Category: Horror

The clever short film ‘Beast’ tells an unusual, genre-twisting story of forbidden gay love

A 24-minute short film from Swedish writer-director Valentina Chamorro Westergårdh, Beast begins as a romantic drama and turns into something else entirely.

The film follows Vincent (Andreas La Chenardière), a reclusive young man who lives in a remote lakeside town that only attracts visitors during the warmer months. When he attends a bonfire and meets the strikingly handsome Gustav (Robert Noack), an instant attraction is sparked.

Gustav visits Vincent again later on, hoping to bring his seemingly shy newfound acquaintance out of his shell and act on their clear desire for one another.

Attracted to Gustav, Vincent soon gives in to temptation, and the two men begin a passionate affair. But Vincent has a good reason for keeping most people at a distance – and his secret may just destroy Gustav and their burgeoning romance if the pair aren’t careful.

Clever and beautifully constructed, Beast straddles two specific genres to tell an unusual tale of forbidden gay love.

Watch the trailer for Beast below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Zachary Quinto stars in director Sam Max’s chilling short thriller ‘Chaperone’

Starring Zachary Quinto and Russell Kahn, the provocative 16-minute short film Chaperone is a genre-bending queer thriller that will keep you guessing to the bitter end – and linger with you long after the credits roll.

Without giving too much away, the film follows an unnamed figure (Quinto) who picks up a young man (Kahn) in his car. As the two drive away together and settle into an austere rental house in the country, the details of their arrangement become disturbingly clear.

The first filmmaking project of promising writer-director Sam Max, Chaperone had its world premiere in-competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, playing in the Midnight Shorts category to great acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The film was also shortlisted for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Haunting, formally assured and chillingly acted by Kahn and Quinto, this film marks Sam Max as a director to watch.

Watch the trailer for Chaperone below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Acclaimed director Rodrigo Bellott returns with the phantasmagorical horror film ‘Blood-Red Ox’

Two lovers find themselves descending into a mysterious form of madness in the eerie new psychological thriller Blood-Red Ox.

Boyfriends Amir and Amat (played by Mazin Akar and Kaolin Bass) are invited on a trip into the South American rain forest, but their initially pleasant visit to Bolivia quickly takes a bizarre turn.

Amat starts having strange visions and loses his mind over the ghostly presence of a giant red ox. Amir finds that he must save his boyfriend from this dangerous paranoia, but he quickly realizes that he can’t trust anything or anyone around them – as he might be losing his mind too.

From Rodrigo Bellott, the writer-director behind the critically-acclaimed 2020 drama Tu Me Manques, Blood-Red Ox is a visionary, phantasmagorical gay horror film that aims to make your head spin.

Watch the trailer for Blood-Red Ox below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The gay thriller ‘The Latent Image’ arrives on Dekkoo just in time for Halloween

The new gay thriller The Latent Image follows novelist Ben (Joshua Tonks) as he retreats to an isolated cabin to start work on his latest novel and to escape the growing tension with his boyfriend Jamie (William Tippery).

Late into the night, Ben wakes to find someone else in his cabin, a wounded man (Jay Clift) claiming to be a hunter whose car had broken down nearby.

Intrigued by this handsome and mysterious intruder, Ben decides uses him as inspiration for his new book… about a savage murder believed to have taken place in the very cabin he has rented.

As the man begins to help him enact increasingly dangerous and detailed scenarios for the story’s captive protagonist, Ben becomes aroused by all the creative ways this scenario might play out. What quickly develops, however, is a lethal game of cat and mouse where his dark, erotic fantasy becomes a stark, inescapable reality.

A tense, sexually-charged gay thriller from writer-director Alexander McGregor Birrell, The Latent Image tells a chilling story wherein the lines between reality and fiction become increasingly blurred.

Watch the trailer for The Latent Image below. The film is now available on Dekkoo – just in time for Halloween!

‘Phantom Project’ is a playful and quirky supernatural rom-com from Chile

Phantom Project stars Juan Cano as Pablo, a young actor who dreams of landing a role in a film.

In order to pay the bills, he works as a simulated patient in medical schools and strange alternative therapy sessions. It’s not just his career that has hit a snag. His romantic and social lives are also in trouble.

He’s still in love with his successful ex-boyfriend and his roommate has disappeared without paying rent, leaving behind several problems… including a ghost who is now haunting his living space.

With nowhere to go but up, Pablo becomes more determined than ever to fix his situation and finally turn his dreams into a reality.

From writer-director Roberto Doveris, Phantom Project is a delightfully off-beat supernatural gay comedy with humor and heart to spare.

Watch the trailer for Phantom Project below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Jason T. Gaffney’s ‘Out of Body’ is a wildly inventive supernatural gay romance

From writer, director, actor and overall Dekkoo-favorite Jason T. Gaffney and co-writer Suzanne Brockmann comes the new supernatural comedy-drama Out of Body.

Malcolm (Kevin Held) has always had feelings for his best friend Henry (Gaffney), but it’s going to take some extreme measures to bring those feelings out into the open.

When a demon escapes from an orb that’s been imprisoning him, he takes possession of Malcolm’s body, leaving his spirit in limbo. As Henry is the only person who can communicate with Malcolm’s lost soul, the two embark on a valiant quest to get Malcolm’s body back, vanquish evil and maybe even find love along the way.

Out of Body is a wildly inventive and fast-paced film that gleefully upends the traditional gay romance.

Watch the trailer for Out of Body below. The film is now available to stream on Dekkoo. Jason T. Gaffney’s other new project, the Dekkoo-original comedy series Marriage of Inconvenience, is also available now.

Short Film Spotlight: Nanoblood

From writer Nick Roth and director Lindsay Haun, Nanoblood is a short film that tosses comedy, neo-noir, horror and sci-fi all into the blender at once, telling the story of three young lovers and the bots that tear them apart.

Not for the squeamish (expect lots of blood and some thrillingly Cronenberg-influenced body horror), this 38-minute film follows Gary (Anthony Rutowicz), a painter recently out of a day job, and his wife Lisa (Amanda Fuller), a graduate student in nanobiology.

Lisa’s funding is contingent on her participation in an experimental trial to replace her blood cells with microscopic, artificially intelligent robots. When the pair decide to make some extra cash by renting Gary’s painting studio out to Toby (Gabriel Miller), a mysterious visiting scholar also participating in Lisa’s clinical trial, their bodies begin to change in unexpected ways… and sexual desire begins to emerge in unexpected places.

Ambitious, provocative, sexually-frank and surprisingly timely, Nanoblood tells a large, inventive sci-fi story on an intimate scale.

Watch the trailer for Nanoblood below. The full short film is available now on Dekkoo.