Filmmaker Joe Cappa has uploaded his first professional short Ghost Dogs (2020), which enjoyed an impressive festival run including stops at Fantasia, Fantoche, GLAS, Ottawa, and Sundance, to name a few.
Meanwhile, our puppy protagonist rests peacefully in the kitchen, protected by a small gate that seems to keep the phantoms at bay. After a brief nap, the puppy awakens to find the gate has been knocked over and leaves the kitchen to explore the house, lured to a dark doorway by a clicking sound like those used by dog trainers meant to elicit a Pavlovian response.
Creepiness turns to downright terror as the house’s proportions are stretched and twisted unnaturally, while shadows of the malformed ghost dogs flitter across the walls. We’re taken on a psychedelic trip similar to Dumbo’s “Pink Elephants on Parade” before the living pup makes his way to the basement where the sinister nature of the home’s owners is revealed, providing a morbid explanation for the house’s supernatural nature.