DREAD films

A quick word on experimental horror

Often mixed with found-footage and analog horror, experimental horror is a unique type of art, emerging from late 20th-century filmmaking. Its qualities include a usually expressionist nature (look at German expressionism) but most importantly, the films are characterized by their abstract and flexible content — open to interpretation. They often don’t completely follow a script and their result is too “tickle your subconscious” rather than “just scare”. Sadly, one has to search for it, as it can be considered “too disturbing” for the ‘common viewer’.

Filmmaking

Other than a subcategory of horror, experimental horror logically falls under the category of experimental filmmaking. The absence of a script, a screenplay, actors (sometimes), along with the literal experimentation with 4th-wall breaking, discontinuity and new perspectives (content-wise) are all experimental techniques that aim to affect the audience in some way. One of the earliest experimental films is Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov 1929). Before moving on, I will quote my favorite line from Kinoks: A Revolution (Vertov 1922) on experimental film: I am Kino-Eye. I create man more perfect than Adam (p17).

PRESS to watch The BirdMan (2024)

WATCH "The BirdMan"

PRESS to watch I Forgot Myself Backstage (2025)

WATCH "I Forgot Myself Backstage"

shot from I Forgot Myself Backstage (2025)

cover of The BirdMan (2024)