The Most Unsettling Short Films Ever

Horror is a genre that requires exact timing and expert pacing in order to deliver the maximum amount of scares. While every horror fan (especially around October) has a well curated list of their favorite horror movies, books, and shows, there's a huge amount of incredible horror shorts you can watch for free online. Short, sweet, and terrifying, here are some of the best spooky short films you can watch for free.

The Gable Film is a famous bit of mysterious footage supposedly found in an attic that depicts a man searching for, and then finding, a mysterious bear-like creature in the woods. The Michigan Dogman, as it became known, became a viral internet sensation with thousands of people vouching for its authenticity or mocking the fake footage. Still, regardless of whether the film depicts a real monster, there is something truly unsettling about the way the Dogman bounds towards the viewer in the last few seconds. The loping, sideways gallop looks uncanny, whether it's man...or Dogman.

There's always something a little unsettling about perfectly symmetrical rows of things. Call it people's natural desire for chaos or trypophobia, but either way Symmetropia (written and directed by Zachary Davis) taps into something very creepy. 

A doctor drives his blindfolded patient into a strangely symmetrical patch of forest, while a tape player replays a previous session in which the patient is made to read palindromes. The slow pace and barren forest landscape start to make the palindromes sound incredibly sinister, and you start to wonder if maybe there is something sinister about the word "Racecar." For anyone who's ever been creeped out by a Wes Anderson movie, Symmetropia taps into that strange fear that perfectly balanced things can't possibly be made by human hands.

A strong production design can often carry horror movies with weaker scripts, but 3 Versos, directed by Antonio Yee, doesn't need the help. The script is surprisingly dense, layering a deeper mythology and some hidden surprises into dialogue that seems naturalistic. In this Spanish-speaking short, a famous psychic who is more than she seems helps some haunted girls who are likewise more than they seem. 3 Versos is clearly indebted to classic black and white horror films of the early 20th century, but with a multitude of visual influences that distort the viewer's perspective about when the short takes place, adding to the discomfort of watching it. Is it the '50s? The '20s? The '80s? It could be any of them or all of them. True horror is timeless.

Don't Move gets all of its backstory out of the way before the opening title, as six friends accidentally summon a demon that's going to kill five of them, but let one live. The title serves as both the characters' only rule book and the most-used bit of dialogue, but the real treat of the short is the incredible creature design and special effects. The monster and its violent mutilation of the victims looks like a Troma film with a higher production value, simultaneously grotesque and appealing. Written by David Scullion and directed by Anthony Melton, Don't Move was supposedly created on a low budget, but you'll be hard pressed to tell as you watch it.

The patriarch of a family screams about the importance of togetherness. A baby plays with a gelatinous green goop. An old woman's clay tutorial videos seem to be sending disturbing messages. All this as a series of unexplained edits from security camera footage of a house. This is the premise of This House Has People In It, an Adult Swim-produced, surrealistic nightmare directed by Alan Resnick. Part of Adult Swim's "Infomercials" segments that they air at 4 a.m., This House Has People In It taps into a deeply uncomfortable sense of voyeurism, like watching a reality show from a horrific alternate reality.

He Took His Skin Off For Me is a much quieter short than you might be expecting from the title. The story of a man who takes his skin off for his girlfriend is viscerally unpleasant, obviously, as he wanders through the house looking like a ghoulish muscle diagram from science class. But the real horror of the short doesn't come from the empathetic disgust that viewers feel whenever he touches something with his skinless hand, but rather the girlfriend's quiet dissatisfaction with her boyfriend's sacrifice. Directed by Ben Aston, the short is eerily romantic and terrifying in how calmly understanding everyone remains the whole time. As Meat Loaf once said, "I would do anything for love, but I won't do that."

Most horror movies hide the monster from view for as long as possible to keep the viewer in suspense, but The Smiling Man, directed by AJ Briones, gives you an upsettingly long, direct look at the monster. The short focuses on a little girl who follows a trail of balloons into her kitchen where a smiling man starts to play with her. The cinematography immediately places you in the little girl's perspective and forces you to engage with her confused naïveté. Why is this man here? Who is he? Is he friendly? Audiences might know the answer to that last question, but it's even more unpleasant finding out the other answers.

Hollywood loves the one-take tracking shot, given its frequent use in Prestige television and high budget movies. Still, we've never seen a tracking shot for a horror short like On My Way. In the short directed by Colin Krawchuk, a man drives through town on his way to a party, all the while something strange has started to happen to the residents of the town. The short keeps the exact nature of the chaos vague, letting viewers' confusion map onto the protagonist as he tries to drive through rapidly escalating pandemonium. If nothing else, hopefully watching the short will encourage you to actually arrive to parties when you say you were going to arrive.