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

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Movie Review: Incredible Violence (2018)

G. Patrick Condon (Stephen Oates) is a frisky filmmaker who ended up blowing the 200k jackpot wad he scored from some shady AF “investors” that was supposed to be used to make a film… but sure as shit was fuckin’ not. Since he is a veritable font of right shit ideers, our main man G. Pat decides to go right ahead and make the film for zero dollars in a classic example of “Operation: Save Ass”. In short, he becomes the villain in his own fright flick and makes a found footage style fracas where the neophyte actors involved have no idea they are intended to die for real on the sinful silver screen. One lil’ problem; our “hero” truly sucks at murder, and soon some of the cast get wise to the goings-on and the fat of ol’ G. is well and truly in the fire. Incredible Violence works for a number of reasons. What, you were actually expecting

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DanXIII

Sep 28, 2019

IndieMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: Bliss (2019)

Dezzy (Dora Madison) is havin’ a bitch of a go what she is. Between painting and back due rent, D-dawg is not livin’ her best fucking life, that’s for sure… but she remains a hard mother fucker through it all. Hey, you know what may help with all that? Getting addicted to a mega-cocaine called Bliss offered to our heroine by her dealer Hadrian (Graham Skipper),which sends her into a spiral of lasciviousness that eventually puts her in the company of old scene friends that are of the fang bang way. This soon leads her into a sex-filled, blood-soaked pseudo-vampiric living nightmare… but hey, her painting skills improve, so win/win? I have to tell you lot, writer/director Joe Begos (The Mind’s Eye) goes balls deep into psychotronic insanity with Bliss. Everything from color choices to camera angles to score collide to make the viewer feel like they’ve embarked on one hell of a chemically-induced journey… and just when that settles

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DanXIII

Sep 27, 2019

HalloweenHoliday HorrorIndieMoviesNews

From The Director Of “The Purge” Comes ‘Trick’, A Real Halloween Treat

Just in time for Halloween, RLJE is giving horror fans a real treat, TRICK. From the director of My Bloody Valentine 3D, The Eye, and USA’s “The Purge” comes a tale of a killer seemingly back from the dead and on a mission to kill. TRICK features Omar Epps (“House,” “This Is Us” Season 4), Ellen Adair (“Homeland”, “The Sinner”), Kristina Reyes (“Blindspot”, “Shades of Blue”), Jamie Kennedy (Scream franchise), and Tom Atkins (Escape From New York, Halloween III: Season of the Witch). Todd Farmer (My Bloody Valentine, Jason X) co-wrote the film along with Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry). On Halloween night in 2015, Patrick “Trick” Weaver massacred his classmates at a costume party. After being arrested, he managed to escape police custody, but not before being shot five times by Detective Mike Denver (Epps). Everyone believes Trick must be dead, but when a masked killer reappears the following Halloween, and every Halloween after that, they realize the nightmare is

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 24, 2019

IndieMoviesNewsReviews

Movie Review: Isabelle (2019)

Director Robert Heydon’s horror-thriller Isabelle is set to be released later this month. Before its release, I had the opportunity to check it out. Here are my thoughts. Warning: Mild spoilers ahead! At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the lovely couple Larissa , who is very pregnant, and Matt (Amanda Crew and Adam Brody). One afternoon as she’s fetching the mail she crumbles to the ground in pain. It is then revealed that she lost her baby and she herself was dead for a few moments before being saved. As soon as the couple returns home Larissa is struck with depression and keeps hearing a baby crying. She notices that the next-door neighbor’s handicapped daughter watches her every move from an upstairs window. Things quickly snowball out of control from there into a supernatural battle for her life. Crew did a great job of emoting the pain and confusion Larissa must have been experiencing. However, Adam

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 24, 2019

IndieMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: In the Aftermath (1988)

A cathedral spaceship touches down on a ruined future Earth (in scenes lifted from the 1985 animated feature Angel’s Egg; a collaboration between director Mamoru Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano) as a young angel who has laid an egg is given a lecture from her bro… at least it all makes perfect, reasonable sense… Then we cut to some live-action antics as two gas-masked attired dudes wander a wasteland. They walk and talk (and talk), and occasionally get menaced… then a dude has visions of the animated fracas from the beginning (but there’s a live-action version of the lil’ angel)… The biggest hurdle with In the Aftermath is that the live-action stuff, while taking place in a suitably grim and industrial environment, can’t hold a candle to the beauty and weirdness of the jarringly out of place animated sequences (which the filmmaker’s try in vain to make fit into whatever narrative they have created). So the feature is somewhat interesting, if

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DanXIII

Sep 23, 2019

IndieMoviesNews

Three Actors Join The Cast Of Horror Western ‘Black Wood’

Three actors have joined the cast of writer-director Chris Canfield‘s (Hoax) horror western Black Wood, Glenn Morshower (The Resident, Bloodline), Stelio Savante (Runnin for Grace, The Cleaning Lady), and Bates Wilder (The Great War, American Woman). After her family was murdered, Dowanhowee, a Sioux woman, travels alone into the ever-expanding West. She stumbles upon a decrepit town and crosses paths with a notorious outlaw group known as the Dutch Wilder Group, the gang who murdered her family. She flees into the forest but is caught and forced to help them find a hidden vein of gold. Soon the group and Dowanhowee must work together in a fight for their lives when they awaken a Wendigo. Black Wood is set to begin filming later this month in South Dakota. It is produced by Eric Corneliuson and Ryan M. Hall.

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 23, 2019

IndieMoviesNewsTrailers

Movie Review: Itsy Bitsy (2019)

From director Micah Gallo comes the frightening flick Itsy Bitsy, a tale about a troubled family relocating to a new town following a terrible event only to find they must now face a new threat. You can’t help but feel sympathy for the family, a single mother (Elizabeth Roberts), her son (Armen Darbo), and her daughter (Chloe Perrin) who have moved to a new town so she can work as a home care nurse for an older man (Bruce Davison) who collects illegal artifacts. The mother is struggling. When you learn why your heart will break. She clearly has PTSD on top of a lot of guilt which causes her to push her children away, leaving her young son to take care of her daughter. The cinematography by Marcos Durian is absolutely fantastic. Itsy Bitsy gets something right that most horror films don’t, dark scenes. When a scene is set at night or in a dark room you are still

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 23, 2019

ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers

Sink Your Teeth Into ‘One Cut Of The Dead’ On Shudder

One of the most critically-acclaimed genre films of the past decade and a record-shattering blockbuster in its native Japan, One Cut of the Dead, is set to premiere on Shudder this week. Scoring a rare “100% Fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes, the film follows a movie crew “while shooting a low-budget zombie film in an abandoned warehouse, the crew find themselves caught between actual zombies and a mad director who won’t stop rolling. If you think you know what happens next, think again. Filmmaker Shinichiro Ueda turns the film on its head more than once for one of the wildest, funniest, and most surprising zombie movies of all time.” This hit film is written, directed, and edited by Shinichiro Ueda, and stars Takayuki Hamatsu, Mao, Harumi Shuhama, Yuzuki Akiyama, Kazuaki Nagaya, and Manabu Hosoi. During its lengthy festival run, One Cut of the Dead received numerous awards and accolades, including the Audience Award and Best Director at Fantastic Fest, Best

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 22, 2019

IndieMoviesNewsTrailers

‘My Soul To Keep’ Trailer Arrives Ahead Of October Release

The trailer for director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad‘s (Jinn) My Soul to Keep takes us on a dark journey into the life of a young boy who has become convinced that a dark entity lurks in his basement and it wants his soul. Co-written by Ahmad and Justin Hynous, this horror flick’s cast includes Remington Gielniak, Parker Smerek, Brandon Matthew Layne, and Arielle Olkhovsky. In this award-winning film, like many young children, Eli Braverman believes something evil lurks in his basement. One fateful night, Eli is left home alone to face his worst fear…and to find out if the horror is real, or all in his mind. My Soul to Keep opens in theaters and arrives on VOD, and On Demand on October 4th, from Octane.

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 22, 2019

IndieMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: A Bucket of Blood (1959): Olive Signature Edition

Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is a lowly busboy at a beatnik haven called The Yellow Door Cafe…the type of place that’s just lousy with sax solos, poetry, and artists (oh, and berets). Now our hero wants nothing more than to be just like the hep cats what populate that establishment mentioned up yonder, but his skill set is akin to that of an armless chimp rolling in Play-doh. But, as fate would have it after an incident involving a steak knife, a plaster wall, and a now ex-cat, ol’ Walter discovers he can create a celebrated work of art by simply slapping some clay over that dead feline. You can just guess what happens next; more accidents lead to more “sculptures” and even more accolades…but also rouses the suspicions of undercover detectives casing The Yellow Door (not to mention the Cafe’s owner who stumbles on Walter’s secret but balances his horror with the growing financial gain the morbid work generates).

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DanXIII

Sep 21, 2019

Indie

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