Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder team up for low budget and rough around the edges rural horror HAYRIDE TO HELL

Who doesn’t enjoy a good time loop movie? With the likes of Groundhog Day, Edge Of Tomorrow and Happy Death Day being notable examples, the dilemma of a character trying to break free from a set of pre-ordained events over and over has also in recent years become a field of interest for a number of genre directors. At the lower end of the budget scale films such as COHERENCE, TRIANGLE and TIMECRIMES helped make the name of their respective writers and directors, maybe some more than others, but the use of a limited set of events in a limited location can often prove fertile ground for the skills for a smart storyteller.

Adrien Beau's debut feature THE VOURDALAK is a visually atmospheric, smartly adapted take on Tolstoy's vampiric novella, blending folk horror, period drama, and puppetry to deliver a fresh, eerie, and original twist on the vampire mythos despite its low budget.

Sometimes it only takes a couple of minutes to realise what exactly you are in for with some low budget horror films, particularly of the found footage variety. While some writers and directors look for new ways to bend the genre and its strict format to the story there are other producers who feel they can point the camera at whatever flimsy excuse of a story they have conjured. Director Lars Janssen tries to base a 100-minute feature around a seemingly atmospheric location. Unfortunately, within the first couple of minutes the suspicion that you are witnessing the latter variety becomes all too apparent.