10 Terrifying Low Budget Horror Movies

Money is a funny thing. If you have it, you don’t think about it, and if you don’t have it – especially if you need it – it can consume your every thought. A lot of issues can be solved with money. You can fix problems that might make smaller wallets quake, you can go to places and do stuff and see things that others can only dream of, and you can keep throwing cash at obstacles until they finally prove surmountable.

There’s one thing money can’t buy, however, and no, it’s not happiness. The one thing that money can’t buy is passion.

It doesn’t matter what the budget is on a flick, if the filmmakers are phoning it in and don’t really care then no amount of celebrity, CGI or camera trickery can make you care. The thing is, passion comes with the territory of being a filmmaker and this counts doubly for horror filmmakers.

These brave souls approach their art with a love and care for the genre that can plug almost any gap that has been left by the small budget afforded to them. They can eek chills and orchestrate scares with nothing more than creativity, imagination and a reverence for what has gone before.

With that being said, here are ten terrifying low budget horror movies.

Spree is a found footage film revolving around Kurt Kunkle, a self-professed social-media influencer and all-round weirdo. Played with an easy charm by Stranger Things’ Joe Keery, Spree maps out Kunkle’s reach for celebrity as he streams a series of murders live from his taxi.

Eugene Kotlyarenko's 2020 picture is a simple film that shows you just what some people will do in order to get those ever-elusive ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ on social media. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so painfully true, and we can’t help but sympathise with Krunkle as he tries to be someone in a world that could not care less about him. Granted, maybe he goes about things the wrong way, but his boundless enthusiasm in his pursuit of relevance is heartbreakingly relatable.

Spree is a small movie - it has a small cast, a small story and it mostly occurs in a small space - but, like Kurt Krunkle himself, it has lofty ambitions and is well worth your time if you’re looking for a different spin on a genre that has often been described as well-worn and past its best.