Grindhouse Influences

Grindhouse films originated at a cross street theater in Manhattan called 42nd St. in the early 1960s and continued strong across America through the 70s. The films were exploitive B-films produced with an extremely low budget. This resulted in poor quality films with by gone actors and exploitive scripts that attempted to appeal an audience by selling sex, violence and speed in back-to-back films. These Grindhouse films would be shown on an underground level passed from theater to theater and would ultimately receive a lot of wear and tear. The films attracted an peculiar array of movie goers as one source described as, “the unique blend of people who made up the theater-goers, including black pimps, low-grade mafia, transvestites, Latino gangsters, "rough trade" homosexuals, aggressive lesbians, trench coat-clad perverts, and thrill-seeking squares.” These films would span from the dirtiest perversions to the most gruesome cinematography in the business.

What Grindhouse films needed to incorporate in the Grindhouse structure was this idea of exploitation. The point of exploitation is to sell the product with whatever measures needed by taking a low budget and making a fast pay day off of it. It is sold by exploiting the film to the audience by presenting prurient imagery, carnage and speed. As exploitation grew, so did its ideas. These turned into sub genres such as blaxploitation, zombie, kung-fu, sexploitation, spaghetti western, splatter films, sci-fi etc.. Each of these genres were based off exploitation and followed its form but were directed toward different interests.

One type of sub genre, most basic, was Kung-Fu. The film was about two crippled men who hone their skills to fight back their evil master who disabled them. This was a typical Kung-Fu film that not only followed an exploitive structure but also incorporated Kung-Fu mentality of revenge and honor.



A completely different example in Grindhouse films would be the Sci-Fi thriller, The Green Slime by Kinji Fukasaku. This storyline went in a different direction in exploitation, outer space. This film was about a group of scientists who try to destroy an asteroid on a direct course towards Earth. When the astronauts return to their space station they realize a green slime on the back of one of the scientists. The slime turns into a monster that attempts to feed off energy and take over the ship. The outer space genre focuses on a different aspect of violence. Its setting is completely different and situations between enemies evoke different actions.



One of the most famous and well-liked of the influential Grindhouse genres is the zombie genre. While zombie movies have been around since the 1930’s with films such as Night of the Living Dead, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that zombie films begun to feature an exploitation element to them, which is what made them perfect for Grindhouse cinema. Primarily created by Italian film directors, the zombie films of this era tended to feature over the top gore, nudity, and some pretty ridiculous plot lines. George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was one of the first and most influential zombie movies to come out of this time period. It was referred to in Europe as “Zombi”. " border="0" alt="" />Zombi 2 by Lucio Fulci was released in 1979, and has not relation to the original Zombi. Zombi 2 was known for over the top gore and violence and two scenes in particular; a zombie fighting a shark, and an intense eye gouge.



Another influential and often used genre of film that is featured in Grindhouse cinema is the shock film. These films were meant to portray ultra realistic gore, gang rape, incest, etc.. Basically, the worst of the worst, and most controversial subject matter was shown in this genre of film. An example of a film in this genre would be I Spit on Your Grave. The story features a woman getting violently gang raped by local townsmen. She then finds ways to very gruesomely exact her revenge on her attackers. This movie was banned in several countries and still remains very controversial to this day.

The Spaghetti Western was also featured in Grindhouse cinema. This subgenre of western film gets its name for mainly being Italian produced, featuring Italian and Spanish actors and sometimes a washed up Hollywood star. These films were shot in a region of Spain the resembles the desert of the USA and often featured Mexican themes because of the abundance of Spanish speaking actors. Django is a good example of a very influential Spaghetti Western. This film by Sergio Corbucci was released in 1966 and became very popular in Europe and is considered a cult hit in the US. Django is a gunrunner who drags a coffin around that conceals a machine gun.

Exploitation films can be split into many different subgenres including Carsploitation and like the name sounds this subgenre features cars as its main subject matter. Death Race 2000 is a cult classic directed by Paul Bartel in 1975. In this mid-1970's version of the year 2000, the favorite national sport is a no-holds-barred, violent cross-country road race in which the points are scored when pedestrians are run down. Sounds like a perfect fit for a Grindhouse flick. Tarantino’s Death Proof could arguably fit into this subgenre of Grindhouse film.

Finally, for hilarity sake, a sometimes used subgenre of film in the Grindhouse cinema was “nunsploitation”. This films often featured Christian nuns living in a convent during the middle ages. Themes were often of religious or sexual in nature. Religious oppression and sexual suppression were prominent themes due to the nuns living in celibacy. Killer Nun directed by Giulio Berruti and released in 1978 is an example of this subgenre of film. The film features psychosis, lesbian affairs, and heroin addiction. All in all Grindhouse wasn’t just a cult following with no attachment to the cultural world.

It can be misconceived that Grindhouse was and remains an untouchable area in cinematography. Although it was not acknowledged by the public eye, it promoted a different change in the movie industry that is given little credit for. During the 1950s and 60s typical Hollywood films where family films that promoted family values and dismissed a world of sex, violence and speed. Until the Grindhouse cult started the industry was promoting the idea of the nuclear family. It was not only the time period of a new way of thinking about social rights, but it was a time to question everything that was accepted in culture previously. Grindhouse opened the doors in the movie industry by going in a completely different direction with films. Yes, films in Grindhouse were exploitive, but it was something new, never done before and its statement was that not everything in the world should be homogenous. There are different views, different opinions and cinematography has a lot to owe for bringing in a darker side, excitement and storylines such as good versus evil to the screen.


Works Cited

Grindhouse (film). 17 July. 2008 Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindhouse_(film)

Exploitation film. 19 July. 2008 Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation_film

Grindhouse Opens Friday. Memphis Flyer.
5 April. 2007 http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid%3A26942