10 Best Indie Horror Movies Of The 2010s, Ranked According To IMDb – Screen Rant

Horror underwent an amazing renaissance in the 2010s and that is largely thanks to indie horror movies like Green Room, Get Out and Hereditary.

What defines an independent film? Indiesutilizesmall production companies for financing and distribution. These independent entertainmentventures tend to take more risks and give filmmakers more freedom to shoot their films without oversight. Independent movies push boundaries, challenge moviegoers, and takes moviemaking into refreshingly new territory.

RELATED:10 Horror Films From The 2000s/2010s You Have Not Seen

When it comes to horror, the 2010s proved to be an exciting decade. Independent horror filmswere able to complete with big-budget features more than ever before. Thanks to wider distribution networks and streaming services, the decade's best independent horror features wowed critics and audiences alike. They hint at more greatness to come from independent production companies in the 2020s.

After debuting at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival,Ana Lily Amirpour's debut featureA Girl Walks Home Alone at Night quickly gained traction as a brilliant reimagining of vampire movies. In the film, which is shot in black-and-white and stylized like a Western, a lonely female vampire skateboards around in search ofexcitement.

A Persian-language feature,A Girl Walks Home Alone at Nightis set in the fictional Iranian Bad City. Atmospheric and engrossing, it's plot takes off when the vampire falls for a human named Hossein.

James Ward Byrkit'sCoherence, made for just $50,000, is a convincing psychological thriller fueled by a sci-fi plot. While gathering for a dinner party near Los Angeles, a group of friends experiences a series of mind-boggling, surreal events spurred by a comet passing over Earth that literally causesreality to split in two.

The heady, complicated physics that form the foundation ofCoherence matter insomuch as they give some context to the psychodrama that unfolds between the characters. Relying on tight shots and intimate moments, Byrkitcompiles a terrifying testament to the flimsy nature of existence.

Popular indie production companyA24 helped Yorgos Lanthimos's wild, nonsensical thrillerThe Killing of a Sacred Deer obtain a wide distribution in the United States. Lanthimos, who since moved onto big studios withThe Favourite, is a Greek director known for helming deeply disturbing films.

RELATED:All The Films Of Yorgos Lanthimos, Ranked According To Rotten Tomatoes

Barry Keoghan gives one of the most memorable performances in recent horror as Martin, a teen who implicates himself in the lives of heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) and his family. Without exposition or jump scares, Lanthimos builds a disturbing world where Martin's impliedthreat to the Murphy family actualizesbecomes apparentthrough fantastical, yet convincing,events.

A French film from body horror provocateurJulia Ducournau,Raw is a coming-of-age scary film for anyonewho has ever inherited bizarre traits from their parents.For Justine, a first-year veterinary school student, thepeculiar characteristic she acquired from her mother turns out to be a taste for human flesh.

Unaware of her latent cannibalism, Justine's hunger is activated when she's forced to eat raw animal organs as part of a hazing ritual. Her older and more unhinged sister, Alexia, gives Justine a crash course in feeding on people that quickly escalates into agrotesque sibling rivalry.

Another A24 gem,Green Room is a brutal film from Jeremy Saulnier that sees a punk band battling a group of hardcore Neo-Nazis.The Ain't Rights, desperate for money, accept a gig at a remote club outside Portland, where they are held hostage by the residentneo-Nazis after witnessing a murder.

RELATED:The 10 Most Insane Revenge Plots In Recent Horror Movies

The fascists, led by acreepy, white supremacistPatrick Stewart, have no intention of letting the band out alive. Between bouts of extreme gore and unnerving psychological terror,Green Room is a taut, perfectly paced, and entirely believable cinematic experience.

Another Jeremy Saulnier film,Blue Ruinis a gritty revenge thriller starring Macon Blair. Blair has quietly made a name for himself in underground horror circles, acting in and even directing some compelling genre features.

In the film, Blair plays a man named Dwight, a drifter who returns home to Virginia to avenge the murder of his parents 20 years earlier. Saulnier funded the critically praisedBlue Ruin through a Kickstarter campaign, which is about as indie as it gets.

Bone Tomahawk is a shockingly violent Western horror film starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins, and Matthew Fox. Russell plays the sheriff of a frontier town who must rescue a villager and a prisoner from a tribe of indigenous, subterranean cannibals.

RELATED:Motor City USA: 10 Best Movies Set In Detroit, According To IMDb

In the film, Russell's character Sheriff Franklin Hunt leads a group of other white men toward a perilous confrontation. Controversialfilmmaker S. Craig Zahler's debut feature hints attherelentlessly gruesome, politically incorrect feature films to come inBone Tomahawk.

After making off-kilter dramedies that span back to the 1980s, Jim Jarmusch decided to give horror a go with his 2013 vampire flickOnly Lovers Left Alive. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play a pair of ancient vampires, Eve and Adam, who share a reunion in Adam's Detroit Victorian mansion.

Depressed and dejected, Adam is fed up with living in the shadows. When Eve's sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) arrives from Los Angeles, she offers Adam a welcome distraction from the ennui brought on by immortality.

It may beHereditary that proved A24 is the production company for horror fans to watch out for. It was definitelyHereditary, considered one of the scariest movies ever made, that put Ari Aster on the map as a horror director to watch out for.

In the film, which stars Toni Colette and Gabriel Byrne as Annie and Steve Graham, a series of tragic events connected to the passing of Annie's estranged mother unfolds on screen. Through his initially delicate storytelling style, Asher hints at the nightmarish conclusions to be drawn from these happenings, but it's not enough to prepare viewers forHereditary's nearly unbearable conclusion.

Get Out swept the 2018 Independent Spirit Awards, and it earned Jordan Peele an Oscar for his trailblazing screenplay.Get Out tows the line between independent and big studio movie, as it was produced by Blumhouse yet distributed by Universal Pictures.

All the technical details aside,Get Out revolutionized the genre, forcing white audiences to think twice about their privilege and giving Black audiences a hero to root for. Daniel Kaluuya gives his character Chris Washington, whois lured by his white girlfriend to her parents' house for something much more nefarious than he ever imagined, the kind of breadth and dimension that requires multiple viewings.

NEXT:10 Best Horror Movies Of All Time (According To Letterboxd)

Next 10 Best Squads In Horror Movie History, Ranked

Megan is a public librarian by trade obsessed with the intersections between art, culture, and society. She's a nerd for horror, obscure memes, weird history, graphic novels, and binge-worthy science fiction series.

Excerpt from:
10 Best Indie Horror Movies Of The 2010s, Ranked According To IMDb - Screen Rant