Good day and welcome readers of mine.
No doubt the week is here and a few suggestions aimed me back to
exploitation films. Exploitation is classically defined as any film
that tries to succeed financially by exploiting a trend, niche or
genre of a taboo matter. Commonly these movies are subjects but not
completely limited to sex, violence or romance. Exploitation films
as a whole started as far back as the 1930s with titles like: Reefer
Madness, Sex Madness and She Should Said No! The term grindhouse
originates from any theater that shows only exploitation films.
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| Hold still Tom Metzger or I blast you, sucka. |
With that in mind I am referencing the
titled term of Grindhouse Flicks which were low budgeted features
that shot as a double feature in seedy theaters and most drive-in
movies in the day. Hell, most of the exploitation genres barely got
any theater time and had to go straight to the drive-ins because the
FCC wasn't poking their noses heavily in there so films like: The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Coffy,The Mountain of the Cannibal God,
Death Race 2000, Race with the Devil and even Mad Max were deemed
unsavory for the public and should be shooed out of the public eye.
Being a member of the VHS generation we
saw more than our fair share of the so-called exploitation films and
found most entertaining. Apparently if it isn't greenlit A-list
material, actors and directors all indie films needs a whooping.
The exploitation films falls under some
many categories such as: Biker Films, low budgeted Slasher
films, Kung-Fu movies, Blaxploitation (made
with black actors for black audiences as they claim to be but almost
always in a urban environment with some racist theme, white
supremacist story arc or "The Man" encroaching on their
lives and lifestyles, dig?)Women in Prison flicks,
Splatter films (A
horror movie that focuses on graphic violence and gore),
Spaghetti Westerns (Italian-made Westerns from the
mid-60s), the rape and revenge films,
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| Okay, I am sorry I pinched your butt. Sheesh! |
Giallo films (Italian
slashers focused on cruel murders and the search for the killer or
killers) Chambara films (Non-tradition style of
shooting a samurai film in Japan in the 1970s) Monster
Movies (Usually involving atomic radiated creatures, aliens
or creature features) Nazisploitation (Nazi
themed story arc, death camps, chemical or atomic mutations to
prisoners and brothels so nudity and violence)
Ozploitation (Australian
made films that based around violence, booze and environmental exploits and destruction like Mad Max or Turkey Shoot) , one
I hadn't even heard of and then I realized I have seen one of the
subgenre is Redsploitation (Native American characters
usually getting revenge on white men that tormented or murdered
someone close to them. Think Billy Jack.)and of course lastly Sexploitation
(soft-core pornography or semi-nude or fully nude men and women
in sex scenes)
With all these sub-genres it is enough
to make your head spin to think this all originates from the blanket
term Exploitation. Having sampled more than a handful of these
movies and all their sub-genres I can safely say... not a fan of the
rape and revenge flicks! Not overtly jumping up and down for joy if
offered a Naziploitation flick. I have enjoyed several of the
Giallo movies like The Hatchet Murders a.k.a. Deep Red, Blood and
Black Lace and The The Case of the Scorpion's Tail.
The Car themed
flicks or Carsploitation I guess like: Two-Lane Blacktop, Death Race
2000, the original Gone in 60 Seconds and the original The Hitcher
were all fascinating and entertaining.
Exploitation Films have their place in
viewing pleasure and sure there are plenty out there that I WOULD NOT
recommend for say someone like my folks or my very too young nephews
to be viewing but the sub-genres allows enough variety that there is
something for everyone. Admittedly I really want to avoid the guy
that has wall-to-wall DVDs of just Women in Prison films. That guy
needs to get out once in a while...or maybe a wee bit of therapy.
With this in mind, the week shall
consist of as many of the sub-genres as possible and as always I will
do my level best to remain objective and keep the comments PG-13.
Hey, I got some younger readers too.
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| See burning her alive saves her soul...or something. Hell, I don't know. |
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