Dynamite Baby, Grindhouse Dynamite!
Dynamite Baby, Grindhouse Dynamite!
Grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. Named after the defunct burlesque theaters
located on 42nd Street in New York City where ‘bump n’ grind’ or striptease was featured.
Grindhouse films characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence or bizarre subject matter. One genre of film featured
were “roughies” or sexploitation, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor
print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and
critical praise. Double, triple, and “all night” bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend a long time in
the theater.
The environment was faithfully captured at the time by the magazine ‘Sleazoid Express’. By the 1980s, home video and cable
threatened to make grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles’s Broadway
and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City’s Times Square and San Francisco’s Market Street. By the mid-1990s, these
particular theaters had all but disappeared from the United States and very few are in existence today.
The Robert Rodriguez film, ‘Planet Terror’ and the Quentin Tarantino film ‘Death Proof’, which were released together as
Grindhouse, were created as homage to the genre. Similar films such as ‘Machete’ (also by Rodriguez) and ‘Drive Angry’ have
appeared since. The video games ‘House of the Dead: Overkill’, ‘Wet and Shadows of the Damned’ serve as homages to
grindhouse horror movies.
The author Jacques Boyreau released the book ‘Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box’ in 2009 about the history
of the genre. The genre is also the focus of the 2010 documentary ‘American Grindhouse’ directed and produced by Elijah
Drenner. The film made its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2010.
Elijah Drenner’s smart, affectionate but clear-eyed history of American exploitation films combines commentary and well-
chosen clips from movies that range from 1913s white-slavery “exposé” Traffic in Souls’ to the Nazi sexploitation classic ‘Ilsa:
She Wolf of the SS.’
Drenner’s ambitious mandate for American Grindhouse is to simultaneously chart the development of exploitation pictures,
which staked out a lucrative niche by gleefully tackling topics deemed too vulgar, shocking or disreputable for the tender
sensibilities of middle-class moviegoers, and to situate them within the context of broader social and cultural developments.
Drenner covers the waterfront, from road-show birth-of-a-baby pictures, which staked their claim to educational value on live,
post-screening lectures about sexual hygiene, to drug-scare movies like Reefer Madness (1936), to burlesque movies and
wholesome nudist-camp “documentaries” which paved the way for ever-more-explicit depictions of onscreen sex,
Blaxploitation, juvenile-delinquent dramas, naughty Nazi sexploitation, gross-out gore pictures, biker flicks and mondo movies
are also represented. He taps a small but well-chosen cadre of film historians to handle the hard history, from the way
Hollywood’s 1930 Production Code—which limited filmmakers by disallowing bad language, interracial relationships, violence
and vice (including but not limited to drug abuse and “sex perversion”) to the game changing influence of Steven Spielberg’s
Jaws, whose success erased the line between high and low culture moviemaking.
For’ on-the-ground’ color, he turns to trash-movie writers, directors and actors like Fred Williamson, who chuckles that he
learned how to “steal shots and do big scenes without permits” by starring in Larry Cohen’s Black Caesar, a master class in
guerrilla filmmaking, and Don Edmonds, who matter-of-factly labels himself a whore for agreeing to direct the shameless ‘Ilsa:
She Wolf of the SS’ (which, by the way, was shot on standing sets from the TV sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”) and its campier
sequel,’ Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks’.
Piranha director Joe Dante who astutely sums up Jaws as “a big-budget version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” John
Landis (who shared equipment with Melvin Van Peebles when they were simultaneously shooting Schlock and Sweet
Sweetback’s Badasssss Song) makes the connection between ’70s blaxploitation and the “race pictures” of the 1930s and ’
40s, low-budget movies that repackaged the conventions of westerns, crime pictures and melodramas with all-black casts and
played in segregated theatres across the United States. He also dubs’ The Passion of the Christ’ “Texas Chainsaw Jesus,”
implicitly placing it on a continuum with religious freak-show movies like Lash of the ‘Penitentes’ (1936) and ‘Trapped by the
Mormons’ (1922), declaring that “the whole point [of ’60s Beach Party movies] is to see tits and ass…but wholesome tits and
ass.”
Both informative and well made, ‘American Grindhouse’ is an enjoyable stroll down memory lane.
Killer Biker Chicks
In the history of grindhouse films one name stands out above the rest when it comes to sexploitation films,that name is Russ
Meyer. The infamous director had a flair for camp, violence and most of all big breasted women. Oh yes, he loved boobs…..a
lot…..I mean one hell of a lot. His cult classics such as, “Mondo Topless”, “Valley of the Ultra-Vixens”, “Wild Gals of the
Naked West”, and most notably, “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”, were filled with a plethora of well endowed females. Films that
filled underground cinemas with eager male patrons and solidified the director a cult film icon.
Well that was back in the 60s and 70s. Today underground films are making a comeback in a big way and many modern
directors are emulating the film makers of decades past. Such is the case with Regan Redding and his latest film “Killer Biker
Chicks.” One look at the films trailer conjurs up images made famous by the legendary Meyer. Hot girls in Daisey-Dukes,
violence….and, of course, plenty of cleavage.
The formula is simple, gather up as many sexy women as you can find and put them in your movie. Well Redding has gathered
up some of the hottest young ladies in independent horror today, including Scarlet Salem, Brenna Roth, Sara Plotkin and Elske
McCain.
Now that you have the hotties, all you have to do is have them go on a murderous rampage, using their feminine wiles to lure in
unsuspecting male victims.
The House On Bare Mountain (1962)
Mr. and Mrs. Baumgartner, local law enforcement officers in disguise, arrive at Granny Good’s School for Good Girls on the
pretext of enrolling their “daughter,” Prudence. Their real purpose is to investigate suspicious activities at the school. “Granny” is
actually a male bootlegger and the school a cover for a bootlegging racket. A voyeur, Granny takes many opportunities to watch
the female students as they mingle in the dormitory without their clothes. She tells her chief assistant, Krakow, a 7-foot-tall
wolfman, that their annual costume ball will divert attention from a large batch of liquor that is to be bottled and delivered that
night. Prudence suspects Granny’s ruse and goes to the basement to investigate. The party becomes a drunken brawl; the guests
dance in the nude as Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster join in the fun. The police arrive and pursue Granny to the basement.
There she chains Prudence, the police chief, his men, and Krakow to the still, forcing them to load up the boxes for the outgoing
shipment.
SCARLET SALEM
Sarah French (Scarlet Salem) has always been a favorite of horror movie fans, but just in case this is your first exposure to the
blond from Minnesota, here is her bio.
Sarah began modeling in 2007 working steadily in print, fashion, and various websites. Her life-long love of the horror genre led
to her auditioning for an independent horror film called ‘Pajama Party Massacre’. She got the role and loved the experience so
much that she sought out other film work. To date she has worked on over two dozen projects with titles such as: ‘Terror
Overload’, ‘Killer Biker Chicks’, ‘Resist Evil Trilogy’, ‘Strip Club Slasher’, and ‘Camp Kill’.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
You really have to admire Russ Meyer (hey, that rhymed) who is a real genius at making a sexually erotic movie, without having to
show full nudity or intercourse. “Faster, Pussycat” is full of innuendo, cleavage, women in tight clothes, and enough skin that
makes you think that you got an eye-full of girlie parts, when you actually haven’t.
The film was able to coax the intended hormonal response from someone of the ‘free porn at your fingertips, Internet generation.’ I
can only imagine the effect the film would have on someone of the ‘prim-and-proper’, “Leave it to Beaver”, 1960s generation.
They must have lost their minds!
You only have to look no further than the diner scene, where the busty Tura Satana is eating corn on the cob with her heaving
cleavage in full view of an eager male table mate. Nothing sexual is said, it doesn’t have to be, Tura gets her intentions across in
subtle gesture.
The film stars, as I mentioned above, the very curvy…..okay…wait……let’s say, huge chested, Tura Satana, as Varla, the
‘alpha’ of a group of three exotic dancers who have taken to the desert in their sports cars looking for a day of wild fun.
Satana plays the role perfectly as a woman who wants what she wants, and will do anything to get it. Her facial expressions alone
exude a “I’ll kick your ass” demeanor.
Cast alongside Satana are the former exotic dancer (gee you think there was typecasting?), Haji, as the very alluring Rosie, and
Lori Williams, as the fun-seeking blond, Billie.
Rounding out the cast, as the trios first victims, are former professional soccer player, Ray Barlow, as the preppy college hunk
that is stupid enough to race the trio, and ultimately pays for it with his life.
His girlfriend, Linda, who gets kidnapped by the gang, is played by December 1966, Playboy, Playmate of the Month, Susan
Bernard, who actually posed for her magazine photos while “Faster, Pussycat” was being filmed.
The Big Bird Cage (1972)
Terry, a social-climbing young woman accidentally gets caught up in the activities of two revolutionaries, Blossom and Django,
and finds herself in a concentration camp for women. In the center of the camp is a towering wooden machine (“The Big Bird
Cage”) in which the women risk their lives processing sugar as the evil warden looks on. The prisoners are subjected to sadistic
cruelty from the guards and fellow prisoners, and all attempts at escape are dealt with…permanently. Terry’s only hope for escape
lies in Blossom and her revolutionary allies.
At the beginning of the film, when Terry (Anitra Ford) is taken to the prison by boat, the cove that she is dropped off at is the
same one that was subsequently used for the location of the Kurtz compound in Apocalypse Now (both films were shot in the
Philippines).
Several frames had to be removed from the sequence in which the female inmates rape Rocco the prison guard in order to avoid
an X rating. – IMDB
The Big Doll House (1971)
Female prisoners in a Phillippine jail are being subjected to sadistic torture. Five of the women along with the help of two men plot
an escape.
Director Jack Hill named the sadistic prison warden “Dietrich” after German producer Erwin C. Dietrich, with whom Hill had had
a very unpleasant experience after Dietrich hired him to shoot a film in Switzerland.
In the sequence in which Judith Brown is tortured by having a snake dangled over her head, only a pane of glass separated
Brown from said snake.
A graphic lesbian scene was shot, but cut from the final finished version of the film.
A Filipino porn actress was originally cast as Ferina, but left after the first day of shooting.
Roberta Collins’ infamous “Get it up or I’ll cut it off” line was improvised on the spot by director Jack Hill. – IMDB
dynamo who works her tail off both
in front of, and behind the camera.
As of late, Rachel’s star is rising, big
time.
Rachel Grubb graduated college
with a degree in English and wrote
her first feature length screenplay, in
1999.
Since then, she has acted in
numerous local feature films
including Doomed To Consume,
The Monster of Phantom Lake,
Harrowville, Group Home, The
Romantics, Tales Of The Dead,
Horror House, Health Freaks, and
Unholy Reunion. More recently, she
played a creepy ghost in Dav
Kaufman’s 13 Hours in A
Warehouse, and Hagra, lead
huntress of the evil Liak tribe in
Cave Women on Mars.
PLANET OF THE VAMPIRE WOMEN
After pulling off the heist of the century, notorious space pirate Trix Richards and her gang of interplanetary outlaws attempt a
daring getaway in an antique warship. The mercenaries blaze through the galaxy with the law on their tail, seeking refuge on a
long-forgotten sinister moon. But when the ship crashes into the storm-shrouded orb, they find themselves stranded in a nightmare
world of unrelenting terror, with a scout missing and a fatally wounded leader. As the crew assesses the damage, Captain
Richards rises from the dead with an insatiable lust for blood. She disappears into the fog, leaving behind a badly wounded
helmsman and an unfathomable mystery. A scout party is quickly assembled to investigate the hostile environment, which is
plagued by violent electrical storms and alive with danger. It is also a breeding ground for degenerate aliens and the pirates soon
find themselves trapped in a desperate struggle to stay alive. Stumbling upon the ruins of an ancient civilization, they unwittingly
awaken a dormant evil bent on destruction of the dark moon and its bloodthirsty inhabitants. The remaining humans must race
against time to escape the doomed world and reach civilization before the space vampires can spread their infernal horror to an
unsuspecting universe.
Strip Club Slasher
A seedy, small town strip joint takes a down and dirty donkey punch after one of the girls get’s brutally murdered. Fearing that
the killer may be targeting the local talent, the authorities shut the place down while they investigate the crime. Sad and scared, the
other girls decide to spend the weekend together to reflect on the loss of their friend and to keep each other safe. Sex, drugs and
rock and roll ensue before everything comes to a scream filled halt when a madman starts picking them off in a brutal display of
blood drenched depravity!
Strip Club Slasher features some of today’s hottest up and coming Indie horror scream queens like Scarlet Salem, Elske McCain,
Rachel Grubb, Lindy Starr with first timer’s Saint DeVille and Corrine Manning alongside sick and twisted horror
actor/writter/author Joe Knetter and veteran B-movie horror actor Joel D. Wynkoop from such classic movies as Twisted
Illusions, Truth or Dare, Killing Spree, Wicked Games, Creep, Dirty Cop No Donut and many many others.
Frame by frame Strip Club Slasher is loaded with gratuitous blood, boobs, babes, sex, drugs and rocknroll… No holds bared,
this movie aims to deliver what slasher fans want to see!!