10 Horror Short Films Hollywood Should Adapt To Full Length

With its slick visuals and likeable protagonist, Downstairs by the Boxleitner brothers is a particularly enjoyable horror-comedy that's effective in both its entertaining hero and its terrifying buildup and isolated atmosphere.

Flip Schubbers is a security guard in an apartment complex that has to spend his night shift in the building's wide-open ground floor, with day-shift guard Rhonda leaving him a post-it telling him explicitly to not go downstairs. He unfortunately does, anyway, after having some doors open by themselves and after hearing some disturbing sounds and smelling strange smells. The setting also lends to the film's overall anticipatory terror, with bleak florescent lighting, wide open spaces, long hallways and multiple pillars, all hiding the possibility of something lurking behind them.

The relatable Flip and his memorable and realistic reactions to strange occurrences, his "Whaaaat the f*ck was that" line especially side-splitting, would make for fantastic feature-length horror-comedy, or even its own series. It's the kind of well-balanced entertainment seen in some of Hollywood's better horror outings, and it deserves adaptation in any of the major long form media for the protagonist alone.