10 Great Horror Movies (That Were Made For Less Than $5 Million) – Screen Rant

Filmmaking on a budget can be tough, but these 10 horror masterpieces managed to entertain millions while spending less than five million bucks.

The great thing about horror movies is that it lends itself well to cheap filmmaking and independent filmmakers. Unfortunately, this often results in a lot of bad movies. But, sometimes these indie filmmakers prove commendable, and they soon launch into bonafide film careers. In many respects, horror is used as a means to get feet in doors through inexpensive filmmaking.

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Many bad horror movies have been made on the cheap, but many great ones have, as well. Financing doesn't necessarily correlate with quality, and many fantastic horror movies have been made for less than five million dollars.

Whenever a topic like this is brought up, everyone obviously points to The Blair Witch Project. This movie has become synonymous with cheap, guerrilla-style filmmaking and is often used as the de-facto example for low-budget horror movies.

However, the budget may actually prove surprising, as it's estimated that the movie cost upwards of a deceptively high $500,000 to producestill cheap by movie standards, but certainly not cheap.Regardless, the investment paid off wonderfully, as the movie grossed nearly $250 million. Talk about a great ROI.

Another movie often used as an example of low budget filmmaking is Paranormal Activity. In fact, this should be used as the definitive example, as it was much cheaper to produce than The Blair Witch Project.

All told, Oren Peli and his team of filmmakers spent about $215,000 making the movie, which included expensive post-production costsfilming itself reportedly cost just $15,000. But, again, the movie enjoyed a major return on investment, grossing a very respectable $193 million at the worldwide box office. And that's not even counting all the sequels.

The Witch was widely heralded as the greatest horror movie of 2016, following its premiere at Sundance in January of 2015. It was a huge success, earning very strong critical reviews and launching the careers of both Anya Taylor-Joy and director Robert Eggers. It also helped legitimize A24 as a brilliant distributor oflow-budget horror movies.

The best thing about it is that it was very cheap to make. The Witch's budget came in at a low $4 million, and it earned ten times that at the worldwide box office.

Serving as Robert Eggers's anticipated follow up to The Witch, The Lighthouse stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse keepers who go crazy on a remote island. It earned just as much acclaim as The Witch, if not more so. Critics praised the movie's lead performances, the themes and ambiguous story it presents, and the uniquenot to mention Oscar-nominatedcinematography from Jarin Blaschke.

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Eggers is certainly consistent with his productions, as The Lighthouse also cost $4 million to produce. Most of that probably went to Dafoe and Pattinson.

The original Evil Dead is the epitome of "getting a bunch of friends together and shooting a movie in the woods." While certainly corny by today's standards, The Evil Dead has a certain schlocky and low-budget charm that is undeniable.

The movie was made forapproximately $350,000, which even by today's standards falls under the $5 million threshold. When adjusted for inflation, that accounts for roughly $1 million in 2020 money. The sequel received a substantial budget increase, having been made for $3.5 million, which would be about $8 million today.

Friday the 13th represents another stellar return on investment. Hot on the heels of John Carpenter's Halloween, Friday the 13th was made on the cheap and directed by Sean S. Cunningham in the woods of New Jersey.

The budget is a reported $550,000, approximately $1.7 million in today's money. It was obviously an enormous success, grossing $60 million ($189 million) and launching an entire franchise that quickly became a staple of the horror genre. Now, that's how you turn thousands into hundreds of millions!

Mike Flanagan is one of the biggest names in modern horror, and even he came from humble beginnings. AfterreleasingOculus in 2013, Flanagan turned his attention to Hush. The movie was filmed in a single location and starred Flanagan's own wife, Kate Siegel, as a deaf woman who isstalked by an unknown assailant outside her house.

The movie was produced for just $1 million, a far cry from the exorbitant budgets that Flanagan would later receive from the likes of Netflix and Warner Bros.

The granddaddy of all slasher moviesdiscounting less-popular movies likeBlack ChristmasHalloween has an undeniable influence on the horror genre. It's amazing what a kid with a small budget can do for the history of cinema. When Halloween was released in 1978, Carpenter was just 30 years old.

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He had also received a small budget, making the entire movie on just $300,000. That's about $1.2 million, and it required buying the iconic Michael mask for $2 from a local costume shop. It just goes to show that the little movie you being filmed down the street may change the very face of cinema forever.

Perhaps even more influential is George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This movie is single-handedly responsible for birthing the modern zombie movie, and it made Romero and his Living Dead films icons of the horror genre.

But, back in 1968, no one knewthis George A. Romero kid from Pennsylvania. Night of the Living Dead was made for $114,000just $850,000 todayand it saw Romero and his team buying clothes from Goodwill and using basic chocolate syrup as blood.

Saw proudly joins the likes of Paranormal Activity and Friday the 13th as cheap little movies that launched mega-franchises worth billions. Saw began its life as a $2,000 short film that James Wan and Leigh Whannell used to pitch their idea to movie studios.

Lions Gate eventually bit and greenlit a full-length version of Saw for just $1.2 million, and we're betting they're glad they did. The movie grossed $103 million and launched the Saw franchise, which to this day has grossed $976 million in worldwide box office takings.

NEXT:10 Highest-Grossing Low-Budget Drama Movies Ever Made

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10 Great Horror Movies (That Were Made For Less Than $5 Million) - Screen Rant