Horror Short Review: The Attic (2026)

Written, directed, produced, and edited by Aaron Jones, The Attic is a very professional looking and sounding horror short that is more style than substance, and delivers an atrocious ending.

Sadie Stalker plays a woman who is woken one night by sounds coming from her attic, but upon investigation, nothing is found. Nothing, not even a mouse. Yet, the sounds persist.

Billed as a psychological horror short, The Attic tries to make increasing paranoia and a feeling of helplessness a focal point of a short that is less than four minutes long. Do you see the problem? There’s simply not enough time to give this weight, something made even harder when there’s a middle section that seems to be designed to get a laugh. I don’t get it and it makes the tone feel all over the place.

The thing is, it’s a really nice looking short with impressive transitions, a great dream section, and the tension created by the sounds from the attic is strong. Alas, then we get to the end. If the short had ended ten seconds earlier, I’d have been a lot more positive about it, but it doesn’t and it sucks. It’s as simple as that.