Horror Short Review: Afraid (2019)

An award winning short, Afraid was produced, written and directed by the pairing of Lisbet Byler & Grace Wagner. It stars Ashley Mellinger and Seth Bortner.

The former plays a coffee shop owner who, after locking up for the night, makes her way to her car. Which just happens to be situated in a several levels car park. She is on edge, seemingly wary of everyone as a group of lads walking down the street make her nervous.

One bumps into her making her drop her keys and when she picks them up, she confronted by someone in a hood. Frightened, she holds out the keys to ward them off but, in an instant, they are gone.

She continues to her car and makes her way up the lift, only to have it stop at the floor before hers. The doors open and who is waiting outside? Only the hooded stranger again.

What happens next? Watch it yourself below to find out.

It’s a solid horror that lacks the atmosphere to really make this one scary. It’s a shame, as the performance of Ashley Mellinger is fantastic and the visual style of the short does create some creep factor. Unfortunately, it’s very predictable and even its final jump scare fails to land a hard blow.