Watch the fantastic Lovecraftian short film “Black Sugar” for free!

· by · in Lovecraft Video. ·

Black Sugar is now free to watch!  This is an incredible Lovecraftian short film, perhaps the best Lovecraftian short I’ve ever seen.

When a group of bored suburban teens experiment with a mysterious new drug, they are thrust into a nightmare world where hallucinations kill.

Watch the film below (be sure to expand to full screen), and when you’re done, please comment and let the filmmakers know what you think.

(Watch more small studio and fan-created Lovecraftian films here.)

49 responses to “Watch the fantastic Lovecraftian short film “Black Sugar” for free!”

  2. Awesome short. The story felt very strongly like an investigation from the pen and paper Call of Cthulhu RPG, and the execution was spot on.

    The only (very minor) grip I had with it was that the breathing of the girl was noticeable on the last scene, and I couldn’t decide if it was an intentional sign she somehow lived, or an techincal oversight. Perhaps if it was the case she died, there could have been some physical sign of it, like the claw marks on the other boys arm?

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  4. Awesome work. Some short films of this type call themselves “Lovecraftian” without truly justifying that classification. This one was truly Lovecraftian. I repeatr: AWESOME!

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  6. I agree with the above comment that the characters (while well portrayed by the actors) were “placeholders”, stereotypical tropes of the horror film, but disagree with the idea of making them this or that to avoid this problem. Instead, flesh out your characters as three-dimensional TO YOURSELF, make them real and understand their motivations in your own minds, so that you can make them “genuine” for the viewers. You don’t have to explain any of this (or very little) to the audience, as long as you have a fully realized character in your mind when you are writing them. Give them life, and they will often take over their own actions, so to speak.

    That point aside… very well done; good production values, very good graphics and conceptualization; the cinematography is outstandingly good, particularly for such a short film; and even with what is said above, I do think the basic material deserves to be given a full development — a longer, more fully realized vision. Perhaps not a full feature length (I don’t know if the material would require something of that sort), but at least a development which gives it some room to breathe and take on more depth.

    As others, I am impressed, and wish you the best for your future projects….

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  7. A wonderful short film. No tentacle porn, here. And the black wings world was well-conceived and realized. I await more from this very talented crew.

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  20. TOO SHORT !, TOO SHORT !!, TOO SHORT..!!! I LOOVED IT..!!! ..But I reallly wanted MORE…, What a baad assed, NIGHTMARE WORLD.., WOWWW..!!!

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  24. Dear Black Sugar Filmmakers,

    Well done on multiple levels! The world-building was great, from the mechanism of the drug/creature connection to the amusing English “translations” on the .ru website (totally worth freeze-framing to read). The cast were superb. The performances felt genuine, and once the movie started, I never fell out of the story. The script was tight and the visual storytelling well done. The CGI was beautiful, atmospheric, and both meshed with and contrasted with the abandoned building nicely and appropriately. Hell, the lighting was great. All in all, a very good short film, one which I hope will see a wide audience.

    [spoiler alert from here on in]

    Things that I would urge you to consider when planning your next project (and I hope you will continue to do projects), noting that these comments are in the context of the fact that I really enjoyed the film:

    I knew the moment that the girl was kissing her boyfriend she’d die. She’s basically a horror trope and not a person. So’s her boyfriend. I want to be more interested in the characters, but I have trouble caring about either one of them. I know you’re working on a short film and you need to use shorthand in some places, but what would have happened if, say, the girl had had agency, had done anything for herself other than scream and ask for help? What would have happened if at least one of the characters were a person of color? What if Charlie had, for example, been black or latino or Asian? What if his straight-laced friend were? The world was great and interesting, but the characters were placeholders. So for you next project, why not up your game in terms of characterization? Dare to break out of horror tropes where the “slut” dies, the black guy dies, etc. Make the slut your protagonist and have her save the day! Make her black or hispanic or Indian. Make her gay. Give her agency.

    Think about it. In any case, please bear in mind that I did really enjoy the movie as is. It’s nice to see Lovecraftian horror done so damned well (so to speak).

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  25. Outstanding! Very good, effects, CG and crisp editing. Awesome story line and acting, and an incredible soundtrack and amazing camera work. Loved it. Please do more.

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  28. well I can only echo the earlier comments left by other people in terms of how excellent it was in the categories of production values the music the ambience the acting and so forth! I gave the feel of like a prelude or introduction to the main character where he becomes a man of power thi seeks out the monsters one more time only with the aid of dark sorcery and possibly a powerful magic weapon of some sort to destroy them or to exact revenge for the death of the young girl in the first .section.

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  29. Good short! Would love to see a full length feature based on this, if not a series. HPL would be proud.

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  36. Intense … If i even had an urge to try new concoctions (i don’t) after watching this film I’d definitely just say no! Would love to see more of this story expanded version …. Very well done bravo!

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