CategoryIndie
Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.
2,258 stories
IndieMoviesReviews
’80s hair metal band Sonic Grave are trying to get back in the game in the current age , and they are on the road to a hip music festival where they hope to attract new fans at the behest of their manager Danny (Tom Arnold). Along the way, bassist Art (Sean Astin) makes a pit stop for some legendary power-packed peyote… a drug that comes with a curse attached; if anything on the sacred land is harmed while on the drug a horrible fate will befall those responsible. I forgot to mention; Art isn’t the brightest dude out there, and neither are his band mates Merrick (Jake Busey), Stevie (Leisha Hailey), and Pager (Rhys Coiro) for that matter, and soon a talking ant is pissed on and a deadly evil is released which results in our heroes getting their creature-feature cherries popped by Hymenoptera from hell! Holy fuckin’ cats, Dead Ant is a rollickin’ good time in our beloved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsTrailers
Horror fans are raving about the new film Ashes, calling it “gruesome” and “inventive,” a “must-see” for genre fans. In the film, when an estranged aunt passes away, a family is creeped out to receive her ashes. And when supernatural misfortunes begin to best them, they quickly discover they have to go through hell to rid of her angry spirit. From writer-director Barry Jay, the filmmaker behind The Chosen and Patient Seven, the movie stars Elizabeth Keener, Jeremy Earl, Yumarie Morales, Angelique Maurnaé, and Melinda deKay. Ashes is now out on Digital and On Demand, from 1091 Media. Check out the new clip.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Holy hell, what do we have here cats n’ creeps? Why I do believe it’s an alien anthology of the terror kind! Following a coda, titled Pinnacles (written and directed by Stephen J. Escobar), that tells the story of Eric (Baker Chase Powell), a young dude getting his close encounter on in the middle of the desert; we are introduced to Xenophobia‘s wrap around (also written and directed by Escobar) featuring a support group for abductees relating their various diabolic dealings with sinister space-men through stories that include: First up we get Doomsday (written and directed by special effects genius Joe Castro); the tale of comely Becky (Kristen Renton) and her man Harry (Nick Principe of The FP and Chromeskull fame) who go camping in the woods and discover they are not alone in that freaky forest as one hell of a fucked up alien roams those worlds as well… seriously this thing has two faces, an emaciated body, screams
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsTrailers
From writer-director-producer and star Harley Wallen (Investigation Discovery’s Homicide Hunter: Lt Joe Kenda) comes the supernatural thriller Enigma. Dennis Haskins (“Saved by the Bell”), TJ Storm (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) , Bella Shepherd (“Orange Is the New Black”), Kris Reilly (Bennett’s Song), Joe Piazza (A Bennett Song Holiday), and Kaiti Wallen (Betrayed) also star in the film that centers on two detectives (Piazza and Reilly) who are searching for clues to some very unique murders. Anna (Kaiti Wallen) finds her faith in her search to clear her friend and a very bad man. This was such a fun film to work on, and the feedback has been great! The most common things I heard so far has been “what a great ride” and “this could totally become a cult film! The story is such a trip with a mixture of thriller and comedic touches, I’m looking forward to seeing this on the market,” said Wallen. Enigma is set to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsThriller
News has come that IFC Midnight has acquired North American rights to Jennifer Reeder’s visionary coming-of-age thriller Knives and Skin, which will screen next at Fantastic Fest. The film follows the “investigation of a young girl’s disappearance in a stylized version of a rural Midwest town that hovers just above reality, led by an inexperienced local sheriff. Unusual coping techniques develop among the traumatized small-town residents with each new secret revealed. The ripple of fear and suspicion destroys some relationships and strengthens others. The backdrop of trauma colors quintessential rituals—classrooms, dances, courtship, football games—in which the teenagers experience an accelerated loss of innocence while their parents are forced to confront adulthood failures. This mystical teen noir presents coming of age as a lifelong process and examines the profound impact of grief.” Starring Kate Arrington (The Irishman, Hello I Must Be Going), Tony Fitzpatrick (Married to the Mob, Philadelphia), Tim Hopper (School of Rock, Vanilla Sky), Raven Whitley (Red Line), and
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Ahead of its world premiere this September, the trailer has arrived for Elizabeth Blake-Thomas‘ dark short film Unseen, which puts the horror of human trafficking in the spotlight. Thomas felt compelled to make a film about child trafficking and fake social media modeling contests with promises of fame and fortune to teenagers around the world with “fame lures,” after hearing the story of a girl from Utah who was abducted and trafficked for five years before she escaped and returned to her family. The film stars Rhyon Nicole Brown (Fox’s Empire) and Isabella Blake-Thomas (Disney’s Secret Society of Second Born Royals, role in ABCs Once Upon a Time) as best friends who come across what seems to be a modeling contest on social media. It is not. The film also stars Yolanda Wood (Extinct), Rebecca Da Costa (The Bag Man), and Hillary Barraford (The United States of Tara). “In Unseen, a teenage girl’s innocent social media mistake has dire consequences.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNews
The first art is here for survival horror Restricted Area from Minutes to Midnight‘s (review) Christopher M. Don who both wrote and directed the film. Randy Wayne (Hellraiser: Judgment), Phillip Andre Botello (The Art of Self-Defense), and Shawn C. Phillips star alongside Robert Don, Paige Lindsay Betts, Emily Gardt, Ross Britz, and West Murphy. Restricted Area follows four blue-collar friends, recently laid off from the steel mill, take one last camping trip into the wilderness when they discover a backwoods cult with a cataclysmic agenda and must fight to stay alive. Featuring an original score from Michael Levinson and bands Agent 51 and The Megas, Restricted Area will land on VOD this October via ITN Distribution. The trailer is set to be released soon.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Darren (Buck Braithwaite), Lou (Nadia Lamin), Jo (Abbey Gillett) and Mas (Omari Lake-Pottinger) are scratchin’ and survivin’ in an environment of poverty. Trying to get over, they become indebted to ye olde local crime lord; a totally reasonable and not at all violence prone individual…just fuckin’ with you; this dude makes them worried about their continued existence 24/7. Meanwhile, richie-rich sumbitch Marcus (Toby Wynn-Davies) and his disabled bro Clive (Gregory A. Smith) get even richer when they win the lottery. Hearing this bit o’ news, our troubled heroes decide to get their steal on to improve their shitty lives…this of course doesn’t go as planned. Violence ensues! Now of course home invasion thrillers are nothing new, and at it’s core Nefarious isn’t either…it has all the tropes of the genre, but I don’t think re-inventing the wicked wheel was the goal here. Co-Writer (along with Matthew Davies)/Director Richard Rowntree instead decides to concentrate on a slick visual style (aided and
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A group of attractive young folks are fucking around in the woods (literally) when something that appears for all the world to be the legendary Bigfoot rips the gang from asshole to elbow. Enter: Down on his luck reality TV producer Rick Paxton (Ben Browder) who assembles a crack team, who’s ranks include the great Brian Thompson (Cobra, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), to schlep out into the woods and prove the murders were committed by the legendary cryptid, all for the sake of high ratings. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for something to begin hunting our heroes, and as tensions within the group mount, the truth they have to confront is way more than they bargained for. So what’s good with Hoax? Well, the Colorado countryside is scenic as all fuck, and is put to good use to make the group feel well and truly isolated. Speaking of the group, the acting is strong among our protagonists, with lead Cheryl Texiera
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesThriller
The Debunkers; amateur detectives, video game enthusiasts, eternal virgins… okay, I made that last bit up, but it can be inferred with a large probability of being true… wait, where was I? Oh yeah, The Debunkers; Link (Josh Pinkowski), Snake (Izzy Pollak) and Dr. Mario (Blake Kevin Dwyer)… along with new recruit, Canadian foreign exchange student Shiek (Nicole DuBois) are the premier mystery debunking business in their town, a town that doesn’t exactly seem like it would be a hotbed of mysteries which makes their profit margin rather low I’d wager. Of course that all changes when two desperate girls, Heather and Joyce by name, come a-knocking with a real puzzler… figuring out who put the murder biz on their gal pal Nina. With a murderer around, The Debunkers will surely die… the end… okay, maybe they will prevail and become true heroes… but my money is on their demise. Look, I’ll lay it on the line here, Debunkers Inc.
Continue reading →
More from Indie
IndieMoviesReviews
’80s hair metal band Sonic Grave are trying to get back in the game in the current age , and they are on the road to a hip music festival where they hope to attract new fans at the behest of their manager Danny (Tom Arnold). Along the way, bassist Art (Sean Astin) makes a pit stop for some legendary power-packed peyote… a drug that comes with a curse attached; if anything on the sacred land is harmed while on the drug a horrible fate will befall those responsible. I forgot to mention; Art isn’t the brightest dude out there, and neither are his band mates Merrick (Jake Busey), Stevie (Leisha Hailey), and Pager (Rhys Coiro) for that matter, and soon a talking ant is pissed on and a deadly evil is released which results in our heroes getting their creature-feature cherries popped by Hymenoptera from hell! Holy fuckin’ cats, Dead Ant is a rollickin’ good time in our beloved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsTrailers
Horror fans are raving about the new film Ashes, calling it “gruesome” and “inventive,” a “must-see” for genre fans. In the film, when an estranged aunt passes away, a family is creeped out to receive her ashes. And when supernatural misfortunes begin to best them, they quickly discover they have to go through hell to rid of her angry spirit. From writer-director Barry Jay, the filmmaker behind The Chosen and Patient Seven, the movie stars Elizabeth Keener, Jeremy Earl, Yumarie Morales, Angelique Maurnaé, and Melinda deKay. Ashes is now out on Digital and On Demand, from 1091 Media. Check out the new clip.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Holy hell, what do we have here cats n’ creeps? Why I do believe it’s an alien anthology of the terror kind! Following a coda, titled Pinnacles (written and directed by Stephen J. Escobar), that tells the story of Eric (Baker Chase Powell), a young dude getting his close encounter on in the middle of the desert; we are introduced to Xenophobia‘s wrap around (also written and directed by Escobar) featuring a support group for abductees relating their various diabolic dealings with sinister space-men through stories that include: First up we get Doomsday (written and directed by special effects genius Joe Castro); the tale of comely Becky (Kristen Renton) and her man Harry (Nick Principe of The FP and Chromeskull fame) who go camping in the woods and discover they are not alone in that freaky forest as one hell of a fucked up alien roams those worlds as well… seriously this thing has two faces, an emaciated body, screams
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsTrailers
From writer-director-producer and star Harley Wallen (Investigation Discovery’s Homicide Hunter: Lt Joe Kenda) comes the supernatural thriller Enigma. Dennis Haskins (“Saved by the Bell”), TJ Storm (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) , Bella Shepherd (“Orange Is the New Black”), Kris Reilly (Bennett’s Song), Joe Piazza (A Bennett Song Holiday), and Kaiti Wallen (Betrayed) also star in the film that centers on two detectives (Piazza and Reilly) who are searching for clues to some very unique murders. Anna (Kaiti Wallen) finds her faith in her search to clear her friend and a very bad man. This was such a fun film to work on, and the feedback has been great! The most common things I heard so far has been “what a great ride” and “this could totally become a cult film! The story is such a trip with a mixture of thriller and comedic touches, I’m looking forward to seeing this on the market,” said Wallen. Enigma is set to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsThriller
News has come that IFC Midnight has acquired North American rights to Jennifer Reeder’s visionary coming-of-age thriller Knives and Skin, which will screen next at Fantastic Fest. The film follows the “investigation of a young girl’s disappearance in a stylized version of a rural Midwest town that hovers just above reality, led by an inexperienced local sheriff. Unusual coping techniques develop among the traumatized small-town residents with each new secret revealed. The ripple of fear and suspicion destroys some relationships and strengthens others. The backdrop of trauma colors quintessential rituals—classrooms, dances, courtship, football games—in which the teenagers experience an accelerated loss of innocence while their parents are forced to confront adulthood failures. This mystical teen noir presents coming of age as a lifelong process and examines the profound impact of grief.” Starring Kate Arrington (The Irishman, Hello I Must Be Going), Tony Fitzpatrick (Married to the Mob, Philadelphia), Tim Hopper (School of Rock, Vanilla Sky), Raven Whitley (Red Line), and
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Ahead of its world premiere this September, the trailer has arrived for Elizabeth Blake-Thomas‘ dark short film Unseen, which puts the horror of human trafficking in the spotlight. Thomas felt compelled to make a film about child trafficking and fake social media modeling contests with promises of fame and fortune to teenagers around the world with “fame lures,” after hearing the story of a girl from Utah who was abducted and trafficked for five years before she escaped and returned to her family. The film stars Rhyon Nicole Brown (Fox’s Empire) and Isabella Blake-Thomas (Disney’s Secret Society of Second Born Royals, role in ABCs Once Upon a Time) as best friends who come across what seems to be a modeling contest on social media. It is not. The film also stars Yolanda Wood (Extinct), Rebecca Da Costa (The Bag Man), and Hillary Barraford (The United States of Tara). “In Unseen, a teenage girl’s innocent social media mistake has dire consequences.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNews
The first art is here for survival horror Restricted Area from Minutes to Midnight‘s (review) Christopher M. Don who both wrote and directed the film. Randy Wayne (Hellraiser: Judgment), Phillip Andre Botello (The Art of Self-Defense), and Shawn C. Phillips star alongside Robert Don, Paige Lindsay Betts, Emily Gardt, Ross Britz, and West Murphy. Restricted Area follows four blue-collar friends, recently laid off from the steel mill, take one last camping trip into the wilderness when they discover a backwoods cult with a cataclysmic agenda and must fight to stay alive. Featuring an original score from Michael Levinson and bands Agent 51 and The Megas, Restricted Area will land on VOD this October via ITN Distribution. The trailer is set to be released soon.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Darren (Buck Braithwaite), Lou (Nadia Lamin), Jo (Abbey Gillett) and Mas (Omari Lake-Pottinger) are scratchin’ and survivin’ in an environment of poverty. Trying to get over, they become indebted to ye olde local crime lord; a totally reasonable and not at all violence prone individual…just fuckin’ with you; this dude makes them worried about their continued existence 24/7. Meanwhile, richie-rich sumbitch Marcus (Toby Wynn-Davies) and his disabled bro Clive (Gregory A. Smith) get even richer when they win the lottery. Hearing this bit o’ news, our troubled heroes decide to get their steal on to improve their shitty lives…this of course doesn’t go as planned. Violence ensues! Now of course home invasion thrillers are nothing new, and at it’s core Nefarious isn’t either…it has all the tropes of the genre, but I don’t think re-inventing the wicked wheel was the goal here. Co-Writer (along with Matthew Davies)/Director Richard Rowntree instead decides to concentrate on a slick visual style (aided and
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A group of attractive young folks are fucking around in the woods (literally) when something that appears for all the world to be the legendary Bigfoot rips the gang from asshole to elbow. Enter: Down on his luck reality TV producer Rick Paxton (Ben Browder) who assembles a crack team, who’s ranks include the great Brian Thompson (Cobra, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), to schlep out into the woods and prove the murders were committed by the legendary cryptid, all for the sake of high ratings. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for something to begin hunting our heroes, and as tensions within the group mount, the truth they have to confront is way more than they bargained for. So what’s good with Hoax? Well, the Colorado countryside is scenic as all fuck, and is put to good use to make the group feel well and truly isolated. Speaking of the group, the acting is strong among our protagonists, with lead Cheryl Texiera
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesThriller
The Debunkers; amateur detectives, video game enthusiasts, eternal virgins… okay, I made that last bit up, but it can be inferred with a large probability of being true… wait, where was I? Oh yeah, The Debunkers; Link (Josh Pinkowski), Snake (Izzy Pollak) and Dr. Mario (Blake Kevin Dwyer)… along with new recruit, Canadian foreign exchange student Shiek (Nicole DuBois) are the premier mystery debunking business in their town, a town that doesn’t exactly seem like it would be a hotbed of mysteries which makes their profit margin rather low I’d wager. Of course that all changes when two desperate girls, Heather and Joyce by name, come a-knocking with a real puzzler… figuring out who put the murder biz on their gal pal Nina. With a murderer around, The Debunkers will surely die… the end… okay, maybe they will prevail and become true heroes… but my money is on their demise. Look, I’ll lay it on the line here, Debunkers Inc.
Continue reading →
