Editorials
Another 5 Overlooked Indie Horror Films You Should Watch
There aren’t enough hours in the day to see all the great independent horror films that have been released in recent years since the DVD and online boom started. But for those dedicated horror film fans who pore over the internet, seeking out the small, the smart, and the surprising, Bloody Disgusting supports your worthy cause.
This is our third installment of the overlooked indie horror films that deserve more attention than they received.
If you missed them, here’s Part 1 and Part 2!
Sleep Tight
Though American viewers know him best for his work on the REC series, director Jaume Balaguero is a brilliant filmmaker with several other great horror and thriller films, and Sleep Tight is one of his best. The film follows misanthropic apartment handyman Cesar as he tests the happiness of one of his tenants by slowly and anonymously making her life miserable, one painful and undignified act at a time.
The film is a brilliant slow burn, starting with acts that cause the viewer mild discomfort and escalating in severity until the woman’s suffering is nearly unwatchable. The performances from Luis Tosar and Marta Etura as polar opposites in a one-sided battle of ideologies are brilliant, and they stay with the viewer long after the film is over. Though it doesn’t match REC’s pacing and terror, this may be Balaguero’s most stylish and mature work.
S&Man
Filmmaker JT Petty (playing himself) is making a documentary on voyeurism, and ventures into the underground world of fetish filmmakers and the dark cult cinema circuit; as he meets and follows a filmmaker known for one particularly gruesome series, he begins to question whether the films are grimy but effective movies, or something much darker.
The only thing more disturbing than the fictional narrative in S&Man is the fact that most of the interviews and footage are from real filmmakers talking about their actual work. A brilliant blurring of the line between fake documentary and actual reportage, filmmaker Petty (a brilliant filmmaker since his low-budget debut with Soft for Digging) interviews people along the horror spectrum from filmmaker Bill Zebub to college professor and author Carol Clover. Illuminating and terrifying in equal measure, this film deserved better than the questionable release it received, and it is one worth tracking down.
The Grave
Creative sibling team Joshua and Jonas Pate are recently more well-known for their work on Caprica, Blood and Oil, and other primetime television series, but their most interesting work was their filmic output in the late 1990s, including this strange and fascinating gem. A southern gothic story about two criminals who escape prison to search for the buried treasure of a dead millionaire, The Grave is impossible to easily categorize. With black comedy, romance, hairpin story turns, and a plot that would suit an R-rated version of The Goonies, the movie never lets the viewers feel safe in their expectations.
The cast of this film is recognizable from end to end: Craig Sheffer, Josh Charles, Donal Logue, Keith David, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Michael Hall, Eric Roberts, Gabrielle Anwar, and that’s just the beginning. Fun, weird, and a little bit twisted, this film deserves a renaissance and some newfound appreciation.
Daylight (2010)
Though it may end up a controversial choice for this list given that it is marketed as a psychological thriller rather than horror, David Barker’s Daylight is a beautiful and haunting film filled with quiet dread. A man and his pregnant wife are traveling through rural America when they are taken hostage at gunpoint by three desperate men. During their imprisonment, it is the pregnant wife who finds the courage and compassion to change their fate.
The film is the rare harrowing experience that also has a silver lining, and the performances are all-around subtle and compelling. The story turns kidnapping thriller clichés on their heads, and the film acts as a strangely hopeful mirror reflection of the similar events in Last House on the Left. At turns both poetic and unnerving, this film will connect deeply with the right viewer.
Circle
The premise is as simple as it gets: fifty people appear suddenly inside a single, bare room. Each has a position marked on the floor, and each gets one vote. A timer in the room counts down in two-minute increments, and every two minutes, the person with the most votes is killed. This continues until there is only one survivor. The simplicity of Circle‘s plot betrays the complexity and moral ambiguity at its center, and the film is a brilliant indictment of the ways the democratic system can be manipulated.
Directors Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione followed up their online series The Vault with this smart and controversial concept. Though most of the actors are unfamiliar, Dexter fans will recognize Julie Benz in the crowd. The whole film is tense and entertaining, but the final ten minutes are a tour de force of intensity where characters are trying to murder each other without ever taking a step towards one another. Circle is a big story in a small location that is definitely worth tracking down.
A new month means a new guide as titles are added (and dropped) from streaming services. Let’s unpack the most exciting titles that are available to watch on Tubi in July 2026.
New to Tubi July Horror Films
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
- Premise: Searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.
- Why Watch It? Let’s be frank: Director Renny Harlin has made some absolute dogs in the last few years (the less said about The Strangers trilogy the better, though this year’s Deep Water was actually ok). Deep Blue Sea remains one of the Finnish director’s best contemporary efforts, though. Between the great cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgård, Michael Rapaport, LL Cool J, Thomas Jane, and Jane’s sleeveless wetsuit), the ridiculous premise, and that damn/dumb song (“My hat is like a shark’s fin”), you basically can’t go wrong with Deep Blue Sea. It’s one of two great shark films gliding onto Tubi this month, so why not stay out of the water and watch this instead?
- Streaming: July 1
Exorcist II: Heretic (1977)
- Premise: Reagan (Linda Blair), a girl once possessed by a demon, finds that it still lurks within her. Meanwhile, Father Lamont (Richard Burton) investigates the death of the priest who performed her exorcism.
- Why Watch It? August sees the release of documentary Boorman and the Devil, which is about the troubled production of this sequel. The notoriety surrounding Heretic has undoubtedly kept plenty of horror fans away from the sequel, but this truly is a “seeing is believing” kind of film. Real talk: it’s undeniably a disaster, but the John Boorman film has also become a minor cult film. Don’t you want to see it to make up your own mind?
- Streaming: July 1
Hostel: Part III (2011)
- Premise: Four men attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas fall prey to the Elite Hunting Club, who are hosting a gruesome game show of torture.
- Why Watch It? What does Hostel look like without Eli Roth? Part III kinda answers the question. Technically Roth is still a writer, but he hands over the directorial reins to Scott Spiegel (best known for acting in Evil Dead films). The result is a film with a terrible pedigree; it’s also the first (and last) entry to skip theatres before the franchise was permanently shelved (until that TV show with Paul Giamatti shows up?). For some horror fans, however, there’s something exciting about a bad low-budget sequel. Just bear in mind that the Hostel: Part III‘s biggest star is Kip Pardue…so adjust your expectations accordingly before hitting play.
- Streaming: July 1
Insidious 1-3 (2010/2013/2015)
- Premise: A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
- Why Watch It? It’s hard to believe that the sixth (!) Insidious movie is coming out in a month and a half, but James Wan and Leigh Whannell‘s other horror franchise has been steadily chugging along for sixteen years. It’s a shame that Tubi doesn’t have all five films available to watch, but in terms of quality, you can do far worse than the original trio. The first film is iconic, and the second is basically an extended coda (with some admittedly problematic stuff going on). I’ll go to bat for Whannell’s 2015 directorial debut, though: there’s a few banger sequences in that film that people slept on.
- Streaming: July 1
Man Finds Tape (2025)
- Premise: After finding mysterious video clips, siblings investigate the strange recordings and uncover a disturbing secret spreading through their Texas town.
- Why Watch It? Writer/directors Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall‘s well-received found footage film did an extensive tour of the festival circuit, so now is a great time to check out one of the most contemporary titles debuting on Tubi this month. Surely a title that hails from producers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Spring and The Endless) is worth a free look?
- Streaming: July 2
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
- Premise: A depressed musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) reunites with his lover Eve (Tilda Swinton). However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).
- Why Watch It? This beautiful, melancholy vampire film is courtesy of writer/director Jim Jarmusch, who doesn’t often dabble in genre fare. As always, some will quibble if this artsy drama qualifies as horror, but the existential ennui of an eternal life certainly qualifies (bonus: there’s also something inherently sexy about watching Hiddleston and Swinton just lay about). Plus: if Leviticus has you hankering for more Wasikowska, this is an under the radar pick.
- Streaming: July 1
The Shallows (2016)
- Premise:A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
- Why Watch It? What better time to watch a shark movie than July? The temperatures are soaring and the idea of escaping into the water is so tantalizing. This tight, contained thriller features a great performance by Lively (and that damn seagull!), but it’s the direction from genre fave Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan; the House of Wax remake) that keeps the movie clicking along like clockwork. At 86 minutes, this is a perfect summer flick.
- Streaming: July 1
Vacancy (2007)
- Premise: Stranded in an isolated motel, a couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) become the unsuspecting subjects of a snuff film.
- Why Watch It? I’m not going to pretend that this Nimród Antal-directed home invasion film is high art, but it is a good time. You’ll likely wish there were deeper characterizations for Wilson and Beckinsale’s David and Amy in Mark L. Smith‘s screenplay, but this mid-aughts thriller is tense, exciting, and just the right amount of grimy. Plus: another short runtime, clocking in at an expeditious 85 minutes!
- Streaming: July 1
July Tubi Originals
The One Next Door (2026)
- Premise: When a mysterious stranger moves in next door to Robert and Tabitha, boundaries are tested, loyalty is questioned, and danger comes for all.
- Streaming: July 10
I Know Where You Live (2026)
- Premise: Sarah thinks she’s found “the one” until his flaws emerge. When she pulls away, chilling threats suggest he’s watching her from inside her own home.
- Streaming: July 24
What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Original? Sound off in the comments below
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