Death Proof, by Amanda Borchardt and Carolynn Wynia

Tarantino once again merges genres in his half of the Grindhouse double feature. He draws upon the slasher film and road movie to construct Death Proof. This paper will first describe the history of each genre, then it will explain Tarantino’s adherence to them in context of their respective conventions, and lastly it will briefly discuss how Death Proof relates to his previous films by the recycling of elements in the Tarantinoverse.

The slasher movie began in 1960 with the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. While itself not considered a slasher film, it’s emphasis on the killer’s psychotic state and it’s never before taken approach to murder would be influential on the development of the slasher sub-genre. Later that decade, Mario Bava made some innovations of his own in the film Blood and Black Lace. Originally written as a police procedural whodunit?, Bava decided to forego the murder mystery aspect and focus on the brutal killings themselves, earning it’s place as one of the first body count films. In 1974, Bob Clark made the first true slasher movie, titled Black Christmas. It developed the killer’s P.O.V. shot, the phone call motif, and the holiday theme, all illustrated in the clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEM5WLIC54E&feature=related It just edges out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that came out a little later that same year. Massacre, however, is considered by many to be the best slasher film of all time. The 1980s saw the release of Friday the 13^th and Nightmare on Elm Street, while still surging on after effects of 1978’s Halloween. With their massive success, the 1980s became the golden age of the slasher genre. Films became franchises, releasing sequel after sequel, and developing the killer as a dark anti-hero whose gory murders were the film’s big draw. Later, new franchises emerged, like Child’s Play (1988) and Leprechaun (1993), emphasizing even more on the deranged-ness of the killer. The genre peaked in 1983, with 60% of all box office sales coming from slasher movies. But by around 1986 the genre began to decline in popularity. It’s strict conventions made the films formulaic and predictable. Changes to these conventions to reinvigorate them often eliminated them from the genre all together. In the case of Predator (1987), changing the victims to soldiers made it an action film. In the case of Aliens (1986), the location of space made it a Sci-fi movie. In the case of Jason X (2001), this same change made it a comedy. In the Late 80s and early 90s the sub-genre was mostly kept alive by straight to video releases. In 1996, with the release of Scream the sub-genre was revitalized and experienced a new wave of popularity that continued until films like Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005) transformed the traditional slasher into a new sub-genre, affectionately referred to as torture porn.

The genre conventions of the slasher film are fairly well known, but are also very strict. Tarantino himself stated in the Elvis Mitchell interview that it is one of the strictest genres, second only to women in prison films. As a result, it was both easy to construct Death Proof in the 1980s slasher style and a challenge to make it something new by merging it with the road movie genre. The killer in slasher flicks is usually male, psychotic, and not only has a desire to kill, but enjoys stalking his victims and often gets some kind of sexual rush out of the activity. Tarantino's Stunt Man Mike fits all those qualities.

The killer also usually employs an unconventional weapon and has an uncanny ability to survive. This ability is usually demonstrated by the killer continuing to close the distance as gun shots hit his chest, or the killer is able to walk away from a collision or high fall, or the killer may simply vanish when the camera cuts back to the spot of supposed death. In Death Proof, Stunt Man Mike uses his car as the weapon, and while sitting in the driver's seat he is deathproof.

The victims are usually teens or young adults, more often then not attractive young women, and they are most likely celebrating a special event with drugs and alcohol in an isolated location. The victims are also chosen randomly, and seldom do anything to provoke their attacker.

In Death Proof, both groups of girls are celebrating a vacation and are either in or on their way to the middle of nowhere. Only the first group of girls is intoxicated.
Lastly, a slasher film exploits violence to attract an audience. It will emphasize the creativity of the murders as well as the realism. Tarantino plays into this with the use of the four takes of the head on car crash. He sets the audience up to want the violence, and then delivers it four times over with close up detail

The road is a major part of American culture. It connects people through the interstates, highways, and county roads. The road is full of thrill and mystery because you never know what lurks around the turn or what lies in the town ahead. To many, the road symbolizes freedom with its vast openness and to some, a promise of a new beginning as in most road movies. Road movies are seen as a person being on a journey to discover something about themselves, about others or on a quest for information. In Easy Rider (1969) two bikers set out on a journey to discover the true America. Along the way, they encounter many people and opinions about America and what could have happened to it. Their journey is ended by rednecks shooting at them.

In the late 1960’s road movies skyrocketed into popularity with the release of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969). Also in the 1960’s a sub-genre of the road movie came about with car chase movies. These became popular during the muscle car era. Bullitt (1968), was one of the first influential car chase movies about a cop that will do anything to catch his man. Bullitt also paved the way with camera angles that made the audience feel as if they are actually in the car with the driver. That style of shooting can also be seen in other films such as Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974) and Vanishing Point (1971).

The road movie usually depicts a rugged solitary man whose home is the road. He uses the road to fulfill a daredevil purpose or complete a quest. In Death Proof, the rugged solitary man is Stunt Man Mike whose home is never shown. He stalks two groups of girls and kills the first group by crashing his “death proof” car into their car; the second group of girls survive and chase him in their car.

In Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, the scenery surrounding the car chase sequence is very similar to the chase scene at the end of the movie when Kim, Zoe and Abbie are chasing Stunt Man Mike. There is also trash talking done by a cop who is chasing Crazy Larry; Kim trash talks Stunt Man Mike as she is chasing him and crashing into his car. The car that Kim drives originally has a similar paint job to Crazy Larry’s car as well as the body style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jefDjE43puc

Vanishing Point also influenced Death Proof in that it was the whole reason behind getting the 1970 Dodge Challenger with a 440 engine and a white paint job. This is the car that Kim, Abbie, and Zoe test drive when they are playing ships mast. The trailer for Vanishing Point also has much of the same scenery shown in the final chase scene in Death Proof. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q71M88B12WA

Tarantino also steals from his own movies, in Reservoir Dogs, there is a scene at a café as the gang talks about pop culture and the camera rotates around the table showing their faces. The same shot is used as the second group of girls has breakfast and plans their test drive. From Pulp Fiction, Tarantino uses the line “Tasty beverage” referring to the shot of Chartreuse he takes with the first group of girls. He also references Big Kahuna Burger and Red Apple Cigarettes. From Kill Bill, Tarantino uses the two police officers that investigated The Bride’s murder massacre, the “Twisted Nerve” song from Elle Driver’s attempt to kill The Bride in the hospital, Buck who appears as Jasper, and Zoe Bell is actually Uma Thurman’s stunt double in Kill Bill. Finally, Tarantino also takes from Planet Terror, the second feature in the Grindhouse double feature. He uses Mrs. Block who plays the same character in Death Proof, Red Apple cigarettes, and Joe, the guy with tongue blisters, as the convenience store clerk

In conclusion, by carefully adhering to the conventions of the slasher film and road movie, Tarantino is able to successfully merge the two genres. He once again invigorates the old by infusing it with his ideas and elements and turns it into something new.

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Stevens, Daniel. The Slasher Movie: An Introduction. Helium.
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Laderman, David. Driving Visions. University of Texas Press: Austin (2002).

Road Movies. 12 July. 2008 Wikipedia 13 July. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_movies

Road Films. 12 July. 2008 Film Site 13 July. 2008 http://www.filmsite.org/roadfilms.html