Two women approached Laila Blue after the 2025 Toronto Indie Horror Film Fest premiere of her horror short film, Flow. They needed to tell the Calgary-based filmmaker something: her basement-made horror short film about skincare had captured something true about their own bodies. They weren’t alone in feeling that way.
Flow, Blue’s directorial debut, premiered at the Toronto Indie Horror Film Fest Oct. 3 to cheering crowds. That connection, that moment of recognition, is exactly what Blue set out to achieve.
“Even if just one person relates, she knows she’s not alone,” Blue says.
The film follows Pookie, a character whose self-improvement journey spirals into something grotesque and destructive. Marketing and media drive her transformation, exposing how the beauty industry weaponizes female insecurity. Blue didn’t pull this critique from thin air.
She studied skincare after experiencing childhood eczema and bullying, later running her own skincare brand.
“The industry sells us our own insecurities in pastel packaging,” Blue says.
Making horror short films on a micro-budget
Her lived experience shaped every aspect of Flow. While researching, Blue examined misleading product labels, lawsuits against major brands, and the psychology of trending ‘miracle’ ingredients. The film captures how easily consumers fall for hype over science.
Blue deliberately chose animation to make her statement. Stop-motion and 2D animation allowed exaggeration, a key tool for transforming everyday beauty routines into something unsettling. The basement setting kept production costs manageable. She performed some voice work herself and hired minimal crew members.
“With stop motion and 2D animation, I didn’t have to hire and pay a whole team of people in the same sense as live action, like actors on site, cameramen, lighting guys, and sound guys,” Blue says.
The film’s visual language feels distinctly feminine: pink aesthetics, a talking Barbie doll, inside jokes about beauty standards and aging pressure. Yet Blue grounds this playfulness in dark humour inspired by Robot Chicken and South Park, layered with body horror. Creating horror short films on such a limited budget forced her to be resourceful and inventive.
Storytelling and collaboration in horror short films
Her background in acting, including work on Cancer Szn and Slugger, informed her directorial approach. Rather than imposing one style, Blue adapts her communication to each collaborator, drawing out their best work.
“There isn’t one directing style,” she says. “I find it changes with every person I collaborate with.”
The $400 budget (plus $600 for festival submissions) reflects Blue’s commitment to resourcefulness.
Building community around horror
Calgary’s independent film community supported her throughout. Organizations like Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and Creatives Empowered connected Blue with collaborators and provided problem-solving spaces for “weird little visions.”
Flow screens at Edmonton’s YIKES! Festival on Nov. 7 and at Calgary’s CSIF Presents: In the Can on Dec. 6 as part of a charity fundraiser. Blue anticipates more festival selections.
Meanwhile, she’s developing Boxed In, a feature-length psychological thriller about grief and trauma with Edmon Rotea (Skinnamrink) as executive producer.