves that by cranking the run time down to just 2-5 minutes. Filmmakers can set a premise, share one big plot reveal, and then roll the credits. Many of these indie directors are sharing pet projects or trying to gather some national attention to get the next project the green light. The result is a very strange buffet of short films that are nothing alike, but mostly very entertaining.
With such a short format, many of the stories fall back on an ironic ending. No spoilers here but “Visible”, the first in the series leans into that approach. Others like “MeNA” and “Mondays” follow the same formula. Others break through to absurd realities. The two minute “Devil Vac” is self-explanatory, as is the ridiculous “Monstagram.” “Creat( e ) ure” even breaks the fourth wall. Named episodes like “Jane” and “Gregory” also provide plenty of intrigue.
This series features a variety of visual gags. Some of the monsters are theatre of the mind. Others are puppets. A few are double exposure tricks. However, they are constructed, Bite Size Halloween provides a stage none of them would have had on their own. There are several familiar faces among the cast, including Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), Leon Thomas III (Victorious), Hari Nef (You, Transparent) and Dalmar Abuzeid (Degrassi: The Next Generation).
Bite Size Halloween is interesting. The episodes are so different that it will be, by nature, hit or miss with viewers depending on their tastes. It provides a welcome platform for amateur filmmakers to produce their films and to reach a broader audience than they ever might alone. It encapsulates the Halloween feeling, either two minutes or one season at a time.