Etheria Film Festival, a short film festival promoting female directed genre cinema from across the world, has returned to AMC Networks’ horror streaming platform, Shudder. While it came to Shudder in 2020, the festival has run since 2014. Shudder has long since established itself as a platform that seeks to champion unique and chilling horror filmmaking from around the world, including many independent, foreign, and female-driven gems, making it an ideal new home for Etheria. While the change from a traditional theater experience to streaming platform was necessary during the pandemic, it has offered these important, relevant genre stories the wider exposure they deserve.

Misfits (dir. Cian Rey Walker)

Image via Etheria Film Night

Set in 1968 in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr. 's death, Misfits beautifully captures the desperation, anger, and need for retribution when faced with continuous hate and racial oppression. When their friend kidnaps an injured cop who assaulted a Black man within an inch of his life, two sisters and Black Panther leaders take advantage of the opportunity to get answers and take justice into their own hands.

Misfits is an incredibly powerful short film- arguably the stand-out entry from Etheria 2021. The atmosphere, setting, and tone completely capture this troubling time in history. The acting is incredible, showcasing the rage, pain, moral dilemma, and righteous fire within. The film tackles systematic racism and the need for retribution, while also acknowledging there is another path. Misfits recognizes these horrors aren’t solely in our past and the fight is long from over. At the end of the film the screen goes black- to honor Black lives that were lost unjustly, a painfully long list ending with Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Misfits uses the influence and impact of genre and emotive storytelling to create a powerful, thought-provoking film.

Narrow (dir. Anna Chazelle)

Via Etheria Film Night

Narrow shows us a desolate, hopeless world, entirely sectioned off from human contact and empathy. Hunted by a mysterious monster in an apocalyptic wasteland, a lone woman, Sloane, goes through the hollow motions of survival. She forces herself to leave human connection and memories of the past behind, knowing these can be used against her. We are left with a heightened sense of dread and desperation as our heroine grapples with finding the strength to resist the stalking creature’s lure.

The film offers a gritty and overwhelmingly bleak atmosphere that immediately pulls you in, making you feel for our heroine and even foolishly hope that there might be a spark of light in the dark. Narrow tackles the post-apocalyptic genre and focuses on the horrifying exploration of what cuts us the deepest, what might threaten our sanity and our will to survive. It shows us a depressing, empty world where survivors are truly cut off from humanity, even those you once loved and trusted. Any illusion of normalcy is surely a trick that will doom you. It is an incredibly emotional, brutal, and astute view of the pandemic experience.

The Fourth Wall (dir. Kelsey Bolig)

The Fourth Wall- via Etheria Film Night
Via Etheria Film Night

The Fourth Wall peels back the alluring yet disillusioned mask of show business, exposing the dark descent it can easily trigger. During a performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, chaos runs rampant backstage. A dedicated but underappreciated performer named Chloé finds her patience and sanity breaking as she struggles to get her moment in the spotlight. As her mental break escalates, Chloé decides it’s time for her to take the chance others aren’t giving her and leaves the audience with a performance they’ll never forget.

The whimsical setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream offers a perfect backdrop as the glamorous and passion-fueled aspects of performing meet Chloé’s macabre and unrelenting downward spiral. The cinematography and style of the film grabs hold of you with jarring transitions from a bright, dramatic aesthetic to the dark and foreboding.

The Fourth Wall offers a powerful statement on the struggles of an actor, specifically the idea that fitting the right mold offers you more opportunities than hard work and talent. The film wonderfully captures the hecticness, excitement, and competitive nature of performing. It also satirizes the notion that shock and spectacle, even with underlying substance and authenticity, are often the only way to get an audience's attention.

You Will Never Be Back (dir. Mónica Mate)

Via Etheria Film Night

You Will Never Be Back touches on the vital need humanity has to be remembered, and to make a mark on those they touch, no matter how small. Ana says goodbye to her boyfriend one night, not realizing this will be the last moment he will remember she existed at all. She suddenly finds herself trapped in an alternate reality in which she never existed. She is desperate to hang on to her identity and the people who were once so familiar to her, but Ana soon realizes there are forces at work far bigger than her.

The film opens on an ominous hotel shot, reminiscent of The Shining. The atmosphere, chilling tone, and otherwordly score pull you into the short from the beginning, piquing your curiosity as the heartbreaking new reality takes root. You Will Never Be Back is a captivating merging of science fiction and fantasy, exploring the horror of losing connection, identity, and the world you know.

Who Goes There? (dir. Astrid Thorvaldsen)

Via Etheria Film Night

Set in 1800’s Wisconsin, Who Goes There? tackles the underused horror western genre and creates an eerie tale of isolation, fear, and the unknown through the female perspective. Ingrid, the oldest sister in a family of Norwegian settlers, is struggling to care for her severely ill sister despite the loss of their parents. She is faced with a difficult decision of whether to help a stranger in need, knowing it could easily endanger her family, who is barely hanging on. Could this act of empathy for another become the family’s salvation or trigger an unfathomable evil?

Who Goes There? offers great suspense, escalation, and turns throughout. Nina Yndis gives an emotionally charged performance as Ingrid, subtly but powerfully showcasing her strength and vulnerability in equal measure. Ingrid offers us a female protagonist who is strong, compassionate, and capable, but who still showcases human flaws and fears, making her even more relatable. Who Goes There? is an enticing exploration of how evil and deception can be just as unforgiving of an epidemic as disease.

The 2021 Etheria Film Festival offers a wide variety of horror and sci-fi fare from fantastical new worlds to frightening exploration of human vulnerability. The short films range from tales of very real horrors of our history to alternate realities with time traveling vortexes, ethereal monsters, and dystopian nightmares. Among all the films of this year’s collection is a common theme of human vulnerability, including isolation, fear, the need to be seen, and the sacrifices we would make for those we love. Nearly every film was filmed or completed in 2020 and fittingly offers striking reflections to the fear, hate, and uncertainty many grappled with among the COVID pandemic, offering both escapism and understanding. Etheria Film Festival 2021 is now streaming on the Shudder app and website through July 25. Further information on Etheria Film Festival can be found at https://www.etheriafilmnight.com/