Every day through October, the Department of Tangents brings you the Daily Horror Film Fest – one short horror film for every day of the month. It might be terrifying, it might be funny. It could be an homage classic monsters or something entirely new. Check back every morning for a new scare as we celebrate horror shorts!

Today’s featured short is “Trypophobia,” written and directed by Buddy Booth. Trypophobia is an aversion or fear of clusters or patterns of small holes or bumps, and it is a very real thing. I know people who have it, and they never know when they are going to encounter a flower or a painting that will set it off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone touch on this particular fear in a short film, so kudos to Booth for finding an original subject.

Booth does a good job making fear a visceral experience in this short, starting with the original reason for our poor protagonist’s exposure to trypophobia. The effects are clearly CGI, but never stick around long enough for the audience to question how real they look. Just a second or two, and then the images are stuck in your imagination, which is much more persuasive and powerful than any computer. The ending is a bit predictable, but the rest of this presentation is something I’ve never seen before.

Be careful where you drop your phone.