Why Low Budget Horror Is Way More Terrifying 😨 (Reaction)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Here's a horror concept that sounds ridiculous when you explain it. A sexually transmitted demon that walks towards you forever until it kills you.

[00:00:08]>> Excuse me. What? What did you just say?

[00:00:11]>> The only way to get rid of it is to sleep with someone else and pass it along. Also, >> what?

[00:00:16]>> So, it can look like anyone. So, you never know if that random person walking behind you is just a normal human or your death monster.

[00:00:22]>> Wait, what? I'm so confused. Why is it like you have an STD but it's a de?

[00:00:27]What? A demon? What? Hi YouTube. Welcome back in hell. My name is Cypress and if you didn't know yet, I stream live on Twitch. So if you'd like to see me play games or hang out with me in my community or you would like to say in my chat that you didn't know that I stream live, go to twitch.tv/btv cypus and I hope to see you there next time. I also upload gameplay videos here on YouTube on my gaming channel Cypress Play. Today we will be watching a video by True Paka Bro. This is why lowbudget horror is way more terrifying. You're probably not going to believe this, but what if I told you that someone spent $15,000 making Paranormal Activity and it earned $193 million worldwide? Well, Universal Studios spent $150 million on The Wolfman remake and lost money. So, today we're comparing cheap indie horror to giant budget Hollywood horror to answer the question, why do horror movies with millions of dollars usually suck? I think it's this because for me personally when I see a movie like Paranormal Activity, right, it looks more real because there wasn't a budget.

[00:01:30]I guess it looks like something that could actually happen to you. It looks like someone that could be living next to you that this is happening to. It could be your neighbor. It could be someone walking down the street that it happens to because there are less effects, less I don't know, just everything is less. Everything is less which makes it more.

[00:01:48]>> Circle back to Wolf Man though.

[00:01:50]Universal thought they could fix a classic monster movie by throwing money at it. Wolf Man Remake had everything going for it. Benio Del Toro.

[00:01:57]>> I have not seen this movie actually, by the way.

[00:02:00]>> Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, a massive $150 million budget and somehow they made one of the worst horror movies ever put to film.

[00:02:09]>> Oh, I guess that's why I haven't seen it.

[00:02:10]>> The original director actually quit.

[00:02:12]They brought in a new guy and reshot half the movie. Then they cut 30 minutes out and had to redo the entire score. By the time they were done, they'd spent enough money to fund like 50 indie horror movies, probably more. And what did audiences get for all of that cash?

[00:02:26]Well, a boring werewolf movie that felt like it was made by people who have never actually watched a horror film.

[00:02:32]The makeup looked expensive, but stupid.

[00:02:34]The action scenes were loud, but not scary. And the whole thing moved slow.

[00:02:38]>> Okay, you know what? I can see it. It doesn't look scary at all. That doesn't look like it is supposed to be a horror movie.

[00:02:44]>> Then a funeral. Critics absolutely destroyed this thing. The head of Universal literally called it one of the worst movies they ever made, which is saying something because this is the studio that also gave us the Mummy remake. And cats. But here's the thing that'll really mess with your head.

[00:02:59]While Universal was burning through $150 million to make audiences hate werewolves, some random guy with a camcorder was about to become the most profitable filmmaker in history. And that was Orin Py who made Paranormal Activity in his house for $15,000.

[00:03:14]>> Oh, it was in his own house.

[00:03:15]>> 15,000. Yes, you heard that right. That is less than most people spend on a used car. He uses friends as actors.

[00:03:21]>> Isn't it awesome when you have like you have like friends like this that you can do projects like this with?

[00:03:26]>> Friends as actors, a single camera, and basically no special effects. The entire movie is just two people sleeping while a demon slowly loses its mind in their kitchen. Doors creek open, sheets move a little. Someone walks downstairs and the cameras >> Yeah, this looks way more real because there are no any special things going on. It makes it more creepy. It looks like something that could actually happen to you >> upstairs showing you absolutely nothing.

[00:03:50]Somehow this becomes the scariest thing anyone had seen in years. Paranormal activity made $193 million worldwide.

[00:03:58]Let me do that math for you. That's a 433,000 return on investment, which means Orin Py accidentally created the most profitable horror movie in history while probably eating ramen noodles for dinner every night during filming. The genius part, your brain does all of the work.

[00:04:15]The movie shows you almost nothing scary, so your imagination fills in the blanks with whatever terrifies you the most.

[00:04:21]>> True. It's like when you It's like when it's dark when you're in your room and then you look at your door and you see your you have some clothes hanging from the hooks on your door. Um I guess this is specifically my room right now.

[00:04:34]You're not wearing your glasses or your eye contact and you're looking at it and you start to see shapes in it and you start to think there's a person hanging there. Yeah. Yeah, that happens to me.

[00:04:45]>> It's cheaper than hiring special effects artists and way more effective.

[00:04:49]Meanwhile, audiences who watch this thing were genuinely afraid to go to sleep afterwards. People were calling their friends at midnight asking if they could crash on their couch because they didn't want to be alone in their bedroom. A movie made for the cost of a decent vacation was giving people actual nightmares. But then Hollywood came back along and looked at this massive success and thought they knew better. Because Universal's response was spending millions of dollars more on an even bigger disaster. Universal saw Paranormal Activity, make money, and decided the real lesson was that they needed Tom Cruz in $125 million budget.

[00:05:22]>> You know what? We need Tom Cruz. It's going to fix everything.

[00:05:24]>> Tommy remake was supposed to launch their dark universe, which is basically attempt to copy Marvel, but with monsters instead of superheroes. They spent more money on this one movie than most countries spend on their entire film industries. Tom Cruz got buried alive, jumped out of planes because of course he did. Probably did his own stunts while being chased by ancient Egyptian curses and then talks about it endlessly. The special effects team created elaborate CGI sandstorms and zombie armies. None of it mattered. The movie was terrible. Hot garbage. Stinky butt ass, if you will. Critics gave it worse reviews than movies that star talk.

[00:05:58]>> Wait, I want to read it. This mummy is Rex that produces no riches. It's not that it's bad. It's that it never could have been good. It's an irredeemable disaster from start to finish. An adventure that entertains what only via glimpses of the adventure it should have been.

[00:06:15]>> Are talking dogs. Audiences stayed home or left halfway through. The whole thing felt like someone playing.

[00:06:21]>> Oh my god, that is so embarrassing.

[00:06:23]People just walked out because it was not good.

[00:06:26]>> A really expensive video game that you're not even allowed to play. The Mummy lost.

[00:06:30]>> I mean, it has to be really bad if you just walk away. Universal about $95 million when you factor in marketing and distribution. The entire Dark Universe plan got scrapped faster than a bad Tinder date. They'd spent years planning movies about Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and all the other classic monsters.

[00:06:47]And they were all cancelled because nobody wanted to watch Tom Cruz fight a mummy. But what's really funny is that while Universal was spending enough money to buy a small island, >> I still find it funny they were like, I know how to fix this. Hire Tom Cruz.

[00:06:59]>> I'm making audiences hate monsters.

[00:07:01]Three college kids had already shown them exactly how to create a cultural phenomenon.

[00:07:07]>> Was that the Blair Witch?

[00:07:08]>> If you didn't know, The Blair Witch cost 60,000.

[00:07:11]>> I need to watch The Blair Witch >> dollars to make. The directors basically gave three actors a camera, sent them into the woods, and told them to pretend they were being hunted by a witch. There was no script, no special effects, no monster costume, just people getting progressively more scared while walking around Maryland, which is a pretty scary place, so it makes sense.

[00:07:28]>> Is it why is Maryland scary? Someone from Maryland can confirm this.

[00:07:31]>> Marketing campaign was genius though.

[00:07:33]They put up a website claiming the footage was real and the actors were actually missing.

[00:07:38]>> Oh, I love that. This was 1999, so people still believed random stuff they found on the internet. Audiences generally >> I would be so creeped out.

[00:07:46]>> Thought they might be watching real found footage of people getting murdered by supernatural forces. Blair Witch went on to make $248 million worldwide from camping equipment and some decent acting. The final shot, which is just a guy standing in a corner of a basement, became one of the most famous images in horror history. There's no blood, no monsters, no extensive jump scares. In fact, the movie was so scary and so successful that it launched the entire found footage genre. Suddenly, everyone was making horror movies that looked like someone's cousin shot them on vacation. Some were good and most were, but they all existed because three people proved >> people try. People try >> you could terrify audiences without spending any money. Hollywood's response to the success was well predictable.

[00:08:27]They figured the real problem was that audiences needed bigger stars and more expensive production.

[00:08:32]>> Why do I keep thinking that? Honestly, I feel so tired seeing the same people on the screen all the damn time.

[00:08:37]>> Value is clearly what Blair Witch was missing was star power. But yeah, let's not talk about the remakes. But moving on, let's talk about another movie where the studios thought we just need more famous people. Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson walked into what should have been a guaranteed hit.

[00:08:53]sphere had everything. A Michael Christian novel who did Jurassic Park, aless stars, and $73 million to play with. The story was about scientists finding an alien sphere on the ocean floor. Sounds pretty good, right? Wrong.

[00:09:06]The movie was so boring that audiences started leaving halfway through. And >> oh god, again, so embarrassing.

[00:09:12]>> Paid money to see Dustin Hoffman talk to a floating ball for 2 hours. The film made about 50 million worldwide, which means it lost money faster than I do at the casino. Man, that is so bad.

[00:09:23]>> Destroyed it. They said Sphere felt old and tired even though it was supposed to be about cuttingedge alien technology.

[00:09:30]The big reveal at the end left everyone confused instead of scared. People walked out of theaters asking their friends what just happened and not in a good way. And the really painful part, other movies had already done these ideas better and cheaper. Seir was basically expensive fanfiction of better sci-fi films. Hollywood took a proven author, famous actors, and a huge budget, and somehow made something that looks like a >> I'm so confused how you can have so much money and all of these people and still make [ __ ] >> Knockoff. Let's now move on to a movie that didn't cost that much money, and yet it is one of the most famous horror movies out there today. It all starts with John Carpenter. John Carpenter had $320,000 in 20 days to make the first Halloween movie. No famous actors except Donald Pleasants. No expensive special effects, just Jaime Lee Curtis in her first movie, A Guy in a Cheap Mask, and the best horror movie score ever written.

[00:10:24]Carpenter did everything himself because he had to. He wrote the music, operated cameras, probably made craft services, too. The Michael Myers mask. They bought a Captain Kirk mask at a store. He spray painted it white.

[00:10:36]>> Oh, really? I don't know who Captain Kirk is, but I thought it was something that they designed completely themselves.

[00:10:43]>> Spray painted it white. The whole movie looks smooth and professional because Carpenter knew every dollar had to count. Halloween made 70 million dollars worldwide, which is over 200 times what they spent on it. More importantly, it created the entire slasher genre. Every horror movie with a mass killer owes its existence to this film, which is not bad for something that costs less than a decent house these days. The movie works because it is simple. Batman walking around the suburbs at night stabbing babysitters. There is no complicated backstory, no twist ending, no extended universe setup, just pure fear in the most normal place possible, her neighborhood on Halloween night. Critics loved it immediately. They recognized that Carpenter had made something special without needing millions of dollars. The tension builds slowly. The scares feel real and that piano theme still gives people chills decades later.

[00:11:31]But again, Hollywood kept missing the damn point and kept throwing money on a fire. gives Q another big budget horror movie that was horrible.

[00:11:40]>> I guess you can see that it's made by people that don't care about it.

[00:11:42]>> Let's take Jaime Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland and put them on a ship with alien robots and somehow make the most boring movie possible. Well, that's Virus in a nutshell. Universal spent $75 billion on what amounts to Alien on a boat. Except Alien was actually scary.

[00:11:58]The plot involves people finding an empty ship that's been taken over by murderous alien technology. sounds decent until you actually watch it and realize the alien effects look worse than a high school play. The robots are laughably bad. The action scenes drag on forever and the whole thing feels like everyone involved >> from which year? Like what year did this come out of? So I guess this looks bad even for the time that it came out in.

[00:12:21]>> Was just cashing their paycheck. By made $30 million worldwide. Jaime Lee Curtis herself has called it the worst movie she's ever made.

[00:12:29]>> Oh, 1999. saying something because she's been in a lot of movies. When your lead actor publicly trashes your movie, that's usually a sign you made some poor choices. Roger Eert hated this movie more than almost any film he's ever reviewed. That's impressive considering the man watched thousands of terrible movies for a living. Critics said Virus was derivative, boring, and pointless, which is basically everything you don't know.

[00:12:52]>> And I would feel so embarrassed if I was part of the making of this >> people to say about your $75 million investment. But you know what's really sad? At a similar time in history, George Romero was inventing an entire genre for pocket change. George Romero and his friends in Pittsburgh scraped together $114,000 and accidentally created the zombie apocalypse. Night of the Living Dead was shot in black and white with unknown actors and practical effects that mostly involved chocolate syrup and creative camera angles. The movie terrified audiences in 1968. People weren't ready for flesh-eating ghouls stumbling around farmouses. The violence was more graphic than anything mainstream audiences had seen yet, and the ending was darker than >> I mean, it does look kind of creepy like this.

[00:13:37]>> Most Hollywood films would dare attempt even today. Night of the Living Dead made $30 million worldwide and launched a genre that's still going strong. Every zombie movie, TV show, video game, and comic book exists because Romero figured out how to make scary on a shoing budget. This is the start of its millions per episode doing basically the same thing Romero did for the cost of a new car. Critics initially didn't know what to make of the movie. Some were disgusted by the violence. Others recognize it as something revolutionary.

[00:14:07]Today, it's considered one of the most important horror films ever made. In fact, the Library of Congress preserved it as culturally significant, which is probably not something the filmmakers expected when they were making fake blood in someone's backyard. The casting was groundbreaking, too. Dwayne Jones as a lead was unfortunately something you wouldn't see much for 1968 and it added layers of social commentary that made the films even more powerful. But of course, modern studios learned nothing of this, just kept remaking better movies for millions. Body snatching aliens should be an easy win for horror movies. The concept is simple. Alien spores make people emotionless zombies.

[00:14:44]You have to figure out who's been replaced. It worked great in the 1950s, 1970s, and the 1990s versions.

[00:14:51]Naturally, Hollywood decided to remake it again in 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. They had $80 million to work with, which should have been more than enough to make people scared of their neighbors. Instead, they made something so forgettable that most people don't even remember it exists.

[00:15:07]Invasion went through multiple directors, rewrites, and re-shoots. The studio wasn't happy with the original cut, so they brought in the people who made The Matrix to add more action scenes because clearly what a psychological thriller about paranoia needs is more car chases and explosions.

[00:15:23]The final product of the movie made 40 million worldwide, which is exactly half of what they spent making it, which is the kind of math that gets you fired.

[00:15:31]Critics were not impressed. That's a lot of money said, "Why does this movie exist when other versions are just straight up better?" The whole thing felt pointless. There was nothing new to say about the alien invasion. No fresh take on the theme and no reason for anyone to care. Just expensive mediocrity that nobody asked for. But meanwhile, down in Texas, someone already shown everyone how to make unforgettable horror in the middle of nowhere. Because Toby Hooper filmed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre during the hottest summer on record at the time with $140,000 in a group of actors who were probably questioning their life choices. The heat was so bad that the fake blood kept rotting. The actors were passing out and everyone involved looked genuinely miserable on camera.

[00:16:15]>> Hey, but I looked extra miserable, so maybe that really worked.

[00:16:18]>> Which turned out to be perfect for the movie. This chainsaw feels real in a way that most horror films never achieve.

[00:16:24]The actors look actually terrified because they basically were. The house looks genuinely disgusting because it was. The violence feels brutal because everyone was hot, tired, and fed up with the whole production. movie follows five friends who wander into the wrong part of Texas and meet Leatherface and his cannibal family. It's simple, mean, and relentless. No jokes, no hope, no happy ending, just pure nightmare fuel that leaves you feeling like you need a shower afterwards. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre made over $30 million worldwide at first, which is more than 200 times what they spent making it. The film went on to be banned in several countries and was pulled from theaters.

[00:16:59]>> Banned for graphic violence, I guess, for the violence. It's because of the violence. and it absolutely terrified audiences who thought they were just watching another cheesy horror film.

[00:17:09]Critics initially didn't know what to make of it either. Some called it garbage, others recognized it as something special. Today, it's considered one of the greatest horror films ever made, which is not bad for something that felt like everyone was dying of heat stroke while filming. But artouse directors thought they could improve on this formula with just fancy visuals. Gore Verbinsky designed a big budget artouse horror film, which sounds great in theory. The Cure for Wellness had gorgeous cinematography, creepy Swiss locations, and $40 million to create something genuinely disturbing.

[00:17:38]The story follows a guy who gets trapped at a wellness center where the treatments are way worse than whatever you came in with. If you don't know, Verbinsky is the director of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, so he knows how to make entertaining films.

[00:17:51]Wellness looks amazing. Every shot is carefully composed.

[00:17:54]>> I mean, that that actually did really look pretty. I don't know if you want to go for pretty, though. The atmosphere is thick and the imagery is genuinely unsettling. You can >> Oh, okay. It was meant to be unsettling.

[00:18:05]I thought it'd look pretty.

[00:18:07]>> Tell someone cared about making this movie, but just like with my ex-wife, caring isn't always enough. The film made 26 million worldwide, losing money despite all of the effort put into it.

[00:18:17]It came out right before Get Out, which probably didn't help. The real problem was that audiences found it slow and confusing rather than scary. Critics were split. Some praised the visuals and ambition. other.

[00:18:28]>> I guess if every scene that you're seeing makes you confused and you're so bored, you don't even have time to get scared because you don't even know why you're getting scared or why you're supposed to be getting scared. I mean, >> it was pretentious and boring. The movie >> I haven't seen the movie, but I would imagine it like that. I would be so confused that I can't even get scared.

[00:18:44]>> Is definitely weird. There are some genuinely disturbing scenes involving eels and medical procedures.

[00:18:49]>> I hate this.

[00:18:50]>> Stick with you whether you want.

[00:18:52]>> I don't like that. Wellness proves that throwing money at artistic vision doesn't guarantee success. Sometimes those expensive ingredients make a meal that nobody wants to >> Yeah. Sometimes less is more >> to eat. But back in the 1980s, some friends in Michigan had already figured out the perfect recipe for horror success. Cuz Sam Ramy's crew knew fun beats fancy every single time. Sam Ramy convinced local dentists and lawyers in Detroit to invest.

[00:19:17]>> I also feel like a difference is like these people that made the successful stuff, right? that and had like a really low budget. It feels like it was more of a passion thing for them. So, they think more about what makes a horror movie a horror movie.

[00:19:32]>> $350,000 in his horror movie idea. Investors probably thought they were funding the next Star Wars. Instead, they got five college kids getting tormented by demons in the most over-the-top way possible.

[00:19:43]Ramy and Bruce Campbell built their own camera rigs out of wood and shot the whole thing in an actual abandoned cabin. The special effects were corn syrup, food coloring, and whatever they could find at the hardware store.

[00:19:55]Campbell spent most of the shoot getting covered in fake blood, while Remy tried increasingly ridiculous ways to scare the audience. The result was pure insanity. The Evil Dead is part horror movie, part three stooges routine, and completely unique. The camera flies through the forest like it's possessed.

[00:20:11]Characters get attacked by their own hands, and the whole thing builds to a finale that's both terrifying and hilarious. Stephen King saw an early screening and called it the most original horror film of the year. That quote ended up on all the posters and probably sold more tickets than any expensive marketing campaign could have.

[00:20:27]When The Master of Horror endorses your low-budget splatterfest, people pay attention. The Evil Dead made about 29 million worldwide and became a cult classic that's still influencing filmm today. It launched Rey's career, made Bruce Campbell a horror icon, and proved that creativity plus determination beats big budgets every single time. But meanwhile, Hollywood kept making the same mistakes cast in big movie stars in boring space movies. Johnny Depp came back from space and his wife >> I don't know. I personally find space horror movies not that scary. I know this probably because I don't think aliens are that scary. I'm more of a when it's about ghosts, I get really terrified. I mean, I can get really terrified if they do it well. with aliens. I always feel like I'm just watching an action movie or I've just watched really bad ones.

[00:21:17]>> Thinks he's been replaced by aliens.

[00:21:19]That's the entire plot of the astronaut's wife. And honestly, it sounds pretty decent when you say it that way. Add Charlies Theron as a paranoid wife and you've got what should be a solid psychological thriller horror. Except someone forgot to make it thrilling or psychological or horror or even particularly interesting. moves at the speed of a dead turtle and not in a good building tension way. Mora, did anyone fall asleep during filming way? $75 million went into making this movie, which is wild when you consider how little actually happens in it. Depp mostly stares at things while looking vaguely sinister. Darren spends most of her time being suspicious and pregnant.

[00:21:57]>> I can just imagine that Johnny Depp like the only thing that you see him do in the entire movie is just stare. No talking, nothing, just staring. The big alien reveal at the end is about as shocking as finding out water is wet.

[00:22:10]Box office 19 million worldwide which is losing money so fast it probably set some kind of record. Audiences stayed away and the ones who did show up probably wish they stayed home to organize their sock drawer or do something else productive with their life. The real tragedy is that this exact same story has been done better and cheaper multiple times. Rosemary's Baby covered the is my husband evil angle. Invasion of the Body Statues handled the alien replacement theme. The astronaut's wife just combined them badly and called it a day. But maybe the secret to horror is that you don't need a lot of money. Maybe you just need to be a little bit smarter than your competition. Here's a horror concept that sounds ridiculous when you explained it. A sexually transmitted demon that walks towards you forever until it kills you.

[00:22:54]>> Excuse me. What? What did you just say?

[00:22:57]>> The only way to get rid of it is to sleep with someone else and pass it along. Also, >> what? So it can look like anyone cuz you never know if that random person walking behind you is just a normal human or your death monster.

[00:23:09]>> Wait, what? I'm so confused. Why is it like you have an STD but it's a de what?

[00:23:13]A demon.

[00:23:16]You have it and the only way to not have it is to give it to someone else. But also at the same time, someone is running after you. What? David Robert Mitchell made It Follows for $1.3 million which these days barely covers craft services on a Marvel movie. But Mitchell understood something that big studios keep missing. The best horror comes from taking normal situations and making them terrifying. The movie turns everyday life into a nightmare. Walking to school becomes scary. Going to the mall becomes scary. Even sitting in your house becomes scary because that thing is always out there. Walking towards you.

[00:23:50]>> Well, at least you know who it is. Like there's no way to miss it. And >> it never gets tired or gives up or takes a bathroom break. It follows made almost $22 million and got a 95% rating from critics, which is the kind of success that makes studio executives cry into their expensive coffee. The film works because it taps into real fears about growing up, responsibility, and consequences. Plus, it has one of the best horror movie scores ever written.

[00:24:22]The genius part is how simple it all is.

[00:24:24]There is only one rule. The monster follows you. That's it. There is no complicated backstory, no twist ending, no sequel setup, just pure dread wrapped in a brilliant concept that costs nothing to execute. But now, let's move on to another multi-million dollar failure. One where studios just thought they could copy a classic shot for shot and it would make it better than the original. Gus Vanscent had an interesting idea. What if we remade Psycho exactly shot for shot, but in color and with different actors? The kind of experiment that sounds fascinating in film school and terrible everywhere else, which pretty much describes how it turned out. Vans got $60 million to recreate Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates and Anne HCH in Janet Lay's role. The movie follows the original so closely that you could probably play them side by side and then sync up perfectly. Which raises the obvious question, why not watch the original? Well, Mr. feel like I would only watch the new one because I like the actors in it just to support them. But if there is if I don't know them, why would I if I can watch the original? That's a good question.

[00:25:33]>> Why don't you answer that question for me?

[00:25:35]>> Hello, I like money. Nobody with a brain could answer that question, including audiences who stayed away in massive numbers. The remake made 37 million worldwide, which means Universal >> It's that they made it exactly the same.

[00:25:49]It's exactly the same. There's no reason to watch it unless you're really a big fan of the actors or something.

[00:25:56]>> Lost Money copying one of the most successful films ever made. Yeah, that takes some real talent.

[00:26:05]>> Vince Vaughn tried his >> I find it very interesting that they even got 60 million to make that.

[00:26:10]>> God, I love Vince Vaughn. He's a hot man. But Norman Bates isn't really a Vince Vaughn character, you know? He's more of a guy who makes you uncomfortable at parties character, which Vaughn is definitely not. Except in Brawl on Cellblock 99. That movie makes Vince Vaughn terrifying. You don't realize how tall Vince Vaughn is until you see this movie. I'm a tall guy. I'm 6'2. It makes me terrified if this is amazing on me when you're watching again. It's such a good movie. Anyways, back to the psycho remake. The famous shower scene got recreated with all the same camera angles and cuts, except it felt more awkward than terrifying.

[00:26:43]>> It does. Everything looks better in your original from what I'm seeing right now.

[00:26:46]>> Critics were baffled.

[00:26:46]>> It looks really, let's say it. Yeah, it looked really awkward. It looked as if they uh looked really awkward. The one on the on the original looked like they were better at acting.

[00:26:56]>> Some called it a pointless exercise.

[00:26:58]Others found it weirdly fascinating.

[00:27:00]Most just wondered why anyone thought this was a good use of time and money.

[00:27:04]The whole thing proved that you can't recreate magic by copying the recipe exactly. But Robert Edgars showed how to honor the past without just copying it directly. Robert Edgar spent $4 million recreating 1630s New England so accurately that the actors had to learn how to speak in period dialect which follows a Puritan family who gets banished from their village and builds a farm next to a forest that may or may not contain actual witches. Edgars didn't just make a movie set in the past. He basically timeraveled.

[00:27:32]Everything from the costumes to the way people talk to the tools that they use is historically perfect. The family built their house by hand using 17th century techniques. The dialogue comes straight from actual Puritan writings and court records. The attention to detail paid off, which made over 40 million worldwide and got raving reviews from critics who appreciated someone actually caring about their craft. The film feels genuinely old and strange in the way that most period pieces never achieve. The horror comes from paranoia and religious fear rather than jump scares or gore. You're never quite sure if the witch is real or if this family is just losing their minds in isolation.

[00:28:08]Either option is pretty terrifying when you're watching it happen to people who feel completely real. Anya Taylor Joy got her big break playing >> man. Anya Taylor Joy is so pretty, man.

[00:28:18]>> The teenage daughter, and she's perfectly cast as someone caught between childhood and whatever horrible thing adulthood turns out to be. The whole cast commits completely to the world Edgar's created, which makes everything feel authentic and unsettling. Let's go back though to another horrible multi-million dollar space horror disaster. For the sixth time, space horror sounds easy enough. Put people on a ship. Add mysterious alien threat.

[00:28:41]Watch the screaming begin. Supernova had $90 million in a simple premise. Crew responds to a distress call. Bad things happen. Should have been straightforward. Instead, it became one of the most chaotic productions in film history. The original director quit and disowned the movie. MGM >> when the when the original director just leaves, you know it's bad. You know it's really, really bad. Nothing can save it anymore. I mean, maybe there are times where it's not like that, but every time when I hear like, oh, the original this or that left, it turns out really bad.

[00:29:14]>> And hired another director for re-shoots. Well, that didn't work either. So, they brought in Francis Ford Copa to re-edit the whole thing. Copa made bizarre changes, including digitally swapping actors faces in love scenes, which is exactly the kind of thing that happens when movies go completely off the rails. All of this >> Why do you need to do that? Tinkering and panic resulted in a movie that just made no sense. Characters appeared and disappeared for no reason. Plot points were introduced and then abandoned. The expensive special effects looked pretty cool but served no story purpose whatsoever. Supernova earned >> that was just for fun. He just wanted to show off his skills. He just wanted to show off the editing skills.

[00:29:53]>> $14 million domestically against that massive budget. That is not just a flop.

[00:29:58]That is a generational L that probably traumatized some accountants. Critics were merciless. The movie was boring, confusing, and pointless all at once.

[00:30:07]The film had everything studios think makes a successful movie. Big budget, space setting, recognizable actors, fancy effects, but none of it matters.

[00:30:15]>> I really don't understand why you have so much budget that you can still come up with crap >> because the basic story fell apart during production. Too many cooks in the kitchen really did spoil this particular soup. And audiences could tell something was deeply wrong. But now, let's go to the land of down under to talk about one indie Australian filmmaker that defied all the odds. Jennifer Kent figured out how to make one of the scariest movies ever made using an Australian house. $2 million.

[00:30:42]>> Oh, an Australian house. I love how you said it as if the Australian house is a scary thing.

[00:30:47]>> Screaming child.

[00:30:52]The Babaduk follows a single mother dealing with her difficult son who becomes convinced that a monster from a children's book is stalking their family. This genius move was making the monster a perfect representation of grief and depression. The Babaduk feeds on exhaustion, anger.

[00:31:06]>> I love that name, the Babaduk.

[00:31:08]>> Despair, which are emotions that any parent dealing with loss can understand immediately.

[00:31:12]>> I need to watch this. That looks really scary. What the?

[00:31:16]>> It didn't need expensive creature effects because the real horror was psychological. Critics went absolutely wild for this movie. It had 98% positive reviews, which is basically unheard of for horror because critics hate horror.

[00:31:28]The Babaduk became required viewing for anyone who wanted to understand modern horror. Film school started teaching classes about it. The creature itself is unforgettable. A tall, shadowy figure in a top hat who speaks and rhymes and never goes away. Kent achieved this iconic look through practical effects and careful cinematography rather than CGI. The book that introduces the Babaduk was handmade by Kent herself, which adds to the film's authentic craft and feel. $6.7 million worldwide might not sound impressive compared to Marvel numbers, but for a small Australian horror film, that is a massive success.

[00:32:03]More importantly, the Babaduk proved that audiences were hungry for smart, meaningful horror that respected their intelligence. But now, let's move on to the horrible show that is video game movies. UA Bull turned a vampire video game into what the screenwriter herself called the worst movie ever made. That is not me being hyperbolic or internet trolling. Whenever Turner actually wrote the script, watched Bull cut 80% of it out, and then publicly stated that Blood Rain was the worst film in existence.

[00:32:31]$25 million bought a movie about a half vampire woman seeking revenge against her evil father. It starred Christina Lockan, Michael Madson, and Billy Zayn, which sounds like a decent Bm movie cast. The problem was Ball's direction, which made everything look cheap and stupid despite the decent budget. The release was botched from the start.

[00:32:50]Distributors promised 2,000 theaters, but delivered fewer than the thousand, and some of those theaters never actually showed the movie. Blood Rain made 3.6 million worldwide, which is impressively terrible, even by video game adaptation standards. B had a reputation for making awful movies based on games, and Blood Rain was his masterpiece of being stupid. action.

[00:33:10]>> At least he won at something.

[00:33:12]>> Were boring. The dialogue was nonsensical and the whole thing felt like everyone involved was just trying to get through their contractual obligations, just like my ex-wife did.

[00:33:21]Critics destroyed it completely.

[00:33:23]Audience stayed away. Even fans of the video game hated it, which is saying something because video game fans will usually defend anything remotely related to their favorite franchises. Like >> for me, I guess so. Like happy that it even got a movie in the first place. So yeah, >> I can tell you right now that The Legend of Zelda movie, even if it's hot garbage, I'm probably going to defend it cuz I've loved that game since I was like three.

[00:33:45]>> Yeah, you're just happy that they do something with it.

[00:33:47]>> Big budgets aren't going to save terrible film making, especially when the director seems actively opposed to making anything good. But now, let's close things out with the ultimate underdog story of horror, Jordan Peele's Get Out. Jordan Peele spent $4.5 million and changed horror forever. Get Out tells the story of a black photographer visiting his white girlfriend's family only to discover they're running a horrifying operation that is disturbingly worse than just regular racism. The movie works on every level.

[00:34:17]It's scary enough to make you jump. It's smart enough to win an Oscar and it's funny enough that you don't feel guilty laughing at the uncomfortable social situations. Ke understood that the best horror comes from real fears and social anxiety is something everyone can relate to. Get Out made $252 million worldwide, which is over 50 times its budget, making it one of the most profitable films of 2017. But the movie was just the beginning. The movie became a cultural phenomena that people are still discussing years later. Critics gave it a 98% rating. The Academy nominated for best picture, which fun fact almost never happens to horror films. Peele won the Oscar for best original screenplay, proving that low-budget horror could compete with any genre for series recognition. The brilliance of Get Out is how it uses familiar horror movie rules to explore real social issues.

[00:35:06]Every creepy moment serves the story.

[00:35:08]Every joke lands perfectly, and the ending feels both shocking and inevitable. He'll prove the most effective horror doesn't need expensive effects. It just needs to tap into what people are actually afraid of. And that is old white woman. Look at her. She's terrified.

[00:35:24]>> I said exactly, but not for that.

[00:35:26]>> Money help a horror film? Not really. If your idea is bad, it's not executed well, and it's not even scary, no amount of money.

[00:35:32]>> I really think like the problem is that these people aren't really into horror.

[00:35:36]They're not doing it because it's a passion, because they really like to do it. They're doing it because they try to make money. I mean, of course, try to make money, but I mean, I guess more as in that's the only goal. The only goal is the, you know, maybe I'm wrong, but yeah, >> is going to fix that. Yes, having money with a good idea is going to make a better movie, but it's not necessary.

[00:35:56]So, if you're trying to make a horror movie right now, don't go looking for money. Look for better ideas.

[00:36:01]>> Yes, that's what I'm saying. It needs to be because you really want to make a good horror movie. That needs to be the reason.

[00:36:08]>> Tap into the genuine fears that people can relate to. Cuz if we've learned anything in this video, that's what actually matters. If you enjoyed watching this video, make sure to give it a like and comment down below which of these movies is your favorite that I discussed. Make sure to subscribe to the channel, too, so you don't miss any of my future uploads. And feel free to give this video some hype as it helps our videos get pushed out to more new people. It's one of the best things you can do to support new creators like me.

[00:36:30]And if you want to watch another one of my videos today, you can click the video on screen now.

[00:36:34]>> Hi. If you like the video, please make sure that you like it and subscribe to my channel and turn on notification bell if you want to see more of it. I also go live on Twitch and on this YouTube channel, so come join us sometimes. Bye.