2007: The Year of the B-movie Revival?

"Groovy."

- Ash (Bruce Campbell)

After near extinction, the B-movie has experienced resurgence over the past few months. Following the financial and marginal critical success of "Snakes on a Plane" (2006), which benefited immensely from a cleverly obvious title and an effective online marketing campaign, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are set to unveil their B-movie homage, which will premiere (and presumably be released) as a double-feature titled "Grindhouse" tentatively scheduled for release on April 6th, 2007. Of course, as the theatrical trailer illustrates, a grind house is that of a theatre which plays two films back-to-back; in general, these films are referred to as B-movies and tend to exploit sex and violence. If the trailer is any indication of content, Tarantino's film "Death Proof" will center largely on sexual exploitation (perhaps inspired by Pam Grier's films in the early 1970s) whereas Rodriguez has directed his efforts towards a medley of science fiction, zombies, and carnage (with obvious influence from Bruce Campbell and the "Evil Dead" series). Both directors have dealt with similar subject matter in the past (Tarantino with "Jackie Brown" [1997] and Rodriguez with "Sin City [2005]), but neither has ventured so far into the territory of exploitation. Similarly, writer/director Craig Brewer has chosen to follow up his critically successful feature debut "Hustle & Flow" (2005) with an exploitation flick aptly titled "Black Snake Moan," which will undoubtedly draw from the cult following of "Snakes of a Plane" due to the similarities in the title, but also in the leading man category with Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as the now typecast "angry black man" (no discrimination intended). For B-movie enthusiasts such as myself who long for the glory days of Roger Corman and Bruce Campbell, this is an exciting time, but whether the fad will become a permanent staple of modern cinema is an entirely different issue. One can only hope.

The trailers for "Grindhouse" and "Black Snake Moan" can be found at the following links, respectively.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0462322/trailers-screenplay-E30983-10-2

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/blacksnakemoan/trailer1/

- Kurtis