7 of the Best Indie Horror Movies Made in Wisconsin
It’s no surprise why Wisconsin is home to some of the best indie horror movies. We may be a long ways off from Hollywood, but we seem to have an intimate connection with many typical horror movie themes like isolation, desperation and hopelessness. That’s probably to be expected when you live in the backwoods of America and grow up on bedtime stories of local serial killers and cannibals.
So if we’re going to talk about horror movies filmed in Wisconsin, we simply cannot ignore the glorious, low-budget offerings of Wisconsin’s indie filmmakers.
Below is a selection of the best horror movies to watch with a homegrown passion for blood, guts, and WTF. These films run the gamut from sleazy and ridiculous to disturbing and downright nauseating. They are NOT for the faint of heart but they sure are a lot of fun.
Consider yourself warned!
1. Backwoods Bloodbath
Backwoods Bloodbath is about six friends who take a road trip to a town where a local legend has been feeding off the population for decades. The black hodag, a uniquely Wisconsin creature from the Rhinelander area, is the bloodthirsty killer in this old school horror flick about half naked teenagers getting slaughtered in the woods.
In an interview with horror movie website Terror Tube, director Donn Kennedy summed up his film like this: “What can you expect? Think American Pie in the woods where the pie eats the kids.”
Backwoods Bloodbath is currently available in this DVD collection.
Watch the trailer
2. Hole in the Wall
In recent years, a group of independent guerrilla filmmakers calling themselves the “Wisconsin Horror Mob” have been churning out brutal and twisted low-budget horror flicks reminiscent of the horror genre’s golden age in the 1970s and 80s.
The latest abomination from the mob is called Hole in the Wall, an anthology comprised of seven short films. Included is an offering from director Cory J. Udler that reimagines infamous Wisconsin deviant Ed Gein as a dentist with a penchant for extraction.
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3. Dead Weight
Dead Weight is set in a post-apocalyptic Wisconsin. In the wake of biological attacks that decimated civilization, Charlie must combat exhaustion, malicious survivors and the burden of his own obsession with the past on his journey through the wilderness to find his girlfriend.
Written and directed by Adam Bartlett and John Pata, Dead Weight took film festivals by storm in 2012, raking in awards and nominations wherever it screened.
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4. Incest Death Squad
Incest Death Squad is the first in a trilogy of exploitation, grindhouse-style films by Cory J. Udler about an incestuous brother and sister who murder tourists for God. IDS stars Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment, Elske McCain, Scarlet Salem, George Kosana (of Night of the Living Dead) and the 1980s hair metal band Britny Fox.
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5. Don’t Go to the Reunion
A horror movie-loving misfit gets revenge for a prank when the class of ’04 gathers for their ten-year reunion. Wisconsin’s own Steve Goltz and Kevin Sommerfield of Slasher Studios are responsible for Don’t Go to the Reunion, which premiered at the Oshkosh Horror Film Festival.
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6. Swamphead
What happens when an ancient relic is discovered at the bottom of a lake? Naturally, it resurrects the severed head of a maniacal Norse warrior who is hellbent on terrorizing a hapless group of teenagers. Swamphead was written and directed by Justin Propp and Dustin Drover for Rabid Child Films.
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7. The Legend Trip
A group of young grad students set out on a legend trip to debunk a stories of a Wisconsin haunted house. What they uncover, instead, is the horrifying reality of the evil that lurks in the Buth House.
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Which one of these Wisconsin-made indie horror movies is your favorite? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
