Films with a low to middle-sized budget, but look more expensive.

I recently saw Tomb Raider & Unsane, both with different budgets.

But the problem was that both films looked much more cheaper than they did. So I'm trying to find out what films were made for a small to medium budget, but looked more expensive on screen as a result.

Can you clarify what you mean by a medium budget? Seems like something that could encompass anything from $10 to $60 million, and it might need to be weighted for the type of film, too.

Anyway, assuming your definition is somewhere in that range, Sunshine is the very first that comes to mind.

Sunshine is the right idea. But really, its any film that looks more expensive than it actually is.

But if you want numbers, maybe $50 million can be the maximum, but really its anything that you can think of when you first saw the budget for the film.

Moon (currently on Netflix) is always a strong contender in these contests. It was made for a reported $5 mil.

Pan’s Labyrinth...19 mil apparently. Great visuals.

How about Monsters (2010)?

Ex Machina comes to mind. Small effects budget used to it fullest.

El Mariachi..made for $7,000. Looks incredible and is staged and edited impeccably. It's all creativity that pushes a film further than it costs. Money means little, esp now that film is virtually obsolete. No lab costs. Endless takes.

I just worked on a independent feature film shot for less than 400 USD, and wonder how it's going to look since the price it was shot for was so low, and that's not counting distribution costs of course.

As for endless takes, I don't think you are really saving any money since it costs everyone more time to do those endless takes, and costs editors a lot more to go through that footage. I think that filmmakers should still treat digital like film, and not get carried with footage, in order to save on editing and shoot time money.

Yeah that's one of the first that came to mind, Moon would be another, looked very classy for a $5 million budget, I spose by limiting its setting considerably.

I remember watching the Doctor Who episode The Waters of Mars (2009), which was set in a human base on the planet. I don't know what the series' budget was at that point, but the sets that were created in that were some of the best I've ever seen for a TV programme. Great reinvention of zombies in that story as well – really scary.