Editorials
5 Overlooked Indie Horror Films You Should Check Out
With the ease of movie-making technology and the advent of numerous new venues for watching films, the number of releases per year has grown exponentially. It’s great for horror fans looking for new movies, but it can be tough for horror filmmakers to find an audience with the sheer number of films for viewers to choose from.
This is a list of five overlooked indie horror films that were unique, effective, or surprising, and they deserve a little more attention than they received. All of the films mentioned are available to watch on various streaming services…
WINNERS TAPE ALL: THE HENDERSON BROTHERS STORY (2016)
Call it a fictional version of American Movie or a horror film version of This Is Spinal Tap, Justin Channell’s Winners Tape All is a fake retrospective documentary about the very short (and very bad) film careers of Michael and Richard Henderson, West Virginia brothers who made two no-budget horror films during the video store boom of the 1980s.
The film is a love letter to the VHS era much like another recent entry, WNUF Halloween Special; the director of WNUF, Chris LaMartina, even has an on-screen role. The plot is little more than an excuse to show extended clips of the old films, Stabberman and Cannibal Swim Club, along with funny talking head segments with the brothers discussing their strange life behind the scenes. With plenty of humor and nostalgia, the film deserves a loyal following.
SEPTIEN (2011)
If you think you’ve seen everything the exorcism subgenre has to offer, and you haven’t seen Septien, then you haven’t seen it all just yet. Before director Michael Tully made the 80’s homage Ping Pong Summer, he created the delightfully dysfunctional Rawlings family. A former high school sports star comes home to the dilapidated family estate to see his reclusive brothers. What transpires… deserves to be seen unspoiled.
Outsider art, molestation trauma, sports hustling, and appearances from Summer of Blood director Onur Tukel and Spring Breakers star Rachel Korine are just some of the fantastic, bizarre, delightful elements of this uncategorizable film. Some might say it’s too funny, weird, and mixed-genre to be considered a true horror film, but viewers should decide for themselves and hunt down this one-of-a-kind movie.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE (2014)
Like Grace: The Possession (which came out the same year), You Are Not Alone is a horror film seen through the eyes of its female protagonist. Though there is no supernatural element at play in You Are Not Alone, the film is a fascinating first-person horror experiment. Natalie is a college student home for 4th of July weekend, and after a night of drinking and heading home to an empty house, she is stalked and attacked by a murderous lunatic.
Though the film is not perfect (it’s nearly halfway through the movie before the tension cranks up and we meet the stalker), director Derek Mungor and his crew deserve recognition for their execution of a difficult premise. What the film loses in classic filmmaking technique, it makes up for in sheer intensity in the last half of the film. Chaotic and punctuated with shocking violence, this movie can make for an uncomfortable nighttime view for the right viewer who can soldier through the opening forty minutes (or, frankly, fast forward through it).
PRESERVATION (2014)
Horror fans who like the films of Bryan Bertino or 2006’s foreign film Them will appreciate this new take on a similar subgenre. A married man, his wife, and his brother go on a camping trip, only to find their shoes missing from outside their tent when they wake up the next morning. As they try to get back to civilization, they discover that some people in masks are watching them, toying with them… perhaps even hunting them.
The film was directed by Christopher Denham, who directed the excellent found footage film Home Movie and has appeared in films like Shutter Island and The Bay. Though the lead cast is small, all of them are recognizable, with Aaron Staton from Mad Men, Wrenn Schmidt from Cinemax’s Outcast, and Pablo Schreiber from Orange is the New Black and a great turn in American Gods. The film has tension and a surprisingly dark sense of humor that makes it worth seeking out.
SHIVER (aka Eskalofrio) (2008)
This Spanish-language film is a fantastic modern reinvention of the vampire and werewolf mythologies in an unconventional and invigorating way. A single mother struggles to deal with her son, who has a severe sensitivity to light. She moves them to a mountainside village where the light is less extreme, but finds the town to be hostile to newcomers. When violence visits the community, the residents automatically assume the strange new young man is responsible. The truth, however, is much darker.
A film that mixes vampirism and the struggle of adolescence in a more organic and entertaining way than the Twilight series ever could, Shiver touches on themes similar to Let the Right One In but in a clever new way. Director Isidro Ortiz worked in horror before with Fausto 5.0 and and Somne, but his work was never more assured than in this film. Great performances from the young cast and a beautiful and haunting locale make this a film worth watching.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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