The horror genre is not lacking when it comes to features and shorts about cultists attempting to summon the Devil. The are plenty of examples out there of such groups that have achieved (or come close to achieving) that goal. Surely there must be a few that just plain suck at it though? Have you ever wanted to see a comedy about the “worst Satanists ever”? Then Born Again is for you! The multi-award-winning horror comedy short has finally made its debut online via one of the world’s largest platforms: Short of the Week.
As of today, you can view the short that has knocked the socks off of the festival circuit for the past year. Stops on its never-ending tour included, but were not limited to, Oscar-qualifying fests such as Cleveland International, Rhode Island Vortex, and Sitges. It hauled in more than 60 awards and nominations during its run, making multiple end-of-year lists and accumulating honors such of Cinema Constant’s “Best Short Film of 2016”, From Dusk Till Con’s “Top 10 Short of 2016”, iHorror’s “Top Five Horror Short of 2016”, and Fright Meter Awards’ “Top 20 Horror Short of 2016”.
That’s a laundry list of acclaim, but I can personally attest that Born Again earned every single last bit of it. I actually reviewed it last year for this site. I really dug it at the time and my appreciation for it has only grown in the past 13 months. Full disclosure: I now count director/co-writer Jason Tostevin as a good friend, but he wasn’t at the time of that review, so my words remain 100% unbiased. Don’t just take my word for it, however. See it yourself…
Speaking of Jason, he created the short under his Hands Off Productions banner, whose other shorts have regularly been just as celebrated worldwide as Born Again. The team has never actually released any of their shorts online before, but that’s finally changing. Why?
I’ll let Mr. Tostevin answer that himself…
“Overwhelming audience response. So many people have seen it at fests and asked to see it again, or heard from friends they had to see it, we just felt it was right to arrange an online premiere.”
The seven-minute movie tells the tale of “five amateur Satanists who have their summoning ceremony go terribly wrong, and accidentally create the holiest holy shit moment ever.”
“We wanted to go back to our ‘80s horror roots, when you could get a laugh with your blood splatter. And we wanted to push some boundaries. I know for sure we were left out of some programs because of the ending.”
Other award-winning shorts from Hands Off Productions include I Owe You, ‘Til Death, and their latest effort, A Way Out. ‘Til Death, their first festival short, was also included in the horror anthology Seven Hells. I unfortunately haven’t seen any of those, but that’s where the fun part of this announcement comes in. Not only is Born Again finally hitting the ‘net, but so are ‘Til Death and I Owe You. Both are now available to watch on Hands Off Productions’ Vimeo channel. Jackpot!
Born Again is an original horror comedy short. It is directed by Jason Tostevin, from a screenplay by Randall Greenland and Jason Tostevin. The film was produced by Christy Tostevin and Jason Tostevin. It stars Ellie Church, Brian Spangler, Tiffany Arnold, Randall Greenland, Jordan Fehr, and Jaysen Buterin.
Note: This content originally appeared over at our sister site, Cinema Runner.
