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Indie

Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.

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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Burst City (1982)

The plot, as very, very loose as it is to Gakuryû Ishii’s (aka Sogo Ishii) Burst City goes kinda/sorta as follows: In a dystopian Japan, gangs of punk rockers put on large concerts (conveyed via music video style vignettes), fight each other for stage time, and form their own dominant, completely out-of-control culture. This of course goes over like a fart in church to the local gangsters who plan on making the city, or more properly the land it sits on, their own. Rioting, rock, racing, and hard fucking (it’s not an “R” word, but it’s in there) ensue! Oh, and before I forget there are also a draconian police force (the Battle Police), a work force comprised of violent heavily armored Road Warrior-style bastards (some mutated, all insane), and plenty of piss n’ puke! Unconcerned with traditional narrative structure, Ishii throws as much light, sound, movement and pure adrenaline on screen as humanly possible… and when the film does

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 1, 2020
Horror Fuel

Take Shelter! Arachnado Is Here!

Take shelter, a new terrifying storm is headed your way from director Dustin Ferguson (5G Zombies), Arachnado! “When a freak cyclone swamps Los Angeles, millions of poisonous spiders terrorize the city.” Mel Novak (Bruce Lee’s Game of Death), Deborah Dutch (Hard To Die), Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre), Mike Furgeson (Death Squad), and Shawn C. Phillips (Ghost Shark). Arachnado has now been unleashed. Check out the trailer.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 30, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Other Side of Madness (1971)

After a moody, dialog-free opening (a trend that will continue for much of the film’s runtime) that shows the Manson family planning the Tate-LaBianca Murders as ol’ Charlie observes, we shift our focus to some wild-ass hippie hootenanny taking place on the outskirts of the Spahn Ranch interspersed with scenes of the Family in court on trial for their murder biz! As the story unfolds we are introduced to the doomed starlet Sharon Tate (Debbie Duff), and before long we are balls-deep into the events of the night of August 9th and10th in all of their disturbing detail… all of which is presented in a fashion akin to a documentary, which makes the horror all the more impactful. Does this all sound a bit disjointed? Well it certainly is… but The Other Side of Madness has a shit-ton of energy and some truly arty-farty touches that makes the entire affair as hallucinogenic and fever-dream addled as the times would dictate!

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 29, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part 5

As you have seen in the first four parts of this series ((located here, here, here, and here) posted a few months back, Wild Eye Releasing love to set all manner of monsters and madness loose upon your arcane asses… and here are a few more examples to prove it! First up comes Amityville Toybox (2016) After a groovy flashback to ol’ murderous maniac Ronnie DeFeo offin’ his family back in 1974 we zoom ahead 40 years to attend a 50th birthday party for Mark (Mark Popejoy), with all of his family present. Speaking of the word present; one of the gifts our man M-dawg receives is one of those creepy-ass cymbal slappin’ monkeys with the perma shit-eatin’ grin… and guess where that terror toy came from? That’s right; the infamous addy our pre-credit killer called home! Before long mild-mannered Mark is actin’ the tyrant and guess who, or should my ass say “what” is to blame? It’s that fuckin’

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Watch The First Clip From The Supernatural Horror ‘The Initiation’

Naomi Grossman, who scored a Primetime Emmy nomination for her role on “American Horror Story: Freak Show” stars alongside Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior), Richard Tyson (Kindergarten Cop), and Mel Novak (Bruce Lee’s Game of Death) in The Initiation. In the supernatural thriller, Professor Daniel Kimmer (Jimmy Drain) of St. Elzears College, has come to terms that his marriage with his wife Jaime (Meggie Maddock) is ending. This, combined with the growing epidemic of a scandalous on campus “faculty to student relations” threatens to expose a love affair with his ex-student, the alluring Starr Bramlett (Lauren C. Mayhew). Daniel uncovers that Starr is a member of a secret society of witches dedicated to promote feminine freedom and remove restrictions that are put upon women via religion and society. Can Daniel save his marriage and career from this pending assault upon the college and his life? Or will a new angel of evil be born… Grossman plays the

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Check Out The First Teaser For ‘Distortion’ Starring Sadie Katz

We’ve got the first teaser trailer for the upcoming psychological horror-mystery Distortion. In Distortion, behind every truth, there is a lie, and every lie contains some truth. The film is a story of five women each hiding their cursed lives, behind a myriad of trickery and distortion. Distortion was written and directed by Rod Smith, the writer behind Mayday and Lockdown, both distributed by Lionsgate. The female-driven film, the first of a trilogy, stars Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6, House of Bad (pictured)), Helene Udy (The Dead Zone), Lainee Rhodes (Break of Dawn), Dawna Lee Heising (Bad President), and Tatiana Larrea (Sins of the Mother). “The story begins five years after Vincent, a psychopathic serial torturer and ritualistic killer, was presumed to have been murdered, but his body is never found. Dr. Epstein has invited four women, Vincent’s only living victims to the home where he once tortured and ritualistically sacrificed over 100 women to his God. Dr. Epstein convinces

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 26, 2020
Horror Fuel

A Group Of Teens Find Terror In The ‘Backwoods’ Trailer

This December, a terrifying legend turns out to be very real in director Thomas Smith’s Backwoods. In the film, “High school cheerleader Molly woke bound and gagged in the trunk of her boyfriend’s car. That was the high point of her night. After escaping and fleeing into the nearby forest, she comes face-to-face with the town urban legend: The Hangman, a deformed zealot said to lynch male trespassers and keep the women as “brides”. Now, Molly, along with her best friend and would-be rescuer Noah must work together to avoid becoming his latest victims.” Jeremy Sande, Tahj Vaughans, Isabella Alberti, Micahel Anthony Bagozzi, Erin Liley, and Scott Alan Warner star. Backwoods arrives on VOD on December 1, 2020, from Gravitas Ventures. Check out the trailer!

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 24, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Flay (2019)

Patricia (Peggy Schott) is one of those long sufferin’ artist types, but her problems are going to expand 666-fold as she acquires a cursed chain (which has been around since those days of covered wagons and rampant dysentery) which ends up resulting in a serious case of the deaths for anyone unlucky enough to come in possession of those loathsome links! Can Pat get her shit together and end the curse? Special effects wizard turned director Eric Pham and screenwriter Matthew Daley, aren’t exactly re-inventing the wicked wheel with Flay; this is your typical ancient curse causes mayhem in the modern day yarn at it’s heart… but goddamn do they manage to keep things fresh! To wit: the way the curse spreads here is rather inventive, as the links of the chain (which were given that ol’ wild whammy by an imprisoned Native American shaman) give anyone that touches them a permanent bad day, and since our heroine has utilized

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Enter ‘The Wicked Woods’ – Out Now On DVD And VOD

Enter The Wicked Woods – now out on DVD and VOD from Bayview Entertainment. A haunting, cryptic, ethereal mood piece that skillfully sustains an aura of dread and tension throughout. An unhappily married woman and her lover take a weekend retreat at a cabin in the woods to discuss their future. Soon, they find themselves besieged by forces outside the cabin, rushing past windows, making strange noises, appearing and then disappearing within the house; in the fog outside, they make themselves visible as a strange old man in trapper’s garb, a nude woman, and little children in cloaks. Only the sacrifice of one of them can save the other on a night when the portals of another dimension have opened to take their souls and punish them for their actions in life. Unconventional and enigmatic. In Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Lucio A. Rojas, The Wicked Woods (aka Perfidy) starring Catherine Mazoyer, Iñigo Urrutia, and Daniel Antivilo, the film

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Girl’ Starring Bella Thorne Is A Must See

Writer-director Chad Faust’s new thriller Girl is set to arrive later this month. Ahead of the release, I got my hands on a copy and I’d like to share my thoughts with you. Bella Thorne stars as a young woman seeking out the father that assaulted her mother when she was a kid. She’s learned that he’s threatening her mother and she’s begun a journey to put an end to it. But things may not be as they seem. When she arrives she discovers something disturbing and becomes the target of two brothers who desperately want the cash her father has hidden somewhere on his property. WARNING: mild spoilers ahead. Thorne’s character arrives on a bus in the backwater hell hole of a town where her father lives. The town is mostly shuttered. It’s the type of place where people are born into struggle and suffering and rarely are able to escape. A place where everyone is broken and the

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 16, 2020

More from Indie

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Burst City (1982)

The plot, as very, very loose as it is to Gakuryû Ishii’s (aka Sogo Ishii) Burst City goes kinda/sorta as follows: In a dystopian Japan, gangs of punk rockers put on large concerts (conveyed via music video style vignettes), fight each other for stage time, and form their own dominant, completely out-of-control culture. This of course goes over like a fart in church to the local gangsters who plan on making the city, or more properly the land it sits on, their own. Rioting, rock, racing, and hard fucking (it’s not an “R” word, but it’s in there) ensue! Oh, and before I forget there are also a draconian police force (the Battle Police), a work force comprised of violent heavily armored Road Warrior-style bastards (some mutated, all insane), and plenty of piss n’ puke! Unconcerned with traditional narrative structure, Ishii throws as much light, sound, movement and pure adrenaline on screen as humanly possible… and when the film does

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 1, 2020
Horror Fuel

Take Shelter! Arachnado Is Here!

Take shelter, a new terrifying storm is headed your way from director Dustin Ferguson (5G Zombies), Arachnado! “When a freak cyclone swamps Los Angeles, millions of poisonous spiders terrorize the city.” Mel Novak (Bruce Lee’s Game of Death), Deborah Dutch (Hard To Die), Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre), Mike Furgeson (Death Squad), and Shawn C. Phillips (Ghost Shark). Arachnado has now been unleashed. Check out the trailer.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 30, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Other Side of Madness (1971)

After a moody, dialog-free opening (a trend that will continue for much of the film’s runtime) that shows the Manson family planning the Tate-LaBianca Murders as ol’ Charlie observes, we shift our focus to some wild-ass hippie hootenanny taking place on the outskirts of the Spahn Ranch interspersed with scenes of the Family in court on trial for their murder biz! As the story unfolds we are introduced to the doomed starlet Sharon Tate (Debbie Duff), and before long we are balls-deep into the events of the night of August 9th and10th in all of their disturbing detail… all of which is presented in a fashion akin to a documentary, which makes the horror all the more impactful. Does this all sound a bit disjointed? Well it certainly is… but The Other Side of Madness has a shit-ton of energy and some truly arty-farty touches that makes the entire affair as hallucinogenic and fever-dream addled as the times would dictate!

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 29, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part 5

As you have seen in the first four parts of this series ((located here, here, here, and here) posted a few months back, Wild Eye Releasing love to set all manner of monsters and madness loose upon your arcane asses… and here are a few more examples to prove it! First up comes Amityville Toybox (2016) After a groovy flashback to ol’ murderous maniac Ronnie DeFeo offin’ his family back in 1974 we zoom ahead 40 years to attend a 50th birthday party for Mark (Mark Popejoy), with all of his family present. Speaking of the word present; one of the gifts our man M-dawg receives is one of those creepy-ass cymbal slappin’ monkeys with the perma shit-eatin’ grin… and guess where that terror toy came from? That’s right; the infamous addy our pre-credit killer called home! Before long mild-mannered Mark is actin’ the tyrant and guess who, or should my ass say “what” is to blame? It’s that fuckin’

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Watch The First Clip From The Supernatural Horror ‘The Initiation’

Naomi Grossman, who scored a Primetime Emmy nomination for her role on “American Horror Story: Freak Show” stars alongside Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior), Richard Tyson (Kindergarten Cop), and Mel Novak (Bruce Lee’s Game of Death) in The Initiation. In the supernatural thriller, Professor Daniel Kimmer (Jimmy Drain) of St. Elzears College, has come to terms that his marriage with his wife Jaime (Meggie Maddock) is ending. This, combined with the growing epidemic of a scandalous on campus “faculty to student relations” threatens to expose a love affair with his ex-student, the alluring Starr Bramlett (Lauren C. Mayhew). Daniel uncovers that Starr is a member of a secret society of witches dedicated to promote feminine freedom and remove restrictions that are put upon women via religion and society. Can Daniel save his marriage and career from this pending assault upon the college and his life? Or will a new angel of evil be born… Grossman plays the

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Check Out The First Teaser For ‘Distortion’ Starring Sadie Katz

We’ve got the first teaser trailer for the upcoming psychological horror-mystery Distortion. In Distortion, behind every truth, there is a lie, and every lie contains some truth. The film is a story of five women each hiding their cursed lives, behind a myriad of trickery and distortion. Distortion was written and directed by Rod Smith, the writer behind Mayday and Lockdown, both distributed by Lionsgate. The female-driven film, the first of a trilogy, stars Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6, House of Bad (pictured)), Helene Udy (The Dead Zone), Lainee Rhodes (Break of Dawn), Dawna Lee Heising (Bad President), and Tatiana Larrea (Sins of the Mother). “The story begins five years after Vincent, a psychopathic serial torturer and ritualistic killer, was presumed to have been murdered, but his body is never found. Dr. Epstein has invited four women, Vincent’s only living victims to the home where he once tortured and ritualistically sacrificed over 100 women to his God. Dr. Epstein convinces

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 26, 2020
Horror Fuel

A Group Of Teens Find Terror In The ‘Backwoods’ Trailer

This December, a terrifying legend turns out to be very real in director Thomas Smith’s Backwoods. In the film, “High school cheerleader Molly woke bound and gagged in the trunk of her boyfriend’s car. That was the high point of her night. After escaping and fleeing into the nearby forest, she comes face-to-face with the town urban legend: The Hangman, a deformed zealot said to lynch male trespassers and keep the women as “brides”. Now, Molly, along with her best friend and would-be rescuer Noah must work together to avoid becoming his latest victims.” Jeremy Sande, Tahj Vaughans, Isabella Alberti, Micahel Anthony Bagozzi, Erin Liley, and Scott Alan Warner star. Backwoods arrives on VOD on December 1, 2020, from Gravitas Ventures. Check out the trailer!

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 24, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Flay (2019)

Patricia (Peggy Schott) is one of those long sufferin’ artist types, but her problems are going to expand 666-fold as she acquires a cursed chain (which has been around since those days of covered wagons and rampant dysentery) which ends up resulting in a serious case of the deaths for anyone unlucky enough to come in possession of those loathsome links! Can Pat get her shit together and end the curse? Special effects wizard turned director Eric Pham and screenwriter Matthew Daley, aren’t exactly re-inventing the wicked wheel with Flay; this is your typical ancient curse causes mayhem in the modern day yarn at it’s heart… but goddamn do they manage to keep things fresh! To wit: the way the curse spreads here is rather inventive, as the links of the chain (which were given that ol’ wild whammy by an imprisoned Native American shaman) give anyone that touches them a permanent bad day, and since our heroine has utilized

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Enter ‘The Wicked Woods’ – Out Now On DVD And VOD

Enter The Wicked Woods – now out on DVD and VOD from Bayview Entertainment. A haunting, cryptic, ethereal mood piece that skillfully sustains an aura of dread and tension throughout. An unhappily married woman and her lover take a weekend retreat at a cabin in the woods to discuss their future. Soon, they find themselves besieged by forces outside the cabin, rushing past windows, making strange noises, appearing and then disappearing within the house; in the fog outside, they make themselves visible as a strange old man in trapper’s garb, a nude woman, and little children in cloaks. Only the sacrifice of one of them can save the other on a night when the portals of another dimension have opened to take their souls and punish them for their actions in life. Unconventional and enigmatic. In Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Lucio A. Rojas, The Wicked Woods (aka Perfidy) starring Catherine Mazoyer, Iñigo Urrutia, and Daniel Antivilo, the film

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Girl’ Starring Bella Thorne Is A Must See

Writer-director Chad Faust’s new thriller Girl is set to arrive later this month. Ahead of the release, I got my hands on a copy and I’d like to share my thoughts with you. Bella Thorne stars as a young woman seeking out the father that assaulted her mother when she was a kid. She’s learned that he’s threatening her mother and she’s begun a journey to put an end to it. But things may not be as they seem. When she arrives she discovers something disturbing and becomes the target of two brothers who desperately want the cash her father has hidden somewhere on his property. WARNING: mild spoilers ahead. Thorne’s character arrives on a bus in the backwater hell hole of a town where her father lives. The town is mostly shuttered. It’s the type of place where people are born into struggle and suffering and rarely are able to escape. A place where everyone is broken and the

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 16, 2020
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