CategoryIndie
Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.
2,258 stories
IndieMovies
Two scientists work in a run down facility performing bizarre experiments that result in half human/half marine life hybrids…all in the name of discovering the secrets of immortality. Into that strangeness step two graffiti artists hoping to make an artistic statement (based on ghosts…). Before long a Sea-god is walking the Earth, wine and cheese is consumed, and our heroes engage in the fight of their lives…while still managing to make art! Soft Matter is absolutely batshit insane…in the best possible way a film can be! The whole affair is an unholy amalgamation of Lovecraft, Henenlotter, and the squirrely aesthetics of the shot on video craziness from the late ’80’s (though not featuring their technical ineptitude). There’s the wrong side of the tracks lovable protagonists (played perfectly by Devyn Placide and Ruby Lee Dove II), mad science, monsters, dance numbers, a charming animated sequence featuring a story about a dead turtle, a low-tech puppet show flashback, undead scientists re-animated to
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IndieMoviesParanormal
Crazed scientist Dr. Anton Lupesky has for some baffling reason created a drug that frees the soul from the body and lets it inhabit any given corpse, as long as it possess eyes. That sounds pleasant…but wait, it get’s worse. You see the drug also gives the user hellacious hallucinations and drives them batshit bonkers. While that bit of biz is going on, an intrepid reporter is hot on the Dr.’s heels as she feels he may have had something to do with the death of her father…but mostly she smokes a lot and randomly bangs on typewriter keys. Along the way we thrill to people wanting to rent videotapes, random serial killers, Lovecraftian pseudo-science, buckets and buckets of blood and gruesome gore, a jingle-jangle soundtrack, a zombie that appears to be practicing for the Cunnilingus Olympics, and most importantly rampaging Long Island accents! As baffling as it is brilliant, Soultangler is a film you just have to experience…preferably under
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Housesitters Angie and Izzy land a cushy lil’ job…house sitting (go figure). They spend their time at “work” smoking drugs, watching porn, and generally assing around. Of course the owner of the abode has been up to Satan knows what and unleashed a pint-sized demonic nightmare that begins stalking and slaying with wild abandon. Can our heroines pull their heads out of their asses long enough to put an end to the preternatural menace? Kicking things off, Annie Watkins and Jamie Jirak as Angie and Izzy respectively, are charming leads, and it’s generally a fun time watching them. Also of note is the low-rent puppet used for the creature…I absolutely loved his design, all teeth and ill intention, and I’m glad film maker Jason Coffman went this route as it echoed 80’s flicks like Ghoulies and Hobgoblins…films which obviously inspired Housesitters. For the negatives, let’s start with the acting. The first you thing you’ll notice is that this thing is
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IndieTrailers
Joseph Martin’s socially conscious festival hit Us and Them takes aim directly at the rich. The film centers on a working-class young man (Jack Roth) who aims at kicking-off a revolution by turning the tables on the establishment. He hopes to spark a change between the classes by striking fear into the hearts of the one percent by streaming attacks on those more well-off than himself. When he kidnaps a banker and his family and forces them to gamble with their lives the situation quickly spirals out of control. Sophie Colquhoun, Tim Bentinck, Andrew Tieran, Carolyn Backhouse, Paul Westwood, Daniel Kendrick, and Louis Dempsey also star. Us and Them is now out on Digital and On Demand.
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IndieMovies
I can’t even to begin to fathom the fact that some of you fine fiends haven’t seen Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but just in case here’s a quick sinister synopsis: When a big top from beyond the stars lands on Earth and dispenses monstrous alien clowns, it’s up to a gaggle of college kids to try and save the day by facing off against the bizarre creatures and their even more bizarre weapons (cotton candy guns, man eating shadow puppets, killer popcorn et. al.) Can our heroes survive the night and send those ha-ha horrors packing? Surreal, hilarious, filled to the rafters with over-the-top practical effects goodness; Killer Klowns is considered a classic (klassic?) by many, and considered a masterpiece by your’s cruelly. Besides an overwhelming sense of fun and frights, the main takeaway from ol’ double K is that low budget horror pics can be imaginative and unique on a shoestring budget…a lesson today’s slasher and haunting obsessed
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormal
Stop me if you’ve heard this one; a young family gets a great deal on a beautiful home due in no small fact that the previous owner murdered his family in cold blood after being acted upon by some sort of demonic force…and wouldn’t you know it, the new patriarch starts hearing the same voices and begins thinking his family would look better inside an oblong box. That’s House on Elm Lake in a nutshell…it’s also The Amityville Horror, so you’ve definitely seen what this film has to offer…so why should you give it your time and/or money? You shouldn’t. It’s boring, tedious, filled with sub-par acting and dodgy effects, and it’s idea of scaring the audience is to amp up the volume of the soundtrack, or have a character scream. But, I’m not the type of guy to not have something positive to say about the film, so here goes; thank the powers that be that this film runs
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Travel back…way back to the far flung past of 1992; there were no smartphones, no widespread internet usage…but what we did have was the ability to go to an ass cold warehouse dressed like a god damned idiot, gobble down some drugs, and dance to a bunch of whompa whompa garbage. In Rave Party Massacre, a squabbling couple enter into a scenario exactly like the one mentioned above…in a sequence that runs a staggering seventeen minutes (bear in mind that this film runs an hour and sixteen minutes including credits)…that’s seventeen long, tedious minutes of dancing (punctuated by some dry humping and puking ‘natch). The couple (and a handful of other folks) awaken after the rave to find themselves hunted by a masked killer. And that’s about all she wrote plot wise (there is some “New world Order” malarkey bandied about too…which does add a bit of uniqueness to the affair, but basically that’s the long and short of it).
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IndieMovies
Poor Frank (Marshall Cook), all he wanted to do is get away from everyone and everything and begin an exciting new life freezing his ever-loving balls off in the cool, cool Michigan wilderness (in the dead of winter no less). Seems simple enough, except some first rate a-hole decides to dump a body practically in the backyard of his new home. Upon dragging the tarp wrapped corpse home, Frank discovers that there is still life left in the ol’ girl, Maggie (Keyna Reynolds) by name, after all…well barely, and decides to find out who the man is that left her for dead and why. The two finally meet at a bar, and Frank invites the man, whom he discovers is named Lance (Joe Raffa), to hunt on his land. What follows is one of the most tense series of events I’ve ever set my eerie eyeballs upon! Nearly devoid of dialog, featuring a cool, de-saturated color pallet, and relying on
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormal
On the skids psychologist James Fonda (Richard Neil…who we recently interviewed right here) is called in to one of your garden variety top secret government facilities by an old classmate named Olivia (Jolene Andersen) to assist in examining Ellie (Savannah Liles) a whip smart telekinetic girl. Of course those that run the facility want to carve Ellie up like a Christmas goose to see what makes her so damn special. Making excellent use of a small cast and only a handful of locations (4 by my count, with interiors used to clinical and claustrophobic perfection), Prodigy is an impressive low budget sci-fi thriller. Neil and Liles deliver strong performances, their relationship grows believably, and the plight of young Ellie is an engaging one (if a bit derivative of King’s Firestarter here and there…minus the fire of course), and contains both strong emotional content, well-done visual effects to illustrate our young protagonists psychic powers,and a mounting tension as her fate looks
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsIndieTrailers
APS Films has announced the next screening of Zack Wilcox’s Hunting Lands at the 19th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival that runs from April 30, 2018, to May 3rd. Set and shot in the backdrop of a Midwestern winter, the film centers a group of young actors on a collision course with each other and destiny. Following the world premiere at this year’s Cinequest VR & Film Festival, Hunting Lands won Best Screenplay and Best Picture at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema and screened at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. Marshall Cook (Division III: Football’s Finest), Joe Raffa (You’ll Know My Name) and Keyna Reynolds (Moving Parts) star. Zack Wilcox directed from a script he penned alongside cinematographer and executive producer Edwin Stevens (HBO’s “The Defiant Ones”). In the film, “Reclusive veteran Frank Olsen yearns to escape from the complexities of the modern world. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, the world comes looking for him. When he discovers a discarded, beaten
Continue reading →
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IndieMovies
Two scientists work in a run down facility performing bizarre experiments that result in half human/half marine life hybrids…all in the name of discovering the secrets of immortality. Into that strangeness step two graffiti artists hoping to make an artistic statement (based on ghosts…). Before long a Sea-god is walking the Earth, wine and cheese is consumed, and our heroes engage in the fight of their lives…while still managing to make art! Soft Matter is absolutely batshit insane…in the best possible way a film can be! The whole affair is an unholy amalgamation of Lovecraft, Henenlotter, and the squirrely aesthetics of the shot on video craziness from the late ’80’s (though not featuring their technical ineptitude). There’s the wrong side of the tracks lovable protagonists (played perfectly by Devyn Placide and Ruby Lee Dove II), mad science, monsters, dance numbers, a charming animated sequence featuring a story about a dead turtle, a low-tech puppet show flashback, undead scientists re-animated to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormal
Crazed scientist Dr. Anton Lupesky has for some baffling reason created a drug that frees the soul from the body and lets it inhabit any given corpse, as long as it possess eyes. That sounds pleasant…but wait, it get’s worse. You see the drug also gives the user hellacious hallucinations and drives them batshit bonkers. While that bit of biz is going on, an intrepid reporter is hot on the Dr.’s heels as she feels he may have had something to do with the death of her father…but mostly she smokes a lot and randomly bangs on typewriter keys. Along the way we thrill to people wanting to rent videotapes, random serial killers, Lovecraftian pseudo-science, buckets and buckets of blood and gruesome gore, a jingle-jangle soundtrack, a zombie that appears to be practicing for the Cunnilingus Olympics, and most importantly rampaging Long Island accents! As baffling as it is brilliant, Soultangler is a film you just have to experience…preferably under
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Housesitters Angie and Izzy land a cushy lil’ job…house sitting (go figure). They spend their time at “work” smoking drugs, watching porn, and generally assing around. Of course the owner of the abode has been up to Satan knows what and unleashed a pint-sized demonic nightmare that begins stalking and slaying with wild abandon. Can our heroines pull their heads out of their asses long enough to put an end to the preternatural menace? Kicking things off, Annie Watkins and Jamie Jirak as Angie and Izzy respectively, are charming leads, and it’s generally a fun time watching them. Also of note is the low-rent puppet used for the creature…I absolutely loved his design, all teeth and ill intention, and I’m glad film maker Jason Coffman went this route as it echoed 80’s flicks like Ghoulies and Hobgoblins…films which obviously inspired Housesitters. For the negatives, let’s start with the acting. The first you thing you’ll notice is that this thing is
Continue reading →
IndieTrailers
Joseph Martin’s socially conscious festival hit Us and Them takes aim directly at the rich. The film centers on a working-class young man (Jack Roth) who aims at kicking-off a revolution by turning the tables on the establishment. He hopes to spark a change between the classes by striking fear into the hearts of the one percent by streaming attacks on those more well-off than himself. When he kidnaps a banker and his family and forces them to gamble with their lives the situation quickly spirals out of control. Sophie Colquhoun, Tim Bentinck, Andrew Tieran, Carolyn Backhouse, Paul Westwood, Daniel Kendrick, and Louis Dempsey also star. Us and Them is now out on Digital and On Demand.
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
I can’t even to begin to fathom the fact that some of you fine fiends haven’t seen Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but just in case here’s a quick sinister synopsis: When a big top from beyond the stars lands on Earth and dispenses monstrous alien clowns, it’s up to a gaggle of college kids to try and save the day by facing off against the bizarre creatures and their even more bizarre weapons (cotton candy guns, man eating shadow puppets, killer popcorn et. al.) Can our heroes survive the night and send those ha-ha horrors packing? Surreal, hilarious, filled to the rafters with over-the-top practical effects goodness; Killer Klowns is considered a classic (klassic?) by many, and considered a masterpiece by your’s cruelly. Besides an overwhelming sense of fun and frights, the main takeaway from ol’ double K is that low budget horror pics can be imaginative and unique on a shoestring budget…a lesson today’s slasher and haunting obsessed
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormal
Stop me if you’ve heard this one; a young family gets a great deal on a beautiful home due in no small fact that the previous owner murdered his family in cold blood after being acted upon by some sort of demonic force…and wouldn’t you know it, the new patriarch starts hearing the same voices and begins thinking his family would look better inside an oblong box. That’s House on Elm Lake in a nutshell…it’s also The Amityville Horror, so you’ve definitely seen what this film has to offer…so why should you give it your time and/or money? You shouldn’t. It’s boring, tedious, filled with sub-par acting and dodgy effects, and it’s idea of scaring the audience is to amp up the volume of the soundtrack, or have a character scream. But, I’m not the type of guy to not have something positive to say about the film, so here goes; thank the powers that be that this film runs
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Travel back…way back to the far flung past of 1992; there were no smartphones, no widespread internet usage…but what we did have was the ability to go to an ass cold warehouse dressed like a god damned idiot, gobble down some drugs, and dance to a bunch of whompa whompa garbage. In Rave Party Massacre, a squabbling couple enter into a scenario exactly like the one mentioned above…in a sequence that runs a staggering seventeen minutes (bear in mind that this film runs an hour and sixteen minutes including credits)…that’s seventeen long, tedious minutes of dancing (punctuated by some dry humping and puking ‘natch). The couple (and a handful of other folks) awaken after the rave to find themselves hunted by a masked killer. And that’s about all she wrote plot wise (there is some “New world Order” malarkey bandied about too…which does add a bit of uniqueness to the affair, but basically that’s the long and short of it).
Continue reading →
IndieMovies
Poor Frank (Marshall Cook), all he wanted to do is get away from everyone and everything and begin an exciting new life freezing his ever-loving balls off in the cool, cool Michigan wilderness (in the dead of winter no less). Seems simple enough, except some first rate a-hole decides to dump a body practically in the backyard of his new home. Upon dragging the tarp wrapped corpse home, Frank discovers that there is still life left in the ol’ girl, Maggie (Keyna Reynolds) by name, after all…well barely, and decides to find out who the man is that left her for dead and why. The two finally meet at a bar, and Frank invites the man, whom he discovers is named Lance (Joe Raffa), to hunt on his land. What follows is one of the most tense series of events I’ve ever set my eerie eyeballs upon! Nearly devoid of dialog, featuring a cool, de-saturated color pallet, and relying on
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormal
On the skids psychologist James Fonda (Richard Neil…who we recently interviewed right here) is called in to one of your garden variety top secret government facilities by an old classmate named Olivia (Jolene Andersen) to assist in examining Ellie (Savannah Liles) a whip smart telekinetic girl. Of course those that run the facility want to carve Ellie up like a Christmas goose to see what makes her so damn special. Making excellent use of a small cast and only a handful of locations (4 by my count, with interiors used to clinical and claustrophobic perfection), Prodigy is an impressive low budget sci-fi thriller. Neil and Liles deliver strong performances, their relationship grows believably, and the plight of young Ellie is an engaging one (if a bit derivative of King’s Firestarter here and there…minus the fire of course), and contains both strong emotional content, well-done visual effects to illustrate our young protagonists psychic powers,and a mounting tension as her fate looks
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsIndieTrailers
APS Films has announced the next screening of Zack Wilcox’s Hunting Lands at the 19th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival that runs from April 30, 2018, to May 3rd. Set and shot in the backdrop of a Midwestern winter, the film centers a group of young actors on a collision course with each other and destiny. Following the world premiere at this year’s Cinequest VR & Film Festival, Hunting Lands won Best Screenplay and Best Picture at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema and screened at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. Marshall Cook (Division III: Football’s Finest), Joe Raffa (You’ll Know My Name) and Keyna Reynolds (Moving Parts) star. Zack Wilcox directed from a script he penned alongside cinematographer and executive producer Edwin Stevens (HBO’s “The Defiant Ones”). In the film, “Reclusive veteran Frank Olsen yearns to escape from the complexities of the modern world. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, the world comes looking for him. When he discovers a discarded, beaten
Continue reading →
