In honor of Grindhouse: List your favorite 70s Schlockfests!

John Carpenter's The Thing was a fairly big budget remake of the original...it was and is considered a major film, an A-list money-maker.

The type of films Grindhouse is parodying/homaging are the really low-budget "ground-out" things that played Southern drive-ins and small-town and/or inner city "dollar-a-ticket" theaters.

Although you do have several of that type in your list, you've skipped over the true grindhouse classics such as Eaten Alive, Macon County Line, Return to Macon County, Moonshine Mountain, Cannibal World, Carnival of Cannibals, Parasite 3-D, The Boogens, Death Race 3000, Horror of Party Beach (shown on a double-bill with Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory), Dementia 13, Blacula, Astro Zombies, Bloodfeast, 2000 Maniacs and last but certainly not least, I Spit on Your Grave.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list...only the ones I recall actually seeing.

Yeah, I'm not sure why you have The Thing on there unless you're just to young to have seen it the first time and actually appreciated how truly scary it was and how good the special effects were for the day. That scene where the guy's neck starts stretching and his head turns into a spider-like creature made me piss my pants when I first saw it.

Schlock movies of the 70s? Hmm. There was one about some bloodworms attacking people. Was it Squirm or am I thinking of another movie? I remember a close-up of a worm's mouth and it making some kind of weird scream.

There was one about some Big Foot like creature in the Louisiana swamps. Can't remember the name of that one.

There was another about some weird larva that entered peoples' ears and turned them into zombie-like creatures or something. There were some other disgusting elements to this movie. I think they cornered the market on red Karo syrup that year. Can't remember the name of this movie either.

Empire of the Ants with Joan Collins. The Swarm or Killer Bees, one or the other was awful, the other just watchable. Frogs. Night of the Lepus. Kingdom of the Spiders.

Something about all the animals of the forest attacking people.

Heck, anything with Karen Black in it was schlock. Like Burnt Offerings.

Can you tell I went to a lot of drive-in movies in the 70s?

Shadow_Ferret said:

Was it Squirm or am I thinking of another movie? I remember a close-up of a worm's mouth and it making some kind of weird scream.

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Yep, that was it. Mystery Science Theater 3000 did a pretty good job tearin' it to pieces a few years back.

Shadow_Ferret said:

There was one about some Big Foot like creature in the Louisiana swamps. Can't remember the name of that one.

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The Legend of Boggy Creek...which was presented as a documentary and there was a "sequel" produced a few years later...which MST3 got hold of, too.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Was There was another about some weird larva that entered peoples' ears and turned them into zombie-like creatures or something. There were some other disgusting elements to this movie. I think they cornered the market on red Karo syrup that year. Can't remember the name of this movie either.

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I think that might've been Parasite.

Back in the mid-70s in Winter Haven, FL there was a small theater that screened almost exclusively the 'blaxploitation" and "chop-saki" films. They always had double bills on Friday and Saturday nights. The place was the quintessential "Grindhouse."

For quite a while it was a weekend tradition for me and my dad to go and sit through such classics as Truck Turner (which was actually a pretty good movie) and Super-Manchu (which wasn't).

I have to say, I didn't know of this as a genre before the previews. I'm familiar with the other types of films Tarrantino has paid homage to, but only through Saturday afternoon or late night movies in the 80s.

For once, I feel young.

FredCharles said:

Here are some of my favorite 70s/80s schlock/exploitation flicks:

1. Escape From New York

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If only they had waited for QT before doing the abortion of a sequel.

The Thing (John Carpenter's) is one of my favorite movies. Great for watching when you're feeling fed up with the rest of the world. The ending is a beautiful moment...sometimes, I almost cry.

Hm.

I loved Escape From LA...thought it was superior in many respects to Escape From NY.

I particularly liked Snake's raspy last line after he has for all intents and purposes knocked Earth technology back to the Middle Ages: "Welcome to the human race."

One the great schlock cinema characters of all time.

Snake don't surf.

He didn't do it convincingly, that's for sure.

To me, Schlock implies an inferior quality.
Hence, I don't think the following deserve to be in the list.

FredCharles said:

1. Escape From New York
2. Dawn of the Dead
8. John Carpenter's The Thing

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I think they're all good films. Dawn and The Thing (possible escape too) are also Important films.

Or, at least, that's the way I see it.

MattW said:

If only they had waited for QT before doing the abortion of a sequel.

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Just in case you didn't know, there was talk of another sequel. Escape from Earth, so there's still time.

The thing about films in this "genre" is that they really aren't very good. They weren't created to be good, and no one watched them with that expectation. They are not lost classics. I was reading an article recently about how Susperia, which now has a fairly large cult following, was not liked by Grindhouse audiences. They came to see pointless sex and violence.

I used to have a thing for this type of cinema when I was in college. I thought the posters were kitchy. I owned some videos which had several grindhouse trailers at the start. I found them hilarious in how badly put together they were. But if I found actual copies of the movies, which was fairly difficult, they were depressingly bad, to the point that I felt embarassed for the actors. I like movies of the "so bad it's good variety," but very few of them even manage that. Watching all 3 Ginger movies was enough to make me want to kill myself.

When I saw Grindhouse, it seemed to me that the directors were asking, "what if Grindhouse movies were good?" I'm interested to see if all those old, beyond bad films get reissued on DVD, and what modern audiences will think of them.

Bruce Lee's films were all very good. The Chop-socky stuff was classic.

Most of the Hong Kong cinema imports were horrific, barely watchable...unless you were high, and even then...

Yeah, I know there are "serious" students of the genre, but in my opinion that's ret-conning the fact they have little or no taste and spiritually they're on the low end of the evolutionary scale.

The blaxploitation films were, by and large, a step up if for nothing else the lip-syncing wasn't performed by barely literate people pulled off the street who had scripts thrust into their hands.

The trouble with the "homage" that Grindhouse and to an extent Sin City purports to be is that it blurs the line between parody and and an examination of whether these kind of films had any of intrinsic worth other than as time-wasters.

Just because Tarantino and Rodriquez liked those movies when they were young and had few other cultural touchstones doesn't mean they were good.

One of my favorite films when I was a little kid was Mexican Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy...so what does that tell you about the powers of discrimination of the ten year old?

Axler said:

Just because Tarantino and Rodriquez liked those movies when they were young and had few other cultural touchstones doesn't mean they were good.

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It should be interesting to see how many Tarrantino fans realize this.

What is blaxploitation? Is that the same, or different from, blacksploitation? (Or has it always been called blaxploitation and I've just been mishearing it?) Movies like Blacula and Blackenstein.

Axler said:

Just because Tarantino and Rodriquez liked those movies when they were young and had few other cultural touchstones doesn't mean they were good.



One of my favorite films when I was a little kid was Mexican Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy...so what does that tell you about the powers of discrimination of the ten year old?

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I'm still looking for movies starring Santo. Not because I thought they were any good, but because they do remind me of my childhood. Just as I don't think any of the movies I mentioned were good (excluding The Thing). In many cases they were crap. Like the late 60s sci-fi movie, The Green Slime.

But they remind me of my childhood and often "B" or worse movies are just plain fun in their stupidity.

Shadow_Ferret said:

What is blaxploitation? Is that the same, or different from, blacksploitation? (Or has it always been called blaxploitation and I've just been mishearing it?) Movies like Blacula and Blackenstein.

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Yeah, that's what it is. I'm not sure of the spelling, but I've always seen it written with an x. But yeah, those are the type of movies. Dolemite, The Avenging Disco Godfather, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Superfly, Shaft, that type of stuff.

I like the first Shaft. Shaft In Africa not so much.

I liked all three Shaft movies...they improved with each successive one. Shaft In Africa was actually shot there, so the movie had a pretty large budget. Unfortunately, by the time that film was released, the whole blaxploitation (yes, with an "x") fad was about over.

The Superfly sequel, Superfly TNT was filmed in both Paris and Africa.

Those were the two most successful blaxploitation films and they tried to transcend their low-budget, ghettoized "grindhouse" roots when the producers had the chance.

I recall the sequel to Cleopatra Jones having a pretty big budget, too.

I don't remember seeing Blackenstein, but I saw both Blacula movies (Blacula and Scream, Blacula, Scream) and if you can get past the titles, they're pretty solid vampire films, far better than the Count Yorga movies of the same period.

There was a "blaxploitation" version of The Exorcist that wasn't bad...Abby, I think was the title.

Wait a minute. This thread has been up for three days and no one has mentioned The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Seriously, that is a CRIME!

~JM, humming "Sweet Transvestite."

Well, that's because RHPS wasn't a low-budget schlock film made intentionally made for grindhouse theaters like most of the others that have been discussed.

RHPS had pretty big budget...it tanked during its initial release and was rediscovered by the purveyors of the "Head Theater" type of films. You know...the midnight matinees that were popular on university campuses in the 70s.

Axler said:

You know...the midnight matinees that were popular on university campuses in the 70s.

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Actually, I don't. I wasn't even born yet when the movie was released, much less aware of what college life was like.

Just Me said:

Wait a minute. This thread has been up for three days and no one has mentioned The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Seriously, that is a CRIME!

~JM, humming "Sweet Transvestite."

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"Grindhouse" does not mean "cult classic."

In many cases, not by a longshot.

Celia Cyanide said:

"Grindhouse" does not mean "cult classic."
In many cases, not by a longshot.

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Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know. Can everyone please just go back to ignoring me like usual? Thanks.