Tis the season for blood and gore—and curling up in front of the TV with your favorite horror movies. But for those of you who may have grown tired of watching the same classics year after year, Fandor.com (the streaming service housing thousands of rare independent films from all of the globe) has provided the indispensable list of 10 terrifying indie horror flicks you may have missed, but most definitely need to see!
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Blood is the Color of Night (1964)
The monstrous vampire Marco is determined to raise his beloved Katrina from the dead. But in order to do so, he needs to transplant the heart of her living sister, Charito, the sweetest, loveliest girl in the village. Unleashing his murderous giant bat and his evil minions, Marco spreads terror and death through the community as he attempts to abduct the innocent girl. But a priest, a detective, and Charito’s friends risk their lives in a desperate attempt to save her from Marco’s hideous surgery.
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Daughters of Darkness (1971)
International screen icon Delphine Seyrig stars as Elizabeth Bathory, an ageless Countess with a beautiful young ‘companion’ and a legendary legacy of perversion. But when the two women seduce a troubled newlywed couple, they unleash a frenzy of sudden violence and depraved desire that shocked both art house audiences and grindhouse crowds worldwide.
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Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)
London is fear-struck and Scotland Yard is baffled by a series of strange murders plaguing the city. Through his stories of the atrocities, crime journalist Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough) comes to his own conclusions while clues of the crimes continue to elude the police. This is because Edmond is actually behind these horrible crimes in order to create material for his writing. Along with his assistant Rick (Graham Curnow), Edmond runs a private “Black Museum” filled with the very murder and torture devices used in the creation of these horrific stories.
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Inferno (1980)
A young woman stumbles upon a mysterious diary that reveals the secrets of the “Three Mothers” and unleashes a nightmare world of demonic evil. As the unstoppable horror spreads from Rome to New York City, this unholy trinity must be stopped before the world is submerged in the blood of the innocent. Written and directed by Dario Argento, INFERNO is the visually stunning second chapter of the “Three Mothers” trilogy begun with the classic SUSPIRIA.
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House of the Black Death (1965)
Warlock Belial Desard (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his brother Andre (John Carradine) battle for dominion over the creepy House of Desard. HOUSE OF THE BLACK DEATH is a result of one group of hack filmmakers making half a movie and a different group of hacks unsuccessfully attempting to finish the job. Complete viewer bewilderment is unconditionally guaranteed.
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Zombie (1979)
In Italy, it was considered the ‘unofficial sequel’ to DAWN OF THE DEAD. In England, it was known as ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS and banned as obscene. In America, it was called ZOMBIE and advertised with the depraved tag line, “We are going to eat you!” Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Al Cliver and Richard Johnson star in this worldwide splatter sensation directed by ‘Maestro of Gore’ Lucio Fulci that remains one of the most eye-skewering, skin-ripping, gore-gushingly graphic horror hits of all time.
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A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Su-mi and Su-yeon return home after an extended hospital stay. Things have not been the same since their mother passed away. Their return is welcomed by their stepmother Eun-joo. Su-mi, the older and stronger of the two, isn’t afraid to speak her mind, while Su-yeon is more timid and wary of their stepmother and looks to Su-mi for help. Continually picked on and harassed by their stepmother, the two have no choice but to endure the relationship for their father’s sake. Su-mi promises Su-yeon that she will never let their stepmother beat them again. Unexplainable things start to occur at the house. Could it be their stepmother trying to torment them, or is a more sinister supernatural force at work?
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Frightmare (1974)
Sheila Keith stars as a former patient of a mental institution who has settled down in a remote farmhouse, where she tells fortunes in her spare time. But the kind, maternal exterior conceals a dreadful monster, which the asylum, it seems, was unable to cure.
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Toad Road (2012)
A different kind of American independent horror film, the hypnotic TOAD ROAD, presented by Elijah Wood and his SpectreVision production company, unfolds like a hallucinatory cross between the sexual candor of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine and the backwoods creep-out of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Young James kills time with his small town druggie friends, engaging in excessive chemical intake, until he meets sweet new arrival Sara. But just as James wants to abandon the narcotics life, Sara wants him to take her further into mind-altering experimentation and she also wants him to introduce her to the sinister local legend of Toad Road, a spot deep in the forest that is apparently home to the Seven Gates of Hell. Writer-director Jason Banker’s debut is a unique fusion of documentary-like realism and otherworldly, haunting rural terror.
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Beast of Blood (1971)
This nugget from the golden age of English-language island exploitation movies barely waits two minutes before the lurid fun begins by springing a riot of shipboard axe-murders. They’re committed by grotesque zombie-type “green men” whose rumored existence soon lures a medical scientist (played by John Ashley) back to “Blood Island.” He hopes to investigate them as does his uninvited companion, a nosey-if-beautiful newspaper reporter, Celeste Yarnell.
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All of these and hundreds more award-winning and acclaimed horror films and shorts are available at Fandor.com.
