Even if there isn’t a chill in the air, leaves haven’t changed colors and jack-o-lanterns aren’t decorating porches yet, Hulu is getting hyped up to celebrate the scares of Halloween – or Huluween – season this year. Alongside Hulu, 20th Digital Studio announced its Bite Size Halloween series is returning for a third season.
Twenty new spooky shorts from emerging filmmakers are set to premiere October 1 on Hulu, blending horror with other genres such as comedy, thriller, science-fiction and even more. Shot in seven different countries, the upcoming season takes on a range topical issues from racism and gender to parenthood, sexuality and identity.
Michael Schwartz is directing Snatched, which features the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, herself, Tatiana Maslany, in her first on-screen role with her husband, Brendan Hines – who plays Josh Bennet in Netflix’s Locke & Key. The off-screen couple star alongside the Freaky breakout star Misha Osherovich, who plays their child. The other shorts included feature familiar faces such as Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine, horror alum Lin Shaye (Insidious) and David Costabile, who played Gale Boetticher in seven episodes of Breaking Bad. Bite Size Halloween also reunites former Glow co-stars Rebekka Johnson and singer-songwriter Kate Nash, who co-wrote, directed and starred in a short that features Nash’s original music.
“As we launch the first feature films developed with our incredibly talented Bite Size Halloween filmmaker alums, we are thrilled to introduce the next wave of dynamic filmmaking talent and their ingenious short films,” David Worthen Brooks, SVP 20th Digital Studio, commented. “We take great pride in showcasing these vital, diverse voices and their very personal twists on horror, thriller and sci-fi.”
20th Digital Studio’s goal for these short film programs is to guide and finance the growth of artists’ careers and to help transition some of the shorts into longer features. The first two films developed from shorts will also premiere this month on Hulu: Grimcutty from John William Ross premieres on October 10, while Ben Steiner’s Matriarch follows soon after on October 21. Shorts from past seasons played at festivals such as SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, Fantasia and more.
The studio continues to emphasize a focus on diversity and inclusion as a range of prestigious filmmakers from the festival world are featured, including Nuhash Humayun (SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Moshari), Sam Max (Sundance’s Chaperone), Michelle Krusiec (Bite from AFI DWW) and Zoey Martinson (Tribeca’s Cupids) as well as many more.
Bite Size Halloween returns to Hulu for seaosn 3 on October 1.