PRIMER is one of the ones I never heard of...............
In reaction to tentpole disease and studio bloat, I’ve taken an interest in very low cost movies.
My “Road to Damascus” movie — the one that made me realize that I had a huge blindspot — was Columbus, shot for $700,000 and self distributed through an experimental Sundance program exploring self-distribution for low budget indies.
I thought $700,000 was pretty cool. Then I discovered Coherence ($30,000) and Primer ($7,000).
Primer was shot using borrowed spaces and homemade props. The $7,000 was almost all spent on film. It was a friends and family team, no professionals. But it is intelligent and universally praised for its mastery of technobabble.