#carsploitation movies

[schlock-luster-video]

On June 6, 2007, Death Proof debuted in Belgium and France.

[videoreligion]

Death Race 2000 (1975)

[swiftthistletea]

The franchise-ification of Mad Max is honestly kinda bizarre to me. As a yuge fan of Mad Max 2. Ive seen them all save for the new one. the first one is cop themed carsploitation movie with soft post apocalypse elements turned full on post apocalyptic carsploitation turned post apocalypse themed "Goonies" feat Tina Turner turned franchise IP funko pop spinoff. I didnt like Fury Road at all. It wasnt a Mad Max movie to me. Not excited at all for the next background character from a spinoff of a spinoff movie that they cook up.

[askmovieslate]

Seriously though, this movie is kind of fun.

I mean the premise is so outrageous and ridiculous that I can’t help but applaud the filmmakers for having the bravery to go forward with it, and everything they surrounded it with helps to re-enforce it. The characters are very over the top, especially Silvester Stallone’s who’s driving a car with a massive knife in it (maybe a foreshadowing to his future role in the Rambo movies?) and the action is actually quite well shot and appropriately cartoony.

It’s an acquired taste of a movie though, and I don’t find myself wanting to re-watch it anytime soon, but for what it’s worth I say give it a shot.

And now, if you excuse me, I have to teach Nurse Redheart a lesson. That’s not how to properly take care of patients.

((OOC: You can check the making of right here))

((OOC: You can check the mod’s real thoughts about the movie here))

[warholslandfill]

On June 10, 1978 Convoy debuted Japan.

[gotankgo]

1976 - probably would have opted for the selections playing on the west screen but the other double feature is solid too (I think I have a copy of the Roger Corman produced, Ron Howard carsploitation flick Eat My Dust in the VHS vault)

Eat My Dust! (1976) Thai movie poster

[brokehorrorfan]

Death Trap is a love letter to the carsploitation and revenge flicks of the 1970s and ‘80s with a paranormal twist. Written by Poser’s Matt Miner, the comic features art by Christopher Peterson, colors by Josh Jensen, and letters by Matt Krotzer.

Death Trap has launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $18,000 to bring the four-issue miniseries to readers in both physical and digital formats. Perks include copies of the books, the chance to appear a comic character, professional services, and more.

The first issue has two cover variants exclusive to Kickstarter. The main version (left) features art by Peterson and colors by Jensen, while the chase variant is illustrated and colored by Darren Lo.

Ollie and her dad’s ghost are out for revenge as they rumble and skid through four issues of action and absurdity in her father’s old 1968 Mercury Cougar.  With their suspicions all but confirmed his murder was ordered by Beau Davenport, the owner of a rival traveling carnival, Ollie gathers help from the only family she has left: The Strongin Circus crime family she grew up in.  Violence, high-octane action, and a healthy dose of bananas-level wackiness await you in the pages of the most exciting new comic this side of the old 42nd street exploitation movie theaters.

[wazafam]

The slasher is one of the most popular subgenres in horror cinema. They all follow a very familiar formula — a mysterious killer shows up and starts picking off the protagonists, usually leaving behind a final girl who saved herself by abstaining from sex and drugs — but within that familiar formula is the opportunity to create an unforgettable horror masterpiece.

RELATED: Halloween (1978): 5 Ways It's The Greatest Slasher Ever Made (& Its 5 Closest Contenders)

John Carpenter’s Halloween is one of the movies that defined the slasher genre and gave fellow filmmakers a template to work with. Michael Myers, also known as “The Shape,” is the ultimate slasher villain, but he has plenty of competition from the Freddys and Jasons of the world.

10 Michael Is The Best: He’s The Faceless Embodiment Of Evil

Although he’s been identified as Michael Myers in the larger Halloween canon and in the original 1978 movie itself, the character was initially credited as “The Shape.”

This is because John Carpenter envisioned his bloodthirsty killer as a faceless shape of evil. He doesn’t have any morals or values or even a particular motive; he just goes out and kills people unless something prevents him, like being institutionalized.

9 Alternative: Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th)

The villain of the first Friday the 13th movie was not actually Jason Voorhees, but rather his mother, Mrs. Voorhees, who killed sexually active teenagers to avenge the death of her son, who supposedly drowned when a pair of camp counselors let their guard down to sleep together.

However, the sequels brought Jason back from the dead, gave him a hockey mask and a machete, and turned him into one of the most iconic villains in the history of horror cinema.

8 Michael Is The Best: He’s An Unstoppable Killing Machine

Almost all slasher villains are unstoppable killing machines, but Michael is particularly unstoppable, because even when Laurie literally stops him — like throwing him out a window or burning her house to the ground with him in the basement — he just gets up and wanders off.

There’s nothing specifically paranormal about the Halloween lore, like the more clearly defined mythology of A Nightmare on Elm Street, but there’s an ambiguous supernatural element that gives Michael a kind of invincibility.

7 Alternative: Stuntman Mike (Death Proof)

Quentin Tarantino’s contribution to the double feature Grindhouse, carsploitation-meets-slasher Death Proof, is generally considered to be the director’s weakest movie. But it has a juicy slasher premise and plenty of effective vehicular scares.

RELATED: Death Proof & 9 Other Slashers That Mix In A Different Genre

Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike, a Hollywood stunt driver who spends his nights driving around in his “death-proof” stunt car, crashing into young women to derive sick pleasure from killing them.

6 Michael Is The Best: The Shatner Mask Is Delightfully Unnerving

The mask worn by a slasher villain can make or break the movie. The prop department gave John Carpenter four options for Michael Myers’ mask. The Emmett Kelly clown mask was arguably the most immediately terrifying, but it ultimately wouldn’t have the longevity that Carpenter’s final choice has had.

Instead of the clown mask, Carpenter went with a William Shatner mask. The washed-out Shatner face is a wholly unique look — and a delightfully unnerving one.

5 Alternative: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

While the most memorable portrayal of the dream world on the big screen is Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending sci-fi opus Inception, Wes Craven brought a horror bent to this concept in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The slasher had been clearly established by the time Craven made Nightmare, but the movie did introduce supernatural elements to the genre.

Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger targets teenagers in their dreams and inflicts injuries that affect them in the real world. Freddy is revealed to be the Springwood Slasher, a child murderer who was burned at the stake by his victims’ parents.

4 Michael Is The Best: The Opening Flashback Humanizes Him

The opening flashback in Halloween doesn’t necessarily make Michael sympathetic, as it’s a long point-of-view shot in which he wanders into his older sister’s bedroom in his Halloween costume and murders her.

But when he emerges from the house and his disturbed parents remove his mask, it’s revealed that he’s just a little kid. Showing Michael as a child humanized him ahead of his on-screen serial killings.

3 Alternative: Norman Bates (Psycho)

Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller masterpiece Psycho is widely regarded to be the first-ever slasher. The first half of the movie is set up as a crime movie as Marion Crane goes on the lam with a small fortune she embezzled from her boss, but it becomes a full-blown horror movie when she’s stabbed to death in the shower of her motel room.

RELATED: Psycho: 5 Ways It's The Greatest Thriller Ever Made (& Its 5 Closest Contenders)

The audience is led to believe that the killer is Norma Bates, Norman Bates’ mother, but the unnerving final twist reveals a far more sinister truth. Anthony Perkins’ performance as Norman is truly terrifying.

2 Michael Is The Best: He’s Perfectly Matched Against Laurie Strode

When Michael escaped from his psychiatric hospital, he expected the babysitters of Haddonfield to be easy targets. What he didn’t count on was one badass babysitter, Laurie Strode, with the ability to fight back.

Michael found himself perfectly matched against Laurie. Just as Michael is the ultimate slasher villain, Laurie is the ultimate final girl.

1 Alternative: Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)

With the ironic bite of Sally Hardesty being targeted by a cannibal after her family spent years profiting from the meat industry, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the ultimate pro-vegetarian movie. It’s also one of the most perfectly crafted horror movies ever made.

Leatherface is already a hulking, intimidating menace before he has a chainsaw in his hands and a mask made of human flesh on his face. He wanders around the backwoods of Texas, slaughtering unsuspecting people and cooking them for his cannibalistic family.

NEXT: Halloween & 9 Other Quintessential Slasher Movies That Defined The Genre

Halloween: 5 Ways Michael Myers Is The Ultimate Slasher Villain (& 5 Alternatives) from https://ift.tt/3uKRGHK

[nedflix-n-chill]

31 Days of Halloween #14 Grindhouse I'm talking about the full double feature, trailers, and ad bumpers included. The way it played in theaters because this film was more than just 2 movies put back to back. It was an event, designed to mimic the experience of hitting up an old "grindhouse" double bill. Planet Terror feels like the film that the exploitation film trailers promised you. Most exploitation films were incredibly low budget and just kinda loaded up the trailer with all the best moments while the film itself was all filler, not Planet Terror though. It plays like a large budget Fulci or Cozzi film, insane from the jump. It's ridiculous and wild and just an all around real crowd pleaser. Death Proof seemed divisive at the time but I think the consensus has definitely turned. It plays by itself better that Planet Terror and more directly resembles the exploitation genre Tarantino so passionately loves. With his self indulgent pacing, often favoring extended dialogue scenes before getting to stretches of action, Tarantino delivers an incredible throwback thrill ride of a slasher turned carsploitation turned revenge film. It's a shame that this bombed because I'd like to live in the universe where they kept making these with different directors teaming up and a host of young filmmakers tackling bizarre trailers for movies that don't exist but we'd all kill for. But you can still do one better. Look up the closest theater to you that does old 35mm screenings and support the fuck out of them.  Exhumed Films is an amazing group that has been putting on incredible marathons all on 35mm with vintage genre trailers all over the NY/NJ/PA area. The Alamo Drafthouse puts on some amazing shows at all their locations.  And my personal church for the last summer has been the Mahoning Drive In in Lehighton PA which has put on some of my favorite shows. Grindhouse might have given us a taste of the experience but that experience is not gone yet. Support film! Comment with your favorite theater or company that puts on retro shows in your area. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3nLV2TFams/?igshid=10wqqm44p7r8f

[terrorfreak]

50 Exploitation Films You Need To See Before You Die - Introduction

    In 2007, I was fourteen, and deep into my love of horror films. I wasn't obsessed; it would be a few more years until I started collecting merchandise and painting models, but I was far more knowledgeable in the genre than most my age. So when I saw a trailer for Grindhouse, I knew I had to see it. A Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino double feature? With fake trailers by Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Eli Roth? It sounded like heaven. Despite not understanding what Grindhouse was paying homage to, I begged and pleaded for my father to take me. My dad only needed a little prodding, despite usually being reluctant to see horror movies with me, as he was a fan of both Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino. Who isn’t?

     Seeing Grindhouse in the theaters was a surreal experience, especially for someone who knew nothing about exploitation films. I had never seen a movie that looked so bad, yet felt so right. Grindhouse radiates Tarantino and Rodriguez's love for the genre, and it fills the viewer with true cinephile warmth. Even when Sydney Tamiia Poitier's leg is getting torn off. The fake trailers and old fashioned bumpers blew my mind. And I'm not exaggerating. For a fourteen-year-old who had no idea any of that world existed, it was like discovering a new galaxy.

     Leaving the theater, I knew exactly what I had to do: see as many exploitation films as I could. We stopped at a Blockbuster on our way home, and I picked up my second exploitation feature: The Toxic Avenger.

     From that night forward exploitation films became just as important to me as horror movies, and for the same reason. Horror and exploitation films, the best of them at least, are obvious labors of love. More so than most genres, I believe. More importantly, however, they get their themes across (and they do have themes) in a clever way. But more on that later.

     For the uninitiated, you're probably wondering: “What is an exploitation movie?”

     Essentially, an exploitation film is a film that exploits an idea. Any idea. They’re low-budget films, that needed to exploit an idea, and make it larger than life, to get people in the seats. More often than not, the ideas exploited were sex and violence. Though, if you can think of it, there’s probably an exploitation subgenre about it: Carsploitation, Nazisploitation, Blaxploitation, the list goes on.

     Another term you might have heard thrown around is “grindhouse” or “the grindhouse.” Grindhouses, more or less, were the theaters that these films were shown in. While they were more, and exploitation films were shown in other venues such as tents and drive-ins, that’s enough to get you started. This series of essays won’t cover the history of the genre. If you are interested in that the documentary American Grindhouse and the book Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents are great places to start. Also, after this series is completed I’ll put together a list of sources I used for the project, and you can use it to explore exploitation cinema deeper. Trust me, there’s a lot to watch.

     What you’re probably asking next is: “Aren't they all bad? I’ve heard they’re all bad.”

     The short answer is: no.

     First and foremost, some exploitation films are good in every sense of the word. Tod Browning's Freaks, the first film on this list, is nearly perfect (and critics agree, it has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes).

     While it's true that many exploitation pictures lack production value, they more than makeup for it with original ideas. A great example is Death Race 2000, a 1975 exploitation film starring David Carradine. Death Race 2000 has some of the best world-building I've ever seen on screen, and it would go on to influence films like Running Man, Battle Royal, and The Hunger Games. While it's not beautifully shot, or filled with great performances, the ideas shine through. And a lot of exploitation cinema had significantly cooler ideas and premises than anything being created at the same time, or since.

     Moreover, as previously stated, I believe that exploitation films have an easier time getting their themes across to their audience then so called “legitimate pictures.” No, these films are not idea-less or theme-less. No films are. Writers are people, with beliefs and morals, and those are placed within the script whether the author is aware of it or not. But because these movies, at least on the surface, are appealing to your reptilian brain, you’re not looking for a message. The message slyly seeps into your brain, staying with you long after you leave the theater. Conversely, when I saw Manchester by the Sea, I was constantly searching for meaning, and most likely read too much into it. Manchester by the Sea, and films like it, are not bad movies. In fact, I'd highly recommend seeing Manchester. But their seriousness can often lead viewers to search for meaning in every shot and line of dialogue, causing them to miss the film as a whole.

     In a lot of ways, exploitation films are the fast food of the cinema world. Do they have substance? Absolutely. A burger from the drive-thru has fat, protein, and carbohydrates. And while you can't live on fast food alone, sometimes the only thing that hits the spot is a Big Mac.

     Finally, I'm not saying that everyone should watch exploitation films. If you're squeamish, or wholesome, or a fundamentalist, you should probably stay away from these films. But if you're okay with a little bump and grind, you love great premises, and you don’t mind if the theme is hidden behind breasts and blood, watch some exploitation cinema. Chances are you've watched movies that are heavily influenced by it, like the works of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

     I picked what I thought ought to be the fifty exploitation films you should see before you depart this planet with a single rule: they should exemplify the genre. Some are great, some are bad, some are simply on this list because of their importance to the genre. But all are fun.

     So this Saturday instead of paying $13 a ticket to see a predictable blockbuster, stay home and watch one of the fifty films I'll be writing about over the next year! You'll have a blast.

     “Did you ever see Pinocchio? Disney's Pinocchio? There's a wonderful thing in Disney's Pinocchio where Pinocchio is kidnapped and goes off to this island, Pleasure Island. And there's this guy with a derby and a cigar, and he's barking! He's at a podium, and he's saying 'The rough house! Go inside, boys, it's the rough house!' And that's what I like about [exploitation movies], it's sheer hucksterism.” - John Landis, American Grindhouse.

The List:

Freaks

Reefer Madness

Mom and Dad

The Immoral Mr. Teas

Mondo Cane

Blood Feast

Olga’s House of Shame

Beach Blanket Bingo

Faster PussyCat Kill Kill

The Trip

Spider Baby

The Savage Seven

Mark of the Devil

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

The Big Boss

Vanishing Point

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

The Big Doll House

Pink Flamingos

Deep Throat

The Thing With Two Heads

Blacula

Last House on the Left

Superfly

The Mack

Coffy

Thriller: A Cruel Picture

Caged Heat

Foxy Brown

Death Wish

Death Race 2000

Dolemite

Mandingo

Ilsa She Wolf of the SS

The Girl from Starship Venus

Satan's Slave

Death Bed

Faces of Death

I Spit On Your Grave

Caligula

Killer Nun

Cannibal Holocaust

Slumber Party Massacre

The Toxic Avenger

NEKRomantik

Passion of the Christ

Black Snake Moan

Grindhouse

Human Centipede

Spring Breakers

[schlock-luster-video]

On June 30, 2010, Death Proof was screened at the Astana International Action Film Festival.

[videoreligion]

Death Race 2000 (1975)

[thehorrortree]

Taking Submissions: Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror

Taking Submissions: Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror From: @PeninsulaDark

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: $50.00 Theme: Giallo/Slasher, Sci-fi Horror, 80’s Splatter, Japanese Body Horror, 50’s B-Movie Creature Feature, Southern Gothic, Satanic Cult, Lost World, Lost Tribe. Other sub-genres could apply as well, but must have a strong horror connection, including: Carsploitation, Blacksploitation, Spaghetti Western, Women in Prison, Vigilante, etc.

Our second fiction…

[michaelpatrickhicks]

Review: At the Mercy of Beasts by Ed Kurtz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars At the Mercy of Beasts, the latest from Ed Kurtz, collects three historical horror novellas that run the gamut of early to late 1900s. While each of the stories are unrelated, this temporal aspect binds them together along with heady doses of monstrous weirdness and crisp writing throughout. "Black's Red Gold" kicks things off as Kurtz takes us to an early 1900s oil drilling platform situated on a prospected bit of land that promises to make a pair of Texas oilmen rich. What they find instead could prove to be far more lucrative, and far more limited, a natural resource than mere oil. This curious discovery inflames the men's natural greed and drives this novella into a gruesome work of body horror and creature feature fun. Fans of Kurtz's previous novel Bleed should find lots to enjoy here, particularly as the gore kicks into high gear and the blood starts flowing. "Black's Red Gold" is also the most thematically rich of the three stories, providing a bit of subtle commentary on mankind's abuse of the Earth in order to exploit resources, and it's a mighty fine start to the collection. It's also my favorite of the three stories here. "Kennon Road" takes us to post-war Philippines where a pair of grisly murders drives a disillusioned soldier to seek out the inhuman killer. Kurtz turns toward local lore in this one, probing the legend of Manananggal - a vampire-like creature that appears human in the day, but at night separates from its torso to fly in search of its prey. I was first introduced to the legend of the Manananggal in a short story by Rio Youers in the Seize the Night Anthology and immediately fell in love with this peculiar take on vampire lore, so I was quite pleased to see Kurtz tackle it as well. "Deadheader" is the most contemporary of the three, set in 1977 as truck driver Pearlie takes on a cargo shipment filled with far more than she had bargained for, and picks up hitchhiker Ernie. As the two hit the road to make her delivery, they find themselves almost immediately under siege by flying terrors chasing them through the desert roads on the way to Mexico. "Deadheader" is easily the pulpiest of the three, and reading like a B-movie grindhouse carsploitation feature with its focus on car chases and on-the-road mayhem. What really sells it, though, is the human element, particularly in the case of Ernie, a veteran suffering from post-war trauma who is reluctantly forced into action while trying to escape the ghosts of his recent past. "Deadheader" isn't quite as thematically rich as "Black's Red Gold" but it sure is a lot of fun, and Kurtz packs in plenty of action for the short page count to keep things humming. At the Mercy of Beasts is brimming with a rich sense of time and place for each of the three novellas gathered here, overflowing with all kinds of monsters, human and otherwise, and plenty of gore to satisfy horror fans. This one will have you at Kurtz's mercy the whole way through, and probably for a long time after with a lot of his other books. Trust me, though, there's worse fates to have than that. [Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from Journalstone for review.] View all my reviews

[darkmindvomit]

faster_pussycat_kill_kill_poster_01 by Invisible Ink Web Designs on Flickr.

[schlock-luster-video]

On March 3, 1979, Corvette Summer debuted in Japan.

Here's some Mark Hamill and Annie Potts art!