We Summoned a Demon
2017 · 6m · USA
Directed by Chris McInroy
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, horror
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
Two friends perform a satanic ritual in a warehouse to impress a girl, accidentally summon a real demon, and then refuse to admit their mistake.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
The real move here is the refusal—two idiots summon actual evil and just... deny it happened, turning cosmic horror into a bit about male ego and plausible deniability. It's the kind of stupid-smart premise that makes you mad you didn't think of it first.
McInroy's command of tonal balance—mining genuine dread from a fundamentally comedic conceit—places this in conversation with the body-horror comedies of the early 2010s, though the restraint in the third act feels more indebted to understated British absurdism than American genre pastiche.
The genius is in the refusal to show the demon clearly; by keeping it off-screen and letting the characters' stubborn denial be the actual horror, McInroy does more with suggestion and performance than most shorts twice the budget could with full practical effects.
Reviews
One more creative, well-made, funny short film to end this year. This short is also the third and final in a sort-of linked trilogy of gory horror comedy shorts from McInroy, and it might just be the best.