Reviews
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2025: ‘Slayed’ LGBTQ+ Shorts Block
As someone who has been attending the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival annually since 2017, I can comfortably say that the ‘Slayed’ LGBTQ+ shorts block is a true highlight. Horror Press was honored to once again sponsor the block for the 2025 edition of the festival, elevating some of the very best that queer horror has to offer.
This year’s shorts represented a vast diversity of gender identities and sexualities, and the role of intersectionality in shaping a person’s lived experience. They managed to be funny, sexy, beautiful, heartbreaking, and triumphant in turns—and plenty scary, too.
If you couldn’t make it to the screening, here’s a quick recap. Consider it a call to action to prioritize the ‘Slayed’ programming at next year’s fest!
Long Pork (Dir. Iris Dukatt)
The opening titles of writer-director Iris Dukatt’s Long Pork inform us that we are in post-Roe America (don’t I know it). But our currently dystopian hellscape has been taken up a notch, with state propaganda posters plastering the exterior walls of an upscale steakhouse informing us that we need to “Protect the child, forfeit the vessel.” Inside, the head chef (Lena Headey) seizes the opportunity to avenge her daughter, a victim of this extreme pro-life regime, when the smug, hypocritical Chancellor of Righteousness (Marc Menchaca) walks through her doors.
Deliciously cathartic, Long Pork’s master stroke is in its portrayal of a pregnant trans-masc kitchen worker and the solidarity of the women around them. It’s a powerful reminder that queer and gender non-conforming people are often equally (if not more) vulnerable to the kind of oppression that targets cisgender women, and that standing together is the best way to defend ourselves and our communities against those who seek to destroy us. Even if we have to eat them.
Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! (Dir. Zen Pace)
“We’re all clowns in the hospitality industry,” writer and star Zachary Solomon said of their short film Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! during the Q&A at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. In it, they play Jordyn, a struggling birthday party clown dealing with bitchy clients, a fellow performer throwing around queer slurs, and an empty bank account, all while his phone rings off the hook, informing him that his ailing mother has taken a turn for the worse. A mean right hook from an entitled kid and an abusive sexual encounter with the dad finally push Jordyn over the edge, leading to a bloody climax that left the person next to me audibly praying for Jordyn to murder the child next.
He doesn’t, leaving Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! more tragicomedy than outright cathartic horror. Director Zen Pace uses shots through the eyes of Jordyn’s humiliating pig costume to put the viewer in his shoes, but many queer people will already be very familiar with the situation he’s in, forced to debase himself just to make ends meet, any art he might have produced drowned out by the screams of unappreciative little brats.
She Devil (Dir. Allie Perison)
Being a butch woman in hyper-feminine spaces can be uncomfortable. Director Allie Perison amps up the discomfort to an eleven in She Devil, a short film following butch Gemma (Paula Andrea Placido) as she accompanies her femme girlfriend, Mae (Phoebe Voss), to a friend’s breakup party. This is Gemma’s first time meeting Mae’s friends, and she’s alarmed to learn that the group forced the breakup because they distrusted the boyfriend, seemingly without cause. When they realize that Gemma isn’t entirely on their side, the women quickly turn on her, using her as a stand-in for the ex to express all their rage and distrust.
Co-written by Perison and Matt Almquist, She Devil is a chilling examination of weaponized femininity and how it can harm gender-nonconforming women. “I would do anything for my femmes,” one character expresses, pointedly excluding the decidedly unfeminine Gemma. The script also cleverly plays on viewers’ biases, leaving us to reflect on whose side of the story we believe when relationships sour.
Last Call (Dir. Winnie Cheung)
Winner of Best Short Film at this year’s festival, director Winnie Cheung’s Last Call is a dreamy, drug-fueled ride into the psyche. Less a narrative film and more a vivid emotional landscape lit by a lotus-flower sun, the short follows a rebellious motorcyclist (Celia Au) who indulges in her worst vices night after night in an attempt to outrun the seductive serpent woman (Matilda Sakamoto) in her mind. But a high-speed crash forces a collision, triggering a journey of transformation and desire.
Last Call is cut through with moments of stark body horror like a forked tongue slithering from a wound. Paired seamlessly with sumptuous acid-trip landscapes and a triumphant performance from Au, it all makes for one of the most unique—and uniquely beautiful—films of the fest.
Tal 탈 (Dir. Charlie Gillette)
Not all queer stories have a happy ending. From director Charlie Gillette and writer Wesley Han, Tal is a quietly devastating short about the crushing expectations of immigrant parents and the feeling that you need to hide your true self to be successful, or at least make others happy.
Han stars in Tal as Gabriel, a young associate at a prestigious New York City law firm. He’s tried to put his artistic dreams behind him, but he can’t let them go entirely, keeping a neutral mask (a tool used to train actors in movement by hiding their expression) in the desk drawer of his cubicle. As he pulls a grueling all-nighter for his demanding boss and fields worried phone calls from his mother, he finds himself struggling to suppress his feelings for his kind coworker (Barton Cowperthwaite)—and running from a demon wearing his mask. Sadly, Gabriel can’t outrun his demons or confront his desires, leading to an ending that will sit with you long after the credits roll.
Consume (Dir. Aliyah Knight)
The Nitehawk Cinema’s projector broke in the middle of Aliyah Knight’s Consume, but the highest praise I can give the film is to say that I was gutted to miss a single moment of it. From what I did see, the short follows a young woman in a religious household who is struggling to suppress her desires. A little sexy, a little sapphic, and very bloody, it left me hungry for more—a must-watch if I can catch it in full in the future!
Blood Boys (Dir. Jordan Hahn)
When it comes to the topic of blood donation, the shadow of the AIDs crisis still hangs over the gay male community. Writer-director Jordan Hahn’s Blood Boys reframes blood sharing between queer men as a sexy competitive sport, one that fuels toxic masculinity and gets in the way of genuine intimacy.
Based on the real phenomena of creepy old rich men getting blood transfusions from young donors in an attempt to live forever (or at least reverse the effects of aging), Blood Boys follows buff boy Sam (BooBoo Stewart) as he competes to be a billionaire’s personal blood bag. If he wants the job and the perks that may come with it, he’ll have to beat out the current bloodletting champ, Charlie (Damian Joseph Quinn). Hahn contrasts the cold sterility of the clinic with hot skin shining with sweat, plunging needles into swollen veins in a way that is both wince-inducing and undeniably, disturbingly erotic.
The Dysphoria (Dir. Kylie Aoibheann)
With access to affordable gender-affirming care getting more limited by the day, writer-director Kylie Aoibheann’s playful short The Dysphoria packs a surprisingly hefty punch. In it, Alice (Eva Rees), unable to afford a procedure, turns to ancient rituals in an attempt to make her body reflect her true identity. Unfortunately, her boyfriend Tyler (Adam White) not only won’t take the ritual seriously, but wants to dissuade Alice from getting the surgery at all.
The Dysphoria elegantly sidesteps obvious punchlines, instead driving toward a conclusion that is as cathartic as it is amusing. With some great practical gore and a standout performance from Rees, it’s a fun take on a serious issue—and the perfect way to close out the ‘Slayed’ shorts block for another year.
From Blood Shine to now, I’ve really been eating my words with my “don’t like cult horror” attitude. Maybe all I needed was a gigantic break from the hundreds of cult-based horror films that were being churned out. Or, maybe the subgenre just needed some space to find its footing? Anyway, imagine the shock on my face when I was researching snake-based horror films and came across Them That Follow, starring Walton Goggins, Olivia Coleman, Kaitlyn Dever, and *checks notes* Jim Gaffigan!
Lemuel (Walton Goggins) is the pastor of a snake-fearing religious group, tucked away deep in the Appalachian mountains. His daughter, Mara (Alice Englert), is set to marry Garret (Lewis Pullman), a man she seemingly has no interest in. As their young love comes into question, Johnny Law starts breathing down their necks. With her best friend Dilly (Kaitlyn Dever) on her side, Mara questions everything she’s known about her life thus far. Will she go forward and marry a man she may not even love? Or, will her former fling, Auggie (Thomas Mann), win her affection and get her to leave this awful life behind?
A Slow-Burn With Style
Writer/directors Brittany Poulton and Dan Madison Savage bring a wholly unique feature to the table with Them That Follow. At first, the film’s meandering and lackluster pace is grating. WHEN will something happen? WHAT will move this story forward? Slowly but surely, Poulton and Savage’s story serpentines its way into nihilistic horror. If you have zero control over your life, what kind of life is it? Them That Follow is a harrowing, albeit slow, exploration of grief in a way that “elevated horror” typically fails at doing. Rather than forcing audiences into its grief, Poulton and Savage craft an excellent story around it.
Them That Follow explores not just grief, but groupthink. In a world where deeply religious political parties storm pizza restaurants with automatic weapons and kill in the name of their god, this film acts as a harsh mirror. YOU may not be aware that groups like this exist…they do. One of my favorite articles is written by someone who embedded himself in a Q-adjacent cult as he chronicled just how broken some of these groups are. (I wish I could remember the title/author, sorry!) Them That Follow does an incredible job at visualizing some of the things I read in that article. Those who believe Lemuel see nothing wrong with letting one of their friends get bitten by a venomous snake and slowly drift into a quiet death in the name of their god.
Outstanding Performances and a Surprising Cast
What really excited me about Them That Follow is how wonderfully miserable the cast is. Never have I seen people portray misery as entertainingly as this cast. Walton Goggins embodies his violent optimism in a way I haven’t seen him do before (though I haven’t seen Justified). Olivia Coleman is brilliant as always. But it’s everyman comedian Jim Gaffigan who really caught my eye. His performance is subtle and refined, something I didn’t think he could pull off. And if you ever thought you would see the day where Jim Gaffigan and Olivia Coleman play husband and wife on screen, you’re lying.
It’s not until the final act that the film goes from stagnant (positively) forwardness to amped up energy. I was concerned Them That Follow wouldn’t nail an interesting stinger, but Poulton and Savage wrapped a bloody brilliant bow on the end of this gift. I did wish they had gone in a different, less realistic angle to the film’s ending; something more grotesque. But I can’t fault them for leaving the film grounded in a reality that is justified and believable. Not all films like this have to end with a supernatural, Lovecraftian twist. And for that, I tip my ten-gallon hat to them.
Why Them That Follow Deserves More Attention
Them That Follow was an incredible surprise, and a wonderful change of pace for what cult-based horror films typically are. With a stacked cast, brilliant writing, and stunning performances, I’m shocked more people haven’t stumbled across this film. It utilizes its snake-based horror well and doesn’t vilify those slithery sneaks in a way many snake-based horror films do. At the very least, watch this film to see what it would be like if Olivia Coleman and Jim Gaffigan were married.
I have no illusions that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 entertained me due in no small part to personal bias. There was genuine enjoyment to be had for how silly and fun it was and enjoy it I did. I, of all people, am not immune to nostalgia. But there’s no mincing words: the second outing at the cinemas for creator Scott Cawthon’s behemoth horror franchise is, in no uncertain terms, a movie of mixed to low quality. It’s kind of bad. And that’s okay.
Its effects are simultaneously better and worse, its dialogue ranges from alright to atrocious, and its performances are all over the place. The premise it runs with, remixing the second game with its shiny new Toy versions of the Fazbear Entertainment gang, is a fun time fueled by fan service and busting at the seams to try and accommodate it all to an under two-hour runtime. But it’s messier than the backrooms of the pizzerias it takes place in.
A Remix of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (And Others), Heavy on Fanservice
This time, the primary antagonist puppeteering a cast of aggressive animatronics is literally a puppet; the Marionette, a scorned victim of the previous film’s antagonist William Afton. Slain and bound to the very first restaurant Afton started, a group of ghost hunters unleash its evil when a recording of their show goes horribly wrong. It’s up to Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) to try and seal it away again, or risk their lives being torn apart by the supernatural once more.
For the game fans this film was crafted for, it will satiate any lore craving they might have. Well, at least until the third film, when Mike will combat oxygen deprivation that causes him to hallucinate phantom animatronics (no, that sentence is not a joke, that actually happens). There are tidbits of foreshadowing for sequels, confirmations of theories, retcons, and somewhat amusing cameos. For everyone else, you’ll get a good laugh and the occasional scare, but you will have a plethora of questions.
The Screenplay Has Been Springlocked
The script for this sequel is riddled with oddities, nothing characters, and genre cliches that are in a quantum state of “good because it’s hilarious” and “bad because it’s genuinely bad” depending on who is delivering them. The story isn’t always predictable just because of the adaptation factor it relishes in, but its dialogue is undeniably silly and hamstrings what could otherwise be good performances with a need to rush along lore and forced character development.
Hutcherson’s go around as Mike this time is phoned in, and it doesn’t help that he wasn’t given anything to work with other than being a stereotypical single father figure to his kid sister. It’s not all bleak; Lail does actually deliver the film’s best bits in a genuinely frightening dream sequence delving into Vanessa’s backstory. She also gets a few fun final girl moments, but hasn’t reached the level of iconic that would garner calling her a scream queen; we’ll see if that changes in 3 given the radical shift in character she goes through here.
Great Villains Hamstrung by an Imperfect Script (And Effects)
Piper Rubio is once again fit to her role as Abby, though the character she’s playing is oddly one note for a child who is psychic friends with the ghosts of dead kids. The brief voice lines for the animatronics by guest stars garner little in the way of memorability, but long-time Freddy voice actor Kellen Goff does manage to make a solid impact with the one or two lines he receives.
While we’re on the topic of those new fiendish animatronics, they are much better than anticipated. Their practical puppetry bases and how they’re composited with the CGI isn’t bad at all, with game designs translating well and moving nicely. The Marionette’s myriad forms, however, do feel exceptionally goofy despite the terrifying concept of a slithering octopoid puppet ghost with no concrete skeleton. They’re the lowlight of the film’s effects, but it’s kind of endearing how silly they look.
The biggest victim of the film, however, is Freddy Carter. He plays the creep factor of his character up to a thousand in a way that absolutely would work with better writing and a darker tone. But he’s shackled by the lore implications of being a character people have been waiting for, in a way that feels more offensive to the story than the constant easter eggs. Every word that leaves his mouth feels comically bad, laden with exposition or just outright limp and cold linework.
We Underused Matthew Lillard Again (And Skeet Ulrich This Time Too)
Which is a shame, because our minor villain does get to have fun. Matthew Lillard’s brief screen chewing time in the sun as William Afton once more is delightful, playing a deranged killer in a yellow bunny costume with all the glee that visual would indicate.
Skeet Ulrich as fan favorite character Henry Emily, however, doesn’t get nearly enough time to shine. Despite being a perfect casting for the role and delivering a convincing turn as a grieving father, he’s relegated to just delivering a plot device that gets 30 seconds of screentime. Here’s to hoping the next film reunites the Scream alums, allowing the long-time rivals of the game to finally cross paths.
Can Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Be More Than Fan Service?
I suppose the constant reiteration of that last point is important to address: the current train of thought is that hopefully, eventually, the kinks will be worked out as far as the Five Nights at Freddy’s films go. Though I’m not holding my breath.
There are no reservations that this is, first and foremost gateway horror for younger audiences, with a nostalgia barbed fishhook to sink into in older fans as well. My humble prediction is that almost all of these films will remain roughly the same level of quality (middling to poor), the same level of frightening (more than you’d think and much less than you’d hope), and the same level of entertaining for the segments of the population it hits for (a fairly fun time).
And maybe that’s enough. To simply be entertaining gateway horror is fine, I don’t think there’s a screaming necessity for these to be masterpieces. This movie is kind of bad, and that’s okay if all you need is some fleeting entertainment or to see your favorite game adapted to film. But films with this much franchise potential should be treated as all others. They can be strong horror films with great iconography rather than features beholden entirely to that iconography.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 fails to wow in any particular department other than being “for the fans” and much of its unintentional humor. Still, there’s a glimmer of hope here in its silvery eyes that this can all be something more down the line.
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