The Grindhouse effect

A year has come and gone since the Tarantino-Rodriguez Grindhouse film was released. Expectations were high for it pre-release, posters were awesome, the fake trailers by well-known directors, and the love for the experiment was great (currently occupying #218 on IMDb’s Top Movies), but apparently mostly on the net. Don’t know what the final gross was, after the disappointing US reception and being divided when released internationally, but I doubt it covered even the official $53 million budget. Which is a shame, because at least I would have liked seeing the films (since I’m abroad) as they were supposed to be seen on a big screen. Death Proof by itself was a very good film, though. Planet Terror, all right, maybe not so much (Josh Brolin’s turn as mad doctor excepted).

The wild (and hubris-filled) experiment seemed doomed to become a wildly expensive special edition box. Yet like many experimental horror films, there appears to be a trickle-down effect going on. Barely noticeable, and perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the signs are there.

The above remind you of anything? No? Take a look at the left side of the Grindhouse poster. Coincidence? I mean, it might be. Could be a whole history of people with guns for limbs, going back all the way to Mega Man. Besides, there’s more to the film than that. It has all the things a film needs to be good: ninjas, tempura, sushi, chainsaws, a flying guillotine and a drill bra. That’s what the the trailer claims, anyway (very NSFW, by the way). The film seems to be done in the Grindhouse spirit, but on the other hand films like this were made long before Planet Terror came along, and it doesn’t have any zombies or strippers in it.

Zombie Strippers quite obviously does, though, and believe it or not, it’s coming to a theater near you. Not a porn theatre. An actual movie theatre, April 18. And why wouldn’t it? With stars like Robert Englund and Jenna Janeson headlining it. It’s even got its trailer up on Apple. Now with this film you can’t not say it’s been influenced by the Grindhouse films. It’s such an obvious rip-o… homage of Planet Terror that Rodriguez should be given some form of writing credit (barring that, lap dances). What’s great about this film are the obvious meta-consequences of having actual strippers play strippers that in the film they’re making a cheap genre knock-off off which served as an homage to the kind of cheap genre knock-off they’re making the actresses playing the strippers weren’t really strippers but were trying to act as how actual strippers who were playing strippers I need to lie down.

Nonetheless, having this kind of esoteric effect on adult film is doubtfully what Tarantino and Rodriguez intended (still, they must be loving it). I’m guessing they longed for the days of double-features and having that old form of cinema given some acknowledgement. And that could still happen.

Later this year Steven Soderbergh will release two films based on the life of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Guerrilla and The Argentine, both films starring Benicio del Toro and both expected to be Academy awards calibre. Chronicling the early and later life of Guevara as a rebel in Cuba and Bolivia, respectively, supposedly they’ll be released only a short while apart. Having them set up as a double-feature seems like the natural way to go. Call it Guevara Grindhouse, put up some old political Cuban posters, invite people to come dressed in their best revolutionary gear (be it a Che t-shirt or functional military khakis) and have some propaganda films from the era playing in the break between the films.

Who knows where this will end.

And even if it is too late for Grindhouse the movie, when the inevitable offensively expensive Grindhouse dvd deluxe box is released, the Weinsteins can start lighting their cigars. On the commentary tracks they’ll say that the experiment was ahead of its time, that it was misunderstood, and look at the effect it has had. The cult film it has become.