The Greatest Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Films: Short Subjects

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Thursday, March 02, 2000

It's impossible to make a straight comparison between feature films and short subjects; nevertheless, many short films have achieved a level of greatness that warrants recognition. Instead trying to squeeze them in among the full-length features in our Countdown of the 100 Greatest Sci-Fi, Horror & Fantasy Films, we decided to give them their own category. Below, in no particular order, are a handful of short films that pack more greatness into a few minutes than most features do in two hours.

THE ANDALUSIAN DOG (1929). Luis Bunuel's surreal masterpiece (co-written with Salvador Dali) defies plot summary, the film really being a succession of images that can only be interpreted through psychoanalysis, as one would a dream. Despite the inevitable confusion, the power of the imagery is immense, often funny, even horrificas in the opening sequence of a razor blade slicing into a the eyeball of an (apparently unperturbed) woman.

SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965). Bunuel again, this time with a clearer plot. Simon, an ascetic follower of God, sits atop a post for years, trying to stay above earthly strife and temptation. Our first hint that something is wrong comes when we learn the duration of his stay (6 years, 6 months, and 6 daysget it?). Then the Devil pops up in the form of Sylvia Pinal, but Simon's resolve is proof against temptation. But things don't work out so well for Simon, whose strength against sin makes him somewhat intolerant of weakness in others. Unable to seduce him, the Devil has her revenge anyway, taking him into the future (i.e., 1965), where the world and way of life Simon has always known is no nowhere to be seen, replaced by rock-and-roll music and other elements of modern life that makes it seems (at least from his point of view) as if the world has really gone to the Devil. A profound and really funny take on narrow religious views.

INCIDENT AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE (1962). Based on the story by Ambrose Bierce, this is one of the great twist-ending stories of all time. Theoretically, there's nothing fantastical about it, but the film does play with perceptions of time in order to fool the audience before hitting them with the surprise at the conclusion. A confederate soldier in the American civil war is to be executed by being hanged from Owl Creek Bridge, but the rope breaks and he makes his mistake, outrunning his pursuers and returning home to his wife. At least, that's what appears to happen. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it. (Note: In a slightly abridged form, this short film ran during the fifth and final season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE series.)


LA JETEE (1962). The basis for 12 MONKEYS, this short film is a masterpiece in its own right. Filmmaker Chris Marker puts his time travel story together with the most meager of resources, making the limitations work for rather than against him. The movie is shot almost entirely as a series of still frames, with voice over narration providing a documentary-like feel (appropriate, since Marker was himself a documentary filmmaker). If you've seen Terry Gilliam's feature length film, you have some idea of the circular nature of this story, but the short film is more poetic in approach, haunting and memorable. When the still images start coming so fast that they almost mimic standard motion-picture photography, it's a startling moment, as if the film were suddenly coming to life. Somehow, these frozen pieces of time enhance the film's time-travel storyline. A must-see.

MORE (1998). A stunning achievement in stop-motion that reaches metaphorical heights seldom achieved even by feature films, this six-minute masterpiece deserves to be seen on the large-format IMAX screen, but a video viewing will suffice. Hypnotic and haunting, without a structured plot but with a clear story progression nonetheless; rather like a music video done as a piece of serious artistic expression.

VINCENT (1982). Tim Burton's first directorial effort is a wonderfully weird piece of stop-motion about a young boy named Vincent, who imagines that he is really his idol Vincent Price. The film is rather like a visualized poem. Without a plot, it relies on the rhyming narration (voiced by Price himself) to suggest the story, while the visuals segue and blend from shot to shot, transposing the character back and forth from reality to his own private fantasy world. (My favorite: 'Vincent performs experiments on his dog Abercrombie, in the hopes of creating a horrible zombie.') Totally strange, and yet somehow charming, the film captures the feel of Price's own Poe films; the result feels rather like a kids film gone demented.

A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902). Perhaps the birth of science fiction cinema, George Milies silent classic is dated in technique, but the charm of the presentation still amuses. With an amazing disregard for scientific plausibility, the film portrays dancing girls at the send off for the first lunar expedition, manned by a crew not in space suits but evening suits. The ship, launched from a cannon, pokes the eye of the man on the moon, and the lunar inhabitants proof to be highly combustible when whacked with an umbrella. Milies directing style is strictly proscenium arch, with the actors filmed in long-shot in front of painted backgrounds, but he keeps the frame filled with interesting images that captivate in spite of the crude technique. Still a lot of fun, even after all these years.

THE WRONG TROUSER (1993) and A CLOSE SHAVE (1995). Nick Park's two Oscar-winning animated short subjects pack the thrills and chills of a feature film into two half-hour parodies. Like Hitchcock gone mad, Park takes his stop-motion characters Wallace and Gromit and puts them in the middle of thriller storylines involving larceny, wrongful accusation, chase scenes, and prison breaks. Like the best parody, these films are put together with all the craftsmanship and zeal of the real thing. The plotting is tight; the pace is fast; and the storytelling is suspenseful. All this, and you won't stop laughing, because every scene is filled with imaginative and inventive sight gags that pop out of nowhere without ever impeding the plot. Either one of these short subjects is good enough to ranks better than most feature films. One can only wait for Park's own first feature-length movie, CHICKEN RUN, to hit screens later this year.