10 Low Budget Horror Movies That Deserve Remakes
While movie remakes are popular across genres (Anyone remember the 2018 remake of Garry Marshall's "Overboard"?), the horror genre is especially susceptible. The genre is unique insofar as its scares endure more than most. Where comedies and action movies, for instance, are inextricably linked to their time of release, a scary movie is a scary movie. With a fresh coat of paint, what was new three decades ago can seem fresh again.
A curious contemporary trend has emerged in which relatively recent titles are remade just a few years after their original releases. Released just 14 years after the first "Cabin Fever," the remake used the exact script as the original. Recently, horror filmmaker Anthony DiBlasi released "Malum" in select theaters. "Malum," a remake of DiBlasi's 2014 indie "Last Shift," isn't quite a shot-for-shot remake so much as it is a reimagining. With more money and more experience, DiBlasi revisits his demonic fable in a new context.
Remakes have long been unfairly maligned. Though in some cases, they're even better than the originals. While fans remained mixed on what a remake should ultimately accomplish, the broad brushstrokes are there for filmmakers to reinterpret good ideas constrained by budget or decade of release. Here, we'll be looking specifically at 10 low-budget horror movies — all great in their own right — that could benefit from a remake.
Horror in the High Desert
Whether Dutch Marich's "Horror in the High Desert" gets a remake or not, it remains one of the scariest found-footage movies of the century. Structured as a faux-documentary, Marich's low-budget shocker uses several talking heads to explore the case of hiker Gary Hinge (Eric Mencis), who disappeared while hiking the Great Basin Desert. For the first hour, "Horror in the High Desert" speculates on what might have happened. Was it simply an accident? Was it foul play? Is Gary simply lost? As frightening as some of the suggested theories are, the truth is considerably more horrifying.
Unfolding in a breathless 20-minute climactic beat, Marich treats the audience to a genuinely terrifying foray into the darkness. The scares unsettle without seeming like too much, and in those moments, Marich cements himself as a horror auteur. It's in the early moments, however, where a remake could spruce things up. "Horror in the High Desert" takes a while to get going, and despite the committed work of an unknown cast, it very much feels like an indie production. The television graphics, interview staging, and true crime pantomime feel too uncanny. They're close to the real thing, but not quite. A remake could tighten the early moments, better ensuring the audience is fully invested by the time the terror arrives in earnest.
The House at the End of Time
Alejandro Hidalgo's "The House at the End of Time" is one of the best international ghost stories of the last decade. Hidalgo channels a distinct Venezuelan lens in his merging of haunted houses and time travel, augmenting the entire enterprise with touching cultural specificity. It's unlike any haunted house movie that's come before, no doubt accounting for why it remains the highest-grossing horror movie in Venezuelan history. In 2016, New Line Cinema purchased the remake rights. However, in the years since, there's been no update on where the project stands or whether it's even going to happen at all.
A U.S. remake would no doubt dull some of Hidalgo's cultural touches, though it would expose domestic audiences to the original. Horror remakes, especially international horror remakes, are gateways for transnational cinema. They are springboards for the original release, opportunities for new audiences to discover and appreciate horrors beyond their own borders. A good story is a good story, and "The House at the End of Time" has a scary good one. It's worth giving this gem one more chance to shock audiences everywhere.
The Dorm That Dripped Blood
For the casual horror fan, "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" might simply be that movie Jamie Kennedy's Randy Meeks rattles off while on the phone with Ghostface in "Scream 2." For "Melrose Place" fans, "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" was the movie debut of Daphne Zuniga. Filmed at the University of California, Los Angeles, the film is a slasher in the purest form. Several students stay behind during the Christmas break to clear out an abandoned building, unaware that a killer is stalking the halls. "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" might not innovate, but with a meager $150,000 budget, it spills plenty of blood with style.
Nevertheless, directors Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow create a consistent level of tension, including a protracted chase scene late in the film. A remake with a bigger budget would fit well within the current horror landscape. Revitalized slasher series like "Scream" and "Halloween" are making big bucks at the box office, so now is as perfect a time as any to drag this overlooked slasher into the new age.
Ghostwatch
"Ghostwatch" is one of the scariest movies ever made. The infamous BBC production terrified an entire generation, prompting thousands of complaints from "traumatized viewers," some of whom were allegedly convinced the movie they were watching was real. An early iteration of the found-footage format, "Ghostwatch" splits its time between television studio and camera crew as host Michael Parkinson takes viewers through an investigation into an allegedly haunted house in Northolt.
As a precursor to the simmering scares of later subgenre entries like "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Outwaters," "Ghostwatch" might well be the granddaddy of found footage horror. It strikes a verisimilitude that's rarely been seen since, and while most of that is innate to its distribution (a Halloween night television premiere in 1992), the final moments suggest a much larger paranormal world. Contemporary filmmakers could add some money to the ghostly coffers and explore a world governed by the undead. Given the links between the antagonistic spirits and technology, a remake could easily springboard into a cautionary, modern tale.
Sole Survivor
Released in 1984, "Sole Survivor" was "Final Destination" before "Final Destination." What it lacks in budget, star power, and scale, it more than makes up for in the sheer savagery of its existential terror. Slasher fans especially hold "Sole Survivor" in high regard, but more casual audiences have likely never heard of it. That's a shame. Director Thom Eberhardt (who also directed "Night of the Comet" the same year) accomplishes a lot with an estimated $350,000 budget. However, with more money, the full thrust of his conceit could be explored.
Anita Skinner stars as Denise, a television advertising executive who survives a deadly plane crash as the film opens. As the titular sole survivor, Denise grapples with survivor's guilt and the unfortunate appearance of several specters. Something from beyond isn't happy she's survived, and it's looking to reclaim her. Part slasher, part mood piece in the vein of "Carnival of Souls," "Sole Survivor" is as terrifying as it is mysterious. Eberhardt paints a world of miraculous scale, though the budget often constrains some of his best ideas. While there's power in suggestion, a remake could easily take "Sole Survivor" to the next level.
Dog Soldiers
It's not fair to rag on Neil Marshall. This is the man responsible for "The Descent" and "Dog Soldiers," after all. Beyond his cinematic offerings, he's helmed some of the best episodes of "Game of Thrones," including the Emmy-nominated "The Watchers on the Wall." Yet, in recent years, the master of frenzied genre cinema has directed some duds. His latest movies, "The Reckoning" and "The Lair," seem inexplicably removed from the person behind them. How is "The Lair" a Neil Marshall movie? The aforementioned "Dog Soldiers," Marshall's directorial debut, is long overdue for a remake. Better still, it would get Marshall back to his roots and remind contemporary audiences why he was once the most exciting voice in horror.
"Dog Soldiers" follows a group of military men battling werewolves in the Scottish Highlands. With a £2.3 million budget, it was undoubtedly low budget, accounting for some unfortunate production constraints. At times, the action is obscured, the lighting is a bit too dark, and Marshall creatively guides the camera away when the effects aren't quite convincing. It's still a classic werewolf movie. However, with the benefit of today's technology, it could be even more. There's a dearth of good werewolf movies released lately (the last might well be 2022's "The Cursed"), and no film is better poised to bring lycanthropes back than "Dog Soldiers."
The Hallow
Horror fans are more than familiar with the indie-to-franchise pipeline. Studios poach new talent, though rather than giving them the funds needed to explore their original vision, they saddle them with IPs. After the success of "The Taking of Deborah Logan," director Adam Robitel was tapped for "Insidious: The Last Key." Lee Cronin's debut, "The Hole in the Ground," was all the executives needed to hand him "Evil Dead Rise." Corin Hardy's Sundance smash, "The Hallow," got him the gig directing "The Nun," the highest-grossing entry in "The Conjuring" universe. Arguably the most gothic entry in the franchise, "The Nun" is excellent and serves the argument that Hardy should be given another shot at "The Hallow," this time with the budget to match his vision.
In "The Hallow," a conservationist and his family are targeted by fairies in the woods outside their rural Irish cottage. Like many indie creature features, "The Hallow" suggests more than it shows, exploiting sound design and motivated staging to imply the horror. When the action shifts to exteriors, "The Hallow" is just a little too dark — a purposeful technique to hide the low-budget monster effects. It's supremely effective, but fae horror remains an untapped well. If "The Hallow" were remade with a larger budget, it could be the incentive studios need to unleash more fae horror into the world.
The Void
When Universal Pictures scrapped the practical effects for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s prequel "The Thing," effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. took to YouTube to share some of the work they'd done — work the studio later replaced with computer-generated effects. They'd later leverage this exposure into the 2015 release "Harbinger Down," a movie meant to celebrate practical monsters in all their glory. The monsters looked great. The rest? Well, it's a low-budget horror movie. A similar fate befell Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie's "The Void." Kostanski would go on to direct the sensational "Psycho Goreman," but "The Void" remains a beguiling exercise in what could have been.
When grotesque, Lovecraftian creatures besiege a rural hospital, a ragtag band of survivors must endure a hellish, interdimensional nightmare. Like "Harbinger Down," "The Void" has great monsters — some of the best this century's seen — but the movie never coalesces into anything more than an effects reel. A remake could easily give the filmmaking duo the budget to match the story with the effects. While Kostanski and Gillespie raised $82,000 through IndieGoGo for the keystone monsters, a remake with more financial backing would not only augment the effects but also the story itself.
Banshee Chapter
Like "The Void," "Banshee Chapter" is Lovecraftian horror in its purest form. While mainstream audiences have been given bits and nibbles of cosmic horror (Alex Garland's "Annihilation" was released theatrically, after all), the subgenre is most often relegated to the indie video-on-demand sphere. In recent years, we've seen "Color Out of Space," "Mandy" (both Nicolas Cage vehicles), and "Glorious." All were festival hits that later arrived on streaming. Cosmic horror relishes in the unknown, but sometimes, a little more budget (perhaps something akin to Guillermo del Toro's canceled "At the Mountains of Madness") would be nice.
Blair Erickson's "Banshee Chapter" is the perfect low-budget shocker to remake. Loosely inspired by Lovecraft's "From Beyond," the film follows journalist Anne (Katia Winter) as she endeavors to track down her missing friend. There are government conspiracies, unusual drugs, and entities from another dimension. "Banshee Chapter" manages a lot with a little, though there's no denying its best ideas are unfortunately relegated to off-screen moments. There isn't enough money to dive that deep into the cosmos. Nevertheless, "Banshee Chapter" is one of the best indie horror releases of this century, and if any film deserves a comeback, it's this one.
Grave Encounters
The first "Grave Encounters" cost somewhere between $120,000 and $2 million. It grossed $3.6 million worldwide. The second cost $1.4 million, grossing an estimated $8 million, though those numbers are difficult to verify. Movie accounting is strange, but there's no doubt "Grave Encounters" was a cheap little thing that made some dough (It did, after all, get a much more expensive sequel). It was one of the first found-footage horror movies to capitalize on "Paranormal Activity's" success, leveraging the burgeoning availability of streaming to generate considerable word-of-mouth. While it hasn't endured like its inspirations, it's one of the last decade's better ghost stories. If only those ghosts looked good.
Where "Paranormal Activity" never shows too much of its, well, paranormal activity, "Grave Encounters" doesn't hide anything. The early tension is strong, but the terror dissipates as soon as the CGI baddies show their faces in the latter half. They're not convincing by any stretch. Although audiences certainly know they're watching a movie, the documentary verisimilitude cultivated earlier evaporates almost entirely. These ghosts are of the YouTube scare prank variety — gray, distorted faces, all digital and blurry. Despite some missteps, "Grave Encounters" deserves credit, and were it to be remade, a little more money could go a long way in better designing its spirits. With a bigger budget, "Grave Encounters" could actualize the funhouse feel it aspires to.