10 Best Hidden Gem Halloween Horror Movies

by Andrew Pollard

1. Carver

Carver 2015
Distrify

Carver is a fantastic 'little engine that could' slasher movie. By that, it was made on a $30,000 budget and was written, directed, and edited by the then-14-year-old Emily DiPrimio - which is an amazing, quite frankly ludicrous achievement.

Paying plentiful homage to slashers of old, Carver opens up with two children left for dead by some bully classmates. That's shown in a flashback to 2007, before the action jumps forward to the present day of 2015 as those same classmates find themselves stalked by an eerie figure with a pumpkin mask and a sickle.

While there are a whole bunch of kills in Carver, the kill sequences aren't exactly the most gorey, but that's somewhat to be expected. However, what Carver does have up its sleeve - away from a solid villain design, that is - is an absolutely phenomenal final act. And for that final act, the film does so much so well in terms of setting things up for the closing 20 minutes or so of what is a brisk 75-minute run time.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.