7 Dark and Unsettling Indigenous Horror Films You Won’t Soon Forget

Horror has always had a place in Indigenous storytelling. Our stories carried warnings about dangerous spirits and unexplained forces. From a Māori woman uncovering her family’s dark past in Victorian England to Mi’kmaq brothers confronting buried childhood wounds in a haunted forest, these films explore horror through distinct Indigenous perspectives.

Unfortunately, not all the films on this list are availabe just yet. Some are streaming now, and others are just starting their festival runs and may not reach audiences outside of festival screenings until next year. But if horror is your genre, keep an eye out for every one of them. These aren’t cheap jump-scare thrills; they’re deeply unsettling films that crawl under your skin and refuse to leave, a reminder of what horror is supposed to feel like.

1. Mārama (2025)

It’s 1859. Mary (Ariāna Osborne), a young Māori woman, travels from New Zealand to a grand North Yorkshire manor after a letter promises answers about her parents. Its owner, Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), keeps a house full of stolen Māori artifacts and a gruesome secret. As visions close in, Mary uncovers her family’s colonial history and claims her true name: Mārama.

2. Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At The Place of Ghosts) (2025)

Mi’kmaq brothers Mise’l (Forrest Goodluck) and Antle (Blake Alec Miranda) were inseparable as kids and estranged as adults. When a vengeful entity starts tormenting them, they head into Sk+te’kmujue’katik, the Place of Ghosts. There they face the violent childhood they never talked about.

3. Ancestral Beasts (2026)

Looking for a fresh start after her mother’s suicide, Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) moves back to her family’s home in the countryside. But something deadly is waiting there, and she soon has to choose between the things she can let go of and the ones she’ll fight to keep.

4. It Will Find You (2025)

When Emily (Kylah Day) receives her late mother’s pendant, she unknowingly awakens a generational curse dormant for 25 years. Dismissed as insane, she has to dig into her mother’s heritage to stop the Giniirr, a red-eyed spirit, before it claims her.

5. Sebata: The Beast (2025)

Hotshot Detective Kgoro (Lilitha Mzizi) is paired with world-weary Detective Mzi (Sello Sebotsane) to investigate a string of child murders. Mzi believes something supernatural is involved, and rumor points to a Tokoloshi. Kgoro calls it superstition. The case drags them both into psychological darkness where folklore and forensics collide.

6. Dark Nature (2022)

Six months after leaving her abusive boyfriend, Joy (Hannah Emily Anderson) joins her longtime friend Carmen (Madison Walsh) on a therapist-led retreat in the Canadian Rockies. The women came to confront the monsters of their past. Out in the wilderness, something real starts hunting them.

7. Oblation (2026)

Nelo (Onyinye Odokoro), a young bride settling into life with her husband Obinna, is heavily pregnant when the nightmares start. In them, a mysterious woman screams at her to leave her new home. Is it a warning, or a threat?