Skip to main content

Independent Horror

46 films, made outside the system · 28 with a known budget

These are the films the show has covered that were genuinely made independently: no major studio, no streamer, and not one of the established genre houses that had their own real infrastructure and wide theatrical distribution, like Hammer or the modern likes of A24 and Blumhouse. Some of these were shot for almost nothing by one or two people with a camera. Some are decades-old cult objects nobody expected to last. What they share is that somebody made them happen without a studio behind them.

What counts as "independent" here is a judgement call, not a fact the data gives us outright. It's set out, and can be argued with, in the site's own code.

1950s

$2.3M in today's money$200K at the time · source: $150,000–$200,000

1960s

$1.9M in today's money$169K at the time · source: £133,394

$674K in today's money$60K at the time · source: £45,000 or £47,341

Budget unknown

$3.8M in today's money$350K at the time · source: $350,000

$695K in today's money$65K at the time · source: $65,000

$1.2M in today's money$125K at the time · source: $114,000–$125,000

1970s

Budget unknown

Budget unknown

$538K in today's money$80K at the time · source: $80,000–140,000

Budget unknown

Budget unknown

$6.0M in today's money$1.1M at the time · source: CAD$1.1 million

Budget unknown

$1.4M in today's money$300K at the time · source: $300,000

1980s

$4.4M in today's money$1.1M at the time · source: $1.1 million

Ep 168

Ep 168 The Fog

00:38:40John Carpenter1980

We return, once more to the work of the one and only Mr John Carpenter (the only J.C. we worship round here). It’s time for 1980’s “The Fog”, a film which proves that 2 generations of scream…

Episode page

Budget unknown

$1.4M in today's money$375K at the time · source: $375,000

$2.8M in today's money$900K at the time · source: $900,000-1.3 million

Budget unknown

Budget unknown

$15M in today's money$5.0M at the time · source: $5 million

Near Dark

01:06:00Kathryn Bigelow1987

It’s vampire time again on Welcome to Horror, and this time it’s Kathryn Bigelow’s vision of dusty drifter/murderers “Near Dark”. A film in which the guy who goes on to stub his cigar out on…

Episode page

Budget unknown

1990s

Budget unknown

$22M in today's money$9.0M at the time · source: $9 million

Budget unknown

Budget unknown

Budget unknown

$1.5M in today's money$750K at the time · source: $200,000–$750,000

2000s

$5.4M in today's money$2.9M at the time · source: £2.3 million

Budget unknown

$6.9M in today's money$4.5M at the time · source: {{Plainlist| * 29 million kr * ($4.5 million) }}

Budget unknown

Pontypool

01:12:492008

We’re joined once more by the legendary Pinball Bobby of the Not For Everyone Podcast to watch 2008 masterpiece “Pontypool”, a film in which Kill is Kiss, your friendly helicopter-riding…

Episode page

$5K in today's money$4K at the time · source: $3,500

$3.1M in today's money$2.0M at the time · source: $2 million

$1.4M in today's money$900K at the time · source: $900,000

$4.6M in today's money$3.0M at the time · source: $3,000,000

2010s

$5.3M in today's money$3.5M at the time · source: NOK 19 million<br />{{small|($3.5 million)}}

Budget unknown

$3.0M in today's money$1.9M at the time · source: €1.8 million

$1.1M in today's money$750K at the time · source: $750,000

$1.4M in today's money$1.0M at the time · source: <$1 million

$2.2M in today's money$1.6M at the time · source: $1.6 million

$114K in today's money$83K at the time · source: >$82,510{{efn|The creature effects were funded through Indiegogo while the film was funded through traditional channels by the production company.}}

2020s

Budget unknown

$128K in today's money$100K at the time · source: $100,000

Listen anywhere you get podcasts

SoundCloudApple PodcastsSpotify