10 Great Modern Horror Movies That Were Made For Next To Nothing
9. Slasher House (2012)
Produced for £3,000, UK writer-director MJ Dixon's comic book-flavoured homage to the heyday of VHS horror is a classic example of a movie with ambition far beyond its budget. Happily, Dixon's flair as a visual stylist and knack for crafting colourful characters mean Slasher House is tremendous fun to watch, even if there's no mistaking that it was made on a shoestring.
Opening with Eleanor James' flame-haired amnesiac Red waking up naked in a seemingly abandoned prison, it slowly becomes apparent that she's slap-bang in the middle of a showdown between several of the deadliest serial killers in the world. Much hacking and slashing abounds.
The film served as the launchpad for a series of films from Dixon's Mycho Entertainment set within the same universe: prequel Legacy Of Thorn came next, with Hollower And Cleaver: Rise Of The Killer Clown due this year and Slasher House 2 currently in production. Told you they were ambitious.
8. The Devil's Music (2008)
Pat Higgins' principle claim to fame (or perhaps infamy) is the fact that he wrote the original script for what wound up becoming 2012's feeble comedy horror Strippers Vs Werewolves. But we shouldn't hold that against him. Beginning with 2005's Trash House, the writer-director has made a number of low budget horror movies with his company Jinx Media, and The Devil's Music is far and away the best of the bunch.
Presented as a psuedo-documentary (not found footage, I feel compelled to emphasise), the film charts the rise and fall of shock rocker Erika Spawn (Victoria Hopkins), who becomes public enemy number one in polite society thanks to her Marilyn Manson-esque persona. But when things take a genuinely devilish turn, where is the real evil coming from?
Given that Higgins acknowledges it to be his best work, it's interesting to note that The Devil's Music was made almost as an afterthought, with the £2,000 Jinx Media had left in the bank after bringing their previous two films in under budget.