The DTV Digest

Short Shots Episode 23 - Arrow Showcase!

In this episode of Short Shots, Mike and Rich take a look at twelve short films which are currently available on the Arrow streaming channel - which is currently offering a 14 day free trial via its website, HERE
The shorts covered in this episode are:
ARM (Katherine Markwick/Jill Worsley)A woman suffering from loneliness during Lockdown orders a device to sooth her sleep…
BAD ACID (Sam Fox)Set during the 1980s, and our protagonist awakens to conduct her morning aerobics exercise - only to fall foul to a toxic chemical which gets mixed in with her morning soda!
BARK (Ryan Irving)A sentient tree wishes for some excitement in its life and gets more than it bargained for!
BLEEP (Ben S. Hyland)A husband and wife awaken in the middle of the night to a strange bleep coming from their kitchen…
ITCH (Susannah Farrugia)A novice nun suffers from an extreme itchiness which may be a manifestation of her sexual frustration…
KEITH (Alex Baro-Cayetano)A young girl has a chat with the monster under her bed…
MEAT FRIEND (Izzy Lee)When young Billie microwaves some hamburger meat, she creates a creature called Meat Friend who has some very dodgy lessons for her to learn…
SMILE (Joanna Tsanis)A manic depressive young woman is visited by a malevolent supernatural creature in the middle of the night….
TERRIBLE THINGS (Ciaran Hickey)In the post-apocalypse wasteland, a young scavenger spends the night talking to the dead resident of a house…
THE ANATOMY MAESTRO (Drew Maxwell Weiss)On the dark New York city streets, a killer stalks his latest victim…but there is more to his quarry than meets the eye…
THE MONKEY'S PAW (Ben Caplan)A family is visited upon by an old acquaintance who leaves them with a cursed gift…
THE WYRM OF BWLCH PEN BARRAS. (Craig Williams)Three men find themselves with a harrowing task deep in the Welsh Valleys…
 
 

Episode 266: Til Death Do Us Part, The Stolen Valley, On Fire, Fan Film, The Ambulance

This week Mike, Rich and Steve tackle three new releases - as usual, click the link to watch the trailer!
 
We kick off with TIL DEATH DO US PART (Plaion Pictures), in which a runaway bride must fight for her life when besieged by her jilted fiancé and his grooms!
THE STOLEN VALLEY (Lightbulb Film Distribution) is a modern western in which a Mexican/Navajo woman teams up with a female cowboy to take revenge against a corrupt landowner...
ON FIRE (Signature Entertainment) is a disaster movie centering on a family living in a trailer park under threat from a raging forest fire.
 
Our Short Shot is the excellent FAN FILM - click the link to watch this gem in its entirety! 
 
Our DTV Throwback is Larry Cohen's THE AMBULANCE, starring Eric Roberts whose attempts at wooing a stranger leads him down a dark and dangerous path and a conspiracy about people being abducted by a mysterious ambulance! We found a very good copy on YouTube - click the link to see the whole film!
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 265: Road House, Restore Point, Ship of the Damned, Wanted Man, Vice Grip, Solo

This week, Mike and Rich tackle four new releases - as usual, click the links to see the trailers for each...
 
ROAD HOUSE (Amazon) has been a massive hit for Amazon Prime, but how does it hold up to the original and what did we make of it? Take a listen to find out!
RESTORE POINT (Plaion Pictures) is a Czech sci-fi thriller as a female detective investigates a mysterious double homicide.
SHIP OF THE DAMNED (High Fliers) is the latest Steve Lawson film, and in a break from his usual literary adaptations, this is an original tale set in contemporary England!
WANTED MAN (Signature Entertainment) sees Dolph Lundgren star, direct and co-write a tale of a racist cop on a path of redemption as he attempts to escort a witness across the Mexican border....
 
Our Short Shot is VICE GRIP, from director Dillon Vibbart, whose work we've covered before. Click the link to check out this supernatural tale of an influencer being attacked in her nightmares!
We round off with our DTV Throwback, SOLO, starring Mario Van Peebles as a cyborg soldier who develops a conscience and goes rogue! 
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 264: Hundreds of Beavers, All Souls, Lovely Dark and Deep, Shadow Fist 3, Control

This week Mike, Rich and Steve tackle three new releases - click the links to check out the trailers!
 
We kick off with HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (Raven Banner), a film which garnered a lot of attention last year on the festival circuit. Check out the episode to find out our thoughts on it!
Next is ALL SOULS (Signature Entertainment) - the title and artwork might have you thinking this is a horror film, but is actually about a young woman coerced by the police to become an informant.
Finally there is LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP (Blue Finch Film Releasing), about a female ranger isolated in the "back country" of a national park. 
 
Our Short shot is SHADOWFIST 3: THE FINAL CHAPTER. This is a 30 minute short about the quest for a secret, powerful scroll. Click the link to see the whole film.
Our DTV Throwback is CONTROL, a film most of the team hadn't heard of before, but our interest was certainly piqued by the cast: Ray Liotta is a Death Row inmate saved from execution to participate in a drug trial which would modify his behaviour. Willem Dafoe and Stephen Rea play the sciences while Michelle Rodrigues stars as the love interest.
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 263: Dogman, Elliot's Cradle, Escape

In this episode, Mike and Rich take a look at DOGMAN (Altitude), the latest film from Luc Besson, starring Caleb-Landry Jones. Take a listen to see how we rate it and click the link to watch the trailer!
Our short shot is the horror film, ELLIOT'S CRADLE, in which a grieving mother seeks out a medium to get in contact with her dead child...click the link to watch the whole film!
Our DTV Throwback is ESCAPE, aka FLUKT, a tight action movie starring Ingrid  Bolso Berdal.
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 262: Frankenstein: Legacy, The Abyss, The Black Mass, Tropic, V/H/S/85, The Spirit Hunters, Wedlock

In this episode Mike, Rich and Steve tackle five new releases...
 
Starting with FRANKENSTEIN: LEGACY (101 Films) - this starts in familiar territory but heads off to be its own thing - check out what we thought of it!
THE ABYSS (Netflix) is a disaster movie set in the mining town of Kiruna, Sweden....
THE BLACK MASS (Cleopatra Entertainment) is a stylised account of Ted Bundy's killiing spree at a Sorority House....
TROPIC (Blue Finch Film Releasing) involves twins training and competing for a slot on a space mission, when one gets infected with an alien organism...
V/H/S/85 (Acorn Media)- hot on the heels of last episode comes another anthology - how does it compare to '94? Take a listen to our thoughts on it!
 
Our Short Shot is THE SPIRIT HUNTERS, a stylish action film from Finland. Click the link to watch the whole film!
 
Our DTV Throwback is the classic, WEDLOCK, starring Rutger Hauer. This is currently free to view on Youtube, click the link!
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 261: Freaks Vs The Reich, Monolith, The Troubles: A Dublin Story, The List, Underground, VHS 94, Ascendants, Jason Takes Manhattan

In this episode Mike, Rich and Steve tackle six of the recent releases; click the links to watch the trailers for each!
 
We kick off with FREAKS VS THE REICH (Dazzler) - not the best film title, but boy, what a movie! 
Next is MONOLITH (Blue Finch Film) - a story about a journalist who investigates a strange phenomenon and discovers her past is tied to it. This is one of the best "Covid" films so go check it out!
THE TROUBLES: A DUBLIN STORY (High Fliers) seeks to intertwine a crime narrative with terrorism in the 1980s - it has mixed results for sure...
THE LIST (Miracle Media)  is set in South America and sees a wealthy family the victim of a PURGE style event after the overthrow of the old regime.
UNDERGROUND (Miracle Media) find a group of girls on a bachelorette weekend wander off into some disused tunnels...
Finally, V/H/S/94 (acorn media) is the latest edition of the anthology series - will it be any better than the others?
 
Our Short Shot is ASCENDANTS - this was shown at last year's @FSFFestival and is largely the work of Leroy Kincaid - check out the other films on his channel!
 
Our DTV Throwback is FRIDAY 13th PART 8 - JASON TAKES MANHATTAN - this was the first of the franchise to go straight to video, and finds Jason Voorhees aboard a cruise ship, heading for the Big Apple...
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!
 
 
 

Episode 260: The Bricklayer, Fortunes of War, Head Count, Cold Meat, American Star, The Court Jester, Pyewacket

This week Mike, Rich and Steve tackle five new releases - as usual, click the link to watch the trailer for each film...
We kick off with THE BRICKLAYER (Sky), the latest thriller in which a man with an innocuous profession turns out to be a bad-ass retired agent!
Hot on the heels of Warblade, which we covered in episode 257, comes FORTUNES OF WAR (101 Films), another WW2 movie about a disparate group of soldiers up against a superior Nazi force. 
HEAD COUNT (Blue Finch Film Releasing) is a quirky thriller in which an escaped convict finds himself at the mercy of his own revolver and must backtrack through his memory to work out how many bullets remain...
COLD MEAT (Signature Entertainment) is a survival horror movie involving people trapped in a snow blizzard...
Finally, spritely assassin Ian McShane finds himself in Fuerteventura waiting for details about his last target, in AMERICAN STAR (Vertigo Releasing).
 
Our Short Shot is THE COURT JESTER, starring Pauly Shore as Richard Simmons. This is from the team behind The Samurai and the Cowboy so you know its gonna be good! Click the link to see the whole short.
 
We wrap things as usual with our DTV Throwback - this week its my choice, of PYEWACKET, in which a teen bites off more than she can chew when she summons an evil spirit in a moment of anger. You can find this available to stream on Amazon and other platforms.
 
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!

Episode 259: Interview with James Couche, Deliver Us, The Seeding, Marmalade, Hit Me, National Lampoon''s Senior Trip

We kick off this episode with an interview with director JAMES COUCHE, whose film Lost Phoenix we reviewed in episode 256. We've covered a lot of films which were made under COVID conditions but i believe Lost Phoenix was the first action movie made during Lockdown - and only for $10K at that! You can find examples of James' work on Youtube, HERE.
 
We then start on the reviews, beginning with the biblical horror film DELIVER US (Altitude Entertainment), which has an amazing opening...
 
Speaking of films from the COVID era, THE SEEDING (Lightbulb Film Distribution) finds a man trapped in a crater by a gang of feral kids...
 
Finally we have MARMALADE (Signature Entertainment), about a naive young man duped by a hot girl into robbing banks, but not everything is as it seems...
 
Our Short Shot is HIT ME, a tale of two rival assassins forced to work together...click the link to watch the whole short.
Our DTV Throwback is NATIONAL LAMPOON'S SENIOR TRIP, a film worth a look mainly because its Jeremy Renner's first film role!
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 258: On The Line, Punch, The Island, Race For Glory -Audi vs Lancia, Scooby Doo in Spring-trapped, Vendetta

In this episode Mike, Rich and Steve take a look at four new releases - as usual clicking the links will take you to the trailers...
Kicking off with 'ON THE LINE' (Miracle Media), in which a telephone operator finds herself involved in a murder and kidnapping...
'PUNCH' (Miracle Media) is set in an off-season seaside town and deals with a young woman being hounded by a killer wearing a "Mr Punch" mask...
'THE ISLAND' (Plaion Pictures), an action-filled film featuring Michael J. White trying to solve the murder of his brother on a Caribbean island...
RACE FOR GLORY: AUDI Vs LANCIA (Signature Entertainment), based on the true story of underdogs Lancia taking on Audi during the 1983 rally championships...
Our Short Shot is  'SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU? IN SPRING-TRAPPED!', a stop-motion version of the classic cartoon, mashed with a Five Nights At Freddies parody! Click the link to watch the whole film.
The DTV Throwback is  'VENDETTA', starring WWE's The Big Show and Dean Cain, and directed by the Soska Sisters! This is currently available on Amazon Prime and probably other streaming services...
Follow the Short Shots  on X (formerly Twitter) where you will find hundreds of links to awesome short films!
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on X and FACEBOOK!