35 Independent Movies You Should Be Excited About This Year

Have another look at our list of 2013's best movies, and pay close attention to the top ten entries. Of that dime's worth of the year's greatest films, seven of them are independent, and, chances are, if you go back and comb through previous years' countdowns the results will be similar.

No surprise there, though. The allure of small, do-it-yourself cinema is easy to comprehend. Whereas major studio movies are made with countless cooks in the figurative kitchen, films made independently are pure, untainted passion projects, directed by limitless artists doing it more for the love than the bottom dollar. Because, of course, no big studio fat-cat would ever give someone like Harmony Korine $25 million to make a summer tentpole version out of the script he wrote for what became Spring Breakers, nor would high-flying Hollywood casting agents cast a mostly unproven actress like Brie Larson to lead an intimate character study like Short Term 12.

That's the beauty of indie film, and with the Sundance Film Festival—the independent world's week-long setter of trends and introducer of future award-winners—beginning next weekend, indies are on every cinephile's mind these days. Meaning, there's no better time than now to put you up on game with a rundown of 35 independent movies you should be excited about this year. Or, its alternate distinction, the first time you'll hear about many of the movies that will make our Best of 2014 list.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini
Release date: March 14

If you've seen what Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal can do together in Prisoners, you know you're in for a bizarre yet beautiful film with Enemy. Based on author Jose Saramago's The Double, Enemy tells the story of a man (Gyllenhaal) whose life takes a sharp turn for the worse after encountering his doppelgänger. His career, his relationship, and his sanity all begin to crumble the more the mystery unravels.

Those who encountered this film at the Toronto Film Festival last September can attest: it's a mind-bending, spine-chilling thriller that'll leave your skin crawling for days. —Tara Aquino

Director: David Wain
Stars: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Cobie Smulders, Michael Shannon, Christopher Meloni, Noureen DeWulf, Melanie Lynskey, Ed Helms, Max Greenfield, Michaela Watkins, Jason Mantzoukas, Michael Ian Black
Release date: To be determined

Does an unfuckwitable cast make for a brilliant movie? No necessarily, but it's difficult to imagine being thoroughly disappointed by one that stars Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. At the very least it'll be a mildly pleasant experience.

Here, Rudd and Poehler reunite with their Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain for a comedy that kind of sounds like a less lame version of You've Got Mail—er, The Shop Around the Corner: Rudd plays an executive whose corporation is threatening to shut down Poehler's ma-and-pa shop. And as if this couldn't be any more of a Wet Hot reunion, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, and Ken Marino also star. —Tara Aquino

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt, Jeffrey Wright
Release date: April 11

A movie for the pride of pale people everywhere, Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive follows two reunited vampire lovers, played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. A modern take on the mythological creatures, the film depicts the lovers more like weird, hipster rock stars than Dracula or Edward, resulting in a delightfully bizarre and beautiful film that's sure to leave you entranced. That is, if Tilda "Mother of a bat" Swinton doesn't cast a spell on you with the mere sight of her name in the title cards. —Tara Aquino

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Stars: Scarlett Johansson
Release date: April 4

Jonathan Glazer, the visual stylist responsible for the startling Sexy Beast and the very uncomfortable (and great) Birth, returns to filmmaking after a near-decade long absence. What's he been up to? Planning an almost plot-less adaptation of the bizarro sci-fi novel Under the Skin. And, as a result, filming Scarlett Johansson as she hitchhikes across Scotland and gets picked up by unassuming men. Then she takes them back to her pad and shit gets cray. Or something. Just watch the trailer. —Ross Scarano

Director: Anton Corbijn
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Brühl, Nina Hoss
Release date: To be determined

Anton Corbijn, acclaimed photographer and music video, got into feature-length narrative filmmaking with the Ian Curtis biopic Control. Holy Christ was it heavy and hard to watch, even as Corbijn's gorgeous black-and-white cinematography amazed the eye. Of course, what could you expect?

For his latest film, Corbijn adapted beloved spy novelist John le Carré's A Most Wanted Man, about a German security official who becomes entrenched in the matter of a Chechen-Russian immigrant. Philip Seymour Hoffman does a rough German accent; le Carré's story critiques rendition under Bush II; everyone wins. —Ross Scarano

Director: Damien Chazelle
Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Austin Stowell, Jayson Blair
Release date: To be determined

At first mention, Whiplash sounds like a) a superhero movie or b) a racing flick. It's neither. It's about a talented drummer (Miles Teller, of The Spectacular Now) who starts to lose his shit after being placed under the mentorship of a crazy instructor (J.K. Simmons). Just imagine Teller beating his drums 'til he himself is a bloody pulp with Simmons doing his best Tiger Mom on him. It's just the kind of unreal and original thing we need to keep our movie-going experience fresh. —Tara Aquino

Director: Joe Swanberg
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Lena Dunham, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, Joe Swanberg
Release date: To be determined

After Drinking Buddies, we're convinced that anything director Joe Swanberg and Anna Kendrick do together is bound to be gold.

Enter: Happy Christmas, in which Anna Kendrick plays a young woman who moves in with her brother (Joe Swanberg) and his family after breaking up with her boyfriend. With the addition of Lena Dunham and Mark Webber to the cast, you can pretty much guarantee that this will be the most fun (and probably periodically awkward and uncomfortable) family Christmastime comedy in years. —Tara Aquino

Director: Michael Dowse
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Rafe Spall, Adam Driver, Megan Park, Oona Chaplin, Jemima Rooper, Meghan Heffern
Release date: To be determined

Rom-com filmmakers better bring their A-games this year. If not, Canadian filmmaker Michael Dowse's (Goon) The F Word is going to have an easy road to eventually being crowned 2014's best romantic comedy. It's that good.

A highlight at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, The F Word stars Daniel Radcliffe—giving his best post-Harry Potter performance yet—as Wallace, a nice, love-sick guy who befriends the charming Chantry (Zoe Kazan), immediately finds himself in the ever-dreaded "friend zone," and can't help but develop strong feelings for her, even though she has a financially successful boyfriend (Rafe Spall). It's a familiar set-up that's played unconventionally, zigging toward the not-so-obvious payoffs when you expect it to zag into twee-ness.

The main reason why The F Word works so well, though, is the chemistry between Radcliffe and Kazan, two instantly likable leads whose authentic and quirky rapport sets Dowse's film apart from the typical lameness of traditional rom-coms. —Matt Barone

Director: Lynn Shelton
Stars: Chloë Grace Moretz, Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, Tiya Sarcar, Mark Webber, Ellie Kemper, Gretchen Mol, Kaitlyn Dever
Release date: To be determined

It seems like independent film and quiet self-exploration go hand-in-hand, and Lynn Shelton's latest effort is another to testament to that. Shelton, who premiered her film Touchy Feely at Sundance last year is returning to Park City with Laggies, a film about a 28-year-old (Keira Knightley) who can't seem to move past her adolescence. That is, until an expected marriage proposal throws her for a loop, forcing her to reevaluate her happy-go-lucky lifestyle with the help of her 16-year-old friend (Chloe Grace Moretz). —Tara Aquino

Director: Sara Colangelo
Stars: Elizabeth Banks, Chloë Sevigny, Josh Lucas, Boyd Holbrook, Alexia Rasmussen
Release date: To be determined

Like a lot of indies from first-time feature-length directors, Little Accidents came into this world as a short from a recent film school grad. Sara Colangelo's Little Accidents, the short, is the small tale of a factory worker afraid that she might be pregnant. Her handicapped boyfriend nicks a pregnancy test from a store, and they wait for the results. Its uncommon decency and interest in an overlooked corner of experience earned the short ample acclaim.

Now Colangelo has expanded the short into a feature-length work, using that initial story as inspiration for something larger and more freewheeling. Set in a coal town, this longer Little Accidents is set into motion by the disappearance of a little boy. Very indie drama follows. —Ross Scarano

Director: Jake Paltrow
Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Elle Fanning, Michael Shannon, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Release date: To be determined

Another movie on the dystopian front, but with a refreshing twist. Jake Paltrow's sci-fi film follows a 14-year-old boy's journey to survive in a futuristic world where water has become scarce and people are driven to violence in order to get it. Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) plays the boy, so it'll be exciting to see where else Hoult can take his acting, especially in a more serious and action infused film. Also in the film are Michael Shannon, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and the wonderful Elle Fanning, who still has us reeling from her great performance in that other sci-fi flick Super 8. A strong cast and a strong storyline will definitely help Young Ones hold its own in a year of great independent cinema. —Debbie Encalada

Director: Kat Candler
Stars: Aaron Paul, Juliette Lewis, Jonny Mars, Tanner Beard, Augustine Frizzell, Annalee Jefferies, Brent Smiga, Deke Garner
Release date: To be determined

Writer-director Kat Chandler's film is set in a small small refinery town in Southeast Texas. A family broken up by the death of its mother is spinning out of control. Hollis Wilson (Aaron Paul) can't control his teenage son and keep his own shit together now that the boy's mother has passed. The boy grows more destructive and devil-may-care.

Inspired by a previous short of Chandler's, Hellion will compete at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and analysts say that it should be one of the festival's brightest. —Ross Scarano

Director: John Slattery
Stars: Christina Hendricks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eddie Marsan, John Turturro, Caleb Landry Jones, Richard Jenkins, Domenick Lombardozzi, Sophia Takal
Release date: To be determined

John Slattery has directed some of Mad Men's most memorable episodes. ("Signal 30," anyone?) Now, the actor behind Roger Sterling is directing his first feature-length film, an adaptation of the great Pete Dexter's novel God's Pocket. Dexter, who was born in 1943, started writing hard-boiled fiction in the early '80s after he was attacked because of a story he wrote for a Philadelphia newspaper. (He was a journalist before becoming a novelist.) This kind of raw violence permeates Dexter's work.

God's Pocket, Dexter's first novel, tells the funny, sad story of the fallout after a young man's death at a Philadelphia construction site. Leon Hubbard, the dead man, was kind of a sonofabitch, but his mother and a newspaper man are determined to find out what happened to him. Much to the chagrin of everyone else that knew Hubbard. —Ross Scarano

Director: Jenée LaMarque
Stars: Jake Johnson, Zoe Kazan, Ron Livingston, Jeremy howard, Danny Pudi, Frances Shaw, Sabrina Lloyd
Release date: February 7

Ever feel so insecure that you find yourself envying your own sibling's life? The Pretty One takes that notion and explores its extremes. Billed as a tale about identity and loss, the film follows shy and antisocial Laurel (Zoe Kazan) who assumes her much more outgoing twin sister's identity after her death. Of course, Laurel begins to realize what an awful idea this is when she starts falling for her neighbor (Jake Johnson). With Ron Livingston and Danny Pudi rounding out the cast, prepare for some hilarious and awkward shenanigans to ensue. —Tara Aquino

Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Domnhall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, Tess Harper, Hayley Derryberry, Travis Hammer
Release date: To be determined

Michael Fassbender, the intense Irish actor seen most recently in 12 Years a Slave and The Counselor, has a great face. Usually, in movies like Hunger or X-Men: First Class, he puts it to use conveying unusual trauma or deep-seated anguish. It's a face that has seen and experienced things you cannot understand.

Which makes Frank, his upcoming 2014 release, pretty crazy. See, in that photo above, Fassbender is wearing a mask. From most early accounts of Lenny Abrahamson's weirdo rock music comedy, he'll wear it often in the movie, maybe for all of the movie. Inspired by the tales of artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank is about the confrontation between a young man with musical aspirations (played by Brendan Gleeson's son, Domnhall) and seasoned vet Frank (Fassbender). Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Frank's right-hand woman, Clara. —Ross Scarano

Director: Jim Mickle
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Vinessa Shaw, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici
Release date: To be determined

Michael C. Hall's movie career is starting off on a great note.

Hall has aligned himself with indie filmmaker Jim Mickle, whose last two movies, Stake Land (2011) and We Are What We Are (2013), have established Mickle as a horror auteur with a sharp eye for visuals, particularly the lush cinematography common to Terence Malick films. With Cold in July, though, Mickle has sidestepped horror for a more straightforward thriller, with Hall playing a Texas man who kills a burglar, is hailed as a local hero, but then has to protect his family against the burglar's ex-con father seeks revenge.

Those shades of A History of Violence you're seeing are one reason why Cold in July should be on your radar—after all, any connections, whether overt or subtle, to David Cronenberg's 2005 film can't be a bad thing. Another worthwhile reason: Mickle's film adapts the work of celebrated genre fiction writer Joe R. Lansdale, whose singular brand of backwoods noir is long overdue for the big screen. And lastly, Cold in July should make the sight of Dexter Morgan, the lumberjack, much easier to erase from one's thoughts. —Matt Barone

Director: Peter Sattler
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Julia Duffy, Lane Garrison, John Carroll Lynch, Yousuf Azami, Tara Holt, Peyman Moaadi
Release date: To be determined

Kristen Stewart spent most of 2013 M.I.A., but it looks like she'll be reclaiming the spotlight this year with a film that's a far cry from what made her an international phenomenon. In Camp X-Ray, Stewart stars as Amy Cole, a small town girl who enlists in the military to escape her seemingly meaningless existence. She doesn't get thrown into the battlefield like she imagines. Rather, she's stationed as a guard at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray, a temporary detention facility where she not only encounters the most hostile inmates, but unexpectedly forms a life-changing friendship with one of the detainees.

An official Sundance competition selection, Camp X-Ray is poised to be the film that'll shut up every Kristen Stewart hater. —Tara Aquino

Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargeaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson, Stacy Rock
Release date: To be determined

Who doesn't love a good revenge thriller? Just don't expect your average run-of-the-mill gorefest.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but director Jeremy Saulnier has set out to create a different film that has action, but also provides a deeper character study. The film follows an outsider who, after receiving some horrible news, returns to his childhood home seeking revenge. To his dismay he discovers he's a terrible assassin and is then put to the test when he has to fight to the death to save his estranged family.

Audiences are in for a treat, even if that means they'll be left feeling blue. —Debbie Encalada

Director: Jeff Baena
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, Anna Kendrick, Alia Shawkat, John C.Reilly, Molly Shannon, Matthew Gray Gubler, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, Paul Weitz
Release date: To be determined

You always hear, "You never know what you have until it's gone." Or is that just a Janet Jackson song? (Er, Joni Mitchell?) Either way, writer and director Jeff Baena takes this idea and imagines it at its literal extreme. Devastated by the death of his girlfriend, Zach (Dane DeHaan, an expert at playing crazies. See: Chronicle.) vows to be make the most out of his relationship when his lady love Beth (Aubrey Plaza) is resurrected.

Aubrey Plaza doing her best Frankenstein impression. Dane DeHaan trying to romance a corpse. Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly playing said corpse's parents. And Anna Kendrick and Matthew Grubler sprinkled into the cast somehow, most likely to just be awesome. This is a can't-miss for comedy fans. —Tara Aquino

Director: E.L. Katz
Stars: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Sara Paxton, Amanda Fuller
Release date: March 21

There won't be a more aptly named film in all of 2014. Cheap Thrills makes promises and it looks like it'll deliver. E.L. Katz's directorial debut is a dark comedy about a couple of schmucks, played by Pat Healy and Ethan Embry, who meet a rich couple (David Koechner, Sara Paxton) and have their luck changed for the better—or so they think. It's all swell when Healy and Embry are paid off to commit stupid crimes and be professional Jackasses, but as the money stacks higher so do the stakes. As the crimes become increasingly violent the schmucks are forced to ask themselves how far will they go for some cold hard cash. Get rich or die trying, right? —Debbie Encalada

Director: Mike Flanagan
Stars: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, James Lafferty, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan
Release date: April 18

The best new horror movie I saw in 2014? Hands down, Mike Flanagan's Oculus, which premiered as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's raucous Midnight Madness program. And come this April, those who weren't lucky enough to be in Toronto for the film's unveiling will see the greatness for themselves.

Knee-jerk comparisons can be made to Insidious, but, frankly, Oculus is far more innovative than James Wan's hit spookhouse picture. Following up his little-seen but highly impressive 2011 debut, Absentia, writer-director Flanagan makes a considerable leap forward as a filmmaker here, in a supernatural chiller that introduces horror fans to the genre's first-ever mirror antagonist. Yes, the villain in Oculus is an antique, haunted mirror that has the ability to warp reality, physically bring traumatic memories back into the present, and manipulate its victims into committing murder.

The tone is aggressively dark and bleak, the performances (namely from Dr. Who veteran Karen Gillan) are airtight, and script is an unsettling and intricately woven labyrinth of psychological horror. Don't be surprised if, a year from now, Oculus tops critics' lists of the 2014's best horror movies. —Matt Barone

Director: Ti West
Stars: A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, Gene Jones, Kentucker Audley, Kate Lyn Sheil
Release date: May 1, Video On-Demand; June 6, theatrical

The early 2014 award for "Most Subtly Creepy Movie Villain" goes to...veteran character actor Gene Jones, for his work as the seemingly friendly and welcoming but truly manipulative and sinister leader of the Eden Parish, the Jonestown-like cult at the center of The Sacrament.

Since seeing writer-director Ti West's found-footage-styled pic at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Jones' performance has truly lingered, particularly from one extended scene of back-and-forth dialogue between he and co-star A.J. Bowen, who plays one of two journalists (the other played by Joe Swanberg) filming an investigative report as a cover-up for helping their photographer friend reconnect with his estranged, cult member sister (Amy Seimetz).

Anyone who's read up on the infamous Jim Jones and the Jonestown nightmare of 1978 will recognize The Sacrament's narrative beats, yet that familiarity doesn't hinder West's film's overall impact. Strongly acted and fully invested in its characters, The Sacrament puts human faces and relatable personalities on its brainwashed, and ultimately doomed, cultists. It's horror of the real-life variety. —Matt Barone

Directors: Rodney Ascher, Kristina Buozyte, Alexandre Bustillo, Larry Fessenden, Julian Gibney, Spencer Hawken, Jim Hosking, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, E.L. Katz, Aharon Keshales, Steven Kostanski, Marvin Kren, Erik Matti, Julien Maury, Robetr Morgan, Vincenzo Natali, Navot Papushado, Bill Plympton, Dennison Ramalho, Jerome Sable, Bruno Samper, Sion Sono, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska
Release date: To be determined

There are two types of movie lovers out there: Those who want to watch a movie called The ABCs of Death, and those who can't be bothered by such high-concept insanity.

For the former group, last year's far-reaching horror anthology, the brainchild of Drafthouse Films, was a two-hour blast of gleeful nihilism, giving 26 genre directors $5,000, one letter of the alphabet, and around five minutes of screen time each to make a short film revolving around some kind of death. The results, unsurprisingly, were batshit crazy, including a deadly masturbation contest ("L is for Libido"), an overweight woman getting skinny by cutting all of her skin off ("X is for XXL"), a fight club pitting men against canines ("D is for Dogfight"), and a girl committing suicide by sniffing another girl's bodily omissions ("F is for Fart").

So what's in store for the upcoming sequel, The ABCs of Death 2? Who the hell knows, but expect the demented ante to be upped considerably. Rest assured, though, it won't disappoint. Just look at the directors involved this time: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside), Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary), Rodney Ascher (Room 237), Sion Sono (Why Don't You Play in Hell?), and Vincenzo Natali (Splice), to name a few. —Matt Barone

Directors: Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion
Stars: Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, Jack McBrayer, Jorge Garcia, Leigh Whannell, Armani Jackson, Morgan Lily, Nasim Pedrad
Release date: To be determined

The worlds of Insidious, Saw, and Glee, together at last.

No, seriously. Cooties, a horror-comedy premiering later this month at the Sundance Film Festival, was written by Insidious/Saw screenwriter Leigh Whannell and Glee co-creator Ian Brennan, and the plot sounds like the perfect marriage between both of their sensibilities. Set inside an elementary school, Cooties approaches the zombies-by-way-of-28 Days Later concept from a pre-teen perspective, pitting a ragtag group of teachers (played by the likes of Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer) and students against little kiddies who've been infected by a virus that turns them into killer mutants.

How's that for a take-it-or-leave-it premise? Those who appreciate a good midnight movie will surely opt to "take" it. —Matt Barone

Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Stars: Nao Ohmori, Mao Daichi, Shinobu Terajima, Matsuo Suzuki, Atsuro Watabe
Release date: To be determined

My colleague, Matt Barone, saw this insane thing at Fantastic Fest, in Texas, last year. He came back and told me about a movie, a kind of comedy, about a nebbish man who gets involved with an S&M organization. The man in the movie was played by one of Japan's biggest comics, and the humor in the movie was deadpan and weird. A man gets beat up by a full-bodied dominatrix known as the "Queen of Saliva."

That movie is called R100 and it's opening later this year. There won't be anything else like it. —Ross Scarano

Director: Gregg Araki
Stars: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Shiloh Fernandez, Thomas Jane
Release date: To be determined

Given this film is directed by Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin, Kaboom), expect things to get real. Araki has become the go-to guy for all things messed-up in youth culture- drugs, promiscuous sex, and all the mental and emotional disorders you can dream of. And White Bird in a Blizzard looks like it's going for the gut. Based on the novel of the same name, Shailene Woodley stars as a Kat Connor, a teenage girl who must deal with the disappearance of her mom (Eva Green). Forced to grow up, Connor struggles to navigate the world by herself.

Ever since wrapping The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Woodley's become the ultimate coming-of-age film actress. Recalling her work in The Spectacular Now, we can imagine her winning streak will only continue. —Tara Aquino

Director: Richard Ayoade
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Chris O'Dowd, Sally Hawkins, Gemma Chan, Wallace Shawn, Paddy Considine
Release date: To be determined

The sunnier, funnier doppelganger to Jake Gyllenhaal's very creepy Enemy, The Double multiplies the average number of Jesse Eisenbergs in a movie by two. Richard Ayoade, the stand-up comic and surprisingly competent director of Submarine (think Wes Anderson in England), adapts Dostoyevsky's novella The Double, about a government clerk driven bonkers by a man who looks just like him.

The trailer for Ayoade's film, set to Son House's amazing "Grinnin' in Your Face," was one of the most exciting of 2013, making this a must-see in 2014. —Ross Scarano

Director: Mike Cahill
Stars: Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Archie Panjabi, William Mapother
Release date: To be determined

I Origins isn't the only movie whose title begins with an "I" this year, (see I, Frankenstein), but it's the only one you should watch. The film stars Michael Pitt as a genius doctor on the verge of a scientific discovery that will change history. But before it does he must travel to India in search of a young girl who can make or break his discovery. Viewers will see the international journeys of these strangers who will be brought together in the name of science, but will form ties that go beyond it. Steven Yeun, better known as The Walking Dead's fan favorite Glenn, will also be a part of the cast, just in case you need further motivation. —Debbie Encalada

Director: Gareth Huw Evans
Stars: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Raiden Integra, Donny Alamsyah, Julie Estelle, Tio Pakusodewo
Release date: March 28

You call yourself an action movie fan but you've never seen The Raid: Redemption (2012)? Remedy that ASAP, lest you want in-the-know action movie heads to keep considering you a nancy-boy.

Taking the Sundance and SXSW film festivals by storm in early 2012, writer-director Gareth Huw Evans' The Raid: Redemption knocked audiences sideways with its dizzying, all-natural fight choreography, an explosion of the martial arts style called "silt" that's all fist-on-flesh, no-holds-barred carnage. It's a bloody, nonstop ballet of brutality, one that's earned itself a devoted cult following.

And now those Raid devotees are feenin' for a look at Evans' hugely ambitious sequel, The Raid 2: Berandal, a 148-minute (!) that Evans' filmmaker friend Timo Tjahjanto recently described on Twitter as "Goodfellas days Scorsese with Jackie Chan & Bruce Lee hangin out in his set everyfuckinday." If that doesn't get you amped, you really are a nancy-boy. —Matt Barone

Directors: Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto
Stars: Rin Takanashi, Kazuki Kitamura, Ray Sahetapy, Luna Maya, Epy Kusnander
Release date: To be determined

Get familiar with the name Timo Tjahjanto—he's destined for genre film greatness.

Along with his directing partner, and fellow Indonesian, Kimo Stamboel (collectively known as The Mo Brothers), Tjahjanto first caught horror critic's attention with the 2009 film Macabre, a wonderfully grotesque take on the old Texas Chainsaw Massacre "characters happen across the wrong family's house" set-up. Then, last year, Tjahjanto delivered two of the year's sickest and most impressive horror shorts, the perverted "L is for Libido" in The ABCs of Death and the ferocious cult-from-hell knockout "Safe Haven" in V/H/S/2(co-directed by Gareth Huw Evans).

Once again collaborating with Stamboel, Tjahjanto is set to premiere the latest Mo Brothers feature film, Killers, at this month's Sundance Film Festival, and it sounds like a doozy. Two murderers, one a cold-blooded serial killer and the other an unlikely killer whose body-count starts unexpectedly, connect over the Internet after they each post video clips of their homicides online. From there, they get into a competition, that, one can presume, isn't without its fair share of grisly carnage. Anyone who's seen any of Tjahjanto's aforementioned films knows how much the guy loves extreme bloodshed. —Matt Barone

Director: Adam Wingard
Stars: Dan Stevens, Lance Reddick, Maika Monroe, Leland Orser, Joel David Moore, Sheila Kelley, Brendan Meyer, Chase Williamson, Jesse Luken
Release date: To be determined

Filmmaking duo Adam Wingard (director) and Simon Barrett (screenwriter) are due for their big break. Longtime staples within the indie horror world, Wingard and Barrett were primed for mainstream success last August, when their one-time festival darling You're Next was released nationwide by big-dog Lionsgate Films. A modest theatrical success, You're Nextdidn't catch on the way it should have, leaving its makers no less anonymous in its wake.

Back on the independent scene, Wingard and Barrett have switched things up a bit with The Guest, a detour from horror about an ex-soldier, fresh out of Afghanistan, who visits the family of a fallen comrade and turns their lives into a living hell. Described as a "high-octane action thriller," The Guest sounds like it'll be an extension of You're Next's breakneck pace and tightly choreographed set-pieces. It also doesn't hurt that the film stars former Downton Abbey standout Dan Stevens. —Matt Barone

Director: Marjene Satrapi
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick, Jacki Weaver, Gulliver McGrath, Stephanie Vogt
Release date: To be determined

Ryan Reynolds needs a serious comeback, and it looks like this movie is it. An official Sundance selection, the film follows sociopathic factory worker Jerry Hickfang (Reynolds) who starts getting deadly advice from his pet dog and cat. As described by executive producer Adi Shankar, think of it as American Psycho meets Dr. Doolittle.

Considering visionary director Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) is behind the camera, and Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick co-star, The Voices is a far cry from anything Reynolds' starred in the past year. Word to R.I.P.D. —Tara Aquino

Director: Eli Roth
Stars: Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Sky Ferreira, Magda Apanowicz, Nicolás Martínez, Aaron Burns, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Daryl Sabara, Richard Burgi
Release date: September 5

You gotta love Eli Roth's audacity. One of the industry's biggest horror advocates, the Hostel writer-director is determined to make a cannibal movie revival happen—you know, those grim and gruesome Italian exploitation flicks from the '80s with titles like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox. But will modern-day audiences respond to a movie in which attractive youngsters get captured, caged, and literally devoured by tribal Amazonian flesh-eaters?

That's the gamble CBS Films accepted when the distribution company bought The Green Inferno after its Toronto International Film Festival in September. To Roth's credit, the guy really knows how to make a crowd-pleaser, albeit one in which cannibals get the munchies after eating a pot-smoking teen. As funny as it is visceral and graphic, The Green Inferno should, at the very least, challenge moviegoers to keep their lunches and/or dinners down while watching it. And, who knows, it could just usher in a new wave of skin-consuming cinema. —Matt Barone

Director: Eugenio Mira
Stars: Elijah Wood, John Cusack, Alex Winter, Tamsin Egerton, Allen Lech, Dee Wallace
Release date: March 7

Yes, the premise is borderline hokey. Grand Piano finds Elijah Wood playing a concert pianist whose already paralyzing stage fright amplifies when he discovers a note, written by a sniper, that simply says, "Play a wrong note and you die." In other words, it's Speed for the Carnegie Hall set, basically.

Yet, as our own Justin Monroe stated in his Fantastic Fest review of the film, it's also a first-rate nail-biter. Described as the best Brian De Palma the Blow Out/Sisters director has never made, Grand Piano works its single-location setting to its utmost advantage, giving viewers an interactive feeling, as if they, too, are in Elijah Wood's shoes, frantically pounding the keys for survival. First-time director Eugenio Mira's unlikely festival crowd-pleaser could just be one of 2014's most pleasant surprises. —Matt Barone

Directors: Derek Lee, Clif Prowse
Stars: Derek Lee, Clif Prowse, Baya Rehaz
Release date: To be determined

Are you ready for yet another found-footage horror movie? Please, control your excitement.

With Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones in theaters now and Devil's Due on the horizon, the first-person POV style horror movie isn't going away anytime soon, much to the discerning genre fan's dismay. Which is why saying that Afflicted—the debut from Canadian filmmaking duo Derek Lee and Clif Prowse—is the breath of fresh air the found-footage conceit desperately needs right now won't exactly arouse audiences. But please believe, this movie is the real deal.

Although its narrative is little more than a found-footage riff on vampires, Lee and Prowse's film takes the livelier, crowd-pleasing Chronicle approach, exploring a bloodsucker's origins through superpowers gone wrong. Afflicted's greatest strength, and what will distinguish it from the rest of the genre's POV output, is Lee and Prowse's adventurous camerawork. Featuring multiple action set-pieces that will leave audiences questioning how the hell they were pulled off, Afflicted is an audacious piece of do-it-yourself moviemaking. —Matt Barone