8 Most Disturbing Horror Short Movies
7. Lights Out
Yet another horror short that went on to spawn a full feature-length film, Lights Out debuted on Youtube and Vimeo back in 2013. This three-minute knuckle crack of a film took the internet by storm, with 15 million total views at the time of writing. Swedish director David F. Sandberg conceived, wrote, produced and helmed the entire thing almost by himself and is now rightfully enjoying lucrative Hollywood employment as a result.
The budget for this film was almost nonexistent, with set dressing employing IKEA furniture and effects being achieved practically via a simple split-screen technique. The film follows a nameless woman played by Lotta Losten (the only other person involved in the project) as a horrifying entity stalks her through dark spots in her hallway when the lights are out.
Whilst similar photophobic monsters had been seen before in films - most notably the much-maligned 2003 flick Darkness Falls - the tightness and brevity of Lights Out really made viewers' skin crawl on first viewing. The final jumpscare, whilst a little cheesy, also had us leaping behind the sofa.
Perhaps what made Lights Out so disturbing, however, was how effectively it tapped into relatable fears we experience ourselves. Who hasn’t, at some point in their life, turned off their hallway light before sprinting away lest ‘something’ grab you from out of the darkness. Truly chilling stuff.