GASP! Horror Festival 2026: Animated Short Film Showcase
Each year, GASP! screen multiple animated short films and this year, they’ve
decided to give them their own brand new Short Film Showcase! Across 75
minutes, you’ll be taken to bold, daring, exciting and straight up terrifying
worlds through the world of animation created by some of the most talented
filmmakers working today. From a Xenomorph asking its mother awkward
questions to gore filled action, and from video games coming to life to a
zombie invasion, this showcase is guaranteed to impress, entertain and leave
you thinking about it long after the final film ends.
Killa Maid! – UK Premiere - Written and Directed by Chonnajun
Waitayawinyoo – Starring Ciara Payne, Yutaro Oka, Joshiro Miura – USA,
Thailand, 2025, 2 minutes
Killa Maid! is a Japanese-style commercial for a murder scene clean-up service
with a magical twist.
TV or The Disturbance on Forest Hill Road - Written and Directed by Frederic
Siegel – Starring Dave Striegel, Nurit Hirschfeld, Tina Kym – Switzerland, 2025,
14 minutes
Six-year-old Diego exceeds his screen time and ends up with square eyes. This
triggers a series of mysterious phenomena, seeping through various screens in
the apartment building. When police officers Kim and Mike arrive to
investigate a noise complaint, they find themselves in a chaotic mix of realities
and must face off against fictional threats come to life.
Crèche & Burn – Exclusive Manchester Screening - Written and Directed by
Frank O'Neil – Starring Jacob Cunningham, Libby Dyer Douglas, Frank O'Neil –
UK, 2025, 4 minutes – Content Warning: Children in danger
Staff at an office crèche fight to protect their children during a zombie
outbreak.
Hell - Written and Directed by Parker Croft, Co-Written by Spike Milliken –
Starring Sean Marquette, Sharon Powers, Bill Welden – USA, 2026, 5 minutes
The first installment of the Hard Times anthology, Hell, follows the patriarch of
a dying farm on the outskirts of Ash Harbor as he is methodically ground down
by the machinery of despair. What begins as endurance curdles into something
far more existential, a portrait of collapse told through dust, labor, and silence.
JUDY1964 - Written and Directed by Marie-Hélène van Thuyne – Starring Dina
Hendrick – Belgium, 2025, 5 minutes
In the 1960s, young Judy is captivated by an advertisement for toy guns. But
when she discovers her parents' real firearm, the line between playful fantasy
and dangerous reality blurs.
There’s a Visitor at the Door - Written and Directed by Rose Moon Longo –
USA, 2025, 5 minutes – Content Warning: Body horror
An inn receives a strange visitor in the middle of the night.
The Night of the Blood Moon - Directed by Bruno H Barros, Written by Heitor
Jardim Agostinho – Brazil, 2025, 10 minutes
After losing his family to a creature that haunts the hill during a blood moon,
an old man and his loyal dog begin to notice signs that another moon is
approaching. Determined to avenge the past, they prepare to face the thing
that destroyed their family and tried to take their land, but soon realize this
battle will be much longer than they ever imagined.
Mommy, Where Did I Come From? – Exclusive Manchester Screening -
Directed by John Dimes, Written by Craig Conley – USA, 2025, 4 minutes
An animated parody of the lifecycle of an Alien Xenomorph.
Whisper of the Well - Written and Directed by Elif Dokur – Turkey, 2026, 6
minutes
On a moonlit night, a woman unjustly condemned returns as a dark tale of
vengeance, altering the fate of a quiet village.
OUROBOROS. - Written and Directed by Aaron Joaquin – UK, 2026, 4 minutes
– Content Warning: Drug use
As a boy, he witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of a gun-wielding
demon - trauma that ignited a burning desire for justice. As a man, he now
struggles to walk the razor’s edge between justice and vengeance. In a neon-lit
city’s dark criminal underbelly, his path of destruction begins to spiral out of
control, with cash piling higher than the mountain of bodies left in his wake.
But when the long-awaited confrontation arrives, the stakes shift — A snake
lunges at its prey only to bite its own tail.
Foreign Bodies – Exclusive Manchester Screening - Written and Directed by
Lysander Wong – UK, 2025, 3 minutes
Certain things will
always find their way to the surface.
Piercing Touch - Written and Directed by Olga Melcer - Netherlands, 2025, 4
minutes
'Piercing touch' tells the story of a butch lesbian, who can't get over her ex and
an elevator, that keeps bringing her back - a time loop thriller, in which the
main character keeps getting hurt by her past lover, yet in every timeline she
cannot stay away.
Content Warning: Body horror A simple itch descends into an outbreak with many legs.
BUG - Written and Directed by Ali Masoumi – Iran, Islamic Republic of, 2025, 6
minutes
A family of three has recently moved in and the little girl inspects the new
home with curiosity ,when a small cricket finds its way into their home as a
surprise visitor. But with the father’s unexpected reaction, the child’s
perspective begins to shift, turning a simple encounter into something far
more unsettling.
All of our screenings are 18+ unless otherwise stated, the film starts at the advertised time above.
