Horror Short Review: Tunnel (2023)

Written and directed by Sean Louis Kelly, who also stars in it alongside Spencer Fappiano, Tunnel is an award-winning (2021 Roadsmary’s Baby Horror Short Film Festival) horror short.

A photographer has gone deep into the woods to take some pictures of nature when he comes across a dark and ominous old tunnel. It is an exceptional find for a photographer (the location is wonderful) and he seizes the opportunity to take some pictures.

Satisfised with his pictures, he notices it has an echo so uses a bird-caller and is amused by the sound that reverbs around. That is until it is copied, something that should be impossible.

Frightened but wanting to be sure, he goes to blow it again, but this time the sound is repeated before he can even blow it. The sound is coming from within the tunnel.

It’s extremely creepy but if you want to know what happens next, you’ll have to check it out yourself below.

Tunnel does several things exceptionally well. The first is the build, the second is the ominous atmosphere, the third the location used, and the fourth is the music/sound effects. Elements that full-length films with massive budgets fail to deliver on. On all these points, Tunnel is a terrifying horror short.

However, it’s got one problem that takes its brilliance down a notch and that is its payoff. Rather than leave things up to the imagination, we get a flat ending that actively damages the experience up that point. The term ‘less is more’ is very important and here, it really should have been at the forefront of the plan for the ending.