El Paso Filmmaker’s Short Horror Film Wins Award

As a horror lover, I'm always on the hunt for then next scare be it a feature length film or even a short film. One of my favorite short films, "Lights Out", eventually became a feature length film.

However, I was shocked that I had never heard of filmmaker Andrew Jara who is from El Paso! Jara just released an award winning short film called "Wellness Check". The film played at the Be Afraid Horror Film Festival, the Nightmares Film Festival, The Bleedingham Horror Film Festival and won “Most Original Concept” at the Oregon Scream Week Film festival.

"Wellness Check" was released last week and stars Katherine Smith-Rodden as Kristy and Adam Bussell as Mark. In this film, all Kristy wants is to check on Mark during the pandemic.

According to Horror Society, Jara shot "Wellness Check" in August through Zoom and decided to let the actors shoot their scenes themselves.

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You can check out more of Andrew Jara's short films on his YouTube page. Jara also has two feature length films on Prime Video!

"The Last Ones", released in 2018, is available for rent and purchase on Prime Video; while his other feature length film "Borderland" is free with your Prime Subscription.

"The Last Ones" follows two men surviving a post-apocalyptic world wiped out from a lethal virus. "Borderland" was shot in El Paso and follows Sarah, who "finds herself in a very bad debt to an even worse cartel. To pay it off, she will have to find some missing money with the help of a mysterious stranger."

Be on the lookout for Jara's 2020 cosmic horror film titled “The Empty Space”. Currently, it's in the works with distributors, making its way through festivals and most recently brought home the award for Best Feature Film at the 14th annual Sacramento Horror Film Festival- can't wait to check it out!