So, recently I ended up more bedridden than usual due to my ongoing back issues. (Herniated discs are just no fun some days.)

After playing pretty much all the games on my phone to help ignore the pain and to amuse myself, I saw a promo trailer on Instagram for a “vertical movie” (also known as a smartphone movie) – the newest format of film fun – and I got hooked.

Small studios create vertical movies for viewing in portrait mode on a phone, meaning they shoot the video taller rather than wide. This method aims at exploiting smartphones/mobile devices rather than PCs. The films fill the entire screen without the need to rotate the device.

Generally, each vertical film is less than 2 hours total, shot quickly in a few days with up-and-coming actors, and usually follows a soap opera-type script with lots of cliffhangers. (Think “billionaire flash marriage,” “surprise pregnancies,” or “revenge” scenarios, etc.)

The streaming service then breaks them down into approx. 1 minute segments or “episodes.” The first 10 episodes or so are generally free on most services. However, after that, each one ep costs “coins” to watch. You can earn coins by viewing X number of ads in a day or you can buy a weekly/monthly/annual “subscription.” However, a single movie can run up to 100 episodes!

As you can imagine, buying a la carte coins does get pretty costly. Instead, access subscriptions can cost from $7.99/week to $199/year or more depending on the streamer.

Unfortunately, not all of the vertical movie services that have suddenly popped up all over are upfront about their actual costs until after you pay. Case in point: the first one I tried almost put me off the genre completely. DreameShort caught my eye with one of their movie trailers . I watched the free eps, then watched ads to get coins to keep going. I could watch about 3-5 eps/day of that film that way. However, it was taking too long to earn enough to watch the whole thing, so I purchased a “subscription” for what said was a week’s access to all their movies.

What they didn’t tell me was I didn’t get access to each movie’s entire set of episodes. I’d paid for just access to all the movies on their site’s first 10 episodes each. I still had to buy “coins” to watch any more of each film. Definitely not what I thought I was getting for my money – I cancelled immediately.

Lesson learned: read reviews first… (Note: I don’t know if DreameShort’s still uses that business model. My advice: read the fine print for any you are thinking of using or ask them ahead of purchase.)

In the meantime, Instagram’s algorithm started feeding me more movie trailers. (Insidious little beasts.) I caught sight of one for a movie called “Falling For My Ex’s Mafia Dad” (yeah, yeah, I know) and got mesmerized by the cast. The lead actor is definitely must-see eye-candy, and his co-star is equally hypnotic – don’t judge me. LOL. So I checked the service’s ratings (ReelShort). Their track record looked good, so I paid for a week’s access. Luckily, this time, it was true. I found streaming service DramaBox was also good to their word about what you get with their subscriptions. Both let you cancel any time, then resubscribe later.

So I binge-watched a bunch while I waited for my back to behave again. BTW, many of the movie scripts are recycled over and over, with a different set of actors and a different title. (You’ll find both American and subtitled Asian casts to choose from.) At this point, I just look for my favorite actors/actresses rather than specific scripts as I know they’ll do an interesting job with the material, even though most of the writing is, admittedly, pretty cheesy sometimes. (Gotta love a little mindless fun every once in a while, eh?)

If you’re looking for a few guilty pleasures, here are a handful of my fave combos and productions so far, in no particular order: