Film

The Goblin Market

Name: The Goblin Market
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Released: 2013
Cast: Claire Hewlett, Allison Moira Kelly, Eddie Fontaine

Coming-of-age

A gothic 13-minute short that adapts Christina Rossetti's nightmare poem into visceral cinema. A young woman descends into a nightmarish underworld to rescue her sister, confronted by temptation and predation. It's fever-dream surrealism with a feminist edge—visually lush, morally unsettling, designed for viewers who want substance in their shadows.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to fairy-tale myth retold in a dark, sensual register, where folklore carries real moral weight and a short film can still feel like a full descent.

Skip it if you need a story that spells everything out, because this leans on mood and suggestion and leaves much of the logic for you to assemble.

What it asks of you: Thirteen minutes is brief, but it lingers in its shadows, so you need to stay with its images and faces rather than waiting for quick turns.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Crimson Peak2015

Guillermo del Toro's gothic romance about a woman drawn into a decaying mansion where beauty masks corruption. Lush production design, slow-burn dread, and genuine emotional stakes wrapped in Victorian atmosphere.

But The plot becomes fairly straightforward once you understand what's happening, which deflates some of the mystery. It's also quite long if you're used to shorter, punchier work.

The Love Witch2016

Anna Biller's saturated, hypnotic film about desire, manipulation, and a woman wielding supernatural power over men. Visually stunning with a deadpan feminist critique that rewards close attention and repeated viewings.

But The pacing is deliberately slow and artificial, almost like watching a fever dream in real time. It's more mood and texture than plot, which won't work if you need narrative momentum.

The Witch2016

A Puritan family is picked apart by paranoia and something genuinely dark lurking in the forest. Slow-burn horror that builds dread through atmosphere and performance rather than jump scares—bleak, beautiful, and morally complicated.

But Nothing happens for long stretches. If you want entertainment rather than a séance, the deliberate pacing will feel like punishment.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Goblin Market

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Invitation2016

Both examine how vulnerability and desire are weaponized by those who offer false salvation. Both feature women in enclosed spaces where the rules shift beneath them.

A dinner party in Los Angeles becomes a test of trust and survival. Like The Goblin Market, it's about invitation and corruption—but here the seduction is social and psychological, the underworld is a living room, and the stakes are contemporary.

But Almost nothing visual happens. It's performed, conversational, and requires you to read subtext and body language. Some find this unbearably tense; others find it boring.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece: a girl navigates a Spanish fascist nightmare made bearable by encountering something stranger and older underground. Fantasy and horror in perfect balance, visually ravishing, and genuinely moving.

But The real-world cruelty is unflinching and difficult. The fantasy elements don't soften what happens to the vulnerable in wartime.

The Fountain2006

Darren Aronofsky's fever dream across three timelines about love, loss, and obsession. Visually extraordinary and emotionally devastating, it's cinema as pure feeling rather than explanation.

But It refuses to make logical sense. If you need a clear narrative throughline and don't enjoy surrendering to mood, this will frustrate you intensely.

A Dark Song2016

Two strangers perform an occult ritual in an isolated house. Surprisingly tender despite the darkness—it's about grief, redemption, and whether transformation is possible. Intimate and haunting.

But Very little happens physically. It's almost entirely dialogue and presence in a single location, which demands patience and emotional openness from the viewer.

Suspiria1977

Dario Argento's hallucinatory masterpiece about an American dancer enrolling in a mysterious European ballet academy. Surreal, gorgeously composed, and drenched in dread—a dreamlike descent into something very wrong.

But The plot is minimal and sometimes nonsensical. The dubbing in the English version is occasionally jarring, and the violence is stylized but brutal.

The Wailing2016

A South Korean mystery that spirals into something far stranger—a village gripped by illness, a stranger, and the possibility that God and evil are indistinguishable. Genuinely unsettling and philosophically complex.

But It's two and a half hours and requires active engagement to parse. The ending deliberately refuses easy answers, which feels ambiguous or unfinished depending on your tolerance.

We Are Still Here2015

A quiet, intelligent haunted house film about a couple grieving their son. It earns its supernatural elements through genuine character work and builds to visceral, shocking moments that actually mean something.

But The first half is deliberately restrained and domestic. If you need consistent scares or action, it'll feel slow until the final act.

Orpheus1950

Both adapt classical poetry into visceral film. Both use the underworld descent as metaphor for temptation and loss. Both were made by filmmakers for whom visual poetry mattered more than plot.

Jean Cocteau's modern Orpheus myth set in postwar Paris—a poet descends through mirrors into the underworld to recover his lover. Surreal, tragic, and visually revolutionary, made by someone who understood that myth lives in cinema.

But It's in French with dated effects and a theatrical sensibility. The abstraction may feel dated or impenetrable if you prefer realism or straightforward narrative.