What B movie started it all for you?

[Scott123]

What B movie got you into this great hobby? Maybe something you saw as a kid and then later on in life (like me) you started collecting tons of DVDs. For me, I vividly recall being glued to the TV one Saturday afternoon many years ago watching Earth vs. the Flying Saucers .. still one of my all-time faves. What did it for you? 

[lester1/2jr]

for me it wasn'a movie but a tv show:  I dream of Jeannie.  really, I think back and that's the first overtly campy sort of thing I was into

[Cthulhu]

I'm not quite sure what movie after I started to watch b-movies...but Evil dead 2 was definitely a turning point.

[Psycho Circus]

Probably have to say either "The Toxic Avenger" or "Flesh Gordon"  

[ulthar]

I cannot pin down a "first," as I remember growing up from the earliest age watching old b&w horror, sci fi and war movies with my Dad.  Probably about 4 or 5 are my earliest memories of specific movies.

My Dad had an 8mm camera (not a Super 8).  Though he used it mostly for just making home movies, he also fooled around from time to time shooting little fx scenes just for fun.  That got me interested in the 'behind the scenes' aspects of making movies; it's this early interest in the mechanics of MAKING movies that I think solidified my interest in B movies; it was not the glitz of A movies that drew me to the medium, but the project and process as a whole.

B movies tend to lay the process bare for us to see.

Early viewings that proved seminal: THE MUMMY, DRACULA, TARANTULA, THEM! and FRANKENSTEIN come to mind, as well as an endless parade of John Wayne Westerns and War pics.  There were many, many others.

[peter johnson]

Mine was not a movie, but a book:  "The Golden Turkey Awards", but Michael Medved.
This book codified for me what I had known for years, but didn't really understand:  How it is possible for a film to be wretched, yet contain charm and value.  Suddenly, I knew why I liked things like Plan 9 & etc., and had for decades prior.
That said, I can't think of my first one, as I'd seen dozens before reading the book that confirmed what Andrew says I am:  A Bad-Movie Fanatic.
It was probably one of those Hercules vs. The World films on on Saturday mornings, where my mother or father or both would walk through & see me enthralled with the giant paper-mache spider, with the visible strings, and make some sigh-ful comment that I was too old or too smart to be watching stuff like that.  This would annoy me:  I knew the bug/spider was fakey-looking, but I was still caught up in the story, as it beat going outside to walk around in boring, rural Virginia!!
peter johnson/denny crane

[brooky1969]

Yeah, I think mine was the exposure to Saturday morning stuff in the early 70's, all those Tarzan flickers and the such. Plus the Flash Gordon serials during the after school cartoon shows. Can't forget the impact of the old late night horror movies I was fond of watching during the weekends at my grandparents as well.

[Rev. Powell]

I had seen snatches of Hammer horrors and Godzilla sequels on TV growing up, and had caught movies like THE HOWLING and CONAN THE BARBARIAN in theaters.  Watching BARBARIAN QUEEN at age 17, though, had a tremendous effect on me.   It sent me scurrying to find movies featuring similar Frank Frazetta-ish women, like DEATHSTALKER. 

The first movie I actually appreciated for it's "badness" (rather than its bounteous boobies) was GLEN OR GLENDA?   

[Saucerman]

I'm not sure I can point to any specific movie, though "Clash of the Titans" was probably the first fantasy/special effects movie I ever saw.  

Instead, I think I too have to point to a book, though the title escapes me.  It was a library book, blue cover, with overlaid images of the Metaluna Mutant and the fliers from War of the Worlds (1953).  I can picture it vividly -- I must have gotten it out at least eight times.  It had pictures of all sorts of movie monsters and brief summaries of movies.  Also, the library had a whole series of thin, orange-bound books, each one telling the plot of a single monster movie.  I very vividly remember "The Deadly Mantis", "Tarantula," and "The Mole People" in this series, as well as one that covered several Mad Scientist movies (and had a picture of Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu on the cover) and one that covered the Godzilla series up to Terror of Mechagodzilla (this one, since I was such a rabid little kaiju fan as a child, I quickly found to be horrendously inaccurate).  

Those books whetted my appetite and made me want to watch all these movies -- and now I think I've seen most of the ones in the books.  

[Jack]

I think it was all those made-for-TV movies from the '70s.  Then in the '80s I was old enough to see movies with boobies, and it was a done deal.  Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity was one of the earliest bad movies I remember really liking.

[Torgo]

The first time I saw Megaforce on VHS back in the mid to late 80's.

[princess dragonmom]

I remember watching "The Baby" on Saturday morning in the 70s what a bizarre movie.  I knew I had to see more like it.

[masterdebater]

I vividly remember watching the TV series 'Blakes Seven' at the age of about 4. Great writing, great actors and absolutely no budget. I love it still and I'm still collecting all the episodes. Good old Dr Who is also to blame. Both written by Terry Nation, so it's his fault.

As for films it was anything with a space ship in it. Day The Earth Stood Still was a very early favourite and I still regard it as one the best sci-fi movies ever.

[RCMerchant]

I can remember, to this day,the first movie that got me hooked on 'horror' movies....at age 5....it was FRANKENSTIEN meets the WOLFMAN. My life has never been the same since. Soon after my Aunt Carol took me and my brother Mike to see PLANET of the APES in a theater.

  My first consious  thought that "this movie is really ...REALLY BAD! " Was when I saw DRACULA vs. FRANKENSTIEN on TV back in about 1972. I had already seen pics and such from my Famous Monster mags...and was appaled that Dracula had an afro...but I wasn't prepared for such gawdawfulness. Another BAD early memory...ASTRO ZOMBIES on Shock Theater. The Asto Zombies looked sooo stupid,I was tempted to change the channel...but it was Sunday...golf was on the other two channels....and it was a monster movie. A LOUSY one...but beggers can't be choosers,eh?
 I also recall being real p**sed when a super cool titled movie was listed in the TV Guide one Saterday afternoon...FRANKENSTIEN'S BLOODY TERROR. I watched that whole f#cking movie waiting for Frankenstien...a wolfman was in it and a Dracula type guy.....and a plot that made NO sense to me...but no Frankenstien! Expliotation strikes again!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-90EW2Om4t0
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[Cthulhu]

Another BAD early memory...ASTRO ZOMBIES on Shock Theater. The Asto Zombies looked sooo stupid,I was tempted to change the channel...but it was Sunday...golf was on the other two channels....and it was a monster movie. A LOUSY one...but beggers can't be choosers,eh?

I always wanted to pick up the Astro zombies. You said you disliked it as a child. But now, is it any good?