Watch Today's FREE Festival: Best of STUDENT UK THRILLER Shorts Festival
RAT TRAP, 12min.
Directed by Emilia Stevens
Rat Trap follows Sarah, who wakes after a drunken night out to find herself abducted and imprisoned in a grim, windowless dungeon, watched constantly through a security camera. Disoriented and terrified, she soon discovers she is not alone. Sharing the space with her is another captive, an eerily quiet and scarred man whose behaviour suggests he knows far more about their situation than he is willing to say. As the hours pass, fragments of a horrifying truth begin to emerge. The dungeon is governed by brutal rules, and survival is tied to a choice neither of them should have to make. With paranoia mounting and trust eroding, fear turns inward as much as outward, forcing Sarah to question the limits of morality under extreme pressure. Claustrophobic and relentless, Rat Trap explores power, guilt, and desperation, examining what happens when survival itself becomes a weapon.
https://www.instagram.com/rat_trap_film
WELCOME BACK, 10min.
Directed by Rubakrishnan N
WELCOME BACK follows SAM, a burned-out IT professional trapped in the suffocating rhythm of deadlines, expectations, and emotional distance from her mother. On a seemingly ordinary morning, as she rushes to work already weighed down by exhaustion and guilt, Sam enters an elevator that begins to malfunction—its numbers glitching, time freezing, and reality subtly warping.
AMONG WOLVES, 15min.
Directed by Tobias Rasmussen
Two survivors struggle for their lives in a barren, hostile world, hunted by a past they thought they had left behind.
https://www.instagram.com/tobiasrfilms
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, 29min.
Directed by Noah Gant
On the eve of his extraction from a desolate Earth, a mute engineer comes to blows with his A.I. companion as the pair begin to uncover a bizarre conspiracy about the delay.
https://www.instagram.com/thelastmanonearth_film/
THE SECONDS, 8min.
Directed by Hashani Wasana Senarathne
Rose, a passionate university student and talented painter, seeks refuge in her art amidst severe bullying and deepening depression. On the brink of despair, she attempts to end her life with medication. In her final moments, she embarks on a surreal journey through a dreamlike room filled with her artistic creations, where she momentarily reclaims hope. Despite her desperate effort to escape her fate and find a way to live, Rose's struggle tragically culminates in her ultimate demise. "The Seconds" highlights the devastating impact of bullying and underscores the critical need for empathy and support.
https://www.instagram.com/thesecondsfilm/
FINAL GIRLS, 2min.
Directed by Ellena-Maria Kappos
“Final Girls” is a surreal, non-narrative film, drawing on French surrealism and horror imagery. I chose to self-cannibalise, repurposing footage from an archive of work produced during my degree at UCL, letting old projects collide and talk. The film grew from free association and dream logic. Scenes repeat, overlap, and resist explanation, without narrative resolution. While I bring personal meaning and emotion to the project, I want audiences to respond to what the images evoke for them. Their immediate kneejerk, instinctive reactions to what they see. Stories, often fictional films about women, shape who we are told to be. I wonder how much of myself is inherent, and how much is planted. The UFO (or UAP) functions as a surreal observer, ushering in the letterbox. Something foreign or not understood in myself.
https://www.instagram.com/kappos_/
CARVE, 5min.
Directed by Erin Dutton
Carve is supernatural horror tale about desperately making a last stand and trying to change your fate. It follows our protagonist Lucy, as she returns to familiar surroundings to pitch her skill and wits against a malevolent force intent on reclaiming a debt it is owed.