10 Best Indie Horror Movies Of All Time

In recent years particularly, horror has often been the domain of the major franchise. Stumble upon a winning concept - a yearly day of lawlessness, for example, or a simple haunted doll - and more often than not, studios will milk the idea for all it’s worth. Horror audiences are a dedicated bunch, and often not in possession of the most discerning taste. Churn the films out and watch the money roll in.

Simultaneously, the more inventive creatives have always found the genre lends itself to a low budget. Exploiting a viewer’s fear doesn’t necessarily require stacks of money and costly effects. With the right premise, you can come out with a spooky spectacular on a shoestring.

These movies may not have had the backing of a studio, but in horror, ingenuity and craft will usually triumph over a colossal budget (though several of these films were prestige pieces with decent money behind them - small potatoes, relatively speaking, but a decent chunk of change all the same).

Horror can be a real meritocracy - the idea is scary, or it isn’t, no matter the studio backing or lack thereof. These movies prove that the concept is king.

Neil Marshall’s directorial debut Dog Soldiers was terrific low budget schlocky fun, but it wasn’t exactly scary, relying more on keen humour and nifty action set pieces than scares. He redressed this with 2005’s The Descent, another low budget feature but one which embraces fear of every kind.

The premise alone will have the claustrophobic shivering: six women embark on a spelunking expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. When they stray into an unmarked cave system, they discover a race of humanoid creatures known as “crawlers”, which have every intention of killing and eating them.

The film is a descent in every sense, first into the depths of the earth, and then into madness. Paranoia is rife among the women; theoretically firm friends, their individual survival instincts soon kick in once it hits the fan, and there are burning, unspoken personal issues to exacerbate the situation further.

The film was a solid success in spite of its utterly bleak outlook, and it’s a minor technical marvel. On a pittance and with unknown actors, Marshall manages to create a hugely powerful horror that grips the viewer from the off and leaves them shaking.