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5 More Overlooked Indie Horror Films You Should Watch

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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.

Today we’re serving up five MORE overlooked indie horror films that deserve more attention than they received.


The Ugly (1997)


This 1997 film from New Zealand was released in the U.S. during its initial run, but you wouldn’t know it from its near-invisible streaming presence. The story follows a fame-hungry psychologist who wants to profile a notoriously violent serial killer who has spent years in isolation in a mental hospital. As she begins her sessions, she thinks she’s getting inside his head… but she slowly realizes it’s the other way around.

The dilapidated asylum is a stand-in for the corroded mind of the killer Simon, played with both vulnerability and menace by Paolo Rotondo. Scott Reynolds’ feature directorial debut is assured and disturbing, and it’s a crime that both he and Rotondo weren’t hot commodities after this film. With stark cinematography, haunting images, and an impactful ending, the movie leaves a lasting impression. Though it’s hard to find it digitally, it’s definitely worth hunting down.


They Look Like People (2015)


Perry Blackshear’s first feature is a triumph of ingenuity on a tiny budget. Childhood friends Wyatt and Christian get together again as twentysomethings after both have just gotten out of a troubled relationship. Christian is wounded and trying to find motivation to ask his co-worker out, while Wyatt is dealing with something much more serious: he believes that creatures are infecting and taking over people he loves in preparation for a worldwide takeover.

The film has three primary performers, and they all do subtle, excellent work, with the two male leads embodying a compelling and lived-in friendship. The sound work in the film is excellent and unnerving, and the few visual effects in the film are simple but hauntingly memorable. They Look Like People is a slow-burn indie that uses its minuscule resources for fantastic results.


Mr. Jones (2013)


There have been so many found footage films in the wake of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity that sometimes it feels like there’s nothing new to do with the format. Thankfully, films like Mr. Jones come along to re-invest me with hope for the future of the style. To spoil how it subverts expectations would be robbing the film of its most interesting surprises.

Writer/director Karl Mueller tells the story of a couple who moves to a cabin in the woods so the boyfriend can work on finishing his film project. They discover they’re distant neighbors with a strange outsider artist named Mr. Jones, known for anonymously mailing his disturbing work to random people. After they sneak into his house to learn more about him, strange things start to plague them. There’s so much more to the story than this; find out for yourself.


PVC-1 (2007)


The central premise is simple: a woman has a bomb secured in a PVC pipe around her neck by armed gunmen who tell her family to provide them with ransom money or they will activate the bomb. What ensues is the real-time journey of the family, from their isolated house to a police station where an officer tries to help them deactivate the bomb.

The simplicity of the story allows director Spiros Stathoulopoulos to flex his muscles with this film that is shot entirely in a single unbroken take. The terrifying directness of the story is all the more affecting if you know that the events of the story are based on a true story. Cast with non-actors in many roles, and containing passages of haunting silence and close-ups of anguished faces in the midst of existential uncertainty, PVC-1 is a powerful piece of verite filmmaking.


The Human Race (2013)


In an instant, eighty people are torn out of their normal lives and dropped into a winner take all race. They are given a designated path and a few rules: don’t leave the path or you die, get passed three times by the group and you die, and keep going until there is only one runner left. It is appropriate that director Paul Hough’s film is about running because the action in his first feature film never slows down.

A clear labor of love for the filmmaker and his enormous cast, the film paints a big picture on a small canvas. Shocking deaths, double-crosses, a diverse cast, and a wickedly dark sense of humor make this high-concept, high-octane film a fantastic watch with a group of friends. It can be found easily online, and you should find it soon.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

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.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

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.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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