Occasionally, an indie film slips through the mainstream and becomes a hit. It’s easiest to do in the horror genre, where a low budget doesn’t keep fans away (the recent Terrifier franchise is a great example of this, but it goes back to Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, and many earlier films). In 2023, Older Gods became one of the crossover hits, a microbudget horror movie with a trailer that garnered over 500 thousand views on YouTube (watch the trailer below). Using thick layers of atmosphere and drawing on the terrifying lore from H.P. Lovecraft’s body of work, Older Gods managed to create a spellbinding horror mystery with very little money. Now it’s streaming for free (through the link below).
In Older Gods, a man travels to the Welsh countryside to investigate the murder of his close friend, who himself had been accused of multiple murders. He comes across a mountain of evidence that his friend was compiling, linking a sinister apocalyptic cult to the murders, a discovery that endangers him and leads him deep into the proverbial mouth of madness. Our review of Older Gods at the time praised the film’s ability to transcend its budget and become something uniquely creepy:
”
Only Gods
is filled with enough passion to not only look past its small budget, but to offer a more personal horror film with a surprisingly large scale.
Older Gods
is perhaps one of the best horror movies so far this year, certainly in the Lovecraftian horror genre. It offers a deeply compelling mystery, an undeniably tense atmosphere, satisfying jump scares, and plenty of creepy visuals. If you’re a fan of horror and Lovecraft in particular,
Only Gods
is the movie for you.”
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“One of Older Gods’ major achievements is its haunting atmosphere,” continues MovieWeb’s review. “From the location, music, cinematography, and pacing, Older Gods is a tense and haunting movie the whole way through. It never eases up; thank God it was only 80 minutes, because it’d almost become oppressive if it was any longer. Filmmaker David A. Roberts does a wonderful job at expressing isolation and anxiety throughout.”
How Older Gods Defines Cosmic Horror
After the disappearance of his troubled friend, American Chris Rivers travels to the remote Welsh countryside to investigate what happened – leading him to a dark apocalyptic cult.
- Release Date
- December 1, 2023
- Director
- David A. Roberts
- Cast
- Lindsay Bennett-Thompson , Ieuan Coombs , Jonathan Keeble , Holly Kehoe , Andrew Sexton , Tim Wells , Rory Wilson
- Writers
- David A. Roberts
- Production Company
- Wagyu Films
H.P. Lovecraft’s writing and Older Gods typify a subgenre often known as “cosmic horror,” a somewhat ambiguous term. Filmmaker David A. Roberts spoke with MovieWeb about the subgenre in relation to his film, saying, “I saw somebody explain the definition of cosmic horror. It was just fear of the unknown.” (This echoes Lovecraft’s own sentiment, who said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”) Roberts explained:
“Which I think is to me much scarier than a horror with a psycho — you could outrun them if you’ve got some decent trainers. Or with zombies, you can just walk slightly faster than them. Whereas, if there is something out there, and you don’t know what the danger is, and you can’t really put your finger on it, and you don’t know which direction it’s going to come from, that kind of scares the sh*t out of me a lot more than knowing somebody is running toward me.”
Older Gods is now streaming for free on Vudu below, which is now part of Fandango at Home. You just need a free account, which is extremely simple (a name, an email, and a password). It’s also available to rent or purchase on Apple TV.