# Best acting you've seen in a low/no budget production?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 17, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823 "2017-05-17T07:42:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/1 "2017-05-17T07:42:07Z")

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Most likely with film, but TV can count too. Prefer actors who are not huge stars today, since there’s a “well, of course, (s)he was” feel to it.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/2 "2017-05-17T11:09:31Z")

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- Return of the Secaucus Seven\* had pretty good acting, even though few of the cast ever did anything else.

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/3 "2017-05-17T12:06:16Z")

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Everyone in _Blood Simple_ except maybe the other bartender (Maurice), who hammed his role.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/4 "2017-05-17T12:18:11Z")

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it depends on how you define “low budget”, but the 1984 Wim Wenders movie **Paris, Texas** blew me away. Its $1.8 budget is less than twice that of Tim Burton’s short _Frankenweenie_ released the same year (not the later, longer animated version), and WAY below that of any of that year’s more famous films.  
It’s only slightly above that for _Blood Simple_ ($1.5 million) (_Return of the Secaucus Seven_, made five years earlier, had a WAY lower budget of only $60k)

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/5 "2017-05-17T12:21:43Z")

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I watched parts of the recent remake of _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ and it demonstrated how well made the original (which according to IMDB had a $1,200,000 budget) was in comparison.

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/6 "2017-05-17T12:56:26Z")

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[_Primer_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (2004) had excellent acting (and everything else, too) and had a total budget of $7,000.

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**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/7 "2017-05-17T12:57:15Z")

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Michael Moriarty, early in his career, in a monster film entitled “Q”.

Trailer:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9bjsag2vYlQ/hqdefault.jpg "Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) - Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjsag2vYlQ)

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-acting-youve-seen-in-a-low-no-budget-production/786823/8 "2017-05-17T13:05:59Z")

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> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> It’s only slightly above that for _Blood Simple_ ($1.5 million) (_Return of the Secaucus Seven_, made five years earlier, had a WAY lower budget of only $60k)

If low-low-low is the bar, I’d nominate _El Mariachi_, which was made and finished for something under $10k - $5k in initial production costs. It has its rough edges, but overall it competes with anything H’wood could have turned out with three more zeroes in the cost.