How Low Budget Horror Continues To Prevail

Analyzing three films that exemplify the definition of low budget horror.

WARNING Spoilers, towards the movies stated below, are glaring.

As the film industry has grown, a lot of aspects have advanced the notion of low budget horror. The genre has increased its popularity. How? By maintaining the same characteristics that had made the style great in the past before: the buildup towards tension, one to two locations, and a small amount of main characters. By increasing the budget a bit, studios can work towards greater flexibility. Films such as Crawl, The Shallows, and Open Water, are examples of each of these characteristics. All of these films obtain the same qualities through their short runtimes, but some do it better than others.

‘Crawl’ is a tension filled extravaganza

Image courtesy of Paramount.

From producer Sam Raimi comes Crawl. The movie is a 2019 flick straight from the director who brought a remake of Piranha to life. The story is minimal. The main antagonist Haley, played by The Maze Runner’s Kaya Scodelario, is an intercollegiate swimmer. While practicing for an upcoming swim meet, she gets a call from her older sister asking where their father is. Beth, Haley’s older sister played by Moryfydd Clark, tells Haley that there is a category five hurricane headin’ towards Florida. With this in mind, Haley goes off to search for their father, driving through a rapidly growing storm. She appears to see her father injured by an alligator bite. Her father Dave, played by Barry Pepper, and herself go on a hurdle to get rescued from multiple gators. It is such a simple premise, but with Alexandre Aja’s resume of his past filmography, Florida: The Movie was destined to be a poor execution in the name of low budget horror. The computer-generated gators, along with having crawlspaces the size of basements in Florida, created an image of not-so-good proportions towards both critical and box office successes. It was not looking to be a fun summer horror hit until reviews and reactions started pouring out. What if I told you that this movie had obtained a higher (MUCH higher) Rotten Tomatoes score than the computer-generated The Lion King remake?

One of the most potent reasons for its critical success is the factor of tension and buildup. Reviewers, such as Mike McGranaghan from Aisle Seat and Jason Escamilla from EskimoTV, call the flick,

“…a fast-paced thriller…”

For a cinematic picture of this kind to be a fast-paced thrill ride, the tension is most certainly a relevant constituent. When viewing the film in theatres, I can confirm that the buildup is real. The frightening moments are virtually unexpected, thanks to the direction of Aja towards building up the tension. It is this type of directorial lead that make this low budget horror piece a success on its own.

Water surrounds ‘The Shallows’

Along the lines of building up cinematic tension, arrives director Jaume Collet-Serra. Collet-Serra is responsible for high tensioned films such as The Commuter and Non-Stop. He is also known for directing Orphan, his second horror film before his succeeding one The Shallows.

The film begins with Nancy Adams, played by Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively. Adams travels to an isolated beach near Baja, California. Adams is a surfer and begins to surf shortly after arriving. After meeting two other surfers, she heads towards the shore for a break. After some family tension, while talking to her father regarding her mother’s death, she heads back surfing. It is at this point where she comes face to face with a killer Great White shark and a friendly seagull whom she refers to as Steven, played by Sully Seagull. Onwards, she fights to stay alive from the beast, along with Steven. The film was set to be a short and tensioned filled thriller. To this day, it is! What is more extraordinary, that truly brings out the horror in this low budget cinematic piece is the fact that the movie takes place in one setting.

Image courtesy of Sony Entertainment.

The film takes place in a secluded beach within Baja, California. Furthermore, it takes place in the waters off of the beach. The main character has a whale carcass, a stable of massive rock formations, and a buoy, to acquire safety from the shark. With all substances of safety, being located in the water, it gives audiences a sense of minimal escape. The main factor that the protagonist has to deal with is isolation. Adams, trapped in an array of water, has to fight for her survival with so little around her. She has become isolated above the surface of a shallow flow of water. The feeling of being isolated in one location brings more fear than fight. According to an article constructed by John T. Cacioppo, Louise C. Hawkley, Greg J. Norman, and Gary G. Berntson, regarding social isolation,

“…isolation heightens sensitivity to social threats…”

This short excerpt further proves that being alone in a particular scenario can roughen aspects up towards the human psyche. We can see this happening to Adams, as she tries to fight for her survival against a man-eating predator. Director Collet-Serra did an excellent job of executing the purpose of a single location. By having a single location, in this case, water, the film progresses more positively in the storied region towards fighting for survival.

Two characters drive a minimalist plot in ‘Open Water’

Image courtesy of Lions Gate Films.

Continuing along the lines of water being a primary location for cinematic storytelling, arrives Chris Kenti’s Open Water. The story is, yet again, a minimal one. A couple, Susan and Daniel, played by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis, look for something new to do to spend more time together. Both agree to head towards a hobby of scuba diving. They join a group of others on route to do the underwater activity as well. After venturing down for a dive, the group heads towards the boat. Susan and Daniel, though, get left behind. At this moment, the birth of a stranded horror tale arrives. Soon they encounter sharks. It is not the location and threat, though, that leads the intense and frightening moments of the film. It is the additional fact that the main characters, who are experiencing the terror of being isolated in the sea, are just two people.

The attempt at direction, in which a film consists of two main cast members, can be intensely powerful towards the audience. In an interview by Jason Guerrasio, from Indiewire, director Chris Kenti states,

“…One of the keys to the film was to try to show everything through the point of view of the two main characters, it’s the case of what you don’t see can be scarier than what you can see…”

The excerpt, provided by Guerrasio, exemplifies the meaning behind including only two main characters for the majority of the film. It increases every aspect of what low budget horror is: the increase in tension, one distinctive location, and stellar performances from a small cast — in this case two people.