The Best Low-Budget Thrillers Available To Stream
Plus: We review The Invisible Man, starring Elisabeth Moss
So… that was a weird week, huh? As the coronavirus continues to overtake daily life in the United States, many of us will be spending more time at home. In the meantime, why don’t we fill up that watchlist? If you dare watch a pandemic movie in a time like this, there are many of them out there, including Contagion, which is available to rent and has been popping up on “most watched” lists recently.
If you would rather take your mind off global disease outbreak (I don’t blame you), we have four low-budget thrillers worth your time. The low-budget thriller is fascinating, because the filmmakers have to find a way to keep you entertained and engaged without many special effects. Instead, they must use pure ingenuity to create suspense and action on a limited budget.
Read on and add these to your watchlist for the long weeks of “social distancing” ahead.
Billy recommends…
Cam (streaming on Netflix)
Let’s get this one out of the way. The title and the synopsis made my temptations tingle and I watched for… suspect reasons. Cam follows an ambitious camgirl who has her identity stolen by her clone who takes over her show. Before I watched this I looked up reviews and they were positive enough to justify my watch and it fit into the guidelines of this Do You Like Apples newsletter. With all that being said, Cam is a solid thriller that will satisfy most thriller junkies’ appetite.
Cam stars Madeline Brewer who plays our main character Alice. Her cam personality is Lola. Brewer is the sole reason to sit through this movie. Her energy and acting ability allow the great tense moments to thrive and the unnecessary storylines tolerable. Where Cam falters is the constant side storylines that take the audience away from a wonderful performance. Every relationship feels forced besides her relationship with her weirdly supportive younger brother. All of the effort to create an emotional connection to our lead character is unnecessary when the premise naturally brings butt-clenching tension.
Netflix original movies is a lane that is constantly being experimented with and Cam is the style that feels like it is being put on the back burner for the high school 80s-style rom-com. Cam is worth watching for a few moments of really good tension and a lead performance that is memorable. With all of us being encouraged to stay in doors for the next month or so, Cam will cure your cabin fever or send you down a hole you can’t get out of.
Paranormal Activity (streaming on Netflix)
It is time for the crown jewel of all found footage movies, Paranormal Activity. The stories behind my experience with this movie are on par with how fun and great this movie is. My first time seeing Paranormal Activity was when it was in theaters sophomore year of high school. I was with my crush at the time and some other friends. I am sad to say that my high school crush and I did not make it, but I was able to get a bloody nose out of the ordeal. During one of the tense moments she jumped and elbowed me in the nose. Somehow this equally made me mad and fall more in love. THEN after the movie we were all so scared that my mom said the girls could stay the night along with the guys. The stars were aligning. Then my best friend Ryan called, who wasn’t with us all night, and asked to stay the night along with his girlfriend and that is where it all went haywire. My mom needed permission from both of their parents to feel ok with them staying over together. I relayed the information and a fight between besties occurred. I told him not to come over and all the girls left realizing that the boys they were with are really lame. Then about an hour later I am watching TV and I see a silhouette in the window. As the creature gets closer and closer my fear grows, and as I think I am about to die the figure falls into the window. It turns out it is Ryan who I was fighting with earlier!
A story like that should get you to watch this movie, but I will go into a deep dive of why this movie is actually really great. Paranormal Activity is probably more of a horror movie than a thriller, but until the last 30 minutes there are not too many classic scares. There is just a lot of tension that is snowballing between the couple at the forefront of the story. Upon rewatching this movie this week I realized the one choice that is probably the reason this movie works so well. In most of the emotional scenes where the actors need to “act” is when the camera shows them from the neck down. A brilliant move that allows the anxiety to keep building while not letting the at times subpar acting take the audience out of the movie.
Paranormal Activity is the subject matter for horror-thriller movies that actually stick with me while I sleep because it is something that I believe in. This obviously takes those fears and beliefs to the max, but doing that creates a terrifying experience that I can’t shake, while also wanting to come back to it time and time again. Low-budget thrillers have a random phenomenon a couple times each decade and this is my generation's example. Lucky for us the “schtick” of this found footage movie has not worn off. It is worthy of a rewatch and a reminder to seek out unique stories like this.
Drew recommends…
Upgrade (streaming on HBO)
I couldn’t believe it when I looked up the budget for this sneaky-fun sci-fi thriller. The futuristic world-building in Upgrade is mighty impressive for a $3 million movie. It’s not quite Blade Runner or The Matrix, but it’s pretty amazing what director Leigh Whannell was able to do with a limited budget.
Speaking of Whannell, the writer and director of Upgrade also made The Invisible Man, which was just released in theaters (check out our reviews below), and he’s responsible for creating the Saw and Insidious franchises. Upgrade is less horror-oriented than those movies, but Whannell is surprisingly at home in this technological thriller. He’s written a clever script and crafted a few energetic fight sequences.
Upgrade is kind of like if you took a Black Mirror episode, added a dash of Limitless, and made everything a little more visceral and action-heavy. The trademark Black Mirror technophobia is present in the form of main character Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), who lives a tech-skeptical life until his wife is killed in a mugging that leaves him paralyzed from the neck down. A shady inventor hooks him up with an experimental cure called STEM, which upgrades Grey’s body and allows him to not just move again but become a near-invincible badass (there’s the Limitless comparison) that searches for revenge against whoever was responsible for his wife’s death.
Logan Marshall-Green is quite adept as the reluctant fighting machine, and there’s some clever comedy in the scenes where STEM takes over for him. Marshall-Green has appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Prometheus, but it’s not until The Invitation and Upgrade that I have begun to consider him as more than just a poor man’s Tom Hardy (seriously, they look so similar).
In addition to the acting, Whannell deserves credit for creating such a convincing near-future where tech runs our lives in an even more deeply ingrained way. He made that $3 million budget look like $30 million. If you can handle the violent intensity, Upgrade is an immersive look at what happens when technology controls our lives.
The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (streaming on Hulu)
The Standoff at Sparrow Creek is an efficient and slimmed down suspense thriller. With a budget of only $450,000, there are no movie stars, no special effects, and most of the film takes place in one warehouse. How’s that for economical filmmaking? And yet, it will intrigue you from the start and keep you guessing all the way through.
The story follows a whodunit mystery track. It’s almost like a low-budget Knives Out, without the lighthearted vibe. After a mass shooting at a police funeral, a local militia gathers at its home base and discovers that one of their own is the culprit. It’s up to ex-cop and militia member Gannon (James Badge Dale) to interrogate each person to decide who is responsible and turn them over before the authorities come knocking at their door.
First-time director Henry Dunham expertly maneuvers through this nail-biter of a story. Set in remote backwoods Michigan, you are introduced to a group of people that would join a militia in the 21st century (ex-convicts, former undercover cops, white supremacists, and other outcasts). As Gannon questions each militia member you begin to form your own suspicions and theories on who did it and why. That’s what makes this dark (literally, it’s very dimly lit) and often grim movie kind of fun. See for yourself if the ending is satisfying for you or not, but this is the type of low-budget thriller I crave more of every time I see one.
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
The Invisible Man (in theaters now)
Drew: This horror-thriller is like a cross between Gone Girl and Unsane. The opening scene is incredible and the atmosphere of dread created by director Leigh Whannell is impressive. Elisabeth Moss is absolutely tremendous, as usual. At this point, she’s a pro at playing tormented and trapped women. But some of the other actors can’t totally hold their own and the movie runs out of steam near the end. - 3.5 / 5 Apples