Why Low-Budget Horror Will Never Die

“But for all this buzz, just how many filmmakers and producers working in this high- (or low-, depending on how you look at it) end world of killer clowns and demonic living-room furniture (more on that later) can lay claim to financial success? Does having a crazy concept and head-turning title necessarily lead to riches?”

From a recent Hollywood Reporter article:

In the absurd, low-budget WTF-is-that-film-called world of low-budget horror where Sharknado recently ruled the seas, one ludicrous title made the most noise this year. The VelociPastor, an unlikely story of a grief-stricken priest who, given the power to transform into a dinosaur when angry, teams with a local prostitute to fight crime, became a viral smash when its sales agent and U.S. distributor Wild Eye Releasing dropped a poster (“The Man of the Claw,” it screamed) and trailer in late April.

From there began, in the words of writer-director Brendan Steere — whose idea for the film began with a comical autocorrect on his phone — “a fucking crazy whirlwind” that caught all off guard.

Within weeks, Steere had to turn off his Twitter notices because of the onslaught of interest, was interviewed by Forbes and — perhaps most bizarrely — saw his creation, made for about $35,000 (a budget the movie wears very much on its torn, ketchup-splattered sleeve), become a Spanish political meme when a right-wing priest campaigning in the presidential elections was compared to the titular character.

Here is a trailer for The VelociPastor:

Horror fans are perhaps THE most loyal group of moviegoers in existence. It’s been that way for decades. More specifically, they have supported low-budget horror films since at least the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead with a reported production budget of $114K.

Here we have The Velocipastor with a budget of $35,000. Didn’t the original Paranormal Activity cost $11K to produce?

If I were young and I loved horror, this is what I’d totally be writing: micro-budget genre scripts. One thing I’d take away from the Hollywood Reporter article: Think high concept.

In 2017, High Octane Pictures had a “hit” with the low-budget horror Clowntergeist, in which a college student with a crippling fear of clowns comes face to face with the evil spirit of, you guessed it, a clown.

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This year, High Octane has perhaps set the lunacy bar higher with the furniture-based horror Killer Sofa.

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No stranger to this world either, Uncork’d Entertainment in 2014 unleashed Beaster Day (giant man-eating Easter bunny wreaks havoc on small town).

The thing is anyone can actually do this. Hell, back in 2009, I interviewed Emily Hagins who started her filmmaking career at the age of 11!

For more inspiration, here are five horror projects which were pitched at the recent AFM.

Camp Wedding

Sales: Devilworks

This comes billed as “Friday the 13th meets Bridesmaids,” but presumably without Melissa McCarthy defecating in a sink. When a group of friends head to a summer camp closed in the ’80s to celebrate a marriage, guests begin disappearing, and it’s up to the bride to solve the dark secrets and save her wedding. Features an evil, possessed teddy bear.

Dead Dicks

Sales: Devilworks

Ignore the name; this isn’t quite a goofy comedy. Instead,the Fantasia Festival-bowing horror drama is a bold and clever feature where the “Dicks” refer to the main character. When Becca receives a call from her suicidal brother, Richie, she races to his apartment only to find it full of corpses that look just like him.

Kicking Zombie Ass For Jesus

Sales: ITN Distribution

Also known as the slightly less eye-catching (but more alliterative) Dead Don’t Die in Dallas, this zombie apocalypse spoof sees a miracle pill supposedly set to cure all diseases leaving just homosexuals and “bible thumpers” left to fend off the undead in a small Texas town.

My Uncle John Is A Zombie

Sales: ITN Distribution

With a title that doesn’t leave too much to the imagination, this horror comedy actually comes from genre hero John A. Russo (screenwriter on the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead). A zombie, funnily enough an uncle called John, suddenly becomes famous when the world discovers he can talk and reason as if he were alive. One review suggested that if Citizen Kane and Shaun of the Dead were to have a child, this would be it.

Robert Reborn

Sales: High Octane Pictures

This is the fifth film in the low-budget Robert horror franchise, which is loosely based on an allegedly haunted doll at Florida’s East Martello Museum. This time, the setting is Soviet Russia in 1951 and sees the killer doll battle Joseph Stalin’s henchmen on a plane.

Bottom line, if you’re a horror fan and filmmaker, think low-budget and high-concept… and get thee out there to produce a movie.

For the rest of the Hollywood Reporter article, go here.