Horror is an interesting genre because directors have made some true masterpieces for well under $1 million throughout film history. In an era where studios are spending mountains of cash on making movies, and even low-budget horror films cost a few million dollars, filmmakers over the past few decades have proven that they can produce terrifying horror releases for next to nothing, comparatively. At the same time, they still deliver all the scares that fans can handle and outperform box office expectations.

In the modern era of Hollywood, studios like Blumhouse became successful by making movies with low budgets, with films like Insidious ($1.5 million) and Sinister ($3 million) made on a low enough budget that they ended up as mᴀssive box office success stories. However, there are many movies that are made below $1 million that have been even bigger success stories for producers and studios, including the one that put Blumhouse on the map to start with.

10

Terrifier (2016)

$35,000

In 2016, Damien Leone made his breakout horror movie Terrifier, based on the character he created in his short film The 9th Circle, Art the Clown. This wasn’t his first movie, but it was the one that made him a star. Not only that, but it was a tremendous success story for Leone since he only paid $35,000 to make the movie. While it only made $421,798 worldwide, it was what happened next that made it a success.

The success came later when Leone made the sequel for $805,000, and it made $15.8 million. While this first movie didn’t make a lot of money, it enjoyed a nice run on home video and gave Leone a chance to show what he could do with more money. What is shocking is that Terrifier 3 cost $3 million to make, which is 85 times more than the first movie. It ended up hitting $90.3 million at the box office.

9

Open Water (2003)

$120,000

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws cost $9 million to make and what resulted was one of the best movies of all time and the film that created the summer blockbuster. In 2003, a new shark movie came out that was scarier than Jaws, made for a percent of what that earlier movie cost. Married filmmaking duo Chris Kentis and Laura Lau self-financed Open Water, and made it for only $120,000.

Open Water follows a couple on a scuba diving trip whose tour boat accidentally leaves them behind. The problem is that they are also alone in a water full of a school of hungry sharks. The film was an enormous hit, making over $54 million worldwide. Unlike many low-budget horror movies that led to big things for the directors, Hans Horn took over the franchise for the sequel, which cost over $1 million and made drastically less than the original movie.

8

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

$60,000

The Blair Witch Project started the entire found-footage horror craze. Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the movie cost only $60,000 and made $248.6 million worldwide, which was over 4,000 times its budget. Using mostly handheld cameras, the directors also sent their actors out and then let them improvise their scenes as they did what they could to scare them to create more realistic experiences. It worked, as the movie was a monster success critically as well as financially.

According to reports, The Blair Witch Project actors went camping in the woods for eight days, with cameras set up to record them. They had GPS trackers to find the new shooting spots and only minimal food rations that were meant to make them more irritable. Since these were amateur actors, the frustration and fear in the movie were real, and it made things more authentic with a tiny budget.

7

The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1981)

$375,000

When Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell set out to make The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, they had very little money, and it didn’t last until the end of the shoot. The two men, along with producer Rob Tapert, set out to the cabin in the woods to shoot their movie. However, they ran out of money and most of the cast and crew left. This is when they buckled down to finish the movie by themselves, often working as stand-ins for the departed actors as “Fake Shemps.”

According to Sam Raimi, the budget for The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ was brutal. “I wouldn’t want to go back to the budget of the first Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ,” Raimi said. “I mean, that was brutal. That was extremely difficult.” However, thanks to word-of-mouth and recommendations from Stephen King, the movie made $29.4 million and helped launch Raimi and Campbell’s careers as cult favorites in the horror genre.

6

Paranormal Activity (2007)

$15,000

Paranormal Activity is the most profitable horror film ever made, and it made Blumhouse one of the biggest horror movie houses in Hollywood. The movie is a found-footage horror film following in the footsteps of The Blair Witch Project before it. Instead of shooting outdoors, it used home security cameras to tell the entire story inside a small house with a limited cast and nicely timed scares. Director Oren Peli made his movie for only $15,000.

Peli sH๏τ the movie in his own house, saving money there. He used mostly non-actors, saving even more money. Peli then used simple practical tricks when needed to ensure that he needed no budget-breaking special effects. What resulted was a film that Blumhouse acquired that earned $193.3 million worldwide, the biggest profit for any movie in history, and a movie that made more money with six sequels, all costing no less than $3 million each.

5

Psycho (1960)

$800,000

In 1960, movie studios big and small made several horror movies for under $1 million. However, it seems hard to believe that someone like Alfred Hitchcock would have such a low budget for a movie as brilliant and memorable as Psycho. From his early movies, like Rebecca ($1.2 million) and Suspicion ($1.1 million), Hitchcock received millions of dollars to direct his movies. However, for Psycho, he only had a budget totaling $800,000.

What really makes this so notable is that Psycho is the highest-grossing movie of Hitchcock’s career, making $32.1 million. Rear Window was second at $27.5 million and it had a $1 million budget. Thanks to Psycho’s box office success, Hitchcock got $3 million for his next horror film, The Birds, and that only made $11.4 million at the box office.

4

Halloween (1978)

$325,000

John Carpenter proved his brilliance when he made the seminal horror slasher film Halloween on a small budget that only totaled $325,000. Four years earlier, Bob Clark made Black Christmas for only $686,000, and it made $4 million worldwide. Carpenter made his classic for half that amount, and it has grossed $70.2 million over its lifetime. Even more impressive is that Halloween looks like it cost more to make than Black Christmas.

Carpenter had some new tools created in the 1970s that allowed him to do things in Halloween that no other movies had been able to until then. Thanks to cutting-edge technology and Carpenter’s willingness to try new things, the movie looked like it cost twice what it did. Add in Carpenter doing his own musical score and taking a hands-on approach in all aspects of post-production, and he saved a lot of money, allowing the movie to become a mᴀssive success.

3

The Texas Chain Saw Mᴀssacre (1974)

$140,000

When The Texas Chain Saw Mᴀssacre came out, it ushered in an era of dirty, grimy horror movies. It wasn’t the first, but it was the most notable, and the most shocking thing to note is that The Texas Chain Saw Mᴀssacre only cost $140,000. This both helped and hurt the film. On the one hand, it caused it to feel brutal. That people point to the over-use of gore is interesting because there was actually very little blood shown in the film. It all came down to the intensity making people feel they saw more than they did.

However, this also hurt the film in the long run. Since the budget was so low, and there wasn’t much to go around, the cast agreed to work for shares in the film instead of the salary. The movie ended up making $26.7 million at the box office, but the studio reportedly under-reported its profits, and The Texas Chain Saw Mᴀssacre cast didn’t get paid hardly anything at all.

2

Friday The 13th (1980)

$550,000

It seems almost shocking that the movies that created long-lasting horror franchises started with ultra-low budgets. Halloween only cost $325,000 to make, and Wes Craven made A Nightmare on Elm Street for just $1.8 million. Sitting in between those two totals, Sean Cunningham made Friday the 13th in 1980 for just $550,000. Cunningham mostly sH๏τ his film outdoors as the story takes place at Camp Crystal Lake, so the location costs were minimal.

Friday the 13th made an impressive $60 million, which was more than Halloween, and had a long life in theaters, with nine sequels, a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a reboot in 2009. However, it ranks behind Halloween as a franchise, mostly because Halloween added to its totals with a new trilogy and Friday the 13th hasn’t been in theaters since 2009. Despite this, it was one of the best examples of great horror movies made for under $1 million.

1

Night Of The Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1968)

$114,000

One of the most influential horror movies of all time only cost $114,000. In 1968. George A. Romero made his zombie classic Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, a movie where he reinvented the idea of what a zombie was. Rather than the Caribbean zombies involving voodoo, Romero presented the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ rising from their graves and hunting down the living. SH๏τ in black and white and using minimal locations, Romero gave the world something that has lasted the test of time.

Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ went on to make $30 million over its run, which was 250 times its original budget. Romero then extended his franchise, which included the superior Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. However, Romero didn’t keep control of his zombies because his distributor forgot to put the required copyright notice on the theatrical prints, causing the horror movie to go into the public domain and people made VHS copies of the movie without its creator getting any of the cuts.

Sources: The Numbers, Box Office Mojo