October is the time for horror, which makes it a great time for independent movies.
As long as independent movies have existed, horror movies have provided a huge bulk of the films made by artists outside the studio system. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest genres to make, with some of the best potential to make a profit, and has unsurprisingly thrived in the independent film market. Many of the most important and acclaimed American horror movies were independent productions. “Night of the Living Dead” practically created the zombie film, while the original slasher “Halloween” was a tiny budget indie made for just $300,000. Sure, there are plenty of quality horror films made by studios, but nothing beats the grit and pure terror that great indie horror films can provide.
For the latest in our monthly column of streaming independent film recommendations, we took a look at the plethora of spooky and creepy options to dig into on streaming. Criterion Channel is celebrating the month with an entire collection of arthouse horror, including “Flesh for Frankenstein,” “Eraserhead,” “Carnival of Souls,” “Night of the Living Dead,” “Donnie Darko,” and “Sisters.” Over on Metrograph’s streaming service, the arthouse theater is hosting several terrifying experimental films from the archive of Electronic Arts Intermix,for those looking for a particularly unconventional scare. There’s also “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on Paramount+, for people who want to re-experience one of the scariest films in horror history.
And for the scaredy cats in the room, there’s plenty of non-horror options new to streaming this Halloween season. Comedies like “Dazed and Confused” and “Shortbus,” or quiet dramas like “Miss Juneteenth” or “Igby Goes Down,” are there to make you laugh or cry — while horror buffs spend the rest of the month screaming at their TV or computer screens in pure fright.
Read on for the 10 best classic independent films streaming this October. Entries are listed in no particular order, and are compiled from new releases on streamers like Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, Prime Video, Showtime, and Peacock, as well as specialty services like Metrograph, Criterion Channel, and Shudder.
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On Metrograph: “In the Family” (2011)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Metrograph’s streaming service is hosting three films from director Patrick Wang, an indie filmmaker who specializes in heartbreaking family dramas. First, check out his debut, “In the Family,” in which he plays a gay man whose partner dies and leaves him searching for a way to legally adopt their son. Then, check out his other two films, “The Grief of Others” and two-parter “A Bread Factory.”
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On Metrograph: “Where Evil Dwells” (1985)
Image Credit: Metrograph In celebration of Halloween, Metrograph is hosting several short films from Electronic Arts Intermix, an experimental art film archive and distributor. Some of the strange shorts on display come from acclaimed artists like David Wojnarowicz, who co-directed “Where Evil Dwells” with Tommy Turner. Other weird shorts to cue up include “Beneath the Skin,” “The Creeping Crimson,” “Evokation of My Demon Sister,” “Monster Movie,” and “The Scary Movie.”
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On Criterion Channel: “Eraserhead” (1977)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Also in celebration of Halloween, The Criterion Channel has added a collection of arthouse horror films, celebrating the movies that mixed genre thrills with innovative and unusual filmmaking. Fittingly, one of the new additions is “Eraserhead,” David Lynch’s feature debut and one of the most famous and unusual independent films ever made. Made while Lynch was still in film school on a bare-bones budget, the terrifying film about a man (Jack Nance) left to care for a deformed baby uses nightmarish and surreal imagery to transport the audience into a desolate and twisted version of our own world. Other notable indie arthouse horror films added to Criterion that are worth watching include “Carnival of Souls,” “Night of the Living Dead,” “Donnie Darko,” and “Sisters.”
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On Criterion Channel: “Flesh for Frankenstein” (1973)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection For Halloween, Criterion also added two films by Paul Morrissey, a filmmaker known for his collaborations with Andy Warhol. The first is “Flesh for Frankenstein,” a kinky, sex-filled take on the classic Mary Shelley horror tale, featuring Udo Kier as a lusty, perverted version of the mad doctor. Kier also stars in Morrissey’s follow-up “Blood for Dracula,” as the iconic vampire searching 1920s Italy for virgin blood.
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On Netflix: “Miss Juneteenth” (2020)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection “Miss Juneteenth” fittingly released on the holiday it was named after in 2020, but went under the radar. That’s a shame, given it was one of the best films of its year. Channing Godfrey Peoples’ feature directorial debut stars Nicole Beharie as a single mother working at a bar who enters her unenthusiastic daughter (Alexis Chikaeze) into the local Miss Juneteenth pagent she won herself years ago. The experience strains their relationship, but ultimately brings daughter and mother together as the sacrifices Beharie’s Turquoise made for her child over her life become more apparent. “Miss Juneteenth” is a small, intimate film, that features an astonishing performance from Beharie that feels deeply lived in and raw.
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On Hulu: “Dazed and Confused” (1993)
Image Credit: ©GramercyPictures/Courtesy Everett Collection One of the most famous and beloved indie movies of the ’90s, “Dazed and Confused” was the breakout film for Richard Linklater and about half of the cast that played the movie’s high school stoners, as many would become very famous very soon after. Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rory Cochrane are among the cast of Texas teens celebrating the first night of summer in 1976, as they drive around their small town and get into mischief and mayhem. The freewheeling movie is one of the greatest achievements in cinematic vibes, funny, loose, and charmingly shaggy. It’s a great watch both sober and high — although if you’re cuing it up, chances are you’re already high.
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On Paramount+: “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection With Halloween coming up, there are plenty of indie horror classics to enjoy; why not celebrate with one of the absolute scariest? The micro-budget “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” revolutionized horror when it premiered in 1974, paving the way for slashers like “Halloween” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.” No film that followed is as raw or genuinely terrifying as Tobe Hopper’s original nightmare about traveling teens chased by the horrifying Leatherface. The film’s low-budget thrills and surprising beauty still manage to astonish today.
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On Paramount+ with Showtime: “In the Bedroom” (2001)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection With all the hype of “Tár” last year, why not revisit the film that brought director Todd Field into the spotlight? 2001’s “In the Bedroom,” based on the 1979 short story “Killings” by Andre Dubus, stars Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson as a couple whose picture-perfect family falls apart abruptly one eventful summer. The film runs warmer than the notoriously cold-blooded “Tár,” but Field’s excellent writing and his knack for getting great performances from his cast is on full display, with Spacek, Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei all doing some of their career-best work.
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On Paramount+ with Showtime: “Igby Goes Down” (2002)
Image Credit: ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection If you love Kieran Culkin in “Succession,” now’s the time to revisit his breakout role. Released when he was just 19, “Igby Goes Down” stars Culkin as the titular teen, a rebellious kid in an old-money New York family who attempts to chart his own path but struggles to grow up. Burr Steers’ film trades in some indie clichés, but both Culkin and Claire Danes as Igby’s love interest Sookie are terrific enough to make it worth a watch.
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On Mubi: “Shortbus” (2006)
Image Credit: ©Think Film/Courtesy Everett Collection “Shortbus” is almost exclusively known for the fact that it features several unsimulated scenes of sexual intercourse, but John Cameron Mitchell’s 2006 indie film is more than just a cheap shock. The dramedy focuses on a group of interrelated New Yorkers looking for connection who meet at a weekly artistic and sexual salon in Brooklyn. Mitchell’s script is funny and witty, and its big heart just makes the soft-core nature all the sexier.
