'Deadpool's Director Is Presiding Over the Biggest Short Film Contest Ever [Exclusive]

Published Oct 26, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he’s an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, ’70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, ’90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they’re good, and maybe even more when they’re bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed “Canuxploitation.”

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

This time of year, as Halloween nears, it’s the horror features that get all the attention. But a short film only needs a few minutes to scare the life out of you. That’s why the Ripcord Halloween Film Festival is offering the biggest prizes ever in their new short film contest; they’ve narrowed 500 entries down to a Dirty Dozen of finalists, and Collider is proud to exclusively reveal the twelve movies vying for the top prize, the jury of industry pros who will decide the winner, and a sneak peek at what to expect from the finalists.

Over 500 filmmakers entered their horror shorts into the Ripcord Halloween Film Festival; that flood of entries was winnowed down to 50. Now, only 12 remain; the festival had planned for a top ten, but the voting was so close that it was expanded to allow two extra entries. Those 12 films will be screened on October 29 at the famous TCL Chinese Theater on October 29, in front of a live audience of ravenous horror hounds; winners will then be announced the following day, October 30. The winner will take home a $100,000 USD prize, the biggest purse ever offered in a short film competition. There’s also another $100,000 in prize money that will be awarded to the runners-up. If you can’t make it to Hollywood this week, don’t despair; all 50 entries can be viewed for free on Ripcord.film.

There are five judges on the panel. They include Tim Miller, a visual effects artist and director who helmed Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate; Jean Anne Lauer, the director of short film programming at Austin’s world-famous Fantastic Fest; Lisa Ogdie, a short film programmer for the legendary Sundance Film Festival, which has nurtured independent film for over 45 years; Neville Page, a creature concept designer who’s worked on films like Star Trek, Avatar, and Tron: Legacy, and judged the makeup competition series Face Off; and Peter Phok, a veteran producer who’s worked on a wide array of horror films, including The House of the Devil, Stake Land, and Ti West’s X trilogy.

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

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