Haunters of the Silence, an experimental indie folk horror film about loss, loneliness and sleep paralysis, has been released. The film was made by the husband and wife team, Tatu and Veleda Heikkinen. It was shot on a shoestring budget of around $2,000 over the course of 2024.
-“Micro-budget indie horror films have received increasing amounts of attention in recent years. A few years ago we saw a movie called ‘The Deeper You Dig’ by the Adams Family (Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams), and as the credits rolled in, we were surprised to see the same few names repeat over and over again. The incredible quality of that film, on such a small crew, really made us want to pursue filmmaking ourselves”, says Tatu Heikkinen.
-“That’s when we came up with the idea for Haunters of the Silence. I’ve had experiences with sleep paralysis, and I wanted to portray that feeling of senseless abstract dread. We just started making this movie with resources that we had available to us.”
Haunters of the Silence premiered at Serbest International Film Festival in September of 2025, and won the award for “Best Experimental Film” at Paris Film Awards in October of the same year.
-“The reception for Haunters of the Silence has been varied, but it is always so much fun reading the feedback it gets. The film has so much symbolism and abstract storytelling elements, that even we as the creators are constantly learning new aspects and meanings about it through comments and reviews”, Heikkinen adds.
-“Someone gave the film a one star review on Letterboxd, saying ‘I would need to be under the influence of ayahuasca to understand the film.’ I guess we did something right!”
The film was released for streaming on Tubi on the 11th of February, 2026. It will be coming to DVD on the 1st of March, 2026 via Savo-Karelian Productions. Pre-orders are now available.
The trailer can be watched from the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97E2J2zhV0E
Other streaming options and social media platforms can be found here:
https://linktr.ee/hauntersofthesilence
Credit: Veleda Heikkinen
