Even in today’s day and age of low box office returns and struggling blockbusters, there’s one film genre that consistently outperforms, and that’s horror. In 2022, quite a few horror films made quite a big impression with both the audience and the box office. Movies like Paramount Smilewhich was nearly released on streaming service Paramount+ instead of to theaters, and A24’s duo of Mia Goth-starring vehicles X and Pearl, were huge, both culturally and monetaryly. Even as we enter 2023, Blumhouse’s M3GAN turned out to be the first big hit of the year. Suffice to say, it’s not necessarily surprising when a horror movie does well.
What is surprising, however, is a recent trend of horror films that have seduced and horrified audiences in a way that few films manage to do. These films were not released by major studios or marketed for the names above the title. No, these movies were actually made independently and for very, very little money. Low-budget horror is experiencing a resurgence not seen since 2007 with the Paranormal activity franchise, or even possibly with the 1999 one The Blair Witch Project . What does this mean for cinemas? Is a rising tide of indie horror poised to take over the cinemas, or is this just a fad? Let’s take a look at the movies that impress and see what we can collect.
The one that started it all: Terriifier 2
The original Terrier movie was far from a hit. Released in 2016 to minor acclaim at festivals and a mild cult following, the clown-centered slasher never failed to entertain a broad audience of non-horror superfans. When it came time to make the sequel, director and creative madman Damien Leone opted to start an IndieGoGo campaign for the future second entry. What surprised everyone was that the campaign was a huge success, far exceeding the initial $50,000 demand and raising over $250,000 in budget. Not only were Leone and his team able to make the movie they wanted to make, but they made it bigger, bolder and bloodier than they could have ever imagined.
terrier 2 is what some would call an “extreme slasher” – a unique slasher-type subgenre that emphasizes intense gore, brutal kills, and lots of gore. Under normal circumstances, a movie like this wouldn’t see wide theatrical distribution, but Leone and Co. had many surprises in store. What was initially intended to be a one-week limited release in October 2022 turned into several months, numerous expansions, and a gross of over $13 million. terrier 2 was the little horror film that could: made on a miniscule budget without any sort of major league representation. In the end, the movie proved that audiences would come for a horror movie if nothing else – and especially one made by people who love horror movies as much as they do.
The one who kept it going: Skinamarink
After terrier 2 set fire to the cash register, many wondered what this phenomenon meant. Would there be another one Terrier movie? (Yes.) Is this upward trend of horror cash register receipts sustainable? (Also yes.) But what now? The answer was an even smaller film that had only premiered at one festival months earlier Terrier 2 saw release. Kyle Edward Ball was an aspiring filmmaker and YouTuber who decided to make a micro-budget movie for $15,000 in the house he grew up in and named it Skin amarink. The film premiered at a festival in July 2022 and several others after that, which resulted in the film being illegally shot and released on the internet. While disappointing for Ball and Co., as they hoped to shop the movie around a bit more to find distribution, this massive piracy of the movie actually turned out to be a good thing. People were talking about the movie a lot, sharing on social media that it was “the scariest movie ever made”. All this good press helped get the movie to theatrical distribution through IFC Midnight, just like how terrier 2 was acquired by an independent distributor. And though it’s still early, Skin amarink seems to follow in the footsteps of Art the Clown in terms of receipts (via Vulture).
Skin amarink follows in the footsteps of something like The Blair Witch Project more than it does Terrierat least in how the film is constructed. Skin amarink is about two children who are abandoned and locked in their house after their father disappears and all the doors and windows in the house are gone. It was shot with a crappy digital camcorder and contains long silences capitalized by huge bursts of tension. Sounds familiar? It’s one of those movies where you could convince someone was real and that’s partly why audiences are so enthralled. The movie did so well in its first few weeks that its theatrical release has been expanded and extended.
The Ones to Come: The Outwaters & Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
So, what’s next for these low-budget horror films that just seem to break the bank at the box office? Well, there are two more coming out in the next month that seem to hold up the mantle of Terrier and Skin amarink. The first of which was distributed directly to the cinema thanks to terrier 2‘s escape success, and that is the premise of the nightmare Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Cleverly circumventing copyright law because the characters were public domain around last year, Blood and Honey is a wacky, if not endearing, slasher take on the classic children’s story. There’s no telling what the movie will actually be like, but it’s safe to assume it can get by based on its gimmicky premise alone. The film will be released for one night on February 15 (as of now).
The other low-budget wonder coming soon is a film by director Robbie Banfitch called The Outer Waters. Now this movie has followed a track very similar to both terrier 2 and Skin amarink. It premiered at a festival late last year and got a lot of buzz from it. Soon after, the conversation started around it and after the success of terrier 2, The Outer Waters received theatrical distribution from Cinedigm and Damn disgusting (same distributors who released Terrier). The Outer Waters appears to be a desert-centered found footage film that many say is a mind-blowing journey through the worst nightmare imaginable. The film will be released in select theaters on February 9, with the possibility of expansion if successful.
What does all this mean?
At the end of the day, all of these low-budget horror movies point to one very important thing about the current state of cinema: if you give people a reason to go out and see something, they’ll be happy to see it. Part of the reason this line of films has been so unexpectedly successful, and the discussion is heavy, is because of the power of word of mouth. You only hear that so often from your friends and colleagues Skin amarink is the scariest thing they’ve ever seen before, you just have to go find out for yourself. Same with terrier 2 and, possibly, Blood and Honey and The Outer Waters (though for different reasons). So while this trend of low-budget horror being hugely successful is new, it indicates something we already knew about movie distribution. You have to give people what they want and what they want right now is low budget horror.