Free Films
Welcome to a selection of free films to watch online on the UK Film Channel.
Herringbone
Mina, a young woman, seemingly trafficked, discovers the shocking truth as she is enslaved along with several other women in a compound facility where they are subjugated to torture and abuse. In her struggle to survive her dire circumstances Mina forms a special bond and friendship with Rhonda, a demented woman in the neighboring cell who, even while knowing their awaited fate, shields and supports Mina throughout her ordeal. Mina faces her darkest hour when Rhonda and her newborn child are both violently taken from her- revealing humanity's indifference to this unspeakable cruelty. Will Mina's pleas be enough to finally make us stop these heinous acts?
Godspeed
Her son is on the other side of the country. So is his girlfriend. You can be supportive from 2000 miles away for only so long, and this mother has hit her breaking point. Now Mom is finally on the road and there's no telling what she can convince herself to do to get this person away from her son.
Overcast
Connor Falk plays Eric, a young teenager whose life is thrown into chaos when his mother (Daniela Nyffenegger) disappears under mysterious circumstances. Eric’s father (Lane Wray) insists his mother has abandoned them and run away into a new life without them, but something irks our young protagonist, who starts to question and challenge his father, and indeed his own memories of his mother.
Faro
Danny Benson is up on a murder charge but Agent Villinski wants more than just a confession from him. He presses Danny for more information on his connections to mob boss, Mr Gracey but seems to hold back and misdirect the FBI agent, pushing his buttons and sending him over the edge with frustration.
Iso-Pocalyptis
When Daniel Fuller returns home to find his wife and child dead he struggles to let them go, storing their bodies in the make-shift kitchen of his derelict house. Bound by the horrifying regret of a despicable act, he spirals into a deep paranoia of self-hate and begins drinking heavily. His eerie, run down home soon becomes the prison of haunting nightmares and violent ideas that sends him over the edge of sanity, controlling his thoughts, and ultimately destroying his soul through a psychological war of survival. What awaits him on the other side is more than anybody would have ever expected.
Boris in the Forest
A black comedy about a Californian geek in search of his horror hero Boris Karloff. Fresh off the plane from Los Angeles, horror geek Merv Blanco holds forth in reverential ecstasy as he finally finds himself outside 36 Forest Hill Road, London, birthplace of his hero, screen legend Boris Karloff. But what awaits in the run-down kebab shop that occupies what was once the Karloff home, is not what Merv was expecting.
All Its Name Implies
"All Its Name Implies" focuses on the resilient residents of Paradise, California in the aftermath of the devastating Camp Fire. Most people have lost everything, and in their scramble to make sense of the unprecedented destruction, their shared sense of community only grows stronger. Featuring exclusive and powerful testimonials from the people who survived the inferno and created by filmmaker Ev Durán, who was raised in Paradise, "All Its Name Implies" is the story of Paradise, by Paradise, for Paradise.
Yemen - The Silent War
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Tackling the devastating social effect of the Yemen civil war, this short documentary from filmmaker Sufian Abulohom is an emotionally ferocious undertaking that wrestles brilliantly with the crippling fear of living through a war zone and the impossibility of forgiving those who have dropped bombs on your family and community.
Verso
Verso is less than 4 minutes long, and there is no real premise to the events that occur, making its plot a hard one to judge. The plot doesn’t provide much explanation. Furthermore, there is no dialogue at all, this makes the relationships between the characters and the motivations of individual characters more ambiguous thus, judging the performers is also tough.
Vengeance Runs Red
As two drug dealers return home to their flat one Halloween night, they settle down for what they hope to be a satisfying evening of scary movies and good weed. But their night in is soon to be turned on its head as a young man hell bent on revenge for the death of his sister will stop at nothing until he finds retribution.
Trick
★★★
Brian Penn, UK Film Review
"Leon (James Bryhan) is a loan shark in reflective mode. He sits musing while the kid (Corey Thompson) mixes and cuts a huge plate of cocaine.
He relates the story of a stray cat that he once fed in an act of kindness; inevitably it kept returning in expectation of further treats. The fact that no good deed goes unpunished is a life lesson all too quickly learned by Leon, particularly in his line of business. Such lesson enters play when henchman Yuri (Nisaro Karim) produces customer Jimmy (Ben Thorne). Jimmy owes Leon money but wants more time to pay him back. In a fit of generosity Leon agrees Jimmy can pay him back at the end of the month."
Their War
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"100 years since the end of the First World War and #warmovies and filmmakers are still telling the seemingly endless amount of stories from those tragic trenches. The techniques of combat and warfare have evolved to be less personal since then, so the intimate violence that was necessary during the conflict is a highly emotive way to engage with the enduring themes of war. Filmmaker Max Mason's #shortfilm Their War is a breathtakingly heartbreaking and intimate piece on the human sacrifice needed
The Voice Within
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 thriller Split with undertones of affecting emotional dramas like Room and short film Aimee, The Voice Within written by Laurie Henderson and Ernesto M. Sandoval is a crippling exploration of character and trauma. Loaded with sublime performances and technically skilled filmmaking, it's a movie audiences can happily grapple with."
The Visit
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Stoking the fire of racial tensions is an essential way to explore its complicated issues and damaging effect on communities. Short film The Visit, directed by Shane Andries, is a smart and compelling take on the current climate of volatility which surrounds particular stereotypes and manages to approach the topic with a unique perspective.
The Tape
A Black Mirror inspired dystopia where our dreams can be recorded and rewatched like an old college football game, writer-director Iacopo Navari’s vision of a not too distant technological future is captivating but the actual story built within the world-building does lack the same ingenuity. Subconscious imagination has become a commodity in Navari’s film as Joel Hume desperate to regain his ability to dream calls the Sandman corporation to help him recapture his happiest dream revolving around his ex-girlfriend. Joel is visited by dream repairman Bob who does a begins a full brain diagnostic to find a solution to Joel’s predicament.
The Redemption Act
★★★★
Owen Herman, UK Film Review
"The opening shots of The Redemption Act set up a mystery. An extreme act of violence committed by one enraged man on another as a woman watches on in horror poses many questions. These questions are answered surprisingly quickly as the short takes this seemingly simple set up and turns into something you really don’t see coming...
The Jigsaw
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Told with mystery, suspense, and intrigue, short film The Jigsaw is an absolute marvel. Written and directed by Basil Al-Safar and Rashad Al-Safar, it tells the tale of one man (Pedro Monteiro) who travels to a small town to purchase the titular Jigsaw. Once there, the vendor of the shop (Daragh O'Malley) foretells of the Jigsaw's mysterious nature, and that it always returns to him...
The Damned
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Thrilling dystopian dramas seem to be right in filmmaker Fred Cavender’s wheelhouse. Having delivered the immensely impressive short The Golden Shore, as well as a string of other movies in 2017, this latest titled The Damned, is just as thematically bleak but even more cinematic."
The Apostate - Call of the Revenant
"Lance Cooper (Jay Bryhan) awakes with serious wounds in a disused car park. Four mutilated victims are also found with no ready explanation of events. Cooper is questioned by Detective Inspector Hollie Andrews (Terri Dwyer) as the facts slowly unravel in flashback." Brian Penn, UK Film Review
Supot
This the subject of Phil Giordano’s tightly focussed NYU Tisch thesis script, focussing on Rene-Boy (Andrei Fajarito), who isn’t too keen on having his rite-of-passage surgery, performed by his own father Itoy (John Arcilla), rock-sharpened knife in hand.
This theme of youth’s disdain for the importance placed on tradition and conformity is a well-worn path, but has rarely been shown in this way.
Squad Leader TD-73028 Soliloquy
In Maxime-Claude L’ Écuyer’s short film Squad Leader TD-73028 Soliloquy, Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy from Hamlet is reimagined within the weird and wacky context of the intergalactic universe of Star Wars. To celebrate both the 40th anniversary of Star Wars original release and the recent 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the short film presents this soliloquy as the inner voice of a Stormtrooper.
Something Crunchy
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"In a world where the truth is an increasingly elusive concept, short thriller Something Crunchy, from writer/director Fred Cavender, is a topical and technically impressive piece. Focusing on the investigations of freelance journalist Robyn (Bess Davies), the story unravels like a classic crime caper but for the modern age...
Soldier Bee
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"A brutally moving and psychologically affecting short film, Soldier Bee goes elbow deep into the harrowing suffering of someone with PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder), exploring the incredibly difficult assimilation that some war veterans face, and the pathological violence that can become entrenched in their being."
Round Trip
Danny Bolt plays Constable Rose, a charming and likeable cop hoping for the easy transport of a prisoner in the back of his police car. Said prisoner, Ned (Lee Priest), is anything but cooperative though, and seeks escape at his first opportunity. However, their current location is in the massive unknown that is the Australian outback, where strange things start to happen.
Real Talk
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"A tapestry of raw humanity, documentary film Real Talk: An Insight into the Lives of American University Students is directed by Sufian Abulohom and Bruna Weichert and captures something candidly affecting about the nature of young people traversing into adulthood. Full of diversity, emotion, and honesty, it's a film that audiences will be able to connect with, if only in places...
Oceanic Aliens
★★★★★
Alfie Kaye, UK Film Review
"This breathtakingly-shot documentary consists of footage of relatively unknown marine species compiled by Johnson’s own personal dives in the Pelagic Black Water in Kona, Hawaii. Ask even the very best of photographers and they will all tell you that shooting under water is no easy task, yet, Oceanic Aliens share the same awe-inducing aesthetic qualities of Blue Planet II – managing to convince you, you are studying the species under the most intrusive of super resolution microscopes. "
Mission - Caligula
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Electric with myth, legend, and hearsay, short documentary Mission: Caligula is the exciting story behind filmmaker Alexander Tuschinski’s devotion and ongoing plan to restore a version of the notorious seventies film Caligula. However, unlike most movie restoration projects, this is not for aesthetic or technical reasons, instead the version which Tuschinski plans to painstakingly piece together is going to be more aligned to that of the original filmmaker, Tinto Brass, who was famously dismissed from the film during production...
Meat on Bones
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Set upon a gorgeous clifftop and beach, the audience not only gets these breathtaking visuals, but also a poignant and affecting story with superb performances...
If you can write characters as believable and engaging as this, evoke performances as entertaining as this, and strike thematic chords with an audience as intelligently as this, then yours is the world my friend."
LeSeurdmin
★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Peter "Lizard Man" LeSeurdmin (Drew Current) is a deadbeat misanthrope who has alcoholic tendencies and severe depression - the perfect qualities for a hero then. After getting wasted in front of his partner Nicole's (Rasheeda Moore) parents and wreaking havoc across town, Peter's life starts to crumble. Not only does Nicole leave him, but a brew of extremely rare lizard beer leaves his body a medical marvel! Also, he has captured the attention of a villain known as The Grillmaster (no, not George Foreman), who speaks almost exclusively in food puns. The Grillmaster (Sam Pink) has sent his goons known as "Munions" (wordplaying Minions and Onions we think), to hunt him down."
Judging Tree
★★★★
"The Judging Tree, a short Greek film directed by Tsintzas Periklis, is a fascinating and individual piece that leaves the viewer captivated. Through its use of artistic aerial shots and fantastic utilisation of the Greek countryside, the film is filled with intrigue and betrayal, all the while reaching high above expectations to deliver a powerful ending. If it were not for one significant flaw, Periklis’ production could have acted as a perfect introduction to Greek cinema for international audiences."
I Miss The War
★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"Immersing the viewer into the depths of familial angst, short film I Miss The War is an uneven yet moving piece of filmmaking, written and directed by Andrew Walsh...
In need of a slicker production and a tighter storyline, I Miss The War is still a piece of captivating cinema. The engaging performances make it a worthwhile watch and the subject matter is notably bold enough to make Walsh a filmmaker to watch out for in the future."
Hold Me Down
★★★★★
Chris Olson, UK Film Review
"A tale of urban survival in this harrowing short drama from writer director Niclas Gillis. Hold Me Down is a ferocious denunciation of the roles some women are forced into in order to endure life as others want them to...
Tianna Allen is superb in the leading role, occupying the tragedy of her character with grace. As she traverses the dangerous city streets in the dark, having left her not-so-home-sweet-home only to enter the lion’s den surrounded by vicious predators, no inch of Chastity’s life is safe or welcoming and Allen is marvellous at depicting the endurance of it all. Prince Richard Combs serves up a worthy turn as the good-for-nothing ex, whilst the aforementioned formidable screen time of Cheryl Juniaus is something to behold and completely captivating.
Hell's Bells
"Morris dancing hasn't been this dark and mysterious since...well...ever! In a seriously entertaining short film, filmmaker Luke Jeffery delivers a black comedy literally with bells on, with a story which will make you question your whole reality. Or at least your perception of minority dance troupes..." Chris Olson, UK Film Review