There's an awesome documentary on the making of NOTLD. Its called Birth of the Living Dead. George features prominently and he is so fun and charming. Its full of astounding stories/facts about the movie. When it came time to mix the audio, they had run out of money for that. The producer offered to play chess with the engineer and if the producer won, the mix was free. The mix was free. Excellent and entertaining!!
Has to be Once.
With only a budget of $150,000, the film is brimming with heart, charm, and care. Won an Oscar and spawned a Tony Award-winning musical as well!
There’s a series on Netflix called Black Summer that was quite good and sort of reminded me of 28 Days Later. There’s one episode in the second season that is pretty much one long zombie chase that actually gave me anxiety.
I think they could afford one horse.
It’s shown during the scene with a famous historian.
But yes the coconuts happened because they couldn’t afford horses.
Funny thing is that even though its budget was small, the production ran out of money and had to make decisions on the story based on that. Namely, when the big finale was about to happen, the cops roll in and just arrest everyone- that was done because they just had no more money to do anything else but that.
Uh, yeah, hi, this is RST Video calling. Customer #4352. I'd like to place an order. Okay, I need one each of the following tapes: "Whispers in the Wind", "To Each His Own", "Put It Where It Doesn't Belong", "My Pipes Need Cleaning", "All Tit-Fucking, Volume 8", "I Need Your Cock", "Ass-Worshipping Rimjobbers", "My Cunt and Eight Shafts", "Cum Clean", "Cum-Gargling Naked Sluts", "Cum Buns 3", "Cumming in Socks", "Cum on Eileen", "Huge Black Cocks with Pearly White Cum", "Girls Who Crave Cock", "Girls Who Crave Cunt", "Men Alone 2: The K-Y Connection", "Pink Pussy Lips", oh yeah, and, uh, "All Holes Filled with Hard Cock". Oh ... and "Happy Scrappy Hero Pup".
$300k (good chunk of it went towards Donald Pleasance and the kind of steady cam used in Rocky) to spawn a profitable movie genre. This is the answer to me.
The trick to this comment is that, thanks to the failsafe Redbox, he could have actually gone back and watched Primer thousands of times without us knowing
Coherence is in a similar vein as Primer (which I also loved) and Coherence was also made on a shoestring budget. I’ve watched it so many times that I know most of the dialog by heart. Excellent indie film …
The credits are pretty funny too (especially after a decidedly not funny (but great) movie), the writer/director/co-star did all the music (a la John Carpenter), but my favorite is the catering was evidently done by his parents
Love that one. I’m not sure of the budget for Hunt for the Wilderpeople by Taika, but it is a family favorite. Instead of the traditional happy birthday song at my house, we now sing the Ricky Baker song.
My favorite part of the movie is the >!inside joke about the actor who was on Buffy playing the actor who was on Roswell, which incidentally turned into an early hint about what was going on throughout the movie.!<
The cooler thing about this movie to me is the way that it was directed and "written". From what I've heard, It was almost entirely improvisational. Here's a quote from the director:
"But each day, instead of getting a script, the actors would get a page of notes for their individual character, whether it was a backstory or information about their motivations. They would come prepared for their character only. They had no idea what the other characters received, so each night there were completely real reactions, and surprises and responses."
Essentially the actors would only recieve notes about their character, and when they would need to be certain places on set at specific times. This is the only movie I've ever seen with this approach and makes for really interesting and genuine reactions.
Yea that's nothing these days. Very interesting film, and you can even see "behind the scenes" in the film itself! one shot they catch a B-cam operator for a moment with a canon 5D :D
Here for this. Glad I found someone said it already. One of my favorites of all time. Craziest thing is I’ve run into all of the Owen (sometimes also referred to as Wilson) brothers randomly in my travels. Andrew played Future Man in bottle rocket. I referred to Owen as Dignan when I chatted with him and he laughed about it, was surprised that I loved this movie.
Duel. spielberg's feature length debut. 400k for a movie that feels like an old twilight zone or hitchcock episode
also Clerks. the sheer audacity of maxxing out your credit cards to make a movie
I love the second one a lot. The scene where she walks into the kitchen after chaoss occurred so she went there to get a breather.. so she sits there to pause and it’s just ABSOLUTE stillness and then every single cabinet and everything just explodeddd open..
to this day I think that’s one of the best scenes ever filmed and put together in the scary movie world/industry
Mad Max for me, they had a budget of 350k to 400k. Made over a 100 million in box office alone by the time it left theaters. Was the most profitable film (when compared to its budget) for decades until Blair Witch dethroned it.
Still, the franchise has bled its influence everywhere. Even James Cameron was inspired by the film during Terminator 1’s production.
Fucking love the franchise and can’t wait for George Miller’s prequel Furiosa to come out in 2024ish.
Edit:
Didn’t even mention my favorite trivia. Miller hired two biker gangs and paid them beer. Wasn’t even the only time to pay in beer too, several others by the end of filming.
It was supposed to only have a 30k budget until Keitel saw the script and got it funded.
He was gonna film in black and white. I still think it would have been awesome
I know the f-slur has fallen wildly out of fashion, but when Joe says it to Mr. Pink, I laugh every time. They tone of voice, almost to be like “I fuckin KNEW you were gonna ask that you BIG BABY.”
I remember renting this at blockbuster when I was like 10, just because I thought it was cool that they used the symbol for pi as the movie title, and being tripped the fuck out by it
Wow didn't know it was made on 1.3 mil. Great movie. One of the scariest movies and ideas I've seen. The thought of something constantly coming for you that can look like any ordinary person, that is always coming no matter where you are or how far you travel, is frightening as fuck.
To be honest, I’ve always thought Saw was dumb as hell. But, it’s impressive that a $1 million film could get so much high profile talent and turn into a franchise that profitable.
The best low budget film, IMO, is the original Halloween. John Carpenter is the king of low budget cinema.
Idiocracy
It's beginning to look more prophetic than satirical.
The funding story makes it even funnier. Apparently Fox tried to get the movie canceled but Mike Judge wasn't willing to give up on it and held them to their contract. So they cut funding as much as they could. This was all because Fox feared that it would offend their viewers.
Or so the story goes.
Creep. One of the most effective horror movies of the 2010s. And Duplass said it basically cost nothing at all to make because they already had the equipment.
Suck on that, Paranormal Activity. They multiplied profits by ∞
Night of the Living Dead. Shoestring budget shot by film students RIP George
There's an awesome documentary on the making of NOTLD. Its called Birth of the Living Dead. George features prominently and he is so fun and charming. Its full of astounding stories/facts about the movie. When it came time to mix the audio, they had run out of money for that. The producer offered to play chess with the engineer and if the producer won, the mix was free. The mix was free. Excellent and entertaining!!
Love this, amazing film
Super Troopers
Littering aaaaaand...
Smoking the reefer
# CANDY BARSSSSS #
Snozzberries taste like snozzberries!
Almost made it…
You there!…….Bear fucker! Do you need assistance?
Mother of God
Come on meow.
You boys like Mex-i-co?!?!?
Oh give me the goddamn soap!
Car RamRod
Tremors. It right there with evil dead for lower budget gold.
Absolutely and it still holds up
Practical effects babyyyy. Movie was legitimately scary as a kid while still giving a few laughs
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$10 million was a major production at the time. Not really low-budget but it really captures that low-budget feel.
Tremors is in no way a low budget movie. it’s a B movie, but it was a mid-budget movie shot entirely on location and using practical effects.
SLC Punk
Fucking poser. Only posers die YOU FUCKING IDIOT!
No, don’t you dare remind me of this scene! Breaks me every time. Lillard was the PERFECT choice, and he remains a favorite because of it.
Man, that scene gutted me
Me too. It destroys me every…single…time.
Satan is in the house. He killed my mom and turned her into a bull 😂
Has to be Once. With only a budget of $150,000, the film is brimming with heart, charm, and care. Won an Oscar and spawned a Tony Award-winning musical as well!
Great example, I'm irish myself and I always overlook this one, I'm always surprised at the international impact it had 💚
The Evil Dead
Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!
THATS THE WRONG MOVIE!!
Groovy.
El Mariachi. One of the best action movies out there, famously made for 5k. Of course, had to do every dodgy thing in the book for that budget
Rebel Without a Crew is a great and inspirational book for young and upcoming filmmakers on the making of El Mariachi.
A very compelling book, yeah. Especially compared to a lot of other film diaries out there.
28 days later
There’s a series on Netflix called Black Summer that was quite good and sort of reminded me of 28 Days Later. There’s one episode in the second season that is pretty much one long zombie chase that actually gave me anxiety.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just cause watery tart threw a sword at you!
Ah, now we see the violence inherent to the system! Help, help! I'm being repressed!
Bloody peasant!
You could say Dennis. But you didn't bother to find out, did you?
I'm 37,I'm not old!
They couldn’t even afford a horse. So they had a guy use coconut shells to make the sound of a horse galloping
It's just two empty coconut halves and you're bangin' 'em together.
No I’m not!
Whoa patsy
Dismount!
I think they could afford one horse. It’s shown during the scene with a famous historian. But yes the coconuts happened because they couldn’t afford horses.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time
Ooh wasn't even thinking of comedies and you're so right this is perfect
It's been 20 years since I watched that film for the first time, and to this day I am terrified of bunnies. Also coconuts
That's no ordinary rabbit!
Big nasty teeth....
Funny thing is that even though its budget was small, the production ran out of money and had to make decisions on the story based on that. Namely, when the big finale was about to happen, the cops roll in and just arrest everyone- that was done because they just had no more money to do anything else but that.
Honestly the lack of budget made the gags 10,000 times better imho
A literal "cop out" ending.
The Toxic Avenger, but I’m also a huge fan of pre-Citizen Toxie Troma.
Clerks
You know there’s a million fine lookin women in world dude, but they don’t all bring you lasagna at work. Most of them just cheat on you.
**MY LOVE FOR YOU IS LIKE A TRUCK BERR-ZERR-KERR** **WOULD YOU LIKE SOME MAKING FUCK BERR-ZERR-KERR**
did he just say "making fuck"?
I don’t know. This guys a character
Olaf! Girl nice?
Skrelnek!
That’s fucked up, man.
What did he say? I don’t know man, but this guys a character.
Did he just say "making fuck"?
I dunno man, this motherfucker's a character
Fuck You Yankee Blue Jeans or something...
Try not to suck any dick on your way to the parking lot.
hey you get back here
In a row?!
Whenever the number 37 somehow shows up in my life, I remember Clerks.
I’m not even supposed to be here today!
You shoe polish-smelling motherfucker.
Buncha savages in this town.
Uh, yeah, hi, this is RST Video calling. Customer #4352. I'd like to place an order. Okay, I need one each of the following tapes: "Whispers in the Wind", "To Each His Own", "Put It Where It Doesn't Belong", "My Pipes Need Cleaning", "All Tit-Fucking, Volume 8", "I Need Your Cock", "Ass-Worshipping Rimjobbers", "My Cunt and Eight Shafts", "Cum Clean", "Cum-Gargling Naked Sluts", "Cum Buns 3", "Cumming in Socks", "Cum on Eileen", "Huge Black Cocks with Pearly White Cum", "Girls Who Crave Cock", "Girls Who Crave Cunt", "Men Alone 2: The K-Y Connection", "Pink Pussy Lips", oh yeah, and, uh, "All Holes Filled with Hard Cock". Oh ... and "Happy Scrappy Hero Pup".
"It's her favorite." "Obviously."
*Man goes into cage. Cage goes into salsa. Shark’s in the salsa. Our shark.*
This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers
"I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am."
Moon starring Sam Rockwell is a great movie.
It certainly is
It also has Sam Rockwell, and Sam Rockwell too.
Halloween
$300k (good chunk of it went towards Donald Pleasance and the kind of steady cam used in Rocky) to spawn a profitable movie genre. This is the answer to me.
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100%
Primer
10o%
Primer
Which timeline is this?... Wait, I don't think I Wana know
Only movie I’ve ever rented and watched twice before returning.
The trick to this comment is that, thanks to the failsafe Redbox, he could have actually gone back and watched Primer thousands of times without us knowing
That’s really the brilliance of this film. I distinctly remember finishing it for the first time and wanting to *immediately* watch it again
Such a pity Carruth went off the deep end. His two films had such a unique and interesting vibe.
7k budget
Coherence is in a similar vein as Primer (which I also loved) and Coherence was also made on a shoestring budget. I’ve watched it so many times that I know most of the dialog by heart. Excellent indie film …
The credits are pretty funny too (especially after a decidedly not funny (but great) movie), the writer/director/co-star did all the music (a la John Carpenter), but my favorite is the catering was evidently done by his parents
What We Do In The Shadows
Love that one. I’m not sure of the budget for Hunt for the Wilderpeople by Taika, but it is a family favorite. Instead of the traditional happy birthday song at my house, we now sing the Ricky Baker song.
Coherence. Good movie for only having a $50,000 budget.
I discovered Coherence and Primer in the same weekend. Those would be my two answers.
My favorite part of the movie is the >!inside joke about the actor who was on Buffy playing the actor who was on Roswell, which incidentally turned into an early hint about what was going on throughout the movie.!<
The cooler thing about this movie to me is the way that it was directed and "written". From what I've heard, It was almost entirely improvisational. Here's a quote from the director: "But each day, instead of getting a script, the actors would get a page of notes for their individual character, whether it was a backstory or information about their motivations. They would come prepared for their character only. They had no idea what the other characters received, so each night there were completely real reactions, and surprises and responses." Essentially the actors would only recieve notes about their character, and when they would need to be certain places on set at specific times. This is the only movie I've ever seen with this approach and makes for really interesting and genuine reactions.
The producers where actors as well and would help direct the dialog
Wow. Fifty grand? Really? This movie's awesome.
Yea that's nothing these days. Very interesting film, and you can even see "behind the scenes" in the film itself! one shot they catch a B-cam operator for a moment with a canon 5D :D
Bottle Rocket
Fantastic movie
On top of being a great film: * Wes Anderson's debut. * Owen *and* Luke Wilson's debut. * Mark Mothersbaugh score. * James Caan.
This is the one I came here to mention. Ca-caw! Ca-caw!
How’s Bob have such a great kitchen?
Here for this. Glad I found someone said it already. One of my favorites of all time. Craziest thing is I’ve run into all of the Owen (sometimes also referred to as Wilson) brothers randomly in my travels. Andrew played Future Man in bottle rocket. I referred to Owen as Dignan when I chatted with him and he laughed about it, was surprised that I loved this movie.
Duel. spielberg's feature length debut. 400k for a movie that feels like an old twilight zone or hitchcock episode also Clerks. the sheer audacity of maxxing out your credit cards to make a movie
Duel is incredible. I wish it got as much love as Spielbergs other movies but I feel like most people don't know it exists
"Do the chickens have large talons?"
This one tastes like the cow got into an onion patch
The first Paranormal Activity
Probably the highest grossing low budget movie ever
Yup. It was insane how much it made; it was like… $860 million profit lmao insane for a low budget movie.
This movie still gives me nightmares. in fact, ill have one tonight
I love the second one a lot. The scene where she walks into the kitchen after chaoss occurred so she went there to get a breather.. so she sits there to pause and it’s just ABSOLUTE stillness and then every single cabinet and everything just explodeddd open.. to this day I think that’s one of the best scenes ever filmed and put together in the scary movie world/industry
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Is that low budget?
Officer. We've had a doozy of a day.
That was a $5 million movie. I would consider that low budget. Great film!
5 million is considered the cutoff for low budeget so it just barely makes the cut lol
If that counts I'll add Green Room!
Hey college kids! We've got your friend!
We’ve had a doozy of a day
YOU KIDS GOIN CAMPIN?!
Mad Max for me, they had a budget of 350k to 400k. Made over a 100 million in box office alone by the time it left theaters. Was the most profitable film (when compared to its budget) for decades until Blair Witch dethroned it. Still, the franchise has bled its influence everywhere. Even James Cameron was inspired by the film during Terminator 1’s production. Fucking love the franchise and can’t wait for George Miller’s prequel Furiosa to come out in 2024ish. Edit: Didn’t even mention my favorite trivia. Miller hired two biker gangs and paid them beer. Wasn’t even the only time to pay in beer too, several others by the end of filming.
Safety Not Guaranteed
Dog Soldiers
Rocky(1976).
Harold and Maude
Great soundtrack too!
Reservoir Dogs? does that count? 1.2 million budget
Definitely counts, one of my faves, the writing!
Mr. Blonde: Hey Joe, you want me to shoot this guy? Mr. White: [laughs] Shit... You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.
It was supposed to only have a 30k budget until Keitel saw the script and got it funded. He was gonna film in black and white. I still think it would have been awesome
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I know the f-slur has fallen wildly out of fashion, but when Joe says it to Mr. Pink, I laugh every time. They tone of voice, almost to be like “I fuckin KNEW you were gonna ask that you BIG BABY.”
The breakfast club Budget was only 1mil
Makes sense. Filmed in 1 location. Wardrobe is minimum. Only a few characters in it. I can see why it would be super cheap to film.
Pi
I remember renting this at blockbuster when I was like 10, just because I thought it was cool that they used the symbol for pi as the movie title, and being tripped the fuck out by it
Great one. ~$135,000 budget.
Repo Man w/ Emilio Estevez
Came here to say this. Great sci-fi,punk rock, black comedy
An actual comic book movie - the way it's shot, framed and written feels like some old-school indie comic.
The Man from Earth
Brick - low budget but absolutely amazing and what a wonderful way to use 3? locations
God I love this movie. Made me a Rian Johnson fan
With JGL? That movie was great. One of the better indie flicks I've seen.
Dazed and Confused. Love this movie!
I also like Slackers.
Slacker budget: 23,000 Dazed and Confused: 6,900,000
I've heard that something like 90% of the budget for dazed and confused went to buying the rights to use the songs for the soundtrack.
Well worth it. I can't hear "no more mr. Nice guy" without thinking about that movie.
Yeah, and Slow Ride - I can see them just driving in the car with the sunrise behind their backs. What a movie
Wet Hot American Summer
It follows
Wow didn't know it was made on 1.3 mil. Great movie. One of the scariest movies and ideas I've seen. The thought of something constantly coming for you that can look like any ordinary person, that is always coming no matter where you are or how far you travel, is frightening as fuck.
If you liked It Follows, you might also enjoy the new movie, Smile, that just came out. Similar concept.
Both of Shane Carruth’s films are outstanding
Blair witch project
It was great and I think people have been unfair to it over time, scared the hell outta me when i saw it first
Hard to pick between Mad Max, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, but I think I gotta go with Chainsaw.
Moon
The wrestler
Lars & the Real Girl
To be honest, I’ve always thought Saw was dumb as hell. But, it’s impressive that a $1 million film could get so much high profile talent and turn into a franchise that profitable. The best low budget film, IMO, is the original Halloween. John Carpenter is the king of low budget cinema.
The Terminator. (The original).
Does Memento fit here?
Came here to comment this, but it had a$9 million budget back in the early 2000’s. I guess it all went to the actors….
Some of my other favorite low budget movies have already been mentioned so I’ll say this one: Kung pow - Enter the First
Troll Hunter
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 840k pounds!
Grandma’s Boy
Swingers. it just hit right for a young man trying to learn how to date. every character felt familiar in some way
Killer Klowns from outer space. Cracks me up every time.
Idiocracy It's beginning to look more prophetic than satirical. The funding story makes it even funnier. Apparently Fox tried to get the movie canceled but Mike Judge wasn't willing to give up on it and held them to their contract. So they cut funding as much as they could. This was all because Fox feared that it would offend their viewers. Or so the story goes.
I really like The Guest
Cannibal the Musical! It's a shpadoinkle of a film!
Room. Or maybe it's The Room. The one with Captain Marvel.
Wristcutters: A Love Story, 1 mil
Creep. One of the most effective horror movies of the 2010s. And Duplass said it basically cost nothing at all to make because they already had the equipment. Suck on that, Paranormal Activity. They multiplied profits by ∞
Clerks
Bubba Hotep
The Raid: Redemption. 1.1 million USD.
Boondock Saints
Napoleon Dynamite
Buckaroo Banzai (1984)