Penny Pinchers- The Kings Of No-Budget h — Penny Pichers(DVD)
Penny Pinchers is a 2016 documentary about low/no budget horror film production. The hour & a half feature takes in interviews with some of the big names in the genre such as Lloyd Kaufman( Troma), Tim Ritter( Truth Or Dare series), Donald Farmer(Vampire Cop), Todd Sheets( Blood Of The Undead series). Here on SRS Cinema, who of course have a history of releasing low-budget horror fare, is a recent region-free DVD release of the film
Penny Pinchers moves from directors discussing how they first got into wanting to make films, their first films, all manner of issues relating to zero budget filmmaking, distribution, equipment used, and funny/ quirky stories relating to their films & their production. Intermingled with these interviews you get a good selection of trailer fare from each director- so even if you're not familiar with each director out-put, you get a good idea if you’d like to check it out. On the whole the docs an appealing enough look at low-budget film-making, with each participant giving honest, at times frank, and mostly interesting interviews. And it’s been great to put faces to names I’d heard of.
On the less positive side of things I just wish maybe there had been slightly more structure or possible set chapters in place- so you had one director interviewed, then another- not jumping back & forth. Or there was some form of firm sections in place, discussing certain facets of each director’s work- as at times the doc does come across a little muddled. Criticisms aside it’s great to have a doc on this genre of filmmaking, and for the most part its worthy venture
There are no extras on this DVD release save for a selection of trailers, which is a pity as it would have been nice to get some background into how & when the idea for doc came about. Also maybe some bonus interviews with the participants in the film.
Over the last 5 or so years I've slowly but surely getting deeper & deeper into the zero-budget/ SOV side of horror- so this doc was most appealing to me. And while it felt a little muddled/ unstructured in places, I certainly found it a worthy trip. So if you’re a fan of the no-budget horror scene, or would like to be- do check out Penny Pinchers!