Years ago, I launched an initiative called Indie Horror Month while I was working at a different site, because I recognized how difficult it often was at that time for smaller films to get coverage from different horror entertainment websites. That’s not an indictment of any site’s lack of support—quite the opposite, in fact. It’s just that in many cases, the amount of coverage requests that we all contend with on a daily basis is quite large and you can only do so much before you find yourself working 24 hours a day in order to keep up with everything that hits your inbox.
But I knew back then that many of these filmmakers deserved to be celebrated alongside their studio counterparts, and even though the industry has shifted over the years since I last had the opportunity to celebrate Indie Horror Month, I thought that right now was the best time to bring IHM back once again. So, why now exactly? Well, it’s no secret that 2020 was an unusual year to try and release a horror movie, and we saw nearly all studio genre films get pushed until 2021 in response to the pandemic. But even though we’re now waiting patiently for studios to begin unleash Halloween Kills, Candyman, A Quiet Place II, and many more films in these coming months, those delays last year left the independent side of the horror industry to do a lot of the heavy lifting throughout the pandemic and provided us fans with countless hours of entertainment at a time when many of us were thankful for any sort of distraction we could get.
That’s when I realized that if there was a right time to bring back Indie Horror Month, that time was now.
So, beginning on April 1st, Daily Dead will be dedicating the entire month to uplifting independent horror in all its forms. Not only will we be celebrating an array of films throughout April, but we will also be championing artists, writers, publications, books, other forms of entertainment, horror-themed resellers, and more. We will also be theming all of our Corpse Club episodes throughout the month of April for Indie Horror Month, so be sure to check out our new CC episodes every Friday for some killer discussions with a variety of talented filmmakers and creators in the genre space.
And while we have always made it a habit at Daily Dead to support independent voices in horror as much as we can, you can look forward to IHM content coming at you each and every day throughout next month that celebrates the independent spirit that has helped keep the horror genre thriving for decades now, and continues to give us so much to enjoy in the present as well.
See you all for our 2021 Indie Horror Month kickoff on Thursday, April 1st (and that’s no April Fools’ Day joke)!
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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