Haunted Paint Unleashes the Dead in the Creepy Horror Short DEATH RED
There are plenty of reasons not to use an old can of paint you find lying around. Lead. Mold. Horrible color choices. The tortured souls of murder victims waiting to be unleashed from inside the can.
That last one is a little harder to deal with. Filmmaker Mitch Glass has released his supernatural horror short Death Red online, giving horror fans a chance to check out this wicked 12-minute tale about an artist, a notorious can of red paint, and a seriously messed-up urban legend.
I initially caught Death Red at the FilmQuest Film Festival and had a great time with it, so it’s awesome to see the short finally released online for everyone to watch. I really enjoyed the twisted concept Glass plays with here, especially the increasingly sinister history surrounding something as ordinary as a can of paint.
The story follows Claire, a young artist played by Kelsey Tuma, who gets her hands on a forgotten can of paint originally sold during the 1960s under the name Scarlet Secret. Unfortunately, this particular shade of red comes with one hell of a backstory.
The paint was eventually nicknamed "Death Red" and outlawed in 1984 after authorities discovered it contained the remains of victims murdered by Richard Barkner. Barkner was a respected paint manufacturer who apparently found a horrifying way to use his company, Barkner Paints, to cover up his crimes.
Then things take a supernatural turn. According to the legend surrounding the paint, anyone who uses it and speaks the phrase "open their eyes" can awaken the souls trapped inside. Claire, unaware of just how badly this could go, decides the forgotten paint might be exactly what she needs to create her masterpiece.
The official synopsis reads: "Outlawed in 1984, the paint known as 'Death Red' was found to contain a serial killer's victims. Legend warns that using it & uttering the phrase 'open their eyes' awakens the souls within. Now, a young artist dares to use it for her magnum opus."
It’s such a wonderfully nasty horror premise. Taking an everyday object and attaching a grotesque mythology to it is a great foundation for a short film, and Death Red has fun digging into the twisted possibilities.
There’s also something inherently creepy about an artist unknowingly working with a material connected to murder victims, especially once that supernatural doorway starts opening.
The film comes with the wonderfully appropriate tagline, "This horror is scripted. Your goosebumps are not."
Glass wrote and directed Death Red, which premiered at the 2025 Sitges Film Festival before making the rounds at several other festivals, including FilmQuest. Glass previously made the sci-fi and genre shorts Box 616 and Canary, and Death Red reunites him with several members of the same filmmaking team.
Glass produced the short alongside Brad Rundblade, Ryan Sadler, and Jordan Tortorello, with Sadler also serving as cinematographer. Dan Negovan composed the original score.
What makes the finished film even more impressive is how quickly they made it. Glass explained: "We shot the film in just two days with a crew of six and a shoestring budget. It was a true labor of love, and I speak for everyone when I say we are proud of what we created together. More than anything, we hope this is just the beginning of the Death Red story."
I’d be down for more stories from this world. The mythology surrounding Death Red feels like something Glass could easily expand, whether that means another horror short or eventually something much bigger.
Where did all the cans end up? How many are still out there? What else happens when somebody uses the paint? There’s plenty of creepy territory left to explore.
If supernatural horror, cursed objects, serial-killer mythology, and haunted artwork sound like your kind of nightmare, this one is absolutely worth 12 minutes of your time.
