With the likes of Batman, the Avengers and a young web-slinger all making an appearance, this summer’s glut of big-budget Hollywood blockbusters isn’t short of a hero or two.

Still, those caped crusaders pale into insignificance when you consider the sheer heroics on display with the latest line-up of horror releases, led by none other than (formerly) “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the returning super-team that is the Troma studio and Cuba’s answer to Shaun of the Dead, the cleverly-named Juan.

Yes, you heard that right. The WWE professional wrestling legend and tongue-in-cheek star of Hell Comes To Frogtown and They Live, Roddy Piper, this month makes a low-key return with a typically subtle role in the mentallist sci-fi that is Alien Infiltration. Piper plays a gun-toting, kick-ass priest, just one of many competitors in a Battle Royale-style fight to the death over the reward money for killing a robotic alien interloper in the hillbilly American south. With cartoon caricatures and ridiculously OTT violence, this is more video game than film though all highly enjoyable.

Alien Infiltration proves to be very Troma in its approach; conversely, that actual studio’s new release, Father’s Day, starts out more like a sub-Tarantino grindhouse homage. Luckily, once it does get into its silly groove, this tale of an oddball trio hunting down a serial killer and rapist targeting people’s fathers (hence the title) is a hoot. With endless hilariously ridiculous dad-related one-liners, an outlandish plot involving Satanists and the afterlife, Father’s Day can happily take it’s place up there with other Troma ‘classics’ The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High.

Sticking with the deliberately weird releases we have Finnish-German Nazis-from-the-moon comic sci-fi romp Iron Sky, which already has a large online following and is surely destined for that hallowed cult status. Telling the silly tale of Nazis who had fleed to the moon after WWII and are now returning to conquer the Earth, Timo Vuorensola’s film is by no means as enjoyable as the hype might suggest. Still, with a neat Udo Kier appearance and the odd intelligent point to make, it’s hard to go wrong with space Nazis, I’m sure you’ll agree.

You’d assume it’d be difficult to mess up a film about the zombie Bin Laden also (wouldn’t you?), but Osombie, the movie lovingly described as ‘The Axis of Evil Dead’ somehow manages. Mostly serious, with nowhere near the glorious buffoonery you’d expect, this Afghan-set actioner is sadly tedious.

Less tedious (but not exactly great) is the found-footage low-budgeter Skew, which follows three friends as they try and get to a friend’s wedding despite various hindrances. As the road movie with a difference unfolds, it seems one friend can see ghostly images as he films everything on his camcorder. The odd slightly interesting twist aside, Skew remains yet another reason why this sub-genre is flailing so badly.

Taking that other horror genre, the post-apocalyptic zombie horror, director John Geddes offers an original slant by setting it in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The immediate gravitas-lending tones of Brian Cox narrate the journal of the film’s young, recently widowed protagonist, the soldier Edward Young, as he endures horror after horror. A nice analogy for the brutality of war and put together stylishly, Exit Humanity marks Geddes as a name to watch.

An initially more lighthearted take on that old undead genre, Cuban director Alejandro Brugués’ oddly uplifting Juan of the Dead also aims for something much more ambitious than your standard zombiefest. With much more in common with the Pegg/Wright UK hit than just its (terrible) name, Juan is a great everyman hero and petty crook having to prove his worth in times of great adversity. With some hilarious scenes and a touching sense of existential pathos, like the UK’s Shaun, Juan’s real strength is its heart. The odd gratingly homophobic moment aside, Juan of the Dead emerges a deeply likeable addition to the quirky, blood-soaked canon.

With all of the silliness going around this month, perhaps the perfect film to finish on is The House of the Devil director Ti West’s sobering The Innkeepers. Following two slacker hotel workers overseeing the final days of the soon-to-be-closing The Yankee Pedlar Inn, the pair investigate what may or may not be some kind of ghostly entity.

With very few guests and an overwhelmingly creepy atmosphere that slowly builds from nothing, West owes a great deal to Kubrick’s The Shining, though his restrained direction and defiant rejection of genre conventions makes The Innkeepers all his own. With questions asked throughout and nothing certain, West marks himself as a cerebral master of the genre with this, perhaps the best horror of the year.

What’s the best horror movie you’ve seen recently? Let us know below…

Watch the Juan of the Dead trailer…