One of Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Horror Movies of All Time Only Cost $375,000 To Make

One notable title on Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 200 Best Horror Movies of All Time is the 1981 classic The Evil Dead. Thanks to its Certified Fresh 85% Tomatometer score, the movie has earned a place at No. 134.

It’s an independent movie with a shoestring budget that had no guarantee of ever reaching a wide audience, let alone becoming an enduring classic, yet it still managed to land on the list alongside studio-backed behemoths like The Shining , Poltergeist , Alien , The Silence of the Lambs , Jaws , and Sinners. Let’s dig into how director Sam Raimi and his talented crew managed to pull it off.

The Evil Dead Cost Less Than Half a Million

The thing that’s particularly impressive is the fact that it only cost $375,000 to make. In fact, it has many of the hallmarks of low-budget independent cinema, including a cast of unknown actors (Campbell was an unknown at the time, though he has since gone on to star in many notable projects) and a single location.

Adjusted for inflation, The Evil Dead cost $1.3 million, which is still a tremendously small sum when it comes to the costs of making a modern movie. The last decade or so has seen some of the most expensive projects of all time, including Avatar: The Way of Water($350 million), Avengers: Endgame($356 million), and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens($536 million, making it the current record holder for most expensive movie of all time).

However, the majority of mid- or low-budget movies in the 2020s still cost more than $1.3 million, including the low-budget horror hits Talk to Me($4.5 million), Longlegs($10 million), and The Invisible Man($7 million).

Pure Creativity Fuels The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead overcomes its limitations with the liberal application of creativity, both on-screen and behind the scenes. Many of the most dazzling visual moments in the movie cost almost nothing. This includes Sam Raimi’s feverishly hyperactive camera, which utilizes canted angles and other off-kilter aesthetic choices to highlight the intensity and surrealism of the horror without breaking the bank.

‘The Evil Dead’ (1981)Credit: New Line Cinema

Another specific touch that elevates the movie is a sequence where Ash is being viewed from above by a moving camera, with the beams of the cabin’s ceiling passing through the frame. When each beam appears, a metallic chord clangs on the soundtrack, giving the scene a fresh jolt of energy each time and making the simple fact that the camera is moving feel high-octane and exciting.

Another scene where the environment interacts with the camera in unexpected ways is the moment where the camera comes rushing from the woods through the cabin, mimicking a Candarian demon sneaking up behind Ash. As the camera approaches the cabin, the back door bursts open, seemingly of its own volition, making the otherwise simple shot feel violent and supernatural with a trick as simple as having an off-screen crew member pull a door open.

Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead is a movie that feels like a living thing, constantly making choices like these, which intensify the experience in ways that feel simultaneously fresh and completely intuitive.

The movie is also fueled by a number of similarly creative flourishes behind the scenes. One major cost-cutting move that helped elevate The Evil Dead was the decision to make the look of the Deadites more surreal, to avoid having to spend money painstakingly crafting realistic-looking violence.

The crew also famously found a creative workaround to make up for the fact that they couldn’t afford to rent a Steadicam. In lieu of spending money on an expensive rig, the crew put together a makeshift device that involved mounting the camera on a 2x4 board, which allowed the crew to run around with it, creating a dynamic shakycam effect.

It is thoughtful touches like this that make The Evil Dead such a vibrant movie, allowing it to continue resonating with critics and audiences more than four decades after its original release in spite of the fact that its budget was less than a thirtieth of that of a hit contemporary horror movie like Smile.

The Legacy of The Evil Dead

The success of The Evil Dead in no way stops with its critical performance. For one thing, its budget allowed it plenty of runway to become a smash hit in theaters. While it didn’t become one of the highest-grossing movies of the year it debuted; its $29.4 million worldwide gross (per The Numbers) saw it earn back more than 78 times its production budget.

‘The Evil Dead’ (1981)Credit: New Line Cinema

Naturally, given the way the marketplace works in the modern age, the movie’s strong theatrical performance earned it a sequel. 1987’s Evil Dead II(which had a significantly increased, though still small, budget of $3.5 million) underperformed in theaters, earning just $5.9 million, but it became a cult favorite on home video. It was similarly beloved by critics, and in fact enjoys an even higher position in the Top 200 than the original, landing at No. 114 with a Certified Fresh 88% Tomatometer score.

Since then, the Evil Dead franchise has slowly and steadily expanded into a sprawling behemoth that includes the 1992 trilogy-capper Army of Darkness , a 2013 remake, the three-season television series Ash vs Evil Dead , the 2023 standalone movie Evil Dead Rise, and the upcoming films Evil Dead Burn and Evil Dead Wrath.

The Evil Dead and its unending legacy provide concrete proof that the best way to connect with horror fans isn’t to throw millions of dollars at the screen, but rather to make a good movie. The horror genre is uniquely built to support auteurs like Sam Raimi, as audiences expect the unexpected and tend to be more interested in premises and aesthetics rather than the presence of major stars and spectacular setpieces.

This is further proven by other movies on the list that boast minuscule budgets, including Halloween__(No. 17, ~$325,000), The Blair Witch Project__(No. 131, ~$750,000), Paranormal Activity__(No. 151, $215,000), and Night of the Living Dead__(No. 35, ~$125,000). These movies all stand as testaments to the power of independent filmmaking, and there are many more like them. Sound off in the comments about some of your favorite microbudget horror movies and why they have stuck with you.