The rise of 'smart' low-budget horror

Don't Breathe special screening In Miami at Cinepolis Coconut Grove. [Photo by Larry Busacca and Gustavo Caballer/AFP]

Jump scares

One of its leads, Daniel Zovatto, also stars in Fede Alvarez's Don't Breathe, which hits cinemas last month and is the director's second feature after the 2013 remake of horror classic Evil Dead.

Made on a budget of just $10 million, Don't Breathe follows a trio of friends who break into the house of a blind recluse, confident of an easy payday, only to find themselves in a terrifying life-or-death struggle.

"At the time when we first showed the movie people had no idea what it was about. There was no trailer, there was nothing," says Zovatto, a 25-year-old Costa Rican actor last seen in AMC's zombie show Fear the Walking Dead.

Don't Breathe is unusual in that there are very few jump scares - a staple of the teen slasher end of the horror genre - and those that do feature feel like they've been earned.

Zovatto, who appears with stage and screen veteran Stephen Lang, relative unknown Dylan Minnette and Evil Dead star Jane Levy, says he grew up watching horror movies, but was often disappointed.

"I think there were a few years, especially in my teenage years, where I would go and watch films in this genre and I was just devastated because I didn't really get to see something that I liked," he says. "And I feel like this whole new wave brought a new perspective to the genre and new directors like Fede Alvarez and David Robert Mitchell - and they are changing the game."