Horror Short Review: Brackish (2026)

Brackish is a difficult short to judge. On the one hand, it’s a short horror film so should be critiqued like any other piece of media. On the other hand, the film was made for the Frame by Frame Weekend Film Challenge Spring 2026. An event that tasks creators with having to write, film, and edit an entire short film with a random group in just 48 hours.

That is very impressive and Sam Coates, Mel Dolence, Andy Hendrickson, Brooke Karnik, Abigail Littlefield, Rae Lyle, and Jake Pletsch should be very proud of what they’ve created here. A short film about a janitor being haunted by a ghost who may have drowned or may have been drowned. In fact, there’s a possibility that the janitor was the one responsible, hence the haunting.

You can apply anything you want to the short, because it doesn’t give any answers at all, but does a great job of creating disconcerting atmosphere and tension. I was hooked, up to a point, and I really would have liked something to have happened in the end, but I still came away impressed.