The important thing to remember about Emily Hagins, the budding filmmaker at the center of the documentary ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE (which has been playing the fest circuit for the last year or so), is that she’s a 12-year-old. A real 12-year-old, not a miniature adult of the type we’ve been conditioned to expect from the cinema, and that no doubt would have taken center stage if this were a calculated reality-TV program.

For a critic like me who is not only a serious lover of horror but of films in general, watching THE REVENANT is a genuine pleasure. Written and directed by PHANTASM sequel FX wizard D. Kerry Prior, the film has been enjoying much international fest love over the past year or so, winning awards and picking up a cult of fans. And rightfully so: This is a brilliant, sophisticated horror/comedy that manages to play within a familiar framework while deftly defying clichés at every turn.

It’s not strictly a horror film, but it’s unlikely that any movie will come along this year to match the gut-wrenching intensity of the Australian indie THE HORSEMAN (hitting special-edition DVD and Blu-ray June 15 from Screen Media, and not to be confused for a second with last year’s Dennis Quaid-starrer HORSEMEN). It’s by now a cliché to describe a movie as reminiscent of ’70s cinema, but this stripped-down parental-revenge thriller truly warrants the description, and it also shows up the slick, absurd contrivances of an expensive modern schlocker like TAKEN.

From deep red to grey velvet, the cinema of Dario Argento drips with pungent pigmentation. Vivid color is deployed for texture and sensuality. The primary hues of SUSPIRIA’s Tans Academy pulsate with a primal femininity. The densely filtered light in INFERNO creates a heady dreamscape saturated with dangerous allure.

There have been countless grassroots undead movies in the last couple of decades, and more than a few indie flicks that applied the THIS IS SPINAL TAP mockumentary approach to the horror genre. So it’s a nice surprise that the Canadian indie REEL ZOMBIES combines the two subgenres in ways that are fresh and funny.

The Australian-made SLAUGHTERED is the sort of movie that shouldn’t get overlooked in the current resurgence of slasher films, which includes all the franchise remakes/reimaginings like HALLOWEEN/FRIDAY THE 13TH, new attempts to establish unstoppable killers such as HATCHET and LAID TO REST or its low-budget, comical Aussie contemporary I KNOW HOW MANY RUNS YOU SCORED LAST SUMMER. To put it simply, SLAUGHTERED has been made by someone with more than a clue, and who has been as relentless as any disfigured maniac to get her movie across the finish line without sacrificing the entertainment experience.

PORNOGRAPHY: A THRILLER, written and directed by David Kittredge (and produced by Fango blogger Sean Abley) is a nightmarish journey into the surreal—and, yes, the gay-adult-film industry. How the two genres were going to mesh, this critic was initially unsure. Don’t worry, they do, but not in the ways you might expect.