“Horrifying” Godzilla short film is scarier than Minus One

In my restless dreams, I see that kaiju: a terrifying short horror film with Godzilla at its center has been praised online — and it’s even scarier than Minus One.

When Legendary launched its MonsterVerse in 2014, it remembered one crucial thing: Godzilla is a monster. It’s not just a matter of its ginormous size or the wanton havoc it wreaks — it’s what it represents: nature’s reckoning with man for its most inhumane creation, the atomic bomb.

With Kong in the mix, it’s all become a bit of a farce — but Toho hasn’t forgotten. Shin Godzilla was quite frightening, but Godzilla Minus One was the franchise’s scariest movie since its black-and-white beginnings in 1954.

However, a short film has emerged online that approaches the iconic titan from a different, more unnerving perspective; in this world, those who survive an encounter with Godzilla may end up envying the dead.

Godzilla fans need to watch this short film after Minus One

Created by Danny Donahue, the two-minute, found-footage short film revolves around a Godzilla sighting in the ’50s. Check it out below:

The opening text explains: “The following footage was shot by Henry R. Hill of New York in 1954. It was released to the public in 2024 by court order. The audio is from an interview conducted with Mr. Hill in 1960.”

The footage shows a silhouette of Godzilla in the distance, in the dead of night, briefly illuminated by a lighthouse’s rotating beam. “I saw it from the road as I was driving, it was just this big black mountain out in the ocean… it was coming right at me. I could see its eyes glittering up there in the dark, it was like looking into the eyes of god… the horror of looking at god,” Hill explains.

We see Godzilla passing him as the audio starts to crackle. “As it got closer and passed by me, I could feel it all around me… like the air was turned to poison. My health problems started up not long after that… that footage still haunts my dreams, haunts my lungs. Every time I close my eyes, it’s there waiting for me,” he adds, before the film’s final message reveals: “Henry Hill died three months after this interview.”

While Godzilla movies usually focus on the monster’s carnage and destruction, this short has been praised for highlighting the likelihood of radiation poisoning from a brush with the beast. “OH THIS IS AWESOME!! I am SO happy you also played into the passive radiation trait, not much play on that anymore! This is fantastic! This’ll give me a nice brainrot for like a week,” one user commented.

“You never really see people play on the whole ‘being near Godzilla gonna give you radiation sickness’, and you just made it horrifying,” another wrote.

If you’re dying to rewatch Godzilla Minus One, find out when to expect it on streaming, and when and where you’ll be able to buy it on Blu-ray.