The indie horror scene definitely harbors some proper scares! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best horror movies that were independently released and made on miniscule budgets.
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00:00 "You boys don't want to go mess around the old house.
00:03 Those things is dangerous, you'll likely get hurt."
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best
00:10 horror movies that were independently released and made on miniscule budgets.
00:14 "You look a little blurry there, let me zoom out on you. Okay. Good morning. Okay, I got you."
00:22 Number 20, You're Next.
00:25 "Thanks for the help by the way."
00:27 "Hey, you seem to have a handle on it."
00:30 It's easy for home invasion thrillers to fall into lazy traps, but You're Next certainly doesn't do that.
00:37 A very clever movie, You're Next is exceptionally well-constructed, and contains many complexities
00:43 that add a fresh twist on the home invasion concept.
00:46 It's also wickedly brutal, surprisingly funny, and contains a strong female lead in Sharni Vinson's Erin,
00:54 who is unlike any other final girl you've seen.
00:57 And to think it was all made on a relatively low budget of $1 million.
01:02 The film was shot at a local mansion in Missouri, and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival
01:08 before getting picked up by Lionsgate.
01:10 It went on to gross over 25 times its budget, finishing its box office run with $26.9 million.
01:18 "I'm sorry things got so out of control, but how are we supposed to know that you were really good at killing people?"
01:30 Number 19, X
01:32 "People's eyes are gonna pop out of their damn skulls when they see this."
01:36 Many classic slashes from the 1970s were made on small budgets.
01:40 X continues that tradition.
01:42 Inspired by the gritty, made-for-peanuts horror films of old, X is about a team of adult filmmakers
01:48 who find themselves hunted by an old serial killer couple.
01:52 X was made for a paltry $1 million, and was filmed mainly in rural New Zealand.
01:57 It ultimately grossed 15 times its budget, and received praise for its performances,
02:02 practical effects, and atmosphere, with many calling it a nostalgic throwback to the 1970s.
02:08 The success of X and its prequel Pearl continue to prove the decades-long argument
02:14 that you don't need a lot of money to make a scary horror flick.
02:18 "That was some stellar negotiating. You really do have a neck for business."
02:23 Number 18, Wreck
02:25 "The police won't let us out, and they won't give us any explanation. The neighbours are completely..."
02:31 The found-footage format was all the rage in the 2000s, and Wreck is undeniably one of the finest entries in the subgenre.
02:38 The film follows a news reporter and her cameraman as they find themselves stuck in an apartment complex
02:44 during a zombie-like breakout.
02:46 The film was made for $2 million, and was shown at various film festivals,
02:51 and word of mouth spread faster than a zombie virus.
02:54 Wreck was universally praised for its atmosphere, acting, and effective use of tension,
02:59 utilizing its confined setting to absolute perfection.
03:03 It won numerous awards at the Sitges Film Festival, grossed over $30 million, and spawned a franchise.
03:10 "Ladies and gentlemen, please, let's go over there."
03:12 "No, no, no, no, no, no. There's something else here. The mobile phone doesn't work. Neither does the TV, nor the radio. We're out of communication."
03:20 Number 17, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
03:23 "If a storm were to come now, a very severe storm, would it make a difference behind those mountains?"
03:30 We don't know about you, but we think more horror films should be inspired by spaghetti westerns.
03:35 It's a very unique blending of genres, as exemplified by the Persian language, "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night."
03:42 The story takes place in the sleepy Iranian town of Bad City, and concerns a vampire stalking its residents.
03:49 The movie is the very definition of indie. It was made for peanuts, and was entirely funded by an Indiegogo campaign.
03:56 But budget doesn't equate with quality.
03:59 The film received universal acclaim after premiering at Sundance, with most critics singling out its atmosphere, soundtrack, and performances for praise.
04:08 It's gorgeous to look at, fun to listen to, and deeply interesting to consider. What's not to love?
04:14 "I'm going to get some rest."
04:16 "I'm going to eat some water."
04:21 Number 16, Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
04:25 "I'd like to kill somebody."
04:27 "Say that again."
04:29 "I'd like to kill somebody."
04:31 "That means you go for a ride, Otis."
04:34 As we'll discover throughout this list, the most controversial horror films are often the cheapest.
04:39 There's just something about that low-budget grit that gets to people.
04:43 And it doesn't get much grittier than Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.
04:47 The name alone is enough to turn heads, and it was loosely adapted from the activities of a real killer named Henry Lee Lucas.
04:54 The movie was shot in 28 days for just $110,000, with director John McNaughton hiring friends as actors and using props like cars and clothes that belonged to the crew.
05:05 The finished product attracted significant controversy for its raw depiction of violence,
05:10 but it also garnered acclaim for its gritty realism and the excellent lead performance of Michael Rooker.
05:16 "Did you really kill your mama?"
05:18 "I guess I did."
05:21 Number 15, Green Room
05:23 "You can't keep us here, man. You gotta let us go."
05:26 "We're not keeping you. You're just staying."
05:28 A struggling punk band gets offered a gig at a seedy club in the middle of the woods in Oregon.
05:33 What they soon discover, however, is that the club is filled to the brim with fascist thugs, leaving them considerably on edge.
05:40 Things take an even darker turn when they discover a corpse and get locked in the Green Room,
05:45 forced to fight their way out to survive the violent onslaught of goons and their calculating boss.
05:51 This thriller takes its top-notch cast for a violent ride, striking fear into its audience,
05:57 while also making them think about what they'd do in the same position.
06:01 "We'll do it here. Stage it up the road."
06:03 Number 14, Let the Right One In
06:07 "I have a wife."
06:09 "I also have a wife."
06:11 In 2004, Swedish writer Jon Ein Videlinqvist published Let the Right One In,
06:17 and he adapted it for the big screen four years later.
06:20 Dark yet beautiful, it follows a boy named Oscar who befriends a mysterious girl from out of town.
06:26 This child, the quiet and enigmatic Eli, turns out to be a vampire,
06:31 and the two develop a violent but undeniable bond.
06:34 The film was made on a small budget and premiered at the Gothenburg Film Festival,
06:39 where it was met with critical acclaim.
06:41 Many praised the movie for its touching story and dark atmosphere, mixing beauty and bloodshed with grace.
06:47 The acclaim grew and grew throughout the festival season,
06:50 culminating in a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language.
06:55 "How old are you?"
06:57 "Twelve."
06:59 "About."
07:00 Number 13, Cannibal Holocaust
07:03 "I've seen the rest of the material, you haven't."
07:06 "You haven't seen the stuff that even your editors didn't have the stomach to put together,
07:10 and if you had, you wouldn't hesitate but to agree with me."
07:12 There are controversial films, and then there's Ruggiero Diodato's Cannibal Holocaust.
07:18 The film was made for a measly $100,000, yet had an incredible cultural impact.
07:23 It contains dual storylines.
07:25 One follows a group of filmmakers who encounter cannibal tribes in the Amazon,
07:30 and the other follows the anthropologist who attempts to find them.
07:33 When the film premiered in Milan, acclaimed director Sergio Leone told Diodato,
07:38 "You will get in trouble with all the world."
07:41 He was right. Diodato was charged with murder,
07:44 with many convinced that the graphic violence was real.
07:47 He was acquitted, and his film went on to gain a significant cult following
07:51 for its shock value, innovative filmmaking techniques, and perceived social commentary.
07:57 "I wonder who the real cannibals are."
08:01 Number 12, Saw
08:04 "He doesn't want us to cut through our chains.
08:09 He wants us to cut through our feet."
08:11 In this disturbing horror flick, two men wake up in a room with their legs shackled to the wall,
08:16 with only an audio tape to tell them what to do next.
08:19 With the choice of either murdering each other, or cutting off their own feet to escape,
08:23 the two quickly realize they're trapped by the Jigsaw Killer,
08:27 who captures victims he considers guilty and forces them to solve bloody puzzles to get away.
08:32 Full of gore and plenty of twists and turns,
08:35 Saw not only launched a successful franchise, but popularized torture game films as well.
08:41 "Game over!"
08:44 Number 11, Funny Games
08:47 "This can't be. It has to be debated.
08:49 What do you think? Do you think you have a chance to win?"
08:53 This horror classic from Australian filmmaker Michael Haneke
08:56 openly antagonizes and provokes the audience,
08:59 and it's unlike anything else we've seen.
09:02 In this highly provocative film, Funny Games is about two young men named Peter and Paul
09:06 who enter a home and torment the owners for their own sick amusement.
09:10 Made on a small budget and contained to one primary location,
09:14 Funny Games uses its story to subvert the movie-going experience
09:18 and bluntly make the viewers complicit in the violence.
09:22 When it played at Cannes, a third of the audience left the theater,
09:25 having grown upset and disgusted at what they were seeing.
09:28 But by subverting expectations and playing with narrative structure,
09:33 Funny Games became a cult classic and a part of the Criterion Collection.
09:38 "You shouldn't have done that, Anna. The rules don't break."
09:41 Number 10, The Barberduke
09:44 "A rumbling sound, then three sharp knocks. Ba-ba-ba-duk, duk, duk."
09:50 What if the monsters you read about were real?
09:53 As widow Emilia tries to raise her young son Sam,
09:56 he becomes troubled and almost uncontrollable
09:59 after reading a book about the scary Mr. Barberduke.
10:02 He even has his own creepy nursery rhyme
10:05 that you just know will come back to haunt the characters.
10:08 Thanks to the book's mysterious powers, the story comes to life,
10:12 and Emilia becomes more and more troubled and exhausted,
10:15 trying to deal with Sam and keep her home in one piece.
10:18 Packing a surprisingly powerful message about grief,
10:21 this indie horror success wooed fans and critics alike.
10:26 "You're trespassing in my house!"
10:29 Number 9, Paranormal Activity
10:34 "Well, basically it could be two things. It could be a ghost, or it could be a demon."
10:41 How do you make a haunted house movie scarier?
10:44 Make it seem like it really happened.
10:46 Bringing found footage horror back from the dead,
10:48 this groundbreaking spookfest follows a couple
10:51 as they move into what they find out is a haunted house,
10:54 from a few unexplained items moving in the night
10:57 to full-on shrieks and burning Ouija boards.
11:00 Things quickly descend into darkness for this poor couple.
11:04 Possessions and weird footage abound,
11:06 and there's no end to the creeps this film offers,
11:09 leaving viewers to catch everything the characters miss.
11:12 The sense of helplessness this movie prompts
11:14 made this an instant classic not soon forgotten,
11:18 and thus a franchise was born.
11:21 "I come upstairs and there's like footsteps and the TV's on."
11:26 Number 8, The Witch
11:28 "What's that like to live deliciously?"
11:31 One of the few timeless fears is Fear of the Unknown.
11:34 Taking place in 1600s New England,
11:37 a family of Puritans is struggling to survive in their secluded house in the woods.
11:41 After their infant disappears, the finger is pointed at their daughter,
11:45 Thomassin, who's believed to be a witch that's cursed their family to suffer.
11:49 With mystical happenings and mysterious strangers
11:52 luring the family closer and closer to their ruin,
11:55 and coincidences further incriminating Thomassin of witchcraft,
11:59 the horrors of humanity surround her as her family tries to purify her of evil.
12:04 Newcomer director Robert Eggers successfully created an atmosphere of terror,
12:09 depicting historical events in a terrifying new light.
12:13 "We will conquer this wilderness. It will not consume us."
12:16 Number 7, It Follows
12:18 "Is there someone in there that made you want to leave?
12:21 Like an ex-girlfriend or something?
12:23 Said you saw a girl with yellow dress.
12:25 Is that someone that you knew?"
12:27 STIs are scary enough, but what if they actively tried to kill you?
12:31 Jay scores an amazing date, but after sleeping with him,
12:34 she soon finds out that she's the target of a mysterious "it".
12:38 This entity starts to follow her,
12:40 and there's the added terror that it will kill her if it touches her.
12:44 Forced to either die or pass it on through sex,
12:47 she and her teenage friends sort out rules and make plans to escape the terrifying being.
12:52 With cinematic and musical nods to horror masters like John Carpenter,
12:56 as well as some of the most bone-chilling scenes in recent years,
13:00 this quickly became a fan favorite.
13:03 "Is something wrong with me?
13:05 Look, somebody broke the window. That really happened.
13:10 But I saw a girl in the kitchen."
13:12 Number 6, Night of the Living Dead
13:14 "They're coming to get you, Barbara."
13:17 George A. Romero changed the horror landscape,
13:20 and he did it all with $125,000 and some chocolate sauce.
13:24 Arguably one of the most influential horror movies ever,
13:27 Night of the Living Dead revolted viewers in 1968,
13:30 and spawned the zombie sub-genre that is still going strong.
13:34 Despite its violence, which was enormously graphic for the time,
13:38 the film has received praise for its social commentary,
13:41 innovation, and influence on pop culture.
13:43 And to think, this was a real rinky-dink little movie.
13:47 They shot it in an abandoned farmhouse without running water,
13:50 chocolate sauce was used for blood,
13:52 and zombie extras were forced to eat donated offal.
13:56 But hey, the results speak for themselves.
13:58 "Are they slow moving, Chief?"
14:00 "Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."
14:03 Number 5, Hereditary
14:05 "My mom was old, and she wasn't all together there at the end.
14:09 And we were pretty much estranged before that,
14:11 so it really wasn't a huge blow."
14:14 A lot of great filmmakers get their start in horror,
14:16 and Ari Aster is a recent example.
14:19 Aster made a number of short films after graduating from the AFI Conservatory,
14:24 but he made his feature-length debut with Hereditary.
14:27 And what a debut it was.
14:30 The film debuted at Sundance in January 2018,
14:33 and was eventually heralded as one of the best horror movies of the decade.
14:38 Hereditary stunned audiences with its heavy themes,
14:40 brilliant filmmaking, and an amazing lead performance from Tony Collette.
14:44 Having confidence in the film, A24 gave Hereditary a wide release,
14:49 and with a gross of $82 million, it became their most successful movie ever.
14:54 It has since been supplanted, but the film's legacy is undeniable.
14:59 "I never wanted to be your mother."
15:01 "Why?"
15:07 Number 4, The Blair Witch Project
15:09 "We walked for 15 hours today, we ended up in the same place.
15:13 There's no one here to help you. That's your motivation."
15:17 This forefather of found footage horror was so scary,
15:20 even the screams of its stars were genuine.
15:23 Film students hunting a legendary witch in the woods
15:26 are bound to get themselves into trouble,
15:28 but watching from their perspective was more than most viewers bargained for.
15:32 Putting the audience in the middle of every scare,
15:34 the mounting spooks perpetrated against the students
15:37 during their camping trip gets harder and harder to explain away,
15:41 as it becomes clear something nefarious is afoot.
15:44 With film crews creeping through the woods at night to scare the film's stars,
15:48 their fright was often real, as they had no idea what was happening.
15:53 "This is why you like this video camera so much."
15:56 "You do?"
15:59 "It's not quite reality."
16:01 Number 3, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
16:03 "Franklin, let me see the flashlight. I'm gonna go look for him.
16:06 You don't have to go."
16:07 "No, Sally, don't go. I don't think that's a good idea, Sally.
16:10 I don't think you ought to go."
16:11 Meat is definitely murder in this gruesome tale.
16:14 When a group of teens hop in a van to go to visit their old family home,
16:18 they aren't prepared for the gory terror that awaits them.
16:21 After finding the neighbor's house seemingly unattended,
16:24 they soon get picked off one by one by the skin-masked Leatherface.
16:29 With brutal impalement by meat hooks,
16:31 furniture made from human bones,
16:33 and, of course, death by the titular chainsaw,
16:36 this was one of the bloodiest affairs on film.
16:39 Intensely gritty, the movie's horror goes in many demented directions,
16:43 ensuring you leave uncomfortable one way or another.
16:47 "What do you want?"
16:48 "No, no, no. There's no need to do that.
16:51 Nobody's gonna hurt you."
16:53 Number 2, The Evil Dead
16:55 "We're gonna get you. We're gonna get you.
17:01 Not another peep.
17:04 Time to go to sleep."
17:07 Ever hear the one about some teens alone in the woods?
17:10 After shacking up for a vacation in an old cabin,
17:12 Ash and his friends accidentally unleash evil upon themselves
17:16 with a demonic book and some incantations.
17:18 As they're attacked and transformed by vicious demons,
17:21 as well as attacked by the trees outside,
17:23 it becomes seemingly impossible to win or escape
17:27 when even dismemberment doesn't work anymore.
17:29 Thanks to its low budget ingenuity and endless amounts of blood,
17:32 the film launched Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell to fame,
17:36 and its ensuing sequels quickly turned the genre on its head
17:39 through their comedic hijinks.
17:41 "Soon all of you will be like me.
17:44 And then who will lock you up in a cellar?"
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18:03 1. Halloween
18:06 "Death has come to your little town, Sheriff.
18:09 You can either ignore it or you can help me to stop it."
18:12 No one knows horror quite like John Carpenter.
18:15 Back when he was filming on a more limited budget,
18:18 Carpenter directed this story about teens that get stalked and killed
18:22 by a masked lunatic on the one night everyone's wearing masks.
18:26 Following Laurie Strode as her friends drop like flies around her,
18:30 she has to survive being hunted by the grisly Michael Myers.
18:34 With some creative kills and one of the most haunting point-of-view sequences
18:38 ever committed to celluloid, it quickly became a go-to for horror fans.
18:42 And its referential love of the genre and eerie soundtrack by Carpenter himself
18:47 certainly didn't hurt.
18:49 "Watch the Boogeyman."
18:51 "As a matter of fact, it was."
18:59 Do you think indie movies are better than mainstream fare?
19:02 Let us know in the comments below.
19:04 "You know, it's Halloween. I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare, huh?"
19:08 Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo
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19:17 [music]