Short of the Week

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Comedy Oliver Hilbert

Escargore

A snail horror comedy about a group of friends that find themselves out of their element and in a whole lot of trouble.

Play
Comedy Oliver Hilbert

Escargore

A snail horror comedy about a group of friends that find themselves out of their element and in a whole lot of trouble.

Escargore

Directed By Oliver Hilbert
Produced By Media Design School
Made In New Zealand

The story of 5 friends being inventively murdered one-by-one might not sound like the most original pick for our Halloween week, but then most Horror films don’t feature snails. An entertaining mix of comedy and animated-gore, this latest short from Media Design School’s ‘3D Animation and VFX’ programme puts a novel-twist on a tried-and-tested Horror storyline.

Despite orbiting around a group of infamously slow-moving molluscs, there’s certainly nothing sluggish about Escargore. With a run-time just over 5-minutes, a storyline that features 5 shell-cracking deaths and some fantastic character-design on the hapless herbivore heroes, this is an action-packed short intent on injecting a little fun into the Horror genre. Completed in four months by a group of 22 students, Escargore blends live-action and CGI to create its distinct aesthetic and should act as an impressive calling-card for everyone involved.

Unlike most of the films we’ve featured in the build-up to Halloween, the aim of Escargore doesn’t seem to be one that’s set out to (shell)shock it’s audience. Instead this is a short that feels as if it’s creators have decided its main aim is to ‘lettuce entertain you’ and if that is the case…they really snailed it!

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Drama Olivia Hang Zhou

Apart, Together

Yiru, a Chinese teenager travels to Los Angeles with her mom Jia in search of her long lost sister who was given up for adoption due to the one child policy. As the search intensifies, Yiru grapples with feelings of isolation and longing for her mothers love .