Why Watch? If you’ve ever wanted to watch Ray Wise continue looking creepy and making terrible ethical decisions with a blunt instrument, Twin Peaks is a great way to go. If you only have 9 minutes, this short film from Padraig Reynolds will definitely do the trick. With the stakes immediately high, we’re dropped into the desert just a handful of days before the people decide their new governor with one of the candidates. Fortunately, he has his wife to keep him company. Unfortunately, he’s also got a big problem. It’s excellent to see a slow-burn executed so well in the time given. Chalk it up to Wise’s sheer, unmitigated magnetism, the chill of co-star Lin Shaye and the natural assumptions that we all make about the people reaching for power in our society. It’s a moral tale that sinks to the bottom of your gut. Kudos for Vimeo for making it a staff pick and for Short of the Week for spotlighting it. What will it cost you? Only 9 minutes. Skip work. Watch more short films.

Ah springtime! Is there a better season than spring? Aside from summer I mean. Maybe, maybe not, but when it comes to springtime in horror films there’s one constant. The harvest needs to be watered with the blood of human sacrifice. The harvest in question can be literal or more of a metaphorical inference to the season’s life-giving nature. Children of the Corn, The Wicker Man and even Jeepers Creepers all fall into this category, as does today’s horror film. Of the three examples Rites of Spring most resembles the last as it features a semi-annual slaughter as someone, or some thing, comes out of hiding to kill on the first day of spring. It’s an improvement over Jeepers Creepers in that it’s not directed by a convicted pedophile, but in almost every other regard unfortunately it’s a disappointment.

In the indie horror flick Rites of Spring, some kidnappers snag a rich kid and then hides out in an abandoned building. Unfortunately for them, it’s the most dangerous spot they could have picked because there’s something monstrous waiting to take its yearly sacrifice. From writer/director Padraig Reynolds, it stars A.J. Bowen, Katherine Randolph, and Anessa Ramsey. Check out the trailer for yourself. It’s a good reminder that stealing children might be a bad idea.