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Indie Horror

Waking Nightmare Movie Review – Chasing After a Lethal Legacy

Waking Nightmare Movie Review – Chasing After a Lethal Legacy

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Independent horror films are often the most frightening. Not constrained by the mandates of studio executives, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for example, became a terrifying titan of the movie houses for years. Something about the gritty, unpolished look can truly add an edge to the viewing experience. Waking Nightmare from Terror Films is definitely looking to chase that lethal legacy in the modern era, but with a more mind-bending approach. Waking Nightmare from the writing and directing team of Brandon Farmer and Stephen Craig finds college student, Jordan (Shelley Regner) enduring a series of night terrors after the death of a friend. Prescribed Ambien to help with problematic sleepwalking issues, Jordan’s episodes turn deadly. But is she the only one leaving a trail of bodies behind her each night? From the opening credits sequence, Waking Nightmare makes a full assault on the senses of the audience. Over-saturated, distorted images flicker and morph in disturbing ways that reflect the nightmares Jordan herself is experiencing. This stylistic choice seems to be

Night Caller Comes Calling May 13

Night Caller Comes Calling May 13

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The indie horror film Night Caller will be reaching digital platforms later this week, after making the rounds on the festival circuit. A little history lesson before we talk about this one: there were a lot of ads on 1990s daytime television for the Psychic Friends Network, a hotline full of alleged clairvoyants who would give you a “reading” (literally from a piece of paper, investigations proved). They were eventually shut down; evidently the fine print “for entertainment only” on the ads wasn’t big enough. Since this movie starts at a psychic phone line, it’s unclear if it takes place in the past (the green computer monitor would imply it does). But of course, in THIS story the psychics aren’t faking. The central character, Clementine, has real powers and when some guy named James calls in (who already sounds sinister), Clementine gets a vision of him committing a murder. The cops can’t help because he hasn’t technically done anything yet. It’s up to Clementine and her friend, who also has

Horror Anthology THE MACABRE Reaches Crowdfunding Goal

Horror Anthology THE MACABRE Reaches Crowdfunding Goal

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Filmmaker Eric Mathis and his friends have been working on THE MACABRE, a new horror anthology to be released next year. The passion project is a throwback with practical effects and a love letter to the classics of the horror genre. Mathis’ anthology is currently running its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, and it’s already earned over three times what it asked for. THE MACABRE will contain short stories directed by Esther Goodstein, Liz Mathis, Drake Teer, Howard Wexler and Eric himself. It’s a diverse and eclectic bunch — Teer is autistic and Eric is an Afghanistan combat vet. The actual shorts themselves haven’t been fully revealed, but we know what will tie them all together… Molly is a shy girl who has been pushed aside most of her life by her nasty and terrible friends. Molly has decided to throw a party and invited her tormentors as the guests of honor. Molly’s friends have no idea that she’s hired a very popular hypnotist act as the main event of her

WrestleMassacre Movie Review

WrestleMassacre Movie Review

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Schlock horror is a genre you either love to death or dismiss with disgust. The same can often be said about professional wrestling, the line is very clear between die hard marks and disdainful intellectuals. So it’s only fitting that the creative minds behind WrestleMassacre would combine the two forms of high energy entertainment as a tag team that aims to set you up for a jacknife powerbomb of pure ridiculousness. I’m someone that’s very vocal about my fandom for movies on VHS, comic books and vintage action figures, but when it comes to my other lifelong passions of Pro Wrestling and Horror, I must admit I’ve kept those to myself. Maybe it’s the longstanding stigma associated with fans of such “low brow” entertainment or maybe I feel I’m not quite as hardcore as the rest. As it stands I could probably still write a college essay on either topic with enough authority to gain a passing grade. My favorite wrestlers always had a comedic bent to them, whether it

Indie Horror Rising Podcast Launches This Weekend

Indie Horror Rising Podcast Launches This Weekend

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Three Tortured Minds are the filmmakers behind the recent indie horror film The Nursery, as well as the upcoming The Headmistress. They spend a lot of time promoting their own films, but there’s a whole world of neglected indie horror out there. Why not expose it to the world? That’s why Jay Sapiro and Christopher A. Micklos have announced the Indie Horror Rising podcast. It’s a relaunch of a previous podcast the duo used in 2018 to promote The Nursery, but now in 2020 covers it all. “We are really excited to launch the new INDIE HORROR RISING,” Sapiro and Micklos said in a released joint statement, “to give filmmakers and others working in the indie horror community another outlet to discuss the practice of making independent films…as well as to reach more horror fans and promote their work.” First up for promotion: Keith Leopard, founder and CEO of the distributor Uncork’d Entertainment (hey, we know those guys), Miles Doleac, director of the upcoming film The Dinner Party, Michael Brown

Hex Studios Launches Channel Hex With Frightfest Diary

Hex Studios Launches Channel Hex With Frightfest Diary

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Hex Studios, publishers and promoters of indie horror, have launched their own YouTube channel. You might be wondering why they didn’t do that years ago — well, they did, but we’re talking about Channel Hex, a spinoff of their regular channel that will spotlight filmmakers in the indie horror scene. And to launch the channel, Hex presents a video diary of the studio’s main team and their adventures at the Glasgow Frighfest. Watch as Hex CEO Lawrie Brewster (The Black Gloves, The Devil’s Machine), writer/director Sam Ashurst (Frankenstein’s Creature, the Arrow Video podcast), and writer/director Tom Staunton (Breath, The Summoning) romp around the festival, interviewing folks like director Joe Begos and picking up valuable indie filmmaker tips. If you’ve got nearly two hours to spare (sorry, that’s how long this is), kick back and watch this special presentation. You can support Channel Hex at www.patreon.com/hexmedia, and get member-exclusive goodies for doing so. To launch Channel Hex – Hex Studios’ new YouTube channel made by filmmakers for filmmakers – the team

Holiday Hell – Movie Review

Holiday Hell – Movie Review

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For many people the holidays are a nightmare. But crowded airports, dysfunctional families and expanding waistlines don’t hold a candle to the terror awaiting in Holiday Hell, the horror anthology film that delivers a decadent 4 course meal of frights and light, but deadly dessert. Anthology horror has a rich tradition with films like Trilogy of Terror, Creepshow and Trick r’ Treat delivering frights that have endured for many years. Recently the found footage genre has opened the gates to low-budget productions that try focus on more realistic violence and mayhem “caught on tape” than cinematically staged morality tales of blood and gore. Holiday Hell however, seems to have it’s roots in creepy television anthology classics like Tales From The Crypt or more the obscure Friday The 13th: The Series. For the unfamiliar, that syndicated 80’s TV series had nothing to do with Jason Voorhees stalking a new summer camp each week, instead it dealt with an antique store housing occult objects that created deadly circumstances if not kept under

Indie Horror Flick “The Initiation” Announced

Indie Horror Flick “The Initiation” Announced

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ThunderKnight Entertainment LTD and AEC Studios have announced production has begun on “The Initiation,” a new indie horror film starring Primetime Emmy nominee Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story). St. Elzears College is a place full of secrets, some deadlier than others. Professor Daniel Kimmer is in a sweat, fearing his illicit affair will be exposed after a campus-wide investigation starts into student-teacher relations. Little does he know that it’s worse: the student he picked was actually a witch, dedicated to destroying marriage and other foundations of society (Daniel himself is married….but it’s on the rocks, for reasons that are becoming clear). And some of the campus witches aren’t even as “nice” as his fling was….a character named Cypress is described as “a powerful and menacing warlord whose only satisfaction in life is destruction and death.” Grossman plays Lillian Know, otherwise referred to as “the High Priest of the Siren Society of Satan.” Daniel wants to get out of this mess, but he’s pretty knee-deep in it. In addition to Grossman,

House of Salem – Movie Review

House of Salem – Movie Review

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No matter how you come to this movie, House of Salem is not what you’re expecting. This British indie suspense film from writer/director James Crow will surprise you with it’s narrative choices, while taking some turns you didn’t see coming. The question is, do you like surprises? Read on to learn more about this fright feature available now from Wild Eye Releasing. When I first read the title House of Salem, I immediately imagined a Lords of Salem meets House of 1,000 Corpses style crossover plot featuring soon to be murdered victims screaming their way through a labyrinth of terror. My assumed Rob Zombie connection was reinforced by the fact that the first frame of footage I laid eyes on featured a killer clown with someone in its clutches and we all know how the former White Zombie frontman man loves his scary clowns. Once the film’s opening credits began to roll, however, flashing images of young boys clad in sheep masks and blood soaked long johns, a different picture began

The Devil’s Well Movie Review – A Fun Horror Adventure

The Devil’s Well Movie Review – A Fun Horror Adventure

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“Hey, you got your homicidal devil worshippers in my found footage horror film!” “Hey, you got your shaky-cam scares in my Satanic Panic documentary.” If this creepy mash-up sounds like your kind of movie madness, then The Devil’s Well from writer/director Kurtis Spieler is waiting for you to explore it’s murky depths, if you dare. With the rise of Blumhouse Pictures horror franchises like Sinister, Insidious and Annabelle, it seems like the Paranormal Activity style of found footage films that made the company profitable has been banished to the cornfield. But Wide Eye releasing is going back to the well, if you’ll forgive the pun, to see if mixing the faux documentary style made famous by The Blair Witch Project with a Rosemary’s Baby demon darkness can send a tingle up our collective spines. While the poster for The Devil’s Well will most likely cause flashbacks to Naomi Watts in The Ring, there’s no haunted video tapes here, just good old fashioned unsolved mysteries and local legends. The basics of the film’s