Essential Low-budget films
by Joshua_Penczek | created - 01 Feb 2017 | updated - 04 Apr 2017 | PublicFor the low budget filmmaker, here are some essential films to check out, whether it be for inspiration or method studying.
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1. The Last Broadcast (1998)
86 min | Horror, Mystery
A film crew ventures into the forest in search of the mythical 'Jersey Devil'.
Directors: Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler | Stars: David Beard, Lance Weiler, Stefan Avalos, Jim Seward
Votes: 6,214
$900
2. Eraserhead (1977)
Not Rated | 89 min | Fantasy, Horror
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 127,300 | Gross: $7.00M
$4,000
3. Primer (2004)
PG-13 | 77 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.
Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya
Votes: 114,039 | Gross: $0.42M
$7,000
4. Clerks (1994)
R | 92 min | Comedy
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer
Votes: 232,217 | Gross: $3.15M
$20,000
5. El Mariachi (1992)
R | 81 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A traveling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gómez, Jaime de Hoyos, Peter Marquardt
Votes: 71,212 | Gross: $2.04M
$7,000
6. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,193 | Gross: $2.40M
$300,000
7. Slacker (1990)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
A day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Richard Linklater, Rudy Basquez, Jean Caffeine, Jan Hockey
Votes: 23,447 | Gross: $1.23M
$22,000
8. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,506 | Gross: $47.00M
$300,000
9. Bad Taste (1987)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The population of a small town disappears and is replaced by aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Craig Smith, Mike Minett
Votes: 49,078
$30,000
10. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Thriller
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman
Votes: 138,947 | Gross: $0.09M
$114,000
11. Pi (1998)
R | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart
Votes: 186,335 | Gross: $3.22M
$6,000
12. Following (1998)
R | 69 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell, John Nolan
Votes: 101,604 | Gross: $0.05M
$3,000
13. Blue Ruin (2013)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Director: Jeremy Saulnier | Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack
Votes: 78,801 | Gross: $0.26M
$420,000
14. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Unrated | 95 min | Adventure, Horror
During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi
Votes: 61,046
$100,000
15. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 183,316 | Gross: $30.86M
$74,000
16. Chasing Amy (1997)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything's going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Ethan Suplee, Scott Mosier
Votes: 143,719 | Gross: $12.02M
$250,000
17. Join the Cult (2015)
132 min | Documentary
A documentary following a Texas-based high school metal band on their road to success and all of the problems they face while trying to make it big.
Director: Tyler Wright | Stars: Tyler Sowders, Tyler Wright, Nathan Haley, Todd Tanzosh
Votes: 12
$460
18. Nightingale (II) (2014)
Not Rated | 83 min | Crime, Drama
A lonely war veteran psychologically unravels ahead of an old friend's impending visit.
Director: Elliott Lester | Stars: David Oyelowo, Barlow Jacobs, Heather Storm
Votes: 2,046
$38,000
19. Cube (1997)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.
Director: Vincenzo Natali | Stars: Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller
Votes: 247,441 | Gross: $0.50M
$300,000
20. Duel (1971 TV Movie)
PG | 90 min | Action, Thriller
A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell
Votes: 78,290
$450,000
21. Chan Is Missing (1982)
Not Rated | 76 min | Drama, Mystery
Two cab drivers search San Francisco's Chinatown for the mysterious Chan, who disappeared with their $4000.
Director: Wayne Wang | Stars: Wood Moy, Marc Hayashi, Laureen Chew, Peter Wang
Votes: 1,847
$20,000
22. Coherence (2013)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
Director: James Ward Byrkit | Stars: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen
Votes: 145,638 | Gross: $0.07M
$50,000
23. Dark Star (1974)
G | 83 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
In the far reaches of space, a small crew, 20 years into their solitary mission, find things beginning to go hilariously wrong.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm
Votes: 27,199
$60,000
24. In the Company of Men (1997)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Two business executives--one an avowed misogynist, the other recently emotionally wounded by his love interest--set out to exact revenge on the female gender by seeking out the most innocent, uncorrupted girl they can find and ruining her life.
Director: Neil LaBute | Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy, Stacy Edwards, Michael Martin
Votes: 14,275 | Gross: $2.86M
$75,000
25. George Washington (2000)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
A group of children, in a depressed small town, band together to cover up a tragic mistake one summer.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Damian Jewan Lee, Curtis Cotton III
Votes: 8,662 | Gross: $0.24M
$42,000
26. Upstream Color (2013)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Amy Seimetz, Frank Mosley, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig
Votes: 34,945 | Gross: $0.44M
$32,000
27. Hunger (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw
Votes: 73,516 | Gross: $0.15M
$500,000
28. Mosquito (1994)
R | 92 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A violent massacre caused by human-sized mosquitoes forces the lone survivors to band together in a fight for survival as the mosquitoes continue their onslaught.
Director: Gary Jones | Stars: Gunnar Hansen, Ron Asheton, Steve Dixon, Rachel Loiselle
Votes: 2,906 | Gross: $0.99M
$200,000
29. Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996 Video)
PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Earl Bassett, now a washed-up ex-celebrity, is hired by a Mexican oil company to eradicate a Graboid epidemic that's killing more people each day. However, the humans aren't the only one with a new battle plan.
Director: S.S. Wilson | Stars: Fred Ward, Chris Gartin, Helen Shaver, Michael Gross
Votes: 32,709
$3 million
The script warranted a $15 mil budget, so while the budget is easily the largest on this list, the fact that the film ended up getting made with a fraction of the budget is phenomenal. This film is especially good for studying when it comes to low budget filmmaking, mainly because it shows new filmmakers how manage big action and special effects on a tight budget.
30. The Castle (1997)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Drama
A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion.
Director: Rob Sitch | Stars: Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Anthony Simcoe
Votes: 17,471 | Gross: $0.86M
$19,000
31. Another Earth (2011)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.
Director: Mike Cahill | Stars: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava
Votes: 99,950 | Gross: $1.32M
$130,000
32. Monsters (2010)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion, a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Director: Gareth Edwards | Stars: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Mario Zuniga Benavides, Annalee Jefferies
Votes: 97,585 | Gross: $0.24M
$50,000
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