Each year, GASP! screen multiple animated short films and this year, they’ve decided to give them their own brand new Short Film Showcase! Across 75 minutes, you’ll be taken to bold, daring, exciting and straight up terrifying worlds through the world of animation created by some of the most talented filmmakers working today. From a Xenomorph asking its mother awkward questions to gore filled action, and from video games coming to life to a zombie invasion, this showcase is guaranteed to impress, entertain and leave you thinking about it long after the final film ends.

Killa Maid!

UK Premiere

Written and Directed by Chonnajun Waitayawinyoo – Starring Ciara Payne, Yutaro Oka, Joshiro Miura – USA, Thailand, 2025, 2 minutes

Killa Maid! is a Japanese-style commercial for a murder scene clean-up service with a magical twist. 

TV or The Disturbance on Forest Hill Road

Exclusive Manchester Screening

Written and Directed by Frederic Siegel – Starring Dave Striegel, Nurit Hirschfeld, Tina Kym – Switzerland, 2025, 14 minutes

Six-year-old Diego exceeds his screen time and ends up with square eyes. This triggers a series of mysterious phenomena, seeping through various screens in the apartment building. When police officers Kim and Mike arrive to investigate a noise complaint, they find themselves in a chaotic mix of realities and must face off against fictional threats come to life.

Crèche & Burn

Exclusive Manchester Screening

Written and Directed by Frank O'Neil – Starring Jacob Cunningham, Libby Dyer Douglas, Frank O'Neil – UK, 2025, 4 minutes

Content Warning: Children in danger

Staff at an office crèche fight to protect their children during a zombie outbreak.

Hell

Written and Directed by Parker Croft, Co-Written by Spike Milliken – Starring Sean Marquette, Sharon Powers, Bill Welden – USA, 2026, 5 minutes

The first installment of the Hard Times anthology, Hell, follows the patriarch of a dying farm on the outskirts of Ash Harbor as he is methodically ground down by the machinery of despair. What begins as endurance curdles into something far more existential, a portrait of collapse told through dust, labor, and silence.

JUDY1964

Written and Directed by Marie-Hélène van Thuyne – Starring Dina Hendrick – Belgium, 2025, 5 minutes

In the 1960s, young Judy is captivated by an advertisement for toy guns. But when she discovers her parents' real firearm, the line between playful fantasy and dangerous reality blurs.

There’s a Visitor at the Door

Written and Directed by Rose Moon Longo – USA, 2025, 5 minutes

Content Warning: Body horror

An inn receives a strange visitor in the middle of the night.

The Night of the Blood Moon

Directed by Bruno H Barros, Written by Heitor Jardim Agostinho – Brazil, 2025, 10 minutes

After losing his family to a creature that haunts the hill during a blood moon, an old man and his loyal dog begin to notice signs that another moon is approaching. Determined to avenge the past, they prepare to face the thing that destroyed their family and tried to take their land, but soon realize this battle will be much longer than they ever imagined.

Mommy, Where Did I Come From?

Exclusive Manchester Screening

Directed by John Dimes, Written by Craig Conley – USA, 2025, 4 minutes

An animated parody of the lifecycle of an Alien Xenomorph.

Whisper of the Well

Written and Directed by Elif Dokur – Turkey, 2026, 6 minutes

On a moonlit night, a woman unjustly condemned returns as a dark tale of vengeance, altering the fate of a quiet village.

OUROBOROS.

Written and Directed by Aaron Joaquin – UK, 2026, 4 minutes

Content Warning: Drug use

As a boy, he witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of a gun-wielding demon - trauma that ignited a burning desire for justice. As a man, he now struggles to walk the razor’s edge between justice and vengeance. In a neon-lit city’s dark criminal underbelly, his path of destruction begins to spiral out of control, with cash piling higher than the mountain of bodies left in his wake. But when the long-awaited confrontation arrives, the stakes shift — A snake lunges at its prey only to bite its own tail.

Foreign Bodies

Exclusive Manchester Screening

Written and Directed by Lysander Wong – UK, 2025, 3 minutes

Content Warning: Body horror

A simple itch descends into an outbreak with many legs. Certain things will always find their way to the surface.

Piercing Touch

Written and Directed by Olga Melcer - Netherlands, 2025, 4 minutes

'Piercing touch' tells the story of a butch lesbian, who can't get over her ex and an elevator, that keeps bringing her back - a time loop thriller, in which the main character keeps getting hurt by her past lover, yet in every timeline she cannot stay away.

BUG

Written and Directed by Ali Masoumi – Iran, Islamic Republic of, 2025, 6 minutes

A family of three has recently moved in and the little girl inspects the new home with curiosity ,when a small cricket finds its way into their home as a surprise visitor. But with the father’s unexpected reaction, the child’s perspective begins to shift, turning a simple encounter into something far more unsettling.