They may not always be the biggest hit with critics, but there are several reasons why horror films continue to be a somewhat reliable bet at the box office. Since most horror films, especially slashers, don’t usually require a large budget compared to most Hollywood blockbusters, they tend to make their money back fairly easily. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule, but some of the best horror movies have been low-budget affairs that nonetheless gained several times their budget back with audiences.
Some of the genre’s most beloved franchises, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, and Friday the 13th, all got their start as independent films shot on budgets of less than $1 million. Thanks to their success at the box office, with critics, or both, they have all changed the trajectory of the genre as we know it. They are the films that prove sometimes, the smaller the scale and setting, the greater the impact they have on the audience.
10
‘Friday the 13th‘(1980)
Budget: $500,000, Box Office: $59.8 Million
The original Friday the 13th isn’t the most impressive movie on its own, but when one remembers the slasher villain it helped create, it’s still an influential film in the greater horror zeitgeist. The setup is an archetype in its own right — a group of teen counselors is making final preparations to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, a place with a violent past. Little do they know that someone with their own connection to the camp is following them up and has an axe to grind with anyone trying to open it again.
With a boisterous marketing campaign, to the point where advertisements were made before the script was written, and a wide release in mainstream movie theaters across America, Friday the 13th defied the expectations of its cast and crew to become a major box office hit. Even if most of the film is fairly by-the-numbers by today’s standards, the final act, with the reveal of the killer and one of the best jump scares in horror history, makes the whole experience worth the price of admission.
9
‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007)
Budget: $15,000, Box Office: $194.2 Million
Katie (Katie Featherson) is a young woman who claims to have been haunted by something dark and sinister for her entire life. To capture some proof of this supposed activity, her boyfriend, Micah (Micah Sloat), sets up a camera in her bedroom. What begins as mild and odd occurrences begins to escalate as the evil force begins to make its presence undeniable to both the couple and the camera recording it.
Frequently cited as among the most profitable films ever made, Paranormal Activity was made on a dirt-cheap budget of only $15,000 and made over $194.2 million at the box office. Set almost entirely in one room with a cast of only five people, the film is an exercise in suspense and tension that does not let up until the last moment. Frequently imitated (and duplicated through its own sequels), Paranormal Activity is as simple yet effective as a scary movie can get.
8
‘Terrifier 2’ (2022)
Budget: $250,000, Box Office: $15.8 Million
Another runaway slasher success story, Terrifier 2 was not the first film to feature Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), but it was the film that kicked his popularity into overdrive. Set exactly one year after the events of the first film, this film shows Art getting ready to spread his disgusting brand of mischievous carnage on the streets of Miles County once more. But this time, he’s got a friend in the mysterious Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) and a new adversary in Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera).
With a crowd-funded budget of $250,000, Terrifier 2 would gross $15.8 million during its unrated theatrical run in the United States. Even critics who dismissed the first film as a splatter fest commended the sequel thanks to its improved story and more interesting characters. With the success of this sequel, director Damien Leone was able to get an increased budget for Terrifier 3, cementing Art’s status as a modern horror icon.
7
‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999)
Budget: $60,000, Box Office: $248.6 Million
While Paranormal Activity may have solidified the found footage movie in the mainstream, it was The Blair Witch Project that popularized it to begin with. A group of amateur filmmakers has come to the town of Burkittsville, Maryland, to make a documentary about a local folk legend called the Blair Witch. But as they make their way into the nearby woods and start to go a little crazy from the isolation, it becomes apparent that they’re not alone.
Shot on a budget of $60,000 (with a final cost estimated between $200,000-$700,000 after marketing and post-production), the film would go on to make an astounding $248.6 million, making it one of the highest-grossing independent movies of all time. The internet-focused marketing campaign, which stuck to the film’s pretense that everything in the tape was real, took audiences by storm. In a genre that tends to have a heightened theatricality at times, The Blair Witch Project stunned many by committing itself to being as real as it could be.
6
‘Halloween’ (1978)
Budget: $300,000, Box Office: $70 Million
When it comes to films that changed the horror genre in terms of both setting and budget, few are as frequently discussed as Halloween. Building on the small but noticeable momentum of films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas, it showed how horror didn’t just happen in faraway castles or through implausible science — it can happen right in our own backyards. But more importantly for the studios, it showed that horror can be dirt-cheap and make a whole lot of money. Texas Chainsaw and Psycho may have invented the tropes of the slasher, but Halloween was the film that solidified and popularized them.
Every copycat made afterward would attempt a variation on the template of a silent killer with a sordid backstory wearing a creepy mask, stalking and murdering misbehaving teenagers. It was certainly a cheap storytelling model, but it was an effective one nonetheless. Halloween earned $70 million on a budget of $300,000 and won over critics with its creative cinematography, relative lack of onscreen violence, and simplistic yet haunting score.
5
‘Psycho’ (1960)
Budget: $806,947, Box Office: $50 Million
Compared to his previous works, Psycho was both a smaller production for Alfred Hitchcock and the biggest gamble of his career. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch, it tells the tale of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a woman on a mission who’s just checked into the Bates Motel. But when she’s murdered in the shower after meeting with manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), it soon becomes apparent that Norman’s got a far more unstable life than it seems — particularly when it comes to his mother.
Since Paramount Studios was not willing to fund a film adaptation of a book with extremely confronting subject matter, Hitchcock had to fund most of the film himself. Filmed in black and white with a crew taken from his popular television show and a budget of only $806,947, Psycho would initially be received with mixed reactions from critics and censors. But audiences went wild for it, grossing $50 million at the box office, and it continues to be Hitchcock’s most iconic feature.
4
‘The Evil Dead’ (1981)
Budget: $375,000, Box Office: $29.9 Million
Crossing over the premises of Friday the 13th and The Exorcist, The Evil Dead is still one of the bloodiest movies ever made. A group of college students has gone to spend their vacation in an old abandoned cabin in the woods, but their casual fun is interrupted when they discover an ancient book and accidentally unleash the evil within. As his friends are killed off one by one, an agitated Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) must fight for his life to make it by daylight.
The first major film directed by Sam Raimi, The Evil Dead was shot in an actual cabin in the woods on a shoestring budget of $375,000 and would gross $29.9 million. Much of its early success was attributed to legendary author Stephen King writing a glowing endorsement that would feature heavily on the film’s poster, but also due to earning rave reviews from even the stuffiest of horror critics. It may not be as silly or fantastical as its sequels, but The Evil Dead still horrifies 45 years later.
3
‘Eraserhead’ (1977)
Budget: $100,000, Box Office: $7.1 Million
Image via Libra Films International
Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) has discovered his girlfriend has had a baby. After attempting to raise it together, she soon abandons both of them, and eventually, the baby dies. That already isn’t exactly a light story, but throw in the fact that Henry lives in a Brechtian hellscape of a city, the baby is some kind of deformed, bird-like creature, and he’s been experiencing disturbing, cosmic visions, and Eraserhead becomes as creepy and inexplicable as it is impactful.
While its box office return of $7.1 million may not seem like a massive hit compared to other films of its era, it still made such a strong impression on the midnight theater circuit that it more than made its $100,000 budget back. Filled to the brim with disturbing imagery, stylistic elements, and extreme symbolism that director David Lynch didn’t see fit to explain, Eraserhead is one of the strangest movies you’ll ever see.
2
‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974)
Budget: $140,000, Box Office: $30.9 Million
Not unlike Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre leaned on real-life inspiration to invent a whole new sub-genre of horror. While the former leaned more on the psychology of murderer Ed Gein, the latter leaned more on the brutality and violence of his crimes. It does this without showing much actual blood onscreen to the point where director Tobe Hooper honestly thought he was going to get a PG rating.
What separates the original Texas Chainsaw from the likes of Halloween and Friday the 13th is that it was never intended to be a franchise focused squarely on scaring people. The film’s marketing and opening narration, portending the film to be based on a true story, enticed viewers who didn’t know better and led it to make $30.9 million at the box office. While it did end up getting several sequels of mostly negative quality, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is still regarded as one of the greatest horror films in history.
1
‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968)
Budget: $100,000, Box Office: $30 Million
The film that basically invented the zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead earned more than 250 times its budget with a gross of $30 million in its initial run. Out in the Pennsylvanian countryside, Barbra (Judith O’Dea) is attacked by a ghoulish man who has just killed her brother. Fleeing to an abandoned farmhouse, she hides out with a group of other survivors as the entire country seems to be overtaken by reanimated corpses with a hunger for human flesh.
Initially facing controversy upon its premiere due to its nihilistic tone and graphic violence, Night of the Living Dead nonetheless managed to find its audience, largely because it fell into the public domain not long after its theatrical run. Over the next few decades, Night of the Living Dead’s legacy has continued to endure, launching three separate franchises that all have their connections to the original classic but add their own style to the hell on earth the living dead create.
