CategoryIndie
Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.
2,257 stories
DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
British Faux-documentary filmmaker Carl Medland rocked my socks with his trio of funny n’ freaky supernatural investigations into a farm with some bad fuckin’ mojo in the appropriately named Paranormal Farm series (reviews of which can be read here, here, and here). Well, our haunt-seeking host is back with another journey into the bizarre with his latest offering, Paranormal Hollywood Haunting… Arriving in America, Carl sets out to explore the Hollywood mansion of film veteran Arthur Porter and author/health advocate Daniel P’Lopez; an abode nestled right smack in the legendary Hollywood hills. As Carl and his cameraman Mumtaz “Taz” Yildirimlar, begin their investigation, the expected ghostly goings-on begin, but there is a deeper, more personal side to the yarn at hand that soon rises to the surface… That’s the beautiful thing about Paranormal Hollywood Haunting; while treating us to another outré investigation we get a glimpse of a truly human experience. As the film carries on it’s exaggerated fictional preternatural
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
As a writer, you spend a lot of time in isolation, or attempt it, to write with the silent prayers to whatever divine being that’s out there listening, that you’ll be left the f-ck alone. Well, in Carlos Azuaga’s and Jandusoft’s Yellowcreek Stories-The Cabin Watcher, that’s not gonna happen! Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher follows a writer named Terry, who is staying at a remote cabin in the forest to work on his latest novel. Unfortunately, his calming night is interrupted by an escapee with a bloodlust that knows no end. Now, onto the game itself. The controls for Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher are minimal, which I’ll go into more towards the end. The game’s art is interesting, but I fear it may be AI assets; I can’t confirm as the game’s ending credits were sparse, leading to this concern. The game’s soundtrack fits the story as it screams 80s synth. Normally I don’t like games that lack voice-overs,
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesParanormalReviewsThriller
In a seaside 19th Century German Village, young Laurin’s (Dóra Szinetár) pappy, Arne (János Derzsi) is shipping out for another long sojourn at sea leaving our heroine with her mother, Flora (Brigitte Karner) and grandmother, Olga (Hédi Temessy). Meanwhile, a sinister cloaked figure stalks the fog-shrouded nights, putting a murder on the local child populace. One such murder is witnessed by Flora, and she ends up six feet under right quick! But has time passes, it becomes ever-more apparent that Laurin can seemingly receive visions from her mother from beyond the grave… visions of not only the face and corpse of her mother herself, but ominous portents such as a black dog and obsidian kite… but will she be able to identify the psycho terrorizing the village?!! Coming from Director Robert Sigl (who also co-wrote the picture along with Ádám Rozgonyi), Laurin is an atmospheric journey into a surreal, and at times sinister, world. While at it’s heart, the film
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
The Potter family; Harry (Larry Cohen regular Michael Moriarty, The Stuff) and Anne (former Charlie’s Angel Shelley Hack) along with their children Harry Jr. (Noah Hathaway, Battlestar Galactica, The Neverending Story) and Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck, the ‘80s V franchise) move into their new abode; an apartment building in San Francisco (though this was filmed in Italy… though we do get a fun matte painting of the Golden Gate bridge). As most apartment buildings in films are, this domicile is filled with crazy characters (besides Moriarty) such as Eunice St. Clair… a feisty elderly witch (the original Lost in Space’s June Lockhart… played in younger form by her daughter Anne… who was also in Battlestar Galactica) and her pet mushroom creature, a yuppie couple (real-life married duo Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live’s Brad Hall), a swinger (Sonny Bono of all people), a military/big game obsessed health nut (WKRP in Cincinnati’s Gary Sandy)… and an evil Troll named Torok
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You hate your job and just want to quit without consequences? That’s pretty much what The Green Light is all about. Touted as a psychological horror, you take on the role of Fred, a man who wants to be an artist but is stuck working a dead-end office job. The green light of a lighthouse calls to him to just walk away from his job and answer its call, along with the voice of a mysterious man on a radio. I should say right off the bat, The Green Light is a short game, less than half an hour long depending on how you play. It’s impressive that it was all done by one dev, waleedzo, but I feel that Take It! Studio let him down with the port to console. Right away, there are issues with the game’s volume; it’s way too damn loud! The only option to adjust the volume is the Master Volume, which makes Fred’s dialogue
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mad scientist-type Silas Purcell (David Weldon) spends all of his time playing with his beakers in the basement… so much so that his parents decide to send his ass on a li’l unscheduled vacay at a rural bed and breakfast run by a psychic hippie named Jade Moon (Mary Wascavage). Once there, Sinister Silas immediately trips and accidentally releases his latest concoction which spills on some mushrooms turning them into flesh eating, Silly String shootin’, monster fungi that can gain the abilities of anyone they consume! This becomes a serious pain in the ass to Moon and the rest of her guests… the likes of which include Pro-Wrestler Tony “Titus” Ignitus (Dave Bonavita), shady commercial real estate developer Jackson P. Jackson (Dave Wascavage… who also directed and co-wrote the picture along with the aforementioned Mary Wascavage… and while Mary’s on our minds, she sings an absolutely incredible theme song that has to be heard to be believed… I absolutely loved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
There is something seriously wrong with the followers of New Age religion Crystalnetics. For starters, the robed practitioners of said “religion” like nothing more than to chase chicks around their centrally located pyramid headquarters and then getting unreasonably stabby… there’s also a monster involved, but we’ll get to that later… Enter: room-renting, chain smoking, Gen X anthropology student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio), a gruff scholar with a deep interest in ancient supernatural rites and the ass of his landlady, Crystal (Wendi Winburn). Speaking of Crystal, with a name like that you just know she’s balls deep into that crazy cult and before long she’s introduced our hero to the benefits belief in Crystalnetics can bring… but will he see the truth of the cult and it’s star-born, demonic overlord! Coming from Writer/Director Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), The Screaming is an incredibly entertaining satire of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology biz. We get the genre author turned New Age Prophet, the
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNewsThriller
London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Psycho killin’ machine Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) springs himself from the Big House and sets off on a madcap murder spree. Along the way, Fran Tucker (Blue Thompson) witnesses Terrible Toby ventilate a dude’s skull on the open road and soon becomes Gilmore’s hostage. Hot on his heels is police chief Earl Dent (Italian peplum familiar face Richard Harrison), a lawman with a personal ax to grind with our footloose felon! Directed by Bret McCormick (Repligator), working from a script by Gary Kennamer (who we will get back to in a bit), Highway to Hell is down and dirty regional regional filmmaking that would be solid drive-in or Grindhouse material in days past, but in… well different “days past” it was one of many low budget flicks pumped out to video rental joints in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While the film certainly delivers some suspense and a bit o’ bloodshed… and a helicopter… the real stars are the Texas locales
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Peep this one cats n’ creeps… our heroine for Fathers, Natalie (Kaiti Wallen/Emilia Wallen in flashbacks) is found wandering ‘round the wicked woods with little memory of where she’s been since being snatched from outside her parent’s pad a decade and a half prior. With the dodgy details Natalie can provide we begin to learn, via that above mentioned flashback action, that she has been held by a man named Bobby (Harley Wallen, who also wrote and directed the picture at hand), who has convinced Nat that he is indeed her actual father and not ol’ Calvin (Jerry Hayes)… the dude she always believed to be her pappy… and worse than that, that he’s dispatched a squad of folks to steal her back! Can Natalie be able to discern what is truth and what is bullshit and get her life in order before something dire transpires? Wallen… Harley that is… weaves a complex and (obviously) non-linear narrative with Fathers. The
Continue reading →
More from Indie
DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
British Faux-documentary filmmaker Carl Medland rocked my socks with his trio of funny n’ freaky supernatural investigations into a farm with some bad fuckin’ mojo in the appropriately named Paranormal Farm series (reviews of which can be read here, here, and here). Well, our haunt-seeking host is back with another journey into the bizarre with his latest offering, Paranormal Hollywood Haunting… Arriving in America, Carl sets out to explore the Hollywood mansion of film veteran Arthur Porter and author/health advocate Daniel P’Lopez; an abode nestled right smack in the legendary Hollywood hills. As Carl and his cameraman Mumtaz “Taz” Yildirimlar, begin their investigation, the expected ghostly goings-on begin, but there is a deeper, more personal side to the yarn at hand that soon rises to the surface… That’s the beautiful thing about Paranormal Hollywood Haunting; while treating us to another outré investigation we get a glimpse of a truly human experience. As the film carries on it’s exaggerated fictional preternatural
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
As a writer, you spend a lot of time in isolation, or attempt it, to write with the silent prayers to whatever divine being that’s out there listening, that you’ll be left the f-ck alone. Well, in Carlos Azuaga’s and Jandusoft’s Yellowcreek Stories-The Cabin Watcher, that’s not gonna happen! Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher follows a writer named Terry, who is staying at a remote cabin in the forest to work on his latest novel. Unfortunately, his calming night is interrupted by an escapee with a bloodlust that knows no end. Now, onto the game itself. The controls for Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher are minimal, which I’ll go into more towards the end. The game’s art is interesting, but I fear it may be AI assets; I can’t confirm as the game’s ending credits were sparse, leading to this concern. The game’s soundtrack fits the story as it screams 80s synth. Normally I don’t like games that lack voice-overs,
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesParanormalReviewsThriller
In a seaside 19th Century German Village, young Laurin’s (Dóra Szinetár) pappy, Arne (János Derzsi) is shipping out for another long sojourn at sea leaving our heroine with her mother, Flora (Brigitte Karner) and grandmother, Olga (Hédi Temessy). Meanwhile, a sinister cloaked figure stalks the fog-shrouded nights, putting a murder on the local child populace. One such murder is witnessed by Flora, and she ends up six feet under right quick! But has time passes, it becomes ever-more apparent that Laurin can seemingly receive visions from her mother from beyond the grave… visions of not only the face and corpse of her mother herself, but ominous portents such as a black dog and obsidian kite… but will she be able to identify the psycho terrorizing the village?!! Coming from Director Robert Sigl (who also co-wrote the picture along with Ádám Rozgonyi), Laurin is an atmospheric journey into a surreal, and at times sinister, world. While at it’s heart, the film
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
The Potter family; Harry (Larry Cohen regular Michael Moriarty, The Stuff) and Anne (former Charlie’s Angel Shelley Hack) along with their children Harry Jr. (Noah Hathaway, Battlestar Galactica, The Neverending Story) and Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck, the ‘80s V franchise) move into their new abode; an apartment building in San Francisco (though this was filmed in Italy… though we do get a fun matte painting of the Golden Gate bridge). As most apartment buildings in films are, this domicile is filled with crazy characters (besides Moriarty) such as Eunice St. Clair… a feisty elderly witch (the original Lost in Space’s June Lockhart… played in younger form by her daughter Anne… who was also in Battlestar Galactica) and her pet mushroom creature, a yuppie couple (real-life married duo Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live’s Brad Hall), a swinger (Sonny Bono of all people), a military/big game obsessed health nut (WKRP in Cincinnati’s Gary Sandy)… and an evil Troll named Torok
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You hate your job and just want to quit without consequences? That’s pretty much what The Green Light is all about. Touted as a psychological horror, you take on the role of Fred, a man who wants to be an artist but is stuck working a dead-end office job. The green light of a lighthouse calls to him to just walk away from his job and answer its call, along with the voice of a mysterious man on a radio. I should say right off the bat, The Green Light is a short game, less than half an hour long depending on how you play. It’s impressive that it was all done by one dev, waleedzo, but I feel that Take It! Studio let him down with the port to console. Right away, there are issues with the game’s volume; it’s way too damn loud! The only option to adjust the volume is the Master Volume, which makes Fred’s dialogue
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mad scientist-type Silas Purcell (David Weldon) spends all of his time playing with his beakers in the basement… so much so that his parents decide to send his ass on a li’l unscheduled vacay at a rural bed and breakfast run by a psychic hippie named Jade Moon (Mary Wascavage). Once there, Sinister Silas immediately trips and accidentally releases his latest concoction which spills on some mushrooms turning them into flesh eating, Silly String shootin’, monster fungi that can gain the abilities of anyone they consume! This becomes a serious pain in the ass to Moon and the rest of her guests… the likes of which include Pro-Wrestler Tony “Titus” Ignitus (Dave Bonavita), shady commercial real estate developer Jackson P. Jackson (Dave Wascavage… who also directed and co-wrote the picture along with the aforementioned Mary Wascavage… and while Mary’s on our minds, she sings an absolutely incredible theme song that has to be heard to be believed… I absolutely loved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
There is something seriously wrong with the followers of New Age religion Crystalnetics. For starters, the robed practitioners of said “religion” like nothing more than to chase chicks around their centrally located pyramid headquarters and then getting unreasonably stabby… there’s also a monster involved, but we’ll get to that later… Enter: room-renting, chain smoking, Gen X anthropology student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio), a gruff scholar with a deep interest in ancient supernatural rites and the ass of his landlady, Crystal (Wendi Winburn). Speaking of Crystal, with a name like that you just know she’s balls deep into that crazy cult and before long she’s introduced our hero to the benefits belief in Crystalnetics can bring… but will he see the truth of the cult and it’s star-born, demonic overlord! Coming from Writer/Director Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), The Screaming is an incredibly entertaining satire of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology biz. We get the genre author turned New Age Prophet, the
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNewsThriller
London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Psycho killin’ machine Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) springs himself from the Big House and sets off on a madcap murder spree. Along the way, Fran Tucker (Blue Thompson) witnesses Terrible Toby ventilate a dude’s skull on the open road and soon becomes Gilmore’s hostage. Hot on his heels is police chief Earl Dent (Italian peplum familiar face Richard Harrison), a lawman with a personal ax to grind with our footloose felon! Directed by Bret McCormick (Repligator), working from a script by Gary Kennamer (who we will get back to in a bit), Highway to Hell is down and dirty regional regional filmmaking that would be solid drive-in or Grindhouse material in days past, but in… well different “days past” it was one of many low budget flicks pumped out to video rental joints in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While the film certainly delivers some suspense and a bit o’ bloodshed… and a helicopter… the real stars are the Texas locales
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Peep this one cats n’ creeps… our heroine for Fathers, Natalie (Kaiti Wallen/Emilia Wallen in flashbacks) is found wandering ‘round the wicked woods with little memory of where she’s been since being snatched from outside her parent’s pad a decade and a half prior. With the dodgy details Natalie can provide we begin to learn, via that above mentioned flashback action, that she has been held by a man named Bobby (Harley Wallen, who also wrote and directed the picture at hand), who has convinced Nat that he is indeed her actual father and not ol’ Calvin (Jerry Hayes)… the dude she always believed to be her pappy… and worse than that, that he’s dispatched a squad of folks to steal her back! Can Natalie be able to discern what is truth and what is bullshit and get her life in order before something dire transpires? Wallen… Harley that is… weaves a complex and (obviously) non-linear narrative with Fathers. The
Continue reading →
