Afternoon Delight

Afternoon Delight: Face Your Fears With Spooky, Socially-Conscious ‘Two Sentence Horror Stories’

What better way to prepare for the fast-approaching weekend than by indulging in the some of the Internet’s most well-done web content? Take advantage of your lunch break and treat yourself to Afternoon Delight, Decider’s carefully curated picks of the best short-form content available on the world wide web. This week we’re spotlighting Two Sentence Horror Stories, a bone-chilling anthology series based on tales from the Reddit thread of the same name.

Ever want to indulge in some bite-sized scares? Well, with Two Sentence Horror Stories, you can. The anthology web series created by Vera Miao adapts terrifying two-line tales in 15-odd minute installments and manages to tackle social issues in the process. The best horror out there taps into our deepest fears and worries, both internal and societal, and Two Sentence Horror Stories does just that. A glimpse at the stories in the thread will make you wonder how no one thought of it before, but once you see the series, it’s clear that someone like Miao was the perfect one for the job.

The ambitious, innovative series spookily and affectingly tells stories that integrate social issues like homophobia, vanity, racism, and more without ever feeling contrived or preachy. We see characters chase after love and beauty, explore universal fears like death and loneliness, and fight off the anxieties that we all face every day. Miao wrote the entire series and directed the first two episodes, and the remaining three were helmed by buzzy directors JD Dillard, Danny Perez, and Ryan Spindell.

Horror has always been one of the most socially-conscious genres, and Two Sentence Horror Stories embraces this and exceeds all expectations in the web series format. It’s hard to achieve a good scare and stay smart simultaneously, but Miao’s series proves that it’s entirely possible. These campfire stories for the digital age manage to tap into our wildest fears and insecurities in such a tight amount of time that you may get whiplash, but it’s worth it. For horror buffs and scaredy-cats alike, Two Sentence Horror Stories is a must-see series.

Be sure to follow Miao on Twitter, and check out more episodes on go90.