Two Sentence Horror Stories: Little Monsters

Kids are more likely to survive horror movies, because they are more apt to believe in monsters and therefore take the necessary survival precautions. Three young residents of a blighted urban housing project are a perfect case in point. They know a shape-shifting demon is preying on children, because they see it with their own eyes in Little Monsters, the latest episode of Two Sentence Horror Stories, directed by Tayarisha Poe, which premieres tonight on the CW.

After her mother’s death, May and her widowed father move into the project, where the sheer volume of missing children flyers posted is distressingly suspicious. Khalil and Marcus quickly clue her in. They claim a demonic shape-shifter with a black tongue and talon-like nails regularly abducts local children, for its culinary pleasure. She is willing to believe, because she has already seen it herself.

Ordinarily, Khalil and Marcus just focus on survival, since all the adults around them lack the imagination and intuition to give credence to their claims. However, when one of the three is taken, the other two launch a rescue mission.

Horror fans could consider Little Monsters to be a strictly serious 2019 updating on The Monster Squad concept, completely drained of camp and nostalgia. The young trio is quite telegenic, but there is nothing precious, immature or cutesy about their work on-screen. In fact, their fear feels very real. Melinda Mo is especially impressive portraying May, a little girl who is still processing her grief while facing an uncanny peril. She is pretty devastating, but she also develops some plucky chemistry with Mikelle Wright-Matos, as Khalil.

Honestly, Little Monsters would possibly rank as the best episode of the entire season, were it not for some dubious special effects. In retrospect, the climax probably could and should have been tweaked a bit, without taking anything away from what creator-screenwriter Vera Miao was getting at.

Regardless, horror fans will appreciate the creepiness of the monster and the resourcefulness of the three monster-fighters. Yet, there is depth to this episode non-genre fans should also respect. Highly recommended, Little Monsters airs tonight (9/12) on the CW, as part of the current season of Two Sentence Horror Stories.

Two Sentence Horror Stories: “Legacy” & “Hide”

There is a reason why horror has been such an effective genre for social commentary. That is because fans have long acknowledged the dark side of human nature. It certainly looks like Vera Miao is charting a course for Two Sentence Horror Stories that follows in the George Romero-Rod Serling socially conscious tradition when the second two stories (or four sentences), “Legacy” and “Hide” premiere tonight on the CW.

Miao’s “Legacy,” written by Pornsak Pichetshote directly addresses the awkward subject of domestic abuse, which sounds like a heck of a lot of fun, right? Yet, it is easily the best of the series (including the online first season), so far. While he was alive, Angela’s recently deceased husband Jin drank to excess and frequently beat her physically. Horrifyingly, he continues his pattern of abuse as an angry spirit. However, there is much more to this story.

In just a whisker over twenty minutes, Miao pulls off some shocking revelations and stages a dramatic exorcism session with fresh wrinkles worthy of the Insidious and Conjuring franchises. She steadily builds tension and stage manages the escalating bedlam quite masterfully, while cinematographer Paul Yee gives it all a suitably dark and creepy look.

The small ensemble is also uniformly terrific. Kim Wong and Wai Ching Ho keep the human element—the fear and the pain—compellingly front-and-center as Angela and her mother-in-law. Benjamin Ye is also a smart and convincing standout as Harold, the mild-mannered exorcist. It would be interesting to see his character reappear in another story somehow. Regardless, this is one of the scariest works of network programming since the 70s glory years of made-for-TV horror movies.

For the most part, Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia’s “Hide,” is nearly as frightening, which is quite a surprise, given the vastly different tone of their best-known directorial collaboration, H. (our review might have used words like “ambiguous” and “pretentious”). The horror business of “Hide” revolve around a brutally violent home invasion. It is Araceli’s bad luck to be working for her wealthy employers on this fateful night, but she will do whatever she can to protect their autistic daughter Gracie from “Yellow” and “Red,” the two sadistic teen girls out to commit slasher-style murders for sport.

The problem with “Hide” is the denouement, which goes eye-rollingly political. Yes, it is a bit of a cliché already, but more importantly in this context, it has nothing to do with the second sentence whatsoever. Nevertheless, Greta Quispe is impressively intense as Araceli, making her a refreshingly mature and working-class alternative to the airheaded teen “final girl” babysitters so familiar from most every other slasher that came before. Conversely, Sarah Irwin and Kyli Zion are wildly creepy and unsettling as Yellow and Red.

Even though “Hide” fails to stick the dismount, its pairing with “Legacy” represents an unusually tense and suspenseful night of network horror. Highly recommended for fans of genre anthologies and short films, the second two tales of Two Sentence Horror Stories premiere tonight (8/15), on the CW.

Two Sentence Horror Stories, now on CW

The verbose Stephen King remains the top horror dog of our era, but brevity made a comeback via the backdoor of the internet. Think of these creepy couplets as the cat videos of horror. As the phenomenon took hold, it inspired Vera Maio’s anthology horror series, which makes the jump from internet distribution to legit network broadcast when the second season of Two Sentence Horror Stories premieres this Thursday on the CW.

So-called “Two Sentence Horror Stories” generally follow the same formula: the first phrase sets the macabre mood and the second delivers the ironic punch. Miao stays true to the format, starting each installment story with the first sentence and then closing with the kicker. Season one was stronger and more consistent than most anthologies, so it is rather nice to see it get the major league call-up.

However, the first two stories (or first four sentences) supplied to the media are already more of a hit-or-miss proposition than the entire first season. The opener, “Gentleman” directed by Natalia Iyudin, is disappointingly conventional. Great efforts are made to exploit themes of motherhood for the sake of provocation, but the big twist is conspicuously obvious from early on. Nevertheless, Nicole Kang is so compelling as Hana, she almost sells it anyway.

In contrast, “Squirm” written and directed by Miao is seriously unsettling. It also addresses issues of workplace harassment (technically, something far worse happens in this case) in a bold, unflinching way that could make it a trending topic, much like the “Replay” episode of Jordan Peele’s rebooted Twilight Zone. It begins during an office holiday party in full swing, but when Kiesha wakes up the next morning, the horror hits her with full force.

Tara Pacheco makes Keisha’s descent into paranoia and body horror completely believable and deeply distressing to watch. However, the rest of the supporting ensemble is equally important keeping us off-balance and distrusting nearly all her colleagues. Plus, Paul Yee (who lensed The Fits) vividly reflects Keisha’s agitated perspective with his darkly disorienting cinematography.

It is not often genre fans can follow a project from pilot at Tribeca to an online success, culminating in a broadcast pick-up, so you have to give Miao credit for perseverance. “Squirm” and four out of the five first season stories are also really good television, so hopefully it will stick around for a while. Recommended for genre fans, Two Sentence Horror Stories premieres this Thursday (8/8) on the CW.

Two Sentence Horror Stories, from Vera Miao and the Internet

If Poe had been forced to tweet, he might have produced something like two-sentence horror stories. The minor internet phenomenon is exactly what it sounds like. Generally, the longer first sentence evokes a situation of dread and the shorter second sentence is the kicker. Some of the best have been adapted for the small digital screen by writer-executive producer Vera Miao, who shares directorial duties with three emerging genre talents during the five-episode first season of Two Sentence Horror Stories (trailer here), which premieres this coming Tuesday on Verizon’s go90 streaming service.

The first episode, “Ma,” is about twenty minutes long, which really isn’t much shorter than a classic Twilight Zone episode. Poor mousy Mona has lived with her domineering mother so long, she has abandoned all hope of an independent life, until Erica moves into the building. Even though they are complete opposites, their mutual attraction is undeniable (despite a slightly rocky introduction). However, this is a horror film, so Ma is not likely to give up her hold over Mona without a struggle.

Wei-Yi Lin is compulsively watchable is tragically poignant as Mona. Even at her squirreliest, she makes us feel for the under-socialized woman. It is also nice to see Mardy Ma (who made her second career-acting debut in SundanceTV’s One Child) quite chillingly portray her not really-namesake. Ayesha Harris develops some compelling chemistry with Lin, while providing a grounded connection to the outside real world. Horror fans may already have a pretty solid notion of what is going on here, but Miao’s moody execution is still impressive.

Danny Perez (who made a bit of a splash with Antibirth) takes over the helm for “Snap.” Fittingly, it is a very new media story about Donny Dante, a scummy celebrity blogger who is getting some of his own public-shaming treatment after driving an unstable starlet to commit suicide. Someone is definitely out to deliver his comeuppance, but how are they leaving those disconcerting videos of Dante sleeping on his own phone? Arguably, “Snap” is the most conventional installments of the series (perhaps owing a small debt to Stephen king’s The Dark Half), but Perez keeps the tension cranked up.

“Guilt Trip,” directed by JD Dillard (best known for the promising Sleight), is probably the weakest of the batch. It feels like Miao started with the topical takeaway and reverse-engineered the narrative from there. The tale of a woman who picks up a victim of police brutality, but soon feels compelled, rightly or wrongly, to ditch him, never generates much tension and the big twist is glaringly predictable.

The series rebounds when Miao returns to the director’s chair for “Singularity.” Even before she gets into the horror elements, the unsettling practice of “body hacking” will creep out many viewers. Basically, Nala is trying to turn herself into a wifi zone through weird, back alley implants. Why is she trying to do that, you might ask? Her old friend George asks the same question when he patches her up. Originally, it was all about open source idealism, but when she starts to pick up on the uncanny entities all around her, she starts to have second thoughts.

“Singularity” is scary as heck, but there is a danger the Social Justice Warriors will start crusading against it on the grounds it equates the disastrous body-hacking with Nala’s transgenderism. That would be a completely unfair reading of the episode, but deliberately taking things out of context is what Social Justice Warriors do. Regardless, both Jen Richards and Bobby Naderi (who co-starred in the smart and challenging Persian horror film, Under the Shadow) are terrific as Nala and George.

The first season wraps up with “Second Skin,” directed by Ryan Spindell, which features some decent body horror, somewhat in the tradition of Starry Eyes. Luna, our down-trodden, scuffling coat check attendant, gets comped by a well-heeled client to the wrong hipster day spa. Without question, Carolyn Hennessy is the main attraction as the flamboyantly evil and well-accessorized Mare.

Easy the binge, four out of five Two Sentence Horror Stories are quite entertaining. Miao and Guy Pooles, who serves as cinematographer on all five stories, maintain an eerie atmosphere and a mounting feeling of dread. They seem to understand the things we can’t see are always more ominous than that which we can. Worth checking out for fans of horror anthologies and shorts, Two Sentence Horror Stories starts streaming this coming Tuesday (10/3) on go90.

Tribeca ’17: Two Sentence Horror Stories—Ma

What’s a shy twenty-something with mother issues doing in a horror film? Perhaps Mona isn’t such a trailblazer in that respect, but her macabre tale will be told in a showcase emphasizing diversity—and brevity. Think of it as a haiku of terror. Fans of short form horror can look forward to the launch of Vera Miao’s Two Sentence Horror Stories on the digital platform Stage 13, following the premiere of the first episode, Ma, at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Judging from Ma, each episode starts with a cryptic opening sentence and ends with a kicker closing statement. The first episode itself is about twenty minutes long, which really isn’t much shorter than a classic Twilight Zone episode. Ma is a promising way to start. Directed by executive producer Miao, it emphasizes character and atmosphere over shock and jump scares.

Poor mousy Mona has lived with her domineering mother so long, she has abandoned all hope of an independent life, until Erica moves into the building. Even though they are complete opposites, their mutual attraction is undeniable (despite a slightly rocky introduction). However, this is a horror film, so Ma is not likely to give up her hold over Mona without a struggle.

Wei-Yi Lin is just terrific as Mona. Even at her squirreliest, she makes us feel for the under-socialized woman. It is also nice to see Mardy Ma (who made her second career-acting debut in SundanceTV’s One Child) quite chillingly portray her not really-namesake. Ayesha Harris also develops some compelling chemistry with Lin, while providing a grounded connection to the outside real world.

Horror fans may already have a pretty solid notion of what is going on here, but Miao’s moody execution is still impressive. Frankly, she leaves us wanting to see more installments from her (even though we are intrigued to see what Sleight’s JD Dillard brings to the table in future sentences). Miao wrote and produced the just-okay Best Friends Forever, but 2 Sentence Horror could really make her a genre favorite. It will reside digitally at Stage 13, which also had the best television/online premiere at Sundance with Snatchers.

Ma is satisfyingly eerily as a short film in its own right and it leaves us wanting to see more of the series, which is pretty much all that could be asked of it. There have indeed been some great horror shorts recently—a trend Ma happily continues. Easily recommended for horror fans, Two Sentence Horror Stories is coming to Stage 13, after screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.