Pauly Shore and Nick Swardson front Remain Calm, a 13-minute horror-comedy short that arrived ahead of Halloween and is now available online. The release gives Fans of Pauly Shore a compact new title built around a creature-feature setup, with Jake Lewis directing and writing the film.
Lewis and Shore Reunite
Pauly Shore said, "I enjoyed reuniting with Lewis and working alongside Swardson." That matters because the project is not just a one-off pairing; it brings Shore back with Jake Lewis after The Court Jester, where Shore portrayed Richard Simmons. For viewers, that means the new short sits inside a small but traceable run of collaborations rather than landing as an isolated Halloween stunt.
Shore and Swardson play Matt and Erwin, two gas station clerks whose night shift turns into a fight for survival after a government agent warns them about a deadly creature. The short keeps the scale tight, and at 13 minutes it has to move quickly from setup to threat to payoff, which is exactly the kind of structure that rewards a lean horror-comedy more than a sprawling one.
Doug Jones and Kevin Keppy
Kevin Keppy portrays Mr. Frett, the monster at the center of the premise, while Doug Jones plays the government agent. Mr. Frett is written to detect and attack people who show signs of anxiety, which gives the creature a built-in rule rather than a random appetite; the danger comes from a visible human reaction, not just proximity. That kind of mechanism keeps the suspense focused on behavior, not brute force.
The production also leans on practical creature effects from Gorgazma, with filming done on location and at Reel Ghost Studios. For a short film, that choice usually means the scares have to work in-camera and in close quarters, which suits a 13-minute format better than effects that need long exposition or wide spectacle. Jake Lewis debuts the 13-minute short with a cast built for quick comic timing and creature-driven tension.
Remain Calm is already available online, so the immediate move for viewers is simple: watch the short and see whether the anxiety-triggered monster premise lands as sharply as its cast list suggests. If it does, Lewis has turned a Halloween-season release into something more efficient than a standard feature-length pitch — a brief test case for how far Shore and Swardson can carry a horror-comedy before the clock runs out.
