4 min · English · Comedy · Thriller
Alex Brooks's four-minute comedy-thriller: two criminals discover they've picked the same hiding place.
Suspenseful short films
237 Suspenseful short films in the cafe, running 3 to 55 minutes. Many are thought-provoking or chilling. They span 20 languages. Each is a complete standalone short film, chosen by the cafe and played through its original video provider.
8 min · English · Horror · Thriller
Dylan Clark's eight-minute horror: a young woman giving a presentation on a religious painting starts to doubt what she can see in it.
4 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A four-minute English sci-fi thriller in which an office worker's daily routine slowly becomes something unsettling.
20 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A selfish executive is trapped in a restroom time loop and has to face other versions of himself to get out. Twenty minutes of clever, funny sci-fi.
13 min · English · Comedy · Drama · Horror · Fantasy
For Owen, resisting a compulsion feels as if the world could end. This dark comedy takes that fear literally, mixing an everyday struggle with wildly escalating stakes.
14 min · Malayalam · Thriller
A theft in the dark leads into an encounter whose other side stays unseen. A thirteen-minute Malayalam thriller.
16 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller · Action · Fantasy
A rescue mission crosses into the spirit world. Try Kodama for an action-fantasy short about a samurai SWAT officer fighting to bring his father home.
31 min · Malayalam · Drama
Anish Mohan's dialogue-free Malayalam anthology, inspired by Kamal Haasan's silent classic Pushpaka Vimanam: a blocked writer finds his stories in a strange vision. Its makers list a FEFKA festival selection.
16 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller · Drama
An English sci-fi thriller: two estranged brothers caught in a repeating chain of events try to stop a tragedy. Fifteen tense, emotional minutes.
17 min · Malayalam · Thriller
Budget Lab's Malayalam crime thriller: an ordinary incident pulls its characters into a widening mystery. Seventeen dark minutes that only 12,000 YouTube viewers have found so far.
20 min · Malayalam · Drama · Thriller
A Malayalam drama-thriller about empathy and vengeance between a father, his son and the man who came between them. Twenty minutes, with English subtitles.
8 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Comedy
A small-time thief finds a bag of cash and two gangsters on the way out. This eight-minute Malayalam crime comedy from Yellow Submarine, directed by Viswanathan S, packs a full caper into a tea break.
24 min · Kannada · Thriller · Drama
Try “Chakshusha” when you’re in the mood for a little suspense.
36 min · English · Science fiction
Jason Carman's ambitious sci-fi for DUST, set in the year 2730: a scientist proposes building an artificial habitable planet. Thirty-six minutes in the project's final century.
19 min · Kannada · Thriller
Check in for an eighteen-minute Kannada mystery from director Vishnu Raman. Pushpa Lodge is presented as a suspense short for viewers in the mood to uncover a secret.
12 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Drama
A barber's late-night customer brings an old wound back into his life. Twelve tense Malayalam minutes.
20 min · Malayalam · Horror · Thriller
Budget Lab's Malayalam horror-thriller: three friends drinking in an abandoned ancestral house find their evening turning into something they never planned.
12 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
Mark Slutsky's English sci-fi for DUST: a struggling lawyer wakes in a doorless room, chosen to negotiate for the whole human race. Eleven tense minutes.
22 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Horror
An offer to walk an elderly woman home takes Vishnu somewhere he did not expect. Choose Kavullakandi for a Malayalam horror story that turns an act of kindness into a chilling encounter.
18 min · English · Science fiction · Horror · Thriller
A missing body leads a physician to a secret experiment on the edge of life and death. A seventeen-minute English sci-fi horror.
21 min · Malayalam · Drama · Fantasy
Two children's lives become tangled up with time, fate and mysterious events in this twenty-one-minute Malayalam fantasy-drama.
17 min · Tamil · Horror · Comedy · Thriller
Two roommates start noticing strange things happening in their room. A sixteen-minute Tamil horror-comedy that keeps you guessing.
10 min · No dialogue · Horror · Thriller
A wordless ten-minute horror: a woman wakes on a curved slope above an endless drop and has to hold on. Simple, vertiginous and hugely watched.
13 min · English · Horror · Drama
A family dinner becomes impossible to separate from grief. Choose The Dinner After for a horror short where the feelings Angela tries to escape will not stay outside the room.
12 min · Vietnamese · Action · Thriller
A Vietnamese martial-arts thriller: a scooter-taxi driver's past catches up with him one night in Saigon. Twelve kinetic minutes.
17 min · Malayalam · Drama · Thriller
A stranger offers Ashley a new perspective, then becomes a source of uncertainty. Choose Fugue for a Malayalam psychological story that turns the search for connection into suspense.
6 min · English · Thriller · Drama
A game of chess between two strangers opens old wounds and becomes a struggle for power. A six-minute English thriller.
7 min · English · Horror · Thriller
A family has one rule: keep ignoring the dangerous presence in the house. A seven-minute English horror that tests your nerves.
41 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Drama
A home nurse caring for an elderly woman in a remote house starts to doubt his own sanity. A forty-one-minute Malayalam thriller.
14 min · English · Horror · Comedy · Thriller
A locksmith desperate for a good review finds something alarming behind a wardrobe door. A fourteen-minute English horror-comedy.
26 min · Malayalam · Comedy · Drama · Thriller
One day in a small village exposes the secrets hidden under its everyday bustle. A twenty-five-minute Malayalam comedy-thriller.
14 min · English · Drama · Thriller
An ordinary school day becomes a child's fight for safety. Watch for a restrained, emotionally difficult perspective on the people at the centre of gun violence.
18 min · Kannada · Comedy · Drama
A Kannada social comedy about small neighbourhood disputes, a loudspeaker and why it pays to understand the law.
20 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Fantasy
A sorcerer's apprentice and three volunteers try to break the curse on a haunted paddy field. A nineteen-minute Malayalam folk thriller.
22 min · Malayalam · Comedy · Romance · Thriller
Two village lads plot a 'love kidnapping' for a girl they're sure is in love with one of them, until her confession turns everything around. A playful Malayalam comedy with a romantic twist.
15 min · English · Drama · Thriller · Comedy
A parlour game becomes a test of belonging. Watch this dark comedy-mystery for sharp class satire and a family whose polished manners hide something troubling.
23 min · Hindi · Thriller
A routine shave becomes uncomfortable when a fugitive bulletin makes both men suspicious. Choose The Salon for a Hindi thriller built around one room and the danger of not knowing whom to trust.
30 min · Malayalam · Thriller
Akarsh Ramakrishnan's thirty-minute Malayalam horror-thriller for Onboard Infotainments. Watch with the lights low.
16 min · English · Horror · Thriller
A couple receive a mysterious box with instructions that make looking away dangerous. A sixteen-minute English horror that plays with what you can't see.
31 min · Tamil · Horror
Settle in for a longer Tamil ghost story. A pick for viewers in the mood for horror and suspense.
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