With Halloween just around the corner, ComingSoon.net gathered three sets of indie horror filmmakers in the “Class of 2020” that wound up with the #1 movie in America at some point during the global pandemic. In this fun 45-minute virtual roundtable conversation we talk with The Wretched‘s writer/producer/directors Brett Pierce & Drew T. Pierce (a.k.a. The Pierce Brothers), Becky directing pair Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion, and 1BR writer/director David Marmor & producer Alok Mishra. Check out the video in the player below!
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On a reported budget of only $66,000, The Wretched managed to gross $4.2 million at the box office, remaining at #1 for six straight weeks and becoming the first film since Avatar to do so. The supernatural chiller follows a defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, who faces off with a thousand year-old witch who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door.
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Milott & Murnion (Cooties, Bushwick) had intended to premiere Becky at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. It debuted at #2 at the box office behind The Wretched, but in its second weekend became the first film to unseat the Pierce Brothers’ film and take the #1 slot, a position it regained in its fourth weekend as well before bringing in a total of $1.1 million during its theatrical run. In the film a teenage girl (Lulu Wilson) sees her weekend at a lake house with her father (Joel McHale) take a turn for the worse when a group of neo-Nazi convicts (led by Kevin James) wreak havoc on their lives.
After earning good reviews out of last year’s Fantasia Film Festival, Mamor’s 1BR debuted on VOD in April, doing respectful business. It then went on to arrive via Netflix in August, where it managed through word-of-mouth to work its way up to the #1 film on the top dog streamer for a single day, remaining in the Top 5 for eight days. It follows a young woman named Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who tries to start anew in LA, but her neighbours are not what they seem.
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Which of these three films did you enjoy the most? Was it cool to see such indie underdogs take the top spot? Let us know in the comments below!
