Indie horror movies have been around for decades, but often they do not get as much attention as box-office movies. Sometimes though the movies jump into mainstream media and become fan favorites for years to come. Check out our list of the best indie horror movies to watch and expand your view of the horror genre.
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What Is an Indie Horror Movie?
Indie horror movies are also known as low-budget horror movies, because they often are used for experimentation within the horror genre, and trying to gain maximum shock value from the viewer. These can include slashers, ghost stories, mockumentaries, comedy horror, and horror that bends genres together into something new. Even though they are low budget, many of these indie horror movies have gone on to become prominent cinema.
What Is the Most Successful Independent Horror Film of all Time?
Pulling in $258 million, The Blair Witch Project is the highest grossing independent horror film. Though it is not the highest grossing independent film, it changed the way horror films were made and was the first horror film to instigate what Blumhouse Productions, a huge horror industry, has made their business model. Considering this film only had a budget between $200,000 and $500,000, this is an incredible pull by an independent film.
What Is the Number One Horror Movie Ever Made?
Many consider The Exorcist to be the best and scariest horror film of all time. Premiering in 1973, this movie has been able to outlast decades of other horror films and has led to five other films in the same vein. The original focuses on a mother who is trying to save her possessed daughter with the help of two Catholic priests.
What Is the Best Horror Movie According to IMDB Ratings?
According to IMDB, the psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs takes the prize of being the best horror film with a rating of 8.6 out of 10. This score is cemented by the fact that The Silence of the Lambs is one of three films in history to win the five major categories at the Academy Awards.
What Is the Best Horror Movie According to Rotten Tomatoes Audience Scores?
According to the Rotten Tomatoes audience scores, Psycho is the best horror film with a rating of 95% on the Tomatometer. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this is one of the well-known horror films, even to people who don’t like watching scary movies. Even with no blood or gore in the movie, you still will not want to turn off the lights when it gets dark out.
How We Have Decided on the Best Indie Horror Movies
We will be evaluating the best indie horror movies based on the Rotten Tomatoes Audience score, because it holds the most accurate rating in our opinion, since the score is made up of viewers just like us.
5 Best New Indie Horror Movies
Here are our top five best indie horror movie picks from 2023.
5. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)
Transformed from our favorite children’s book into feral and bloodthirsty monsters, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet terrorize Christopher Robin and a group of young women at a remote house in the woods.
- IMDB: 2.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 50%
4. Infinity Pool (2023)
Couple James and Em Foster are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation on the island of La Tolqa. When a fatal accident exposes the resort’s perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors, the couple must fight to survive their new world of horror.
- IMDB: 6.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 52%
3. Mother May I? (2023)
After Emmett’s mother passes away, he starts to notice that his fiancé Anya is acting like his mother. In order to free Anya from this freakish possession, he must confront his deepest traumas from childhood.
- IMDB: 5.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 65%
2. My Animal (2023)
Heather, an outcast starts to fall for newcomer Jonny, a tormented figure skater. As their relationship progresses, Heather’s desires clash with her secret animal inside, making this a twisted web of love and lycanthropy.
- IMDB: 4.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: No score (critics 73%)
1. Talk to Me (2023)
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, egging each other on to hold onto the hand as long as possible. Everything is going “okay” until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
- IMDB: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
5 Best Indie Horror Movies in 2022
These are our top five best indie horror movie picks from 2022.
5. Enys Men (2022)
In 1973, on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast a wildlife volunteer records observations of a rare flower. These observations slowly turn into a metaphysical journey that makes the viewer question what is real and what is a waking nightmare.
- IMDB: 5.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 23%
4. The Price We Pay (2022)
During a pawn shop robbery Grace gets kidnapped by the criminals, who escape and find refuge in a remote farmhouse. As they wait for the heat to die down, a malevolent presence is lurking in the shadows of the farmhouse, and the criminals will not be so lucky this time.
- IMDB: 4.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 36%
3. Skinamarink (2022)
In this bone-chilling film, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find that their father is missing, and all the windows and doors have vanished.
- IMDB: 4.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 44%
2. The Offering (2022)
After the disappearance of a young Jewish girl, the son of a Hasidic funeral director comes home to his pregnant wife and wants to repair the bonds between him and his father. But underneath their feet in the family morgue is an ancient evil, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash its plans for the unborn child.
- IMDB: 5./10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 48%
1. The Devil Conspiracy (2022)
In a combination between religion and science, The Devil Conspiracy is a horror born from twisted desires. When a cabal of Satanists posing as a biotech company finds a way to clone people with DNA, they steal the shroud of Christ so they can reawaken him and make the ultimate offering to the devil. Archangel Michael comes down to earth to fight against the devil’s plans.
- IMDB: 4.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 51%
5 Best Indie Horror Movies in 2021
These are our top five best indie horror movie picks from 2021.
5. In the Earth (2021)
In the aftermath of COVID-19 comes In the Earth, where the world is searching for a cure to a disastrous virus. The story focuses on a scientist and park scout who venture into the forest for a routine equipment run, but instead must go through a terrifying voyage into the heart of darkness as the forest comes alive around them.
- IMDB: 5.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 24%
4. Censor (2021)
Film censor Enid takes pride in guarding audiences from the gory killings she pores over, amplified by the disappearance of her sister years ago and declared dead in absentia. When a new film appears in Enid’s archive echoing her hazy childhood memories, Enid takes steps to see how this eerie film might be connected to her past.
- IMDB: 6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 57%
3. My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell it To (2021)
In a twisted family dynamic older brother Dwight and older sister Jessie must kill strangers in order to give their blood to Thomas, their youngest brother, in order to survive. As Dwight yearns for another life and Jessie tries to keep the family together, Thomas continues to yearn for blood.
- IMDB: 6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 60%
2. Willy’s Wonderland (2021)
Nicolas Cage stars in this movie as a quiet drifter who was tricked into a janitorial job for the condemned Willy’s Wonderland. As he completes mundane tasks, his easy job turns into a battle for survival when the demonic animatronics come alive and attack, and only one side will come out alive.
- IMDB: 5.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 68%
1. Last Night in Soho (2021)
After moving to Soho to pursue her fashion designer dreams, Eloise is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters and “becomes” wannabe singer Sandie. The glamour is not all it seems though, and as the dreams of the past turn dark, Eloise must figure out what really happened all those years ago.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 90%
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5 Best Indie Horror Movies in 2020
These are our top five best indie horror movie picks from 2020.
5. Relic (2020)
Three generations of women are terrorized in Relic — a daughter, mother, and grandmother. As the grandmother becomes more hostile, the mother realizes there is something evil lurking in their family’s home.
- IMDB: 6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 52%
4. Possessor (2020)
Taysa Vos, an elite corporate assassin, is part of a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies to commit high-profile assassinations. When Vos gets hacked though, she must figure out what happened and how to save herself in this mind-gripping horror film.
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 59%
3. Spree (2020)
Obsessed with gaining a large social media following, rideshare driver Kurt Kunkle has figured out the perfect plan to go viral. Unfortunately for his riders, this plan is quite bloody and deadly.
- IMDB: 5.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 60%
2. The Night House (2020)
Trying to pick up the pieces after her husband unexpectedly dies, Beth is alone in the lake house that he built for her. When the house starts calling out to Beth in her dreams, she decides to dig into her husband’s belongings, against the advice of her friends. What she ends up finding are secrets to a disturbing mystery she must unravel in order to find the truth.
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 69%
1. His House (2020)
After successfully escaping from war-torn South Sudan, a refugee couple try to adjust to their new lives in an English town. But there’s evil lurking under the surface and its coming to get them.
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 73%
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10 Best Indie Horror Movies of the 2010s
These are our top ten picks for the best indie horror movie from the 2010s.
10. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dr. Steven Murphy, a cardiovascular surgeon, has the perfect life with his wife and two children. The only problem is Martin, a fatherless teen who continues to edge his way into Steven’s life in unsettling ways. When Martin makes his intentions clear with a long-forgotten transgression, Steven’s world will be shattered forever.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 63%
9. Goodnight Mommy (2014)
After their mother has face-changing cosmetic surgery, twin boys move into a new house with her to recover. But over time, the strange demeanor of their mother has the children on edge, and they might not recognize who lies beneath the bandages.
- IMDB: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 66%
8. The Battery (2012)
Forced to survive together during a zombie apocalypse is two former baseball players who must work together to survive, as they traverse the rural back roads of New England that are now teeming with the undead.
- IMDB: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 66%
7. Hereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family dies, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, and must try to outrun the sinister fate they have now inherited.
- IMDB: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 70%
6. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
In an Iranian ghost-town called Bad City, a place full of death and loneliness, there is something lurking the in the shadows. The townspeople are unaware that they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire who preys on men that are rude to other women.
- IMDB: 6.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 75%
5. Green Room (2015)
After witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar, a punk rock band is captured and brought to a remote Oregon roadhouse. As each of the members are tortured in horrifying ways, they must come together if they want to survive.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 75%
4. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Two vampire lovers played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston try to understand their place in the modern world after living for centuries. This peace gets interrupted though when Tilda’s younger uncontrollable sister appears in their home.
- IMDB: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 75%
3. Raw (2016)
Vegetarian Justine is starting veterinary school and must endure a new dangerously seductive world around her. Trying to fit in, she eats raw meat for the first time and experiences terrible consequences as her true corrupted self begins to emerge from the shadows.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 76%
2. Blue Ruin (2013)
After returning to his childhood home to commit an act of vengeance against those who killed his parents, this mysterious outsider proves himself to be an amateur assassin. He then winds up in a brutal fight in order to protect his estranged family
- IMDB: 7.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 79%
1. Get Out (2017)
Couple Chris and Rose have finally gotten to the meet-the-parents stage of dating, and Rose invites Chris for a weekend trip with her parents. Chris originally takes their overly accommodating behavior as attempts to be okay with an interracial relationship, but as the trip progresses Chris uncovers the truth that he never could have imagined.
- IMDB: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 86%
10 Best Indie Horror Movies of the 2000s
These are our top ten best indie horror movie picks from the 2000s.
10. Cabin Fever (2002)
Five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods, but begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus. This attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals, so the college graduates must fight horror from inside their bodies and outside in the woods.
- IMDB: 5.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 44%
9. Wrong Turn (2003)
Chris and a group of five friends are deep in the middle of the woods after their cars collide, leaving both of them stranded. As they venture deeper into the woods, they face an uncertain and bloodcurdling fate when a group of backwoods cannibals appear.
- IMDB: 6.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 54%
8. Paranormal Activity (2007)
Not long after moving into their suburban home, Katie and Micah become increasingly frightened by what appears to be a supernatural presence in the house. Hoping to capture evidence on film, they set up video cameras around the house but are not prepared for the real horror to come.
- IMDB: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 57%
7. The House of the Devil (2009)
Needing to make some extra money to move into a new apartment, college student Samantha takes a mysterious babysitting job. After arriving at the house, the owner Mr. Ulman explains that instead of a child Samantha will be watching his mother. As Samantha explores the creepy house, she realizes her employers are hiding a terrible secret and have horrifying plans for her.
- IMDB: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 63%
6. Eden Lake (2008)
Trying to make the best out of their romantic weekend, a young couple refuses to let anything spoil the fun. When they encounter a group of loutish youths though, a series of events takes them to terrifyingly brutal consequences.
- IMDB: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 66%
5. Martyrs (2008)
In a quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child, a young woman joins forces with her friend who was also a victim of child abuse. They embark on a journey that leads them down a path into a living hell of depravity.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 69%
4. The Descent (2005)
A fun exploration into a cave goes horribly wrong as the explorers become trapped in the depths of the earth, and are pursued by a strange breed of predators that have a craving for human flesh.
- IMDB: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 76%
3. REC (2007)
A “found footage” horror film, REC is about a reporter and her cameraman that follow emergency workers into a apartment building and are locked inside. Turns out there is a disease that turns humans into vicious cannibals, and now they are trapped inside the building with no way out.
- IMDB: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
2. Saw (2004)
Photographer Adam and oncologist Lawrence wake up chained to pipes in a filthy bathroom, new victims of the serial killer nicknamed “Jigsaw.” In order to live, the two must complete his perverse puzzle, as flashbacks relate the fates of previous victims, and on a closed-circuit video Lawrence’s wife watches on in terror.
- IMDB: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 84%
1. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Shaun is a 30-year-old loser that works at an electronics store and lives with his best friend Ed in the outskirts of London. Shaun’s girlfriend Liz just wants him to grow up and be a man, and he may finally get his chance when the town is overrun with zombies, and Shaun must protect Liz and his mother.
- IMDB: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 93%
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10 Best Indie Horror Movies of All-Time
These are our top ten best indie horror movie picks of all-time.
10. The Collector (2009)
Trying to find a way to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plans to steal a precious gem from his new employer’s home. But, someone else has targeted the property and by the time the ex-con gets there, the family inside is tied up and the house is riddled with deadly traps.
- IMDB: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 48%
9. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The found footage on a videocamera reveals the story of three film students who’ve traveled to a small town in order to create a documentary about the legendary Blair Witch, a local murderer. As the students collect interviews from townspeople and gather clues to support the tale, they end up getting lost in the woods and begin to hear horrific noises around them.
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 56%
8. The Witch (2015)
This horror film takes a step into the past to evoke fear from its viewers. In 1630 New England, panic encloses a family when their youngest son Samuel disappears. The family blames the oldest daughter Thomasin, and as twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, the clan’s faith, loyalty, and love is put to the test.
- IMDB: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 60%
7. Midsommer (2019)
Starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor, Midsommar is about a couple who decides to visit a Northern Europe town’s fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. Instead, the idyllic retreat quickly turns into a violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
- IMDB: 7.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 63%
6. It Follows (2014)
After teenager Jay sleeps with her new boyfriend Hugh, she learns she is the latest recipient of a fatal curse passed via sexual intercourse. Death will now creep towards her as either a friend or stranger. Jay’s friends don’t believe her at first, until they too see the phantom assassins and band together to protect Jay.
- IMDB: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 66%
5. Eraserhead (1977)
Henry lives alone in industrial gloom, until his earlier fling with Mary X has left her pregnant and prompts Henry to marry her and have Mary move in with him. When the baby is born though, it’s a weird lizard-like creature that will not stop wailing. Other odd characters add to Henry’s troubles as he struggles to cope with having a wife and child.
- IMDB: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
4. Re-Animator (1985)
When an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue with a special serum, and end up bringing their headless professor back from the dead.
- IMDB: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
3. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
One of the most popular horror movies is Texas Chain Saw Massacre, where five friends are heading into rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way though, they stumble across a seemingly deserted home, only to discover that there’s something there…something with a chainsaw.
- IMDB: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
2. The Evil Dead (1981)
A group of five friends decide to hike into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. Once inside, they find an old book titled the Necronomicon, and unknowingly release of flood of evil and must fight for their lives, or become one of the evil dead.
- IMDB: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 84%
1. Halloween (1978)
On Halloween in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally killed his 17 year old sister and was sentenced to fifteen years behind bars. But on October 30, 1978 as Myers is being transferred for a court date, the 21 year old escapes by stealing a car. He returns to his quite hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, intent on finding more victims.
- IMDB: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 89%
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5 Best Indie Horror Movies Based on True Stories
This is our top five best indie horror movie picks based on true stories that might even be scarier than the movie itself.
5. Open Water (2003)
Based on the true story of two scuba divers that were accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat left them, Open Water is a guess at what happened to the divers, as their real bodies were never found.
- IMDB: 5.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 33%
4. Wolf Creek (2005)
Three backpackers traveling through the Australian outback become stranded, and are then plunged inside a hellish nightmare of torture by a sadistic psychopathic local that finds them.
- IMDB: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 49%
3. The Amityville Horror (1979)
A couple of newlyweds and their three children move into a large home where a mass murder was committed years ago. As they live inside the house, the family starts to experience strange manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or those that visit the house.
- IMDB: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 52%
2. Compliance (2012)
A normal Friday goes horribly wrong at a fast food restaurant, when service is interrupted by a police officer claiming an employee stole from a customer. He then subjects the worker to intense interrogation, all the while something more sinister lurks in the background.
- IMDB: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 60%
1. An American Crime (2007)
An American Crime is about a divorced housewife, Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s. She tortured her and allowed her kids to follow suit in this horrifying twist.
- IMDB: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 74%
55 Best Indie Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked
55. Enys Men (2022) 23%
54. In the Earth (2021) 24%
53. Open Water (2003) 33%
52. The Price We Pay (2022) 36%
51. Cabin Fever (2002) 44%
50. Skinamarink (2022) 44%
49. The Collector (2009) 48%
48. The Offering (2022) 48%
47. Wolf Creek (2005) 49%
46. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) 50%
45. The Devil Conspiracy (2022) 51%
44. The Amityville Horror (1979) 52%
43. Infinity Pool (2023) 52%
42. Relic (2020) 52%
41. Wrong Turn (2003) 54%
40. The Blair Witch Project (1999) 56%
39. Paranormal Activity (2007) 57%
38. Censor (2021) 57%
37. Possessor (2020) 59%
36. Compliance (2012) 60%
35. My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell it To (2021) 60%
34. The Witch (2015) 60%
33. Spree (2020) 60%
32. Midsommer (2019) 63%
31. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) 63%
30. The House of the Devil (2009) 63%
29. Mother May I? (2023) 65%
28. It Follows (2014) 66%
27. Goodnight Mommy (2014) 66%
26. Eden Lake (2008) 66%
25. The Battery (2012) 66%
24. Willy’s Wonderland (2021) 68%
23. Martyrs (2008) 69%
22. The Night House (2020) 69%
21. Hereditary (2018) 70%
20. His House (2020) 73%
19. My Animal (2023) 73%
18. An American Crime (2007) 74%
17. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) 75%
16. Green Room (2015) 75%
15. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) 75%
14. The Descent (2005) 76%
13. Raw (2016) 76%
12. Blue Ruin (2013) 79%
11. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 82%
10. Re-Animator (1985) 82%
9. Eraserhead (1977) 82%
8. Talk to Me (2023) 82%
7. REC (2007) 82%
6. The Evil Dead (1981) 84%
5. Saw (2004) 84%
4. Get Out (2017) 86%
3. Halloween (1978) 89%
2. Last Night in Soho (2021) 90%
1. Shaun of the Dead (2004) 93%
Horror has always been a prominent genre in movies, whether the budget is millions of dollars or only a couple thousand. Indie movies bring out the best in horror because they have no strict limits, and often directors take impressive creative liberties with the characters and storylines, making a great movies. Be sure to check out some of these indie horror films from our top 55 list.
