Sydney’s Dark Nights Film Fest hosted many terrific fright-fare short films in its 2026 edition. Here are capsule reviews of three fine shorts from different countries.
Iurima — A Tale of Three Fishermen (Iurima: Taru Kolmesta Kalastajasta; Finland)
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Writer/director PV Lehtinen’s Iurima — A Tale of Three Fishermen serves up most everything I look for in a folk horror film: an unseen and unsolved mystery, something that exists that shouldn’t, people horribly affected by those elements, inescapable dread, and eldritch atmosphere. The ensemble cast of Lauri Tilkanen, Petri Mannenen, Rami Rusinen, and Rosa Kunelius all give excellent performances in this tale of desperate, starving fishermen on a remote shore who come in contact with a highly unusual possible source of food. Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen provides beautiful cinematography of a bleak landscape. Folk horror devotees will want to seek out this strongly recommended short. Iurima — A Tale of Three Fishermen won the festival’s award for Best Short Film, and for good reason.
Bestiary (Bestiaire; France)
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Fans of 1970s “animals attack” and “nature gets revenge” cinema, rejoice, for director Anne Zinn-Justin has unleashed Bestiary, a superb slice of modern ecohorror in which not even vegans are safe when the hunted become the hunters. Marine Polski as a hunter of wild boar and other game, and Marie Nicolle as her teen vegan daughter who opposes hunting give fine performances as their characters are pursued by all manner of forest creatures. Zinn-Justin, who cowrote the screenplay with Cécile Dubost, crafts a superb, chilling short that is thoroughly gripping.
Camp Omega (U.S.)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
It’s hard enough being a teenager, but when your family members are suspicious about your mysterious behaviors at a church camp, it can be downright dangerous. That’s Ruth McKnight’s (Ava Sharon) plight in the occult short Camp Omega from cowriters/codirectors Alina Diaz and Mason Diaz, and camp leader Nathanial (Phelan Davis) is adding to Ruth’s confusion and stress. Camp Omega is a solid short that trades in mystery and eeriness rather than jump scares or carnage. It introduces an enigmatic world that I would really like to see further explored by way of a feature-length version.
Iurima — A Tale of Three Fishermen, Bestiary, and Camp Omega screened as part of Dark Nights Film Fest, which ran on October 10, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. For more information, visit https://www.darknightsfilmfest.com/.