6. The Lady Paranorma
Director: Vincent Marcone (Canada) We all know that, given the intensely competitive nature of short film, there is no stronger weapon than word of mouth. Although, of course, a celebrity endorsement or two certainly does no harm. And so, having Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy on narrating duties, and with your film praised by such horror heavyweights as Tom Savini and Guillermo del Toro, you know you're onto a good thing. Except calling The Lady Paranorma 'good' is something of an understatement. A more accurate description would be 'a strikingly beautiful, sepia-stained CGI dream'. Paranorma is an eccentric, a social outcast, a woman haunted by ghostly whispers. But as she heeds the call of the dead, she finds herself torn between the two worlds. To give any more away would be to ruin it; suffice it to say it's a Gothic fairy tale with a twist that'll keep you shivering for days.