Warning: This list contains descriptions of gore as well as spoilers for Shudder's short films.
For horror fans everywhere, Shudder is a must-subscribe streaming service with every sub-genre of horror imaginable. The library even includes short films for when bite-sized terror is all that a viewer can stomach.
Under the "shorts" section, Shudder gives viewers six short films to choose from. Each film brings a new element of terror to the selection, from gruesome body horror to bloody tales of revenge and supernatural murders. While every film in the collection is fearsome enough to keep viewers up past their bedtime, some are more likely to affright thrill-seekers than others.
Terror, Sisters
In Terror, Sisters, Kalthoum and her friends are subjected to transphobic comments while having lunch together. The blatant intolerance leads them to fantasize about all the ways that they would reclaim their dignity and get revenge.
Terror, Sisters is as much of a comedy as it is a horror. Clever dialogue works in conjunction with scintillating cutaways to create a more-than-enjoyable viewing experience. There is quite a bit of body horror, including a man getting his genitals bitten off, but it is easily cushioned by body humor that is just as stark. The commentary on the experiences of trans people is shocking, but not as hair-raising as the other shorts in Shudder's collection.
Catcalls
Catcalls follows a sexual predator who comes to the terrifying realization that he flashed the wrong women. When they show up at his home and morph into cat-human hybrids, he is forced to face the consequences of his actions in the bloodiest way possible.
While a gory death at the paws of cat monsters is not a cheerful tale, the lex talionis of the short makes it much more digestible than the deaths depicted in the other films. Audiences find themselves rooting for the "monster" in this expression of feminine rage, and the sexual predator's death is fairly satisfying. The scariest part of the film is that even though the offender had it coming, his blameless wife ends up killed for his actions.
Islands
Viewers are immersed in a labyrinth of eroticism and lust in Islands. From one sexual spectacle to the next, twisted depictions of voyeurism and carnal passion show the multitudes of desire.
The demented sensuality in Islands is initially haunting, but as the film goes on it becomes enlightening. The short flips its own erotic horror on its head by demonstrating the thin line between fear and lust with its portrayal of monsters as objects of desire. The imagery is hypnotic but also very explicit, and some viewers might feel compelled to avert their eyes from the shocking presentation.
The Whistler
Bedtime ghost stories are brought to life in The Whistler. While babysitting, Lindsey tells her younger sister the story of a man who bewitched one hundred and thirty virgins and led them to their death. Lindsey wakes up to find her sister missing and slowly realizes that her imagination has come to fruition.
The plot of The Whistler makes it one of the scarier short films. The fear is built on these girls being lured to their deaths by a man who was supposed to be a figment of Lindsey's imagination, destroying any semblance of comfort from the phrase "it's all in your head." A blood-curdling score and nightmarish lighting accompany this spooky story about creative power and innocence, which makes the viewing experience all the scarier.
White Girl
White Girl follows a white teenage girl as she wanders East London late at night, appearing to be lost. When she commits a grisly murder at the end of the film, the audience learns that it was never her safety that they needed to worry about.
Although the plot twist is simple and the murder is brief, the meaning behind White Girl is spine-chilling. The girl serves as a metaphor for white feminism's ability to go undetected while victimizing communities of color. She gains the audience's concern and pins herself as vulnerable. This gives her the advantage that she needs to guiltlessly murder people of color, illustrating the threat to non-white communities that hides in plain sight.
Separation
In Separation, a husband and wife fall ill just as they are meant to get a divorce. When they wake up in the morning, their bodies are connected at the hip by a sickening appendage.
The final scene in Separation is gag-worthy. The venereal horror itself is enough to make any viewer's blood run cold, but the real terror in this short lies in the romance - or lack thereof. The thought of a married couple wanting nothing more than freedom from each other only for their bodies to physically grow together is suffocating. The short does a great job at fostering a fear of physical and emotional commitment.