
Hand-picked by Fantasias Mitch Davis, SMALL GAUGE TRAUMA is an extraordinary collection of 13 award-winning shorts from 8 countries. It represents some of the strongest and most eccentric highlights from the festivals trailblazing history with the form and is a veritable must-have for lovers of the unusual, aficionados of the fantastic and anyone with an interest in world cinema.
5.9The film contains five stories set on desolate stretches of a desert highway. Two men on the run from their past, a band on its way to a gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales.
5.8A series of down-on-their-luck individuals enter the decrepit and spine-chilling Rialto theater, only to have their deepest and darkest fears brought to life on the silver screen by The Projectionist – a mysterious, ghostly figure who holds the nightmarish futures of all who attend his screenings.
6.3A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
6.1Moira Cole endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after her family's murder at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.
6.5A college class project on creation and destruction of modern myth, turns terrifying when a trio of young people come to realize the urban legends surrounding the famed Buckout Road may, in fact, be REAL.
5.9A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
7.4A mother of two inherits a home from her aunt. On the first night in the new home she is confronted with murderous intruders and fights for her daughters’ lives. Sixteen years later the daughters reunite at the house, and that is when things get strange...
5.9The story of Stan, an orphaned teenager stuck living with his abusive grandfather and tasked with routinely protecting his best friend from high school bullies. When Stan discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside the tool shed in his backyard, he tries to secretly battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers the creature and has a far more sinister plan in mind.
5.9When professional gamer Hana, who suffers from acute agoraphobia, receives new equipment that enhances her game, she begins to wonder if it is reading her mind – or controlling it.
6.4After her father’s suicide, a young mother investigates what led to his death. But when she is haunted by spirits and unearths an unsolved mystery from 30 years ago, she discovers a dark family history that could prove deadly for her child.
6.0Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
6.4After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is.
6.0When Polly receives a mysterious box, it comes with one rule: place inside something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves. If she doesn’t obey, it will consume everything—and everyone—she’s ever known.
5.9A thirsty teenager's home video leads to a series of horrifying revelations, harkening back to the final punk rock analog days of VHS, while taking one giant leap forward into the hellish new millennium.
5.8After a young couple moves into a remote farmhouse with their infant son, the woman's struggles with postpartum psychosis begin to intensify... as the house reveals secrets of its own.
6.1When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
6.1After the discovery of a mysterious VHS tape, a brutish police SWAT team launches a high-intensity raid on a remote warehouse, only to discover a sinister cult compound whose collection of pre-recorded material uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy.
6.2Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
5.9Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
6.4A stillborn baby girl is abducted by a deranged morgue attendant and brought back to life by electro-kinetic power. On her sixteenth birthday, traumatized Tess escapes captivity and sets out to find her birth mother leaving a trail of horrifying violent destruction and chilling chaos behind her.