Goth Chick News: Mars Sneaks Bite Size Horror Into Our Trick-or-Treat Bags…
Tricks for unsuspecting viewers and a delicious treat for us horror fans.
If you’ve watched various Fox networks over the past couple of weeks you may have been visited by strange and chilling advertising just in time for Halloween. Mars candy brands (M&Ms and Skittles to name a couple) have collaborated to give up-and-coming horror directors the opportunity to make disturbing short films — which have been running in their entirety during Fox commercial breaks.
Four “Bite Size Horror” flicks (they are all two minutes long) have rolled out so far. The one that’s gotten the most attention is Floor 9.5, presented by Skittles, written by Simon Allen and directed by Toby Meakins. (Allen and Meakins previously worked together on the Vimeo staff pick horror shorts Breathe and LOT254.) Floor 9.5 ran during a Yankees-Indians playoff game on FS1, and judging by the Twitter reactions, it clearly freaked people out.
Actually, it kind of freaked me out…
The three other films are presented by M&Ms, Starburst and Snickers.
The M&Ms film, The Road, features a dad and his daughters visiting a desolate stretch of road that’s rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a motorcyclist. I was partial to this one as similar urban legends abound across America’s small towns (and teenage sleep-overs). We had the same story about an isolated railroad crossing west of the town where I grew up.
Check it…
The films are awesome in their tininess and rumor has it there will be twelve in all.
We’ll be keeping an eye(ball) out for the rest…
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These film shorts are very good. It’s almost a truism among horror literature fans that horror seems to work best in short story or novella form. It’s clearly harder to sustain the dread in longer forms like novels. I think these film shorts show that the same general rule translates over into that medium.
Those were amazing. A real shock!!!!
McG – how right you are. and the exceptions are rare. These little gems along with their creators are indyfilm gold and I can’t wait to find the rest of them.
AB – I watched these over and over and they just keep getting better. I mean, Mars Company and horror? Really?
Genius when you think about it…
The M&Ms is borderline hokey, but the Skittles one is fantastic. Starburst, on the other hand…I suspect that’s going to get an unhappy, visceral response from a lot of people. Horror involving a child is risky business as a TV ad.
JMan – Maybe… But then again we just had “IT” and I’m counting down to “Stranger Things”…
Floor 9.5 is awesome.
Creepy and scary, and all without a single jump scare or a single drop of blood. Impressive.