REDS
2026 · 13m
Directed by Tom Espinoza
Genres: experimental, horror, sports
A vaulting gymnast and her teammates blur the line between teammate and beast beneath the discipline of their sport.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Finally, someone actually corrupting the sports doc form instead of genuflecting at its feet — turning gymnastics into body horror, teammates into something feral and ambiguous, the whole discipline into a fever dream that makes you question whether you're watching ascension or possession.
Espinoza understands the lineage of surrealist sports cinema and experimental horror, applying disciplined formal control to his subject; the editing rhythm mirrors the sport's own mechanical precision while the image grows increasingly unstable, situating the film in conversation with both structural avant-garde and the uncanny body horror tradition.
The decision to keep the sport's actual physicality and music intact while letting the mise-en-scène deteriorate around it—that collision between athletic discipline and visual chaos—is where the whole thing transcends its premise and becomes genuinely unsettling on a sensory level.
Reviews
REDS is a tense, non-naturalistic exploration of control, chaos, and the strange bonds that tie us together. Winner of Best Short Film at Fantastic Fest.