The air is getting chilly, nights are creeping in earlier, and for those who love their horror, that can only mean one thing: it’s the ideal time to get stuck into some seriously creepy indie horror. While mainstream horror tends to steal the headlines, it’s on the indie scene that the genre exists, pushing the boundaries, subverting conventions, and providing the kind of bold, recallable frights you won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Whether you’re in the mood for slow-burning psychological suspense or all-out gore, these 10 independent horror classics have something for every type of thrill-seeker. And the best part? You can watch them from your couch.

10. Piggy (2022)

Platform: Hulu

This Spanish-language horror-drama mixes raw tension with thoughtful social commentary. Piggy tracks Sara, an obese teenager mercilessly taunted in her small village—until a sudden change of circumstances compels her to go up against her bullies in a much new way. A tense hybrid of psychological horror and emotional growing up, Piggy doesn’t frighten so much as it gets you thinking.

9. Southbound (2015)

Platform: Prime Video

If anthology horror is your thing, Southbound is a frenzied and unsettling thrill ride that’s well worth the trip. Plotted along one desolate stretch of desert highway, this film links five interconnected tales of remorse, retribution, and the paranormal. Its canny structure and bare-bones style instill a creeping sense of fear with each installment. Evidence that low budgets can still muster high chills.

8. Saint Maud (2019)

Platform: Paramount+, Showtime

A slow-burning masterclass in psych horror, Saint Maud is the story of a devout young hospice nurse whose spiritual intensity descends into the dark. Maud’s destabilising faith is both tragic and terrifying, and director Rose Glass engenders an atmosphere so claustrophobic, it’s impossible not to watch. Haunting, poetic, and profoundly unsettling.

7. Terrifier (2016)

Platform: Tubi, Freevee

Want something a bit more bloody? Terrifier doesn’t mess around. With the gruesome and nasty Art the Clown, this low-budget slasher became a cult classic due to its raw, practical effects and brutal, unapologetic violence. It’s not for the squeamish, but gore fans, it’s a must-see.

6. Train to Busan (2016)

Platform: Netflix

One of the most celebrated zombie movies in the past decade, this South Korean horror thriller makes a typical train ride into a non-stop survival nightmare. Train to Busan is all about edge-of-your-seat action and powerful emotional storytelling, which goes to show that heart and horror can go hand in hand, even in the midst of a zombie outbreak.

5. The Strangers (2008)

Platform: Max

Few movies get unadulterated, lingering terror quite like The Strangers. With little talking and lots of tension, it transforms a peaceful getaway into a home invasion terror. What makes it so creepy is that it’s so simple: masked intruders, an isolated location, and the horrific unpredictability of violence. Sometimes, the most terrifying boogeymen are the ones standing at your front door.

4. Pearl (2022)

Platform: Max

In this X prequel, director Ti West builds a Technicolor horror tale that’s half character study, half slasher film. Mia Goth gives a hypnotic performance as the ambitious and deranged Pearl, fantasizing about fame while losing her grip on reality. Visually rich and emotionally disorienting, Pearl is an unapologetic, stylized exploration of the monster within.

3. Hereditary (2018)

Platform: Max

Ari Aster’s first feature reordered contemporary indie horror. Hereditary starts as a somber family drama and escalates into an unforgettable journey of supernatural horror. Toni Collette delivers a scorching turn as a mourning mother unraveling sinister secrets, and the third act is nightmare fuel. Unflinching, complicated, and profoundly unsettling.

2. The Witch (2015)

Platform: Max, Peacock

Robert Eggers’ disturbing directorial debut transports us back to 17th-century New England, where isolation and religious paranoia intertwine. With period-specific language, a haunting score, and building tension, The Witch is a horror film, yet it’s a richly atmospheric plunge into madness.Few films havee ever depicted the terror of the unknown with such stark, elegant precision.

1. Midsommar (2019)

Platform: Prime Video

Shot largely in the daylight, Midsommar turns horror on its head. Ari Aster’s folk horror classic follows a grieving woman (played wonderfully by Florence Pugh) who attends a seemingly idyllic cult festival in rural Sweden, only to find the horrors beneath the flower crowns and rituals. Equally stunning and violent, Midsommar is indie horror at its most ambitious and unforgettable.

From masked home intruders to ancient cults and psycho spirals, indie horror is where the most adventurous genre stories find life. These movies take risks, delve into forbidden territory, and create indelible scenes—all without the insurance policy of a big-budget establishment.

So if you’re in the mood for something truly different this spooky season, look beyond the mainstream. Stream one (or all) of these standout indie horror films and experience the genre at its most creative, raw, and terrifying.