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When the pandemic first started back in early 2020, I thought the new streaming content would never end. Suddenly, I not only had a reason to watch everything that was sitting on my watch list, but I had oodles of time to do so. But around December, I started to lose steam. New releases were few and far between, the number of borderline politically-incorrect television series was starting to alarm me (I’m looking at you, Dash & Lily), and it seemed like only remakes and sequels would be ringing in the New Year. Then, I stumbled on a goldmine: YouTube Horror Shorts.
Wendigos, disembodied voices, ominous masks — YouTube horror shorts seem to have it all. The only thing the YouTube horror shorts were missing was me and my audience of one. On a late January night, I happened to be scrolling around my apps and stumbled on titles from Alter, Shutter Authority, and TDI Productions. An ocean of YouTube horror shorts content spilled out in front of me, and I was ready to jump in.
After a small binge of the shorts, I was sold. I’ve seen ample horror shorts, especially those available on Hulu, but these shorts seemed to be in a different, more terrifying league. The shorts from Hulu were fun to watch and interesting, but these shorts were genuinely scary and left me uncomfortable at my core after watching. If you’re like me and have been itching for some new horror content, YouTube horror shorts might be your saving grace.
Shorts Versus Feature Length
As a feature-length horror film lover, I was skeptical of these shorts at first. I opened my first short for my viewing: The Pretty Thing by YouTube channel Dylan Clark. At a four-minute and twenty-nine-second run time, I couldn’t imagine how scary this little film could be, but I had no idea what was coming for me. At about thirty seconds into the film, I had to pause it.
To say the least, I was petrified. For the record, I’ve walked out of a horror movie twice in my life. Based on my viewing history, it is safe to say that I don’t get spooked often, but The Pretty Thing had me quaking. The score, the very small cast, the dive directly into the scary parts — everything I thought would be lost in a short horror film was actually amplified here. Then it hit me: these YouTube horror shorts are wonderful because of how condensed the scary is.
The shorter horror films have to function under a much, much higher standard than feature length films which have more wiggle room to make mistakes or have boring elements (imagine if A Quiet Place was only four minutes long — how boring.) If you are still skeptical of the shorts, you may as well check them out for yourself. Here are a few I would recommend trying out first.
The Smiling Man
In 2018, the six minute YouTube horror short The Smiling Man was released. The short film features a clown-like “pure evil” and a little, innocent girl holding balloons. It seems derivative (flash to any clown-based horror film ever created), but the short itself is very spooky. The lead clown is covered head-to-toe in patchy, white makeup, the prototypical bright red make-up is replaced with what seems to be blood, and the setting is a modern, upscale looking house. These features alone set this horror short apart from some of the classics that rely on a vintage-feel to spooky viewers, and it gets even better as it goes on.
The score, the attention to detail, the casting of the little girl — you name it and this short nailed it. It’s no wonder the film did so well with just over eight million streams total; it really is worth the watch to any skeptics of this genre. The ending could have entirely flopped with such a short run time, but the ominous cliffhanger we are left with is both unsettling and terrifying. There’s a reason this is my first suggestion, as it falls at the top of my list of YouTube horror shorts, so give it a try, since only so much can be said to the artful six minutes of this short.
Miner’s Mountain
Uploaded at the very beginning of the pandemic, the Youtube horror short Miner’s Mountain seems to have been a twisted attempt at being spookier than a global crisis, and it arguable is. Wendigos, trapped miners, turned to cannibalism, an unsolved cold-case — this short has it all. Any fans of the 2015 interactive game Until Dawn will get a kick out of the premise of this short, and any horror fan will probably love the draw into a spooky winter wonderland.
The story follows a sheriff who finds himself in the middle of an investigation of a recent murder. Bodies are being found mangled and seemingly attacked by an animal, and all signs point back to an unsolved case with the sheriff’s involvement from decades prior. Though short, this film packs a heavy punch that might just keep you out of the woods for the foreseeable future.
The Pretty Thing
As mentioned in my anecdote about my love of horror, The Pretty Thing was the hook that kept me exploring this pocket of internet spooks. A relatively small YouTube channel uploaded the short film, but it does everything right with the little time it has to scare viewers. This film will especially hit home with younger generations, as it feels like something that could happen to any young person who winds up in a cabin alone.
The story throws the viewer right into the action with a spooky, disembodied mask coming in the sliding doors. A girl is seemingly helpless against this creepy, unexplained danger, and the few minutes that explore this story get spookier by the second. This short won a few special standings in horror competitions in 2020, including being a some-finalist for The Horror Movie Awards in 2020 and a selection of the Indie Short Fest in 2020.
Exploring New Genres In YouTube Horror Shorts
YouTube horror shorts might not be new for everyone. But seeing as the viewing rate is pretty high on most of these videos, it definitely isn’t news to everyone how terrifying these YouTube horror shorts are. But if you’re like me and completely new to this genre, give some of the videos included here a watch. You might be skeptical at first, but trust me, viewers take caution for how scary these tiny films really can get.
