R&A Shorts: Night Visions Presents

Night Visions International Film Festival is the biggest film festival in Scandinavia focusing on – but not limited to – fantasy, horror, science fiction and action cinema, and the second biggest festival in Helsinki focusing on fictional feature films. The festival is arranged twice a year with the next edition taking place from November 19 to November 23, 2025.

A hilarious, fluid-filled story of a series of events relating to an ultrasound examination, Help, I’m Alien Pregnant! is solid proof of the heritage of Peter Jackson’s early work on the maestro’s home turf.

Having mastered the short film format already with his earlier genre work under the banner of his production company Terror Arcade, Ethan Evans now provides us with the thrill ride Outside Noise focusing on a woman, whose reality is distorted by nightmarish visions the moment she is trying to catch some sleep. Jed Shepherd, screenwriter and producer of Host (2020) and Dashcam (2021), and Night Visions favourite Alex Noyer (Sound of Violence) have served as executive producers.

In his latest directorial effort Father’s Day, now presented as a Scandinavian premiere, Finnish jack of all trades of genre cinema Mikko Löppönen tells the story of an estranged father and daughter finding common ground under the most extreme of circumstances. Key ingredients include meticulously crafted fight choreography, intense knife-wielding acrobatics and adrenaline-pumped action.

Yazza, a strong mood piece shot on film in Finland by Portuguese Francisco Lacerda (They Call It… Red Cemetery), now having its Scandinavian premiere, could very well be an excerpt from a sequel to Harmony Korine’s cult favourite Trash Humpers (2009).

Post-apocalyptic action adventure The Revenge of Shitters combines the spirit of Italian 1980s classics of the genre with the aesthetics of Albert Pyun sci-fi schlock, with a hint of John Waters thrown in. It also features Ryland Brickson Cole Tews of Hundreds of Beavers fame in an essential supporting role.

Inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò… or 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997), Entrails of Savage Capitalism is a gut-wrenching satire produced by Florence Saâdi, one of the masterminds behind the Night Visions hit Megalomaniac (2022) by Karim Ouelhaj. First-time director Julien Cescotto also lists the work of Takashi Miike and John Waters among his influences.

Focusing firmly on the bloody turmoil of a hedonistic playboy, The Skin shows how strong a punch body horror imagery can pack also in animated form.

Mikko Aromaa, Night Visions