CategoryIndie
Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.
2,258 stories
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
A woman with brain cancer (Margarethe von Stern…who also co-wrote the feature) enters a surreal version of the Egyptian underworld (this time comprised of bucolic fields, swamps, and gaudy rooms and industrial settings). She soon becomes obsessed with the mummification of deceased animals (at times overseen by a frog…could this be a manifestation of the fertility goddess Heqet? Not a stretch when you hear what happens to our terminal heroine next…) before being mummified herself by the god Anubis (this time represented by a man, naked from the waste down and adorned with a fetishistic mask that roughly resembles a canine countenance). Before long our protagonist encounters multiple versions of herself (or so they seem) as she attempts to reconcile her mortality and sense of self. The Day of the Purple Sun is more of an “experience” than a traditional motion picture. The film is comprised of aesthetics more than a standard narrative, and the end result challenges the viewer
Continue reading →
IndieTrailers
From writer-director Paul Chau comes Another Soul, the haunting tale of young girl who can not escape her nightmare. Starring Wyatt Kuether, Brianne Wigeland, Anthony Misiano, Tia Link, and Sarah Smithton, the film centers on Megan who “cannot stop the nightmares. Her parents, Rob and Susan, are at their wit’s end. When a couple from their small town in New York suggest Megan’s soul may be the target of a soul-hungry demon, the family find themselves in a battle for Megan’s life, and their own lives as well.” Another Soul opens in select theaters in LA and arrives on Digital HD on May 25, 2018, from Gravitas Ventures.
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IndieMovies
Ol’ Michael (Elliot James Langridge) really knows how to multi-task as he divides his time pretty damn equally between the unemployment office and the local watering hole. Enter Lee (Jessica Barden) into that pulse pounding scenario; a young waif of a woman who immediately takes up residence in Mike’s flat following which our heroes have a series of drunken misadventures before arriving at Lee’s Uncle Ian’s (William Ash) establishment wherein Lee gets a wad of cash and Mike eventually ends up getting a job manning the door of the “massage parlor” (after witnessing a customer expiring from a slashed throat). Our hero isn’t long on the job before he realizes the name of the game is a bit more than the normal rub and tug; rather these ladies and their boss are rather hungry…hungry for human flesh, and Mikey may be of the same ilk! Habit is a strange one my fiends. It operates under the same sort of rules
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
College student Ranae (Madeline Conway), a bit of a bundle of damaged goods thanks to her losing her grip a tad due to her mother’s recent demise…she also just happens to be the lucky babysitter that gets to watch the infant child of a family with a tragic past. As fate would have it, she soon begins to have fevered nightmares, seeing strange beings in the surrounding woods, receiving terrifying photos on her phone, and witnessing horrific visions of the child in her care meeting it’s grizzly demise…and even the presence of her friends who arrive on the scene to check up on her helps abate this psychotronic tomfoolery…in fact they soon fall victim to it as well! Can Ranae manage to face her own demons and whatever the hell is haunting that god damned house and survive the night? The Nursery is a bit of a surprise honestly; I was expecting some sort of half-assed budget Conjuring clone…but instead
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
A shark obsessed dude attempts to write a screenplay as a shark (I predict I’m going to be writing that word a lot in this review) doc plays on the boob tube. Before long a news bulletin interrupts the show warning of a plague of shower sharks…sharks that emerge from drains to menace the populace…and you can guess what happens next! Shower Sharks gives the viewer exactly what you would expect; an absurd and enjoyable bite sized bit of nonsense in the Troma style. Film maker (and lead actor)Noah “Shark” Robertson has a keen eye (two in fact) for delivering off-the-wall horror comedy, and you can tell he has a ton of passion and heart. As for any negatives to be found here (and this isn’t really a “bad” thing…more of an observation of something that stood out); I’m fairly certain that Robertson just filmed an actual EMT call guerrilla style for the film’s coda…this is some real Corman level
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Emma Rose (Jo Woodcock) is a young woman who finds herself in dire straights after becoming entwined in one of your huge financial cock-ups (of the nation wide variety) thanks to her boyfriend socking away millions in knicked pension funds. To escape that hot mess she blows like the wind to the bucolic English countryside where she accidentally discovers (as one does) that she has a real passion for killing wealthy landowners (who employ her for “casual work”). Enter Gabriel Lenard (Cosmo Jarvis), an investigator with synesthesia (you know, like he can see sounds and the like) hired by the British Crime Agency to track ol’ Emma down. Will Gabriel, who’s condition allows him to see things at crime scenes others can not, be able to find Emma and recover the loot? Monochrome is nothing else if but original. The inclusion of the synesthesia (though under used…see below) is a nice element not found in your normal serial killer yarns,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Abby (Jaimi Paige) and Sam (Toby Nichols), her teenaged Son, head out to the remote wilderness to scatter the remains of her husband with her best friend Jen (Alyshia Ochse) taggin’ along. Everything is pines n’ posies for our trio until a beardo-weirdo dubbed ‘The Hiker’ makes the scene and begins the ol’ stalk n’ slay business we laid down our shekels for after our heroes leave some wine bottles behind causing him to go rabid Woodsy. Desolation has some good things going for it. For starters, the tension remains razor sharp throughout much of the run time once The Hiker shows up…which of course is a major plus for a fright flick. Speaking of the H-man; I dug his silent routine…he never utters a word, lurks menacingly, and besides those aforementioned wine bottles, he has el zippo for motivation…he’s just there, ready to kill, and our protagonists are merely in the wrong neck of the woods at the wrong
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Reptilian aliens arrive on Earth to retrieve a big ass laser gun from some sort of mutated teenager whom they quickly dispatch…but, a small plane scares them away before they can pick up the gun. Enter custom van drivin’ Mark Hamill surrogate Billy (Kim Milford), a down on his luck teen constantly left to fend for himself by his over-sexed Mother and hounded by some wacky cops (who complete with their own ragtime piano theme). Billy naturally finds the weapon mentioned previous, and begins to fuse with it courtesy of it’s funky fresh control medallion…slowly becoming a mutant himself. Soon a governmental agent, teen partying, vehicular scene padding, and “pew pew” lasers combine to form one hell of an entertaining sci-fi drive-In flick experience! Look, I’ll lay it out for ya; I’ve loved the hell out of Laserblast ever since I saw it on some regional sci-fi picture show or another in the late ’80’s. It’s chock full of hand
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
It’s just another night on the job for hapless UBER (or it’s rip-off cinematic equivalent) driver Brandon (Writer/Director Aaron Jay Rome) when he picks up his latest fare, Judd (Eric LeBlanc)…a charming professional photographer with nowhere in particular to go who explains that he is going through a messy break-up with his girlfriend after she discovered a dating app on his phone. Brandon and Judd become fast friends, and our hero agrees to help Judd fix his broken relationship. Of course if that were all there was to tell with this tale I wouldn’t be talking about it here at Horror Fuel now would I?!! Suffice it to say, there are shocking truths to be learned, and once they are found out, some serious shit will hit the fan! (and yes, I will sacrifice a decent synopsis to keep a great film’s surprises intact for you my faithful fiends!) End Trip is, simply put, one hell of a fantastic fright
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
A mysterious monster movie hostess (Erin Brown; Misty Mundae herself!) begins broadcasting her haunted Halloween hootenanny from within an abandoned studio owned by a doomed rural television station. As the night progresses we are treated to a cadre of creepy cool tales each inexplicably starring a different, and suddenly missing, member of the station’s staff! First up we get the ’80’s set creature feature Jersey Devil which concerns the misadventures of pre-teen Emma and the battered waitress that showed up on her doorstep going head to head with the legendary cryptid of the Pine Barrens. The comedic interplay between Avri Bartolozzi as Emma, and Davi Crimmins as the beleaguered waitress Dani is absolutely fantastic, the story is high on camp, and the creature suit is Grade-A fuckin’ badass…this is a solid gold winner in my beastly book (and if your listening, how about turning this one into a feature)! Next up is Creepy Dolls, in which a trio investigates an
Continue reading →
More from Indie
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
A woman with brain cancer (Margarethe von Stern…who also co-wrote the feature) enters a surreal version of the Egyptian underworld (this time comprised of bucolic fields, swamps, and gaudy rooms and industrial settings). She soon becomes obsessed with the mummification of deceased animals (at times overseen by a frog…could this be a manifestation of the fertility goddess Heqet? Not a stretch when you hear what happens to our terminal heroine next…) before being mummified herself by the god Anubis (this time represented by a man, naked from the waste down and adorned with a fetishistic mask that roughly resembles a canine countenance). Before long our protagonist encounters multiple versions of herself (or so they seem) as she attempts to reconcile her mortality and sense of self. The Day of the Purple Sun is more of an “experience” than a traditional motion picture. The film is comprised of aesthetics more than a standard narrative, and the end result challenges the viewer
Continue reading →
IndieTrailers
From writer-director Paul Chau comes Another Soul, the haunting tale of young girl who can not escape her nightmare. Starring Wyatt Kuether, Brianne Wigeland, Anthony Misiano, Tia Link, and Sarah Smithton, the film centers on Megan who “cannot stop the nightmares. Her parents, Rob and Susan, are at their wit’s end. When a couple from their small town in New York suggest Megan’s soul may be the target of a soul-hungry demon, the family find themselves in a battle for Megan’s life, and their own lives as well.” Another Soul opens in select theaters in LA and arrives on Digital HD on May 25, 2018, from Gravitas Ventures.
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Ol’ Michael (Elliot James Langridge) really knows how to multi-task as he divides his time pretty damn equally between the unemployment office and the local watering hole. Enter Lee (Jessica Barden) into that pulse pounding scenario; a young waif of a woman who immediately takes up residence in Mike’s flat following which our heroes have a series of drunken misadventures before arriving at Lee’s Uncle Ian’s (William Ash) establishment wherein Lee gets a wad of cash and Mike eventually ends up getting a job manning the door of the “massage parlor” (after witnessing a customer expiring from a slashed throat). Our hero isn’t long on the job before he realizes the name of the game is a bit more than the normal rub and tug; rather these ladies and their boss are rather hungry…hungry for human flesh, and Mikey may be of the same ilk! Habit is a strange one my fiends. It operates under the same sort of rules
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
College student Ranae (Madeline Conway), a bit of a bundle of damaged goods thanks to her losing her grip a tad due to her mother’s recent demise…she also just happens to be the lucky babysitter that gets to watch the infant child of a family with a tragic past. As fate would have it, she soon begins to have fevered nightmares, seeing strange beings in the surrounding woods, receiving terrifying photos on her phone, and witnessing horrific visions of the child in her care meeting it’s grizzly demise…and even the presence of her friends who arrive on the scene to check up on her helps abate this psychotronic tomfoolery…in fact they soon fall victim to it as well! Can Ranae manage to face her own demons and whatever the hell is haunting that god damned house and survive the night? The Nursery is a bit of a surprise honestly; I was expecting some sort of half-assed budget Conjuring clone…but instead
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
A shark obsessed dude attempts to write a screenplay as a shark (I predict I’m going to be writing that word a lot in this review) doc plays on the boob tube. Before long a news bulletin interrupts the show warning of a plague of shower sharks…sharks that emerge from drains to menace the populace…and you can guess what happens next! Shower Sharks gives the viewer exactly what you would expect; an absurd and enjoyable bite sized bit of nonsense in the Troma style. Film maker (and lead actor)Noah “Shark” Robertson has a keen eye (two in fact) for delivering off-the-wall horror comedy, and you can tell he has a ton of passion and heart. As for any negatives to be found here (and this isn’t really a “bad” thing…more of an observation of something that stood out); I’m fairly certain that Robertson just filmed an actual EMT call guerrilla style for the film’s coda…this is some real Corman level
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Emma Rose (Jo Woodcock) is a young woman who finds herself in dire straights after becoming entwined in one of your huge financial cock-ups (of the nation wide variety) thanks to her boyfriend socking away millions in knicked pension funds. To escape that hot mess she blows like the wind to the bucolic English countryside where she accidentally discovers (as one does) that she has a real passion for killing wealthy landowners (who employ her for “casual work”). Enter Gabriel Lenard (Cosmo Jarvis), an investigator with synesthesia (you know, like he can see sounds and the like) hired by the British Crime Agency to track ol’ Emma down. Will Gabriel, who’s condition allows him to see things at crime scenes others can not, be able to find Emma and recover the loot? Monochrome is nothing else if but original. The inclusion of the synesthesia (though under used…see below) is a nice element not found in your normal serial killer yarns,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Abby (Jaimi Paige) and Sam (Toby Nichols), her teenaged Son, head out to the remote wilderness to scatter the remains of her husband with her best friend Jen (Alyshia Ochse) taggin’ along. Everything is pines n’ posies for our trio until a beardo-weirdo dubbed ‘The Hiker’ makes the scene and begins the ol’ stalk n’ slay business we laid down our shekels for after our heroes leave some wine bottles behind causing him to go rabid Woodsy. Desolation has some good things going for it. For starters, the tension remains razor sharp throughout much of the run time once The Hiker shows up…which of course is a major plus for a fright flick. Speaking of the H-man; I dug his silent routine…he never utters a word, lurks menacingly, and besides those aforementioned wine bottles, he has el zippo for motivation…he’s just there, ready to kill, and our protagonists are merely in the wrong neck of the woods at the wrong
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Reptilian aliens arrive on Earth to retrieve a big ass laser gun from some sort of mutated teenager whom they quickly dispatch…but, a small plane scares them away before they can pick up the gun. Enter custom van drivin’ Mark Hamill surrogate Billy (Kim Milford), a down on his luck teen constantly left to fend for himself by his over-sexed Mother and hounded by some wacky cops (who complete with their own ragtime piano theme). Billy naturally finds the weapon mentioned previous, and begins to fuse with it courtesy of it’s funky fresh control medallion…slowly becoming a mutant himself. Soon a governmental agent, teen partying, vehicular scene padding, and “pew pew” lasers combine to form one hell of an entertaining sci-fi drive-In flick experience! Look, I’ll lay it out for ya; I’ve loved the hell out of Laserblast ever since I saw it on some regional sci-fi picture show or another in the late ’80’s. It’s chock full of hand
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
It’s just another night on the job for hapless UBER (or it’s rip-off cinematic equivalent) driver Brandon (Writer/Director Aaron Jay Rome) when he picks up his latest fare, Judd (Eric LeBlanc)…a charming professional photographer with nowhere in particular to go who explains that he is going through a messy break-up with his girlfriend after she discovered a dating app on his phone. Brandon and Judd become fast friends, and our hero agrees to help Judd fix his broken relationship. Of course if that were all there was to tell with this tale I wouldn’t be talking about it here at Horror Fuel now would I?!! Suffice it to say, there are shocking truths to be learned, and once they are found out, some serious shit will hit the fan! (and yes, I will sacrifice a decent synopsis to keep a great film’s surprises intact for you my faithful fiends!) End Trip is, simply put, one hell of a fantastic fright
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
A mysterious monster movie hostess (Erin Brown; Misty Mundae herself!) begins broadcasting her haunted Halloween hootenanny from within an abandoned studio owned by a doomed rural television station. As the night progresses we are treated to a cadre of creepy cool tales each inexplicably starring a different, and suddenly missing, member of the station’s staff! First up we get the ’80’s set creature feature Jersey Devil which concerns the misadventures of pre-teen Emma and the battered waitress that showed up on her doorstep going head to head with the legendary cryptid of the Pine Barrens. The comedic interplay between Avri Bartolozzi as Emma, and Davi Crimmins as the beleaguered waitress Dani is absolutely fantastic, the story is high on camp, and the creature suit is Grade-A fuckin’ badass…this is a solid gold winner in my beastly book (and if your listening, how about turning this one into a feature)! Next up is Creepy Dolls, in which a trio investigates an
Continue reading →
