Cheap Scares begins with the question: “Why do you want to make a horror movie?”
My answer is: “I don’t, I would rather have sex with Rosie O’Donnell.”
However my advice to any aspiring filmmaker is — RUN! RUN! RUN! I may not be an expert on making horror films but after owning and running my own horror website for almost 2 years I can tell you that the world of horror for anyone besides the fans SUCKS! The business part sucks, the websites suck, and even the bulk of the fans suck!
Still want to make a horror movie? Then my other advice would be to buy and read Cheap Scares from cover to cover because if you still believe that “the fans of the horror genre love to support low budget horror films,” and “horror films are easier to find distribution for…” then I have a bridge you can buy.
The horror fans will eat you alive, and that “oh so great new medium” for promoting your project called the internet is a sham. Horror websites will have no problem ignoring you at every turn for bigger news, and will even go as far as to ban you from their open forums for “Spam” if god forbid you try and tell the “fans” about your film on your own. The bulk of so-called horror fans are too busy acting like asses to pay attention to the micro-budget horror world. Yes they will sing the praises of “low-budget” films from the past, but that is because someone already put it in the “pre-approved” category for them. Also, do not be fooled, the true definition of a cult film (before it just became another tag-line for DVD box covers) means that 10 people liked something and maybe gained 5 new fans a year. So if you think the horror genre already has a built in “cult-fan-base” think again. One only has to look as far as the author of Cheap Scares, Greg Lamberson, as proof. Yes his first film Slime City is still readily available on DVD after 20-years, and I am sure he has hundreds of fans, but a minimum wage McDonalds employee has probably earned more money in one year than Greg has seen from Slime City in 20. I couldn’t imagine a better person to write a book about how to make a micro-budgeted horror film then Greg Lamberson himself.
Another thing that surprises me about wannabe filmmakers is how they will flock to horror conventions to hear the latest horror icon talk, but somehow ignore the wealth of knowledge from less sensational, more knowledgeable directors and producers who are stalking the halls. Cheap Scares offers the reader the insight to no-budget horror filmmaking with interviews from J.R. Bookwalter, Robert Craig Sabin, Justin Wingenfeld, plus many more. Never heard of them? That is because you have been listening to George Romero fairy tales for too long, and once again why you should read this book. Cheap Scares covers every aspect of getting your first horror movie made, from the day you dreamt up your idea to the bitter end. It does so by not only offering informative tutorials but also the aforementioned interviews with various veterans of the industry. Lamberson does a great job of combining these aspects with his personal experiences from 20 years of directing and screenwriting to make the perfect 101 on micro-budget filmmaking. A few of the topics covered are how not to get ripped off, via an interview with entertainment lawyer Jerry Gold, screenwriting, where Greg literally rips the pages out of a Roy Frumkes script, budgeting and distributing your horror film, and everything else you need to know but have not thought of.
While any first time filmmaker should read every book on the subject they can get their hands on, Cheap Scares should definitely be the top book on their pile. It truly is the perfect starting point for wannabe filmmakers, not to mention a fascinating and entertaining look into the low-budget horror world.
