Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger is both a tribute to Troma’s midnight-movie legacy and a bizarre reinvention that feels like it escaped from the wrong decade. Somehow, it manages to feel like Troma and not like Troma at the same time. It is gruesome, brutal, cheap-looking in an oddly expensive way, and packed with over-the-top performances.
Read MorePools (2025)
Sam Hayes’ Pools crashes onto the indie scene with a splash, balancing stylized flair and emotional sincerity in a coming-of-age story that’s part Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, part Rushmore, and all heart. Powered by a breakthrough performance from Odessa A’zion, this is a film that isn’t afraid to get weird, go deep, and dive headfirst into the chaos of growing up. Set over the course of one neon-soaked night, Pools follows Kennedy, a rebellious college student with one last shot at staying in school.
Read MoreMcConadilla (2024) #HHFF
There’s something undeniably charming about a puppet serial killer movie, especially one that leans into its own absurdity with as much heart and grit as McConadilla. While it doesn’t quite hit the same highs as Puppet Killer, it still carves out its own space in the niche but growing subgenre of killer puppet horror-comedies. And let’s be honest, there’s always room for another puppet with a taste for blood.
Read MoreWe're So Dead (2025)
In We're So Dead, Ken MacLaughlin transforms every restaurant worker’s worst nightmare into a blood-soaked, laugh-out-loud love letter to the service industry. Equal parts Waiting... and Scream, this indie horror-comedy slices through customer service hell with a steak knife and a smirk, and the result is chaotic, crude, and absolutely delightful. Set on the slowest shift of the year, Christmas Eve, this Dunwoody, Georgia-filmed slasher turns an empty dining room into a war zone when a deranged “Karen” takes her dissatisfaction to homicidal levels.
Read MoreHold the Fort (2025) #Fantasia
Hold the Fort might be short on runtime, but it’s stacked with energy, absurdity, and enough blood-soaked laughs to make it a real contender for future Halloween rotation. Clocking in at just 74 minutes, this horror-comedy from director William Bagley wastes no time getting weird—and it’s all the better for it. At the center of the chaos are Lucas and Jenny, a couple thrilled to finally own their dream home—until they discover it comes with a hellish twist: a war between their Homeowners Association and actual monsters from hell.
Read MoreSnatchers (2025) #Raindance
Snatchers is a bold, genre-mashing debut that blends absurdist comedy, supernatural horror, and social satire into something that feels a little like The Autopsy of Jane Doe by way of Shaun of the Dead—if you filtered it through a meat grinder and set it to dance music. On paper, it sounds like a recipe for a cult hit. In practice, though, it's a mixed bag that never quite finds its footing, despite a clearly committed cast and some standout technical elements.
Read MoreEddington (2025)
Ari Aster’s Eddington is a cinematic fever dream—an apocalyptic Western where cowboy hats are traded for face masks, and six-shooters for smartphones. Equal parts satire, horror, and political cartoon, it is the first major American film to tackle the COVID-19 era with both comedic bite and dramatic heft. While it’s definitely too long and sometimes too pleased with its own chaos, it’s also a rich, immersive, and often hilarious pressure cooker of a movie.
Read MoreThe Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro (2025)
What if your high school history class came back to literally haunt you? That’s the bizarre but oddly compelling premise behind The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro, an indie supernatural comedy that gleefully mashes up haunted house tropes, teen slasher parody, historical satire, and musical numbers into one sprawling fever dream of a film. Directed by Don Swanson and written by Joe Fishel, this offbeat experiment is equal parts spoof and sincere homage to the kind of films most would call “so bad, they’re good.”
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