Lorena De Maddalena

„We'll Be Right Back“ is a horror short film that at first shows the audience a supposedly boring night of a protagonist that somewhat doesn't seem that friendly or pleasant to be around. But when he's faced with a disturbing old commercial that turns his night into a nightmare, the audience is starting to be able to sympathize with him. What once began on the TV screen has a fatal impact on reality, the audience is forced to watch how even someone who they at first disliked has a loved one coming home to them and is now living out a nightmare no one wants to endure.

18-36 horror genre enthusiasts with an interest in internet analog horror culture and indie horror films. Since the horror short film isn't a typical slasher film and has this haunted broadcast theme, it fits well into the analog horror / haunted media lineage, similar to feature films like The Ring, Sinister and Skinamarink.

„We'll Be Right Back“ was made from the fascination of not only horror films but also short horror stories that could be read anywhere online. The script started out as a short horror story but then slowly turned into a real script for a short film. It was made to combine internet analog horror culture, creepypastas (short horror stories on the internet) and indie horror films. It shows the world that you don't need big production companies to bring your story to life; it shows that the most important thing when it comes to filmmaking is to find people who want to tell your story as well and who are passionate about their work and even if it doesn't turn out perfect, you still have a short film that lets your story and passion live forever. „We'll Be Right Back“ exists as an almost non budget film with the total cost of 5000CHF and it hopefully inspires other filmmakers to tell their stories.

The short film „We'll Be Right Back“ is currently submitted to different festivals in different countries; it also already won five awards at 4 festivals.

Awards and festivals:

• Dunwich Horror Festival - Best International short film (May 2026)
• Hollywood Gold Awards - Silver Award Horror (June 2026)
• IndieX Film Fest - Outstanding Achievement Award Best Mystery Short (July 2026)
• Independent Shorts Awards - Gold Award Best Horror Short (July 2026)
• Independent Shorts Awards - Silver Award Best Female Director (July 2026)

Official Selection at ongoing festivals: Red Movie Awards, Cal Film Festival.

The future goal is to try and get a local release here in Switzerland, preferably getting it on the Swiss streaming platform „Play Suisse“ which is owned by the SRF. An international release in at least one country is also on the radar, but there hasn't been enough research made yet to find out where „We'll Be Right Back“ would have the best chance of landing on a streaming platform in another country.