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Horror has always been a strange kind of magic. For a genre built on blood and screams, it somehow manages to be one of the cheapest to make. It never really mattered whether the blood looked fake or if a mannequin stood in for a corpse, because if the story had the right sting, the audience stayed hooked.
The Low-Budget Legacy of Horror Classics
Many of the horror genre’s milestones came from shoestring budgets. For example, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was made for under $150K, while Halloween was made for around $300K, and both raked in millions worldwide. Their grainy texture and raw atmosphere became part of their power. You see, horror never needed polish to find success, and it rarely needed awards to prove its worth, as its impact came from the experience and not the expense.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) pic.twitter.com/RcJa5Yf4d5
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— Cinema Gems (@CINEMAGEMS) October 5, 2025
The Birth Of A $15K Phenomenon
Years later, a quiet little project took that idea further than anyone imagined. Paranormal Activity was made for $ 15,000 by Oren Peli, who did nearly everything himself, including writing, directing, editing, and even shooting it with an ordinary home camera, according to Screenrant.
