Certain movies change the film landscape for years after
their release. The release of Jaws brought about the blockbuster era
of filmmaking. The release of The Avengers in 2012 caused studios to
perk their ears up at the idea of shared universes. When Star
Wars was released, it was followed by many knockoffs including Starcrash, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Moonraker. Even Die
Hard had its fair share of copycats when it came out in 1988.
Few filmmakers have managed to change the film landscape
more than once. One director who has
shifted the film world multiple times is Quentin Tarantino. In 1994, he released Pulp Fiction. It didn’t win
best picture in a year of strong contenders, but it did cause waves in what
would come after. There were many indie
directors and studio releases that played off what Pulp Fiction was. From the
crime elements to the way the story was told, there were elements of Pulp Fiction throughout the releases for
the rest of the decade.
The second time that Quentin Tarantino made huge waves by
releasing a movie was Grindhouse. The 2007 release saw Tarantino teaming up
with Robert Rodriguez to give a double feature throwback to the 1960s and 1970s
underground horror scene. Other
directors got in on it, too, with the mock trailers that were placed between
the two movies. Eli Roth, Rob Zombie,
Edgar Wright, and an up-and-coming director named Jason Eisener each
contributed a trailer for the film. The
style that Grindhouse was giving
homage to saw a resurgence following the release. A bunch of modern grindhouse films came to
the forefront for a few years thanks to Quentin Tarantino.
The most obvious movies to come out as a result of Grindhouse were the movies based on the
trailers that played between the two halves.
Robert Rodriguez directed a trailer for a fake movie called Machete, which starred Danny Trejo as a
machete-wielding action hero. He took
the trailer and extended it, making a no holds barred action movie that hit
many of the trailer’s beats. Machete would get a sequel called Machete Kills, which kept going with the
grindhouse feel set up on the Tarantino/Rodrigues project from 2007.
Hobo with a Shotgun
was the other trailer from Grindhouse
that would turn into a full-fledged feature film. Jason Eisener made a low-budget, Canadian
action film out of the trailer. He
recast the hobo with a bigger name. The
original actor was David Brunt but, for the feature length version, Rutger
Hauer took on the role. Other than that,
it played into the same exploitation era of action as the rest of Grindhouse and made for an entertaining
throwback ride.
Now, these weren’t nearly the only movies inspired by Grindhouse. The throwback double feature created a wave
of modern exploitation films, harkening back to the old days with the
limitations of a modern world. Some of
them may have been directly influenced by Grindhouse. Filmmakers went to see the
Tarantino/Rodriguez joint venture and it gave them some creative juice to make
similar pieces of art. Then there were
the filmmakers who already had similar ideas and the release of Grindhouse gave them a reason to be
released. Whatever the case, there were
many more exploitation style movies coming out after 2007.
There were a few different paths that the post-Grindhouse exploitation movies went. One of the easiest ones to look at, and one
subgenre that I haven’t really dived too deeply into, is the stripper movie. There have been a bunch of stripper or
scantily clad women movies that were released in the years following Death Proof and Planet Terror, the two films in Grindhouse. Strippers
vs. Werewolves was one of them. Bitch Slap was another. Zombie
Strippers, Machine Girl, and Spring Breakers could all be considered
a part of this kind of exploitation film.
The blaxploitation film made a comeback with Black Dynamite, among others. It came out in 2009 and was a comedic
throwback to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. It was one of the more notable movies in the first
couple years after Grindhouse’s
release. It parodied the genre while
also becoming a part of it, in the way that only the good parodies do. It spawned an animated television show, a web
series from Nerdist, and a potential sequel.
It also starred Michael Jai White, which is always a good thing. There were others like Django Unchained and the soon-to-be-released Shaft that also tapped into blaxploitation.
Horror got an exploitation boom as well. There were horror movies throwing back to the
1970s style all through the past 12 years.
WolfCop and Another WolfCop blended horror, action,
and comedy into a great exploitation style campy piece of entertainment. Tom Six put out his Human Centipede trilogy, with each movie tapping into the
exploitation feel in a different way.
From the woman in peril trying to get revenge of the first film, to the
down and dirty body horror of the second, to the insanity of the third,
everything felt like a throwback while being Tom Six’s modern schlock.
Besides the throwback exploitation movies that have been
coming out since Grindhouse, there
have been a few filmmakers who found a new exploitation style. They took the story sensibilities of
exploitation films and took them to the future with modern greenscreen
work. The most popular of those, at
least from the people I’ve talked to, has been Kung Fury. It took the
martial arts exploitation movie, used an 80s action star stereotype, had him
fight Nazis, and did it all with backgrounds that were greenscreened to be
whatever they wanted them to be. People
went wild for it. It was only half an
hour long, but people wanted more. And
they got more. A feature length version
is in the works. The 2015 film became a
pop culture touchstone for the cult audience.
Before Kung Fury,
though, another movie was doing the greenscreen exploitation hybrid. Out of Canada, Steven Kostanski rose to some
fame with his 2011 film Manborg. The film saw a man killed as a result of a
war and turned into a being named Manborg (Matthew Kennedy). He teamed up with Mina (Meredith Sweeney),
Justice (Conor Sweeney), and #1 Man (Ludwig Lee) to take down the evil Draculon
(Adam Brooks), who had won the war.
Draculon was now in charge of whatever world they were in, raising a manufactured
population and using humans as coliseum fighters.
Manborg was filmed
for $1000 in a garage in Winnipeg. The
production team used discarded items for most of the props and costumes, repurposing
sports equipment and other items they found in dumpsters. They borrowed equipment from a high school to
film the movie. Cast and crew didn’t get
paid, and food was not provided. It was
as minimalist as a film could be. A lot
of the stuff on screen happened because of the creativity of the people
involved. The creativity was the same
thing that came out of exploitation films and their next generation, the crazy
low budget 80s action/sci-fi movies.
There have been many other exploitation style throwback
films to come out both before and after the release of Grindhouse. Rob Zombie has
been doing them for ages. But they came
closer to the mainstream since Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez came
together to produce Grindhouse. They wanted to make throwback movies to the
grindhouse style exploitation they had watched when they were younger. They wanted a new generation to watch them. The audiences did, and a new generation of
filmmakers joined in to make films in that style.
Sometimes a movie comes out that creates a wave of style. The releases over the next few years are
filled with movies inspired by or sharing themes with that movie. It could be the numerous “Die Hard in a…” movies. It could be the animal attack movies that
came out after the release of Jaws. Trends happen all the time. It’s how the movie business runs. Modern exploitation is just one trend that is
still around, bubbling under the surface.
When will the next big exploitation movie hit?
It’ll definitely hit after these notes:
- Starcrash (week 1), WolfCop (week 121), and the Human Centipede (week 180) movies were mentioned in this post.
- Manborg was suggested by @TheRealMattC
- Have you seen Manborg? What did you think of it? Are you as disappointed as I am that I had this exploitation idea, wrote it, then realized that Manborg and Kung Fury fit more into the 1980s, and tried to force that into the exploitation post anyway? Let me know on Twitter. Or let me know in the comments.
- If you have any movies that you think I should be watching for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, message me on Twitter or in the comments to let me know. I’m always looking for suggestions.
- Check out the Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
- Now let’s talk about next week. I went with one of the most classic bad movies in film history. It’s a movie from way back in the 1930s, all about how bad it is to get high. That’s right. Tell Your Children, because I’m going to be writing about Reefer Madness. See you next Sunday.
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