Word of Mouth Helps Low-Budget Horror Movies Make Big Money

Paranormal Activity is a low-budget horror movie that has benefited from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but it certainly isn't the first movie of that genre to benefit from word of mouth.

The movie was made for about $15,000 and was originally slated to be shown in only 160 theaters. But a savvy marketing campaign, including television advertisements encouraging people to ask that it be shown at their local theaters, and buzz generated through social networking saw it generate more than $7 million at the box office last week.

However, it follows in the footsteps of other horror movies made on a shoe-string budget that weren't expected to do much but went on to not only find box office success, they have also become classics within the genre.

"Night of the Living Dead" - Released in 1968, George Romero's first zombie apocalypse story was made for $114,000 but made $12 million in the United States and $30 million worldwide. It has also brought in $1.6 million in video rentals. The movie was shot in black and white and Bosco chocolate sauce was used to simulate blood. During one scene in which zombies are supposed to be eating a dead body in the back of a truck, the actors were actually eating roasted ham covered in Bosco, which actually nauseated the crew. The movie spawned a couple of sequels, including "Dawn of the Dead," which was re-made a few years ago with actor Ving Rhames.

"Halloween" - It may be hard to believe this 1978 film directed by John Carpenter was done on a $320,000 budget since it generated several sequels, including two remakes by rock star Rob Zombie, and virtually created the slasher sub-genre within horror movies. About $20,000 of the total budget went to pay veteran actor Donald Pleasance to play Dr. Loomis for five days worth of work. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis before she was a star and actually made her into a scream queen, soon after making "Hell Night" and "Terror Train." "Halloween" was shot in 21 days and became the highest grossing independent movie up to that time by grossing $47 million in the U.S. and $60 million worldwide. The "Friday the 13^th" series of slasher films began as takeoffs of "Halloween," but even Jason Voorhees couldn't outdo Michael Myers in the scare department. While Zombie's movies were mostly panned even by fans, there are plans to bring another re-boot of "Halloween" to the big screen, this time in 3-D.

"The Blair Witch Project" - In 1999, a little known movie under this title became a sensation through word of mouth (the old school social media), including segments about its supposed mythology on the History Channel. The premise as that three students disappeared in the woods while filming a documentary and the movie was the footage that was found years later. Audiences weren't sure for several weeks whether they had really witnessed the disappearance of the kids or if it was fiction. This is kind of taken from Tobe Hooper's 1970s era horror movie "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," in which advertisements made the claim it was based on a true story. It was not, though Leatherface is loosly based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein. "The Blair Witch Project" was shot on an estimated budget of $60,000 but went on to a $29 million opening weekend and total grosses of $140 million in the U.S. Shot from the perspective of a group of students out to find the truth behind Maryland's Blair Witch, the cast of three unknowns was given only 35-page outlines of the mythology and the lines were improvised. Often, the actors were surprised to find themselves on camera. The obligatory sequel followed, but fell well short of the original's success.

Whether "Paranormal Activity" will have the same sort of success of any of these three remains to be seen, but it has some very big butcher knives to follow.

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6310303/Facebook-and-Twitter-help-low-budget-horror-film-enter-US-box-office-top-five.html#

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/business

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/business

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/trivia

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185937/