Happy Halloween! Here's 18 Short Horror Films You Need To See! (2025 edition)

 October Challenge Day 31:

Happy Halloween everyone!! Here is 18 brilliant short horror films to spook up your day.

Why 18 you ask? Because this is the 8th month of the old Roman calendar and the 10th month of the current calendar. BRAINS!

So without further ado, below is my pick of some of the best out there. With a review of 18 words or less, and in no particular order, please enjoy Horror Habit's 2025 Short Horror Film Festival.

Seed: Uh. He's COMING! A creature feature.

The Night Witch: Fantasy and horror - for all you children at heart!

Helping Hand: A surreal little nightmare. Watch out for strange packages!

Conditioning: Blood, guts and more in this hellscape of torture and pain.

Adjoining: This couple takes their online persona a little too far...

No mires ahí (Don't Look There): A grieving family; a ghostly presence. Do look here! 

Mainstream: Oh you know, just a little psychological body horror from 2006!

Below: Let's take a break and have a good, clever laugh!

UNwanted Guest: A tidy little jump scare!

Missing: A whole lotta torture going on!

New Jersey Monster Hunter: A fun creature feature with a throw back feel. The blood and guts are great!

Roommate: A physiological little thriller that reminders you it's best to live alone sometimes.

The Dollmaker: Always listen to the directions when given a doll that requires instructions!

Anitbodies: The nightmares of social conformity and the traps they are, for everyone.

The Flytipper: Laughs abound with this horror short about dick jokes and junk.

STRAY: A COVID-era chiller! Be careful who you bring home...

Be My Eyes: Took being blind to a new level of horror!

Date Night: Have fun out there kids! And good luck!

Dead Man (1995)

October Challenge Day 30

Oh the thin veil is opening! The other side is here! Let's talk about:

Dead Man

I haven't seen this in nearly 20 years. I used to watch it all the time, with two of my best buds. 

My pals.

My protectors. 

My two best brothers from another mother. 

And they are both Dead now. 

I wasn't sure what to watch, for the closure of this year's movie review binge, and then I scrolled upon this gem and knew *exactly* what had to be watched. It's been 20 years, after all.

This is the story of a naive young accountant who travels too far West in the American frontier sun, and finds himself shot and an accidental outlaw. 

We follow his wanderings with a Native American guide who ridicules and protects him on his journey to .... death.

This film is so honest, frightening, and funny in a gallows humor way. I laughed out loud and re-watched several scenes my dead friends and I used to say/reenact as daily inside jokes.

Oh how I rolled with laughter, all by myself.

While I could not predict or prepare for their untimely passing, we all roared with vitality and, oddly, prepared for the unprepared-able, instinctively, while alive: we all knew death was coming. As mimicked, to a degree, in this film. 

This movie is made more personal as the three of us traveled - from Montana, South Dakota, and California, to find each other in the wilds of Western Washington - like our Dead Man, here. Who, by the good graces of the Makah people, release this stupid white man into the next world. 

While the Duwamish tribe would play a march larger role in our own lives, rather than the Makah - even as I was watching this film, my Duwamish neighbor, a woman of few words, called me up to give me several bags of apples and pears "....because you leave so many treats for us [building residents]..." - I kinda wanted to cry at the full circle of it all. 

This is not a review of the film. This is a review of my life and how much I appreciate it. 

I hope you also see this film as a beautiful gift of: we a have short time here. 

Happy 13 years of Horror Habit, and the 46 years of adventures that built it. 

I miss you, Law and Chance. Love: Karma. 

See you on the other side when Nobody says so. 

I watched this film on HBO Max or use the Find It! Watch It! Links on Horror Habit's sidebar to see where else you can find this existential diamond in the rough.

Nightmare Weekend (1986)

October Challenge Day 29:

We're winding down the month with a CLASSIC 1980's slasher(?)! Let's check out:

Nightmare Weekend

Tech bruhs, being a menace because s*x is hard since 1986.

I don't even know where to begin with this trash masterpiece.  It was hit, after hit, after hit of complete chaos and absurdity. 

We begin with a limo full of some young women who are transferred to a strange house. Not shady at all. That's about it, for plot. 

From there they decide to stop, have a drink, and dry hump strange men at a pinball bar. 

Limo driver drinks booze from inside a sandwich. 

They arrive at the house and while there are experiments going on - where AI, ChatGPT, Alexa, and zombies are formed.

History, folks!!!

The voice talking from an electronic device is a puppet though, that you can pet. You can physically pet your AI neurosis.  

It gets messier from there. I couldn't believe I was watching history in the making.

Only to be enjoyed when you're *ready* to re-experience the joys of a frontal lobe development-free life. Sit back and enjoy the burning world without a flicker happening behind your eyes. Give yourself a break. You deserve it!

Pairs with everything you shouldn't eat or drink. 

I rented this film from Scarecrow Video, or use the Find It! Watch it! Links on Horror Habit's sidebar to see where else you can find this fabulous mind musher!

Beau Is Afraid (2023)

October Challenge Day 28

I read some reviews of this film that stated, essentially, "F*ck Beau, I'm afraid!". Let's talk about:

Beau is Afraid

Oh boy, this one is an odyssey. 

Here we have the life and legend of a timid man who faces his fears ... sort of. 

Poor Beau is a slump of a man. Living in poverty, in an almost comically insane neighborhood, getting ready to fly and visit his extraordinarily wealthy and powerful mother. When running back to get some floss right before his trip turned out to be the worst decision he ever made.

Yes, this is certainly a film about a domineering mother and her suffocating son, there is so much more to say about society, a man's emotional growth, purpose, and the crippling anxiety that ruins everything.

While, this film is serious and intense, there is a giant dick and balls battle that is sure to delight all!

An existential crisis after crisis throughout the long film, the ending wraps up with a sober dose of wildly dark humor and solid dread. Not for everyone - or rather, you have to be ready to appreciate this punch in the gut and the bitter and vengeful pat on the face.

Best watched in a small group, preferably a group studying philosophy, religion, or depression. Pairs with anything served on broken, dingy plates with rusted silverware. The grosser the better.   

I watched this film on HBO Max or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this charmingly sad nightmare. 

The Premonition (1975)

October Challenge Day 27

As someone who has had premonitions before, I thought this might be interesting. Let's take a look at:

The Premonition

Oh holy smokes, I was NOT prepared for this!

Surprisingly haunting and disturbing, this one follows two very deranged people trying to kidnap their(??) child back. 

This film has a Don't Look Now feel. The Changeling air. A psychosis of Carnival of Souls, and so many more classic films.

The birth parents of the child are absolutely terrifying! Some of the scariest! And what in the world do you call this film? A ghost story? A stalking film? An unraveling mind?

I think I was expecting to see some low budget '70s camp. And I was watching some .... until it wasn't low budget camp anymore. I did, however, end up in some sort of TED talk for a short while, which quickly descended into a psychic intervention.

This is a strange, strange film that will stick with me for a long time. 

Madness, cruelty, parapsychology, kidnapping, a women's unwavering INSTINCT: this film is an art house show bundled, incorrectly, as a late night double feature. 

A cult classic for sure - this will live in the hearts of artists, musicians, and fans of the paranormal. Brava.

I rented this film from Scarecrow Video, and the DVD includes three short films that every theater student, film student, or director of either needs to see:

Terminal Point (1969)

Vernal Equinox (1968)

A Rumbling In the Land (1969)

Or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this wild adventure into the spirit, heart, and mind.