Continuing our traditional October theme: 4-letter titles with the second letter A.

You know what I hate in horror movies? Fricking jump scares. I don’t even like the threat of jump scares. I love a horror movie that grips me with primal fear. I detest a movie that holds me hostage by dangling the specter of a jump scare. Provoking a natural reaction can be done by any jerk with a balloon and a needle. It’s not making me scared any more than hitting my toes with a hammer is giving me the urge to dance.

You know what’s challenging to find in a horror short that isn’t a twenty-five minute exercise in mood creation? A lack of jump scares. Whoever added “orchestra sting” to the preset menu in Garage Band should be shot. With a loud pistol that comes out of nowhere.

I do, however, like “Salt” and its flagrant disregard for backstory and explanation, just giving us the good parts, and thinking out a couple extra angles on their central concept to create a perverse “oh shit” moment.