With the overwhelming success of director Jordan Peele's movies Get Out and Us, audiences and critics have taken note, as have filmmakers including writer-director, Kodie Bedford.

"Jordan Peele is such an inspiration because he's hit the mainstream, but also because he's an amazing writer," Ms Bedford said.

Writer-director, Kodie Bedford, is behind the Dark Place short Scout which takes a look at what happens when Aboriginal women go missing. ( Supplied: Sydney Film Festival )

"And it just goes to show that people of colour — our stories are important and are resonating in the mainstream but can also sell in the mainstream."

She said Get Out showed that horror movies with a political bent had a place in modern cinema.

"It's not just this self-righteous political statement, it's actually a really fun movie to go watch and that really inspires me," Ms Bedford said.

"I think people really want good stories, good yarns on screen."

Actor Katie Beckett as Scout in a scene from the short of the same name. ( Supplied: Sydney Film Festival )

The Djaru woman from the Halls Creek area in the East Kimberley is one of five Indigenous directors behind the 75-minute Dark Place horror anthology that will screen as part of Freak Me Out at the Sydney Film Festival.

Her short film, Scout, is a revenge tale about a young woman who was kidnapped and held prisoner, seen through the lens of horror.

"I like to call it a black Kill Bill," she said.

Ms Bedford believed it was important to have strong female characters in film but also diverse characters.

"The reason why I do what I do is because when I was a teenager I was sitting there watching Buffy and going 'Oh, wow'," she said.

"I'd never seen a female superhero and of course as I grew up I didn't really see a black female superhero on screen — and I've always wanted to kind of address that and show that.

"Everything I make I think will have a diverse character element because that's what I see on the street and I've got to write to that truth."

Ms Bedford found the horror genre a good fit.

"I look at my family and my friends and we've all enjoyed horror in our lives … we love watching horror films and going on that journey of your heart racing and just being scared out of your brain," she said.

"I think the reason why — and this could be similar to the African-American experience, I'm not sure — the reason why it hasn't been done before, is because we had other stories to tell first and that was about our history."

A still from Jordan Peele's 2019 film Us. ( Supplied: Universal Pictures )

From fear to fandom

Ms Bedford's partner, writer, director and actor Bjorn Stewart, has not always been a fan of horror, but has embraced the genre.

Actor, writer and director, Bjorn Stewart, is the man behind the Dark Place short Killer Native. ( Supplied: Sydney Film Festival )

"As a kid I was scared of horror," he said.

"I don't think we were allowed to watch horror movies growing up.

"Mum didn't like scary stuff either."

It was not until later on down the track that he gained an appreciation for how horror could be used as a metaphor for expressing ideas and themes.

Mr Stewart has also been influenced by Jordan Peele and said there were moments in Get Out where he did not know whether to laugh or cry — and that excited him.

"I think Get Out was a big inspiration for me and going 'Oh, you can use genre and horror genre to get a message across'," he said.

"And so that kind of got me thinking of how I could get this idea of how colonisation affects all of us into this kind of schlocky horror as well and get that message across."

A scene from the Sydney Film Festival Dark Place short Killer Native featuring actors Charlie Garber and Clarence Ryan. ( Supplied: Sydney Film Festival )

Mr Stewart's film, Killer Native, is also part of the Dark Place Anthology and is described as a splatter comedy.

"I like playing with comedy as well because that also gets the message [across]," he said.

"It takes down people's guard and it's an easier pill to swallow."

Aboriginal storytelling moving more into genre

Majhid Heath produced four out of the five films in Dark Place.

"For me, it's just something I hadn't seen done before — Aboriginal horror in this way," he said.

"We had Warwick Thornton's doco project called The Darkside a few years back and I see this project as the next extension of the work he was doing in that project."

Mr Heath said it was exciting that the audience at the Sydney Film Festival would be the first to see Dark Place.

"I've been a Sydney Film Festival-goer for many, many years and there's a real appetite for Aboriginal storytelling at the Sydney Film Festival," he said.

"It felt like it was the right fit for us to premiere there."

Majhid Heath is a producer on Dark Place. ( Supplied: Majhid Heath )

Mr Heath said it was also a privilege to be programmed in the Freak Me Out strand of the festival.

"It's a good feeling to know that we're actually reaching the genre fans in the way that we wanted to because I think quite often Aboriginal filmmaking has a particular slant or is perceived a particular way," he said.

"And for us to say, 'No, we're actually moving more into genre, in the way that we did with shows like Cleverman, that we're now actually saying 'Okay, now we can do another genre again, we can do horror', so that's really gratifying."

Dark Place will also feature Liam Phillip's Foe, Vale Light by Rob Braslin and Perun Bonser's The Shore.

The Sydney Film Festival will run from June 5–16 and the Dark Place screenings will take place at 8:45pm on Saturday, June 15 and at 6:30pm on Sunday, June 16 at the Dendy in Newtown.