All Hallows' night is approaching and you find yourself scanning through Netflix and your old DVDs for good horror movie finds. If you are tired of the typical zombie flicks and predictable slasher hits, turn into some of these best indie horror treats you haven't seen yet for this year's Halloween movie marathon.
Babadook (2014)
The critically- hailed 2014 Australian- Canadian psychological horror debut by director, Jennifer Kent is about Amelia (Essie Davis), a single mother and her monster- obsessed son, Sam (Noah Wiseman) tormented by an evil entity that came from the pages of a creepy children's book called, Mister Babadook.
Amelia tries to help her son overcome his fears and anxieties by reading him bedtime stories and letting him take the opposite side of the bed while an uneasy sense of physical space exist amidst the memory of of Amelia's dead husband, Oskar, who was killed in a car accident en route to the hospital while Amelia is in labor of Sam.
Indiewire writes, "The Babadook" isn't a transcendent horror film. But its ability to handle and manipulate the conventional tropes apparent in so many of its peers makes it a satisfying ride".
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
The whole flesh- hungry zombies lined- up- to- eat- your- brains- out movie frenzy began with George Romero's low- budget hit, "Night Of The Living Dead" in 1968. This then unconventional horror classic also raised the roof with its political sub- texts while giving good, real scares.
Romero and his crew turned the production limitations of the film to its advantage. The single location of an old farmhouse works as a claustrophobic entrapment where chances of surviving in the midst of shambling, hungry zombies is thin. Matched with the black- and- white documentary feel, Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" sets most of today's eerie convention.
The Dissolve writes, "It was the perfect movie to accompany the final act of the 1960s, stranding a bunch of normal people in an old farmhouse as the world around them turned upside down".
What We Do In the Shadows (2014)
Last year's "What We Do In The Shadows" is a horror mockumentary, an 'odd one out' in the bunch. "Shadows" is co- directed and starred by Kiwi funny men,Taika Waititi ( director of "Thor 3") and Jemaine Clement who brought us "Eagle Vs. Shark" and "Flight of the Concords".
The unconventional comedy- horror treat of Waititi and Clement focuses on what turns out as a reality show of a family of Wellington vampires. The absurd visual style hits the right spots of some popular TV show format with a right blend of documentary feel.
Indiewire describes "Shadows" as a "seriously enjoyable satire that rejuvenates the familiar signposts of gothic horror". These comedians (Witty and Clement), one of the best working today, proves they know their horror tropes as well.
It Follows (2014)
David Robert Mitchell's has an unconventional taste of what is truly frightening right off the charts- a sexually transmitted supernatural disease pestering a teenage girl; a subtle subconscious recollection of teenage anxieties and primal fears about sexuality.
"It Follows" is another indie horror film released last year that raised the bar of today's subgenre and made a mainstream success. The "Myth of the American Sleepover" director delights audiences, critics and even director, Quentin Tarantino, who referenced the film to "The Good Wife", through the film's eerie subtexts and lavish nightmare- ish visual treatment.
LA Times writer and critic, Michael Rechtshaffen writes, "also welcome are the convincing performances by Monroe and young, fresh-faced cast mates playing relatable characters who don't fall prey to the bone-headed moves that tend to typify contemporary horror-flick behavior".
Eraserhead (1977)
No one can go wrong with a David Lynch classic in an All Hallow's night.- a true indie- art house horror fan might say.
"Eraserhead" is master of horror and musician, David Lynch's 'deeply disturbing' feature debut about a surreal tale of socially and sexually repressed Henry (Jack Nance) who had premarital sex with his girlfriend who gave birth to a hideous, alien- like creature.
The success of the film's visceral and dreamlike treatment owes much to its revolutionary sound design and practical effects on the hideous baby- creature, a truly original cinematic phenomenon only a master like Lynch can muster.
"The stunningly crisp, deep black-and-white cinematography is just as remarkable, and so are the unnerving, overbearing images out of nightmare. It's a weird experience, but above all, a specific and powerful one", The Dissolve Canon writes.
It is no surprise that Lynch's unconventional horror classic has its own cult following even up to this day.