There's something...different about B-movies made in the (early?) 90s.

[daveblackeye15]

I'm just not sure what it is really.

I was lucky enough to find Tammy and the T-Rex...somewhere, sadly only the PG-13 version, and I have no idea what it is. There is something different about B-movies made in the early to mid 90s, I mean more of the 'so bad its good' variety. I mean I think each decade of b-movies has its own district style and yet isn't set in stone and is quite flexible. Yet there's something there in the stuff from the 70's to 80's that isn't there in the 90s. What the hell is it? Pogs? Crappy comic books from DC and Marvel? The internet starting to come out?

I don't know, I was born in the later half of the 80's so that makes me a 90s kid and it could be nostalgia that is giving me this weird feeling. Does anyone else see or feel it?

Oh and I'm enjoying Tammy and the T-Rex...its just so bad its good. And I wondered what the movie was like after seeing the review here after all these years.

[Mofo Rising]

Well, I think the movie industry evolved a whole hell of a lot in the early '90s. It's for technological reasons.

Right up to about the late '80s, the only way to have your movie seen was to have it released in theaters. Or, if you were lucky enough to have anybody remember it, on UHF stations.

Then the invention of the VHS tape came along. No longer were you constrained to theatrical showings, anybody could rent your tape and watch it. Of course, nobody took advantage of that fact until the early '90s. That was the hey-day of "direct to video" entertainment. For better or worse (I argue for the better), anybody could make a movie and only worry about marketing it to the rental market, forget a theatrical release.

So low-budget film-making experienced a very odd resurgence in the early '90s. Almost anybody could make a movie and see it released, not in the theaters, but who cares? Video rentals were the new currency.

These days, we're at the cusp of EVERYBODY being able to make a movie and have it released.

I agree with you though, that weird cusp of freedom in the '90s was a wave we probably won't see repeated. Maybe that's good, maybe it's bad, I don't know. I do know that I spent a lot of time watching all these pseudo-crappy/pseudo-great movies.

[Jack]

Interesting topic.  In the '70s you had theatrical movies, so the acting seemed to be of higher quality, as well as the scripts.  They tended to have a grittier look to them, often featuring locations that were dirty and run down.  But audiences weren't as jaded then, which makes a lot of those movies now seem very cheesy now.  And then there were all the made-for-TV movies, usually featuring somewhat well known actors, but lacking in budget, which gave them a special charm of their own. 

In the '80s everything got colorful and bright!  The popularity of slashers meant that studios could turn out movies for next to nothing and still make a profit at theaters, so the headlong rush into cheesiness was well underway.  Comedy started showing up in everything as well. 

The '90s brought us a ton of direct-to-video stuff, while otherwise - at least at the beginning of the decade - changing very little from the '80s stuff.  I find a lot of my favorites are from the early '90s as well.  It seems like movies usually enter a new era a few years after the decade changes.

[Flick James]

Valid points made thus far. I would like to add one more consideration. When looking at 50's and 60's B-movies (and there are a ton), a major distinction is that these filmmakers were actually serious about what they were trying to do, and trying to make film careers, but limited by lack of budget and big studio support. Some of them moved on to become mainstream filmmakers, but most fell into obscurity. In the 1970's, the camp movement was in it's infancy, that is, the appreciation of bad filmmaking, so many B-movies were more often dark, cynical lampoons of both film and society. The camp movement hit a high-water mark with the Gen X-ers, who were the first generation with an almost obsessive appetite for kitsch.

So, the points made before are the more primary and pragmatic reasons for the difference, but the point above may be considered a more intangible effect on how B-movies look and act from different decades.

[Joe]

wait, there is an R/Unrated version of tammy and the t-rex?

[daveblackeye15]

From some comments I've heard, that's what it sounds like.

I mean watching this PG-13 version it really looks like there were some edits for violence.

[Skull]

First the Quality is much different... I was told that even the lowest budget films from the 1970's used or rented the 100,000 film equipment that was used in the big budget films. Then in the middle 1980's (or earlier) the invention video recorders removed the expensive rental charages for film equipment and the waste of film (with was expensive) and the editing of film (another expense cut). I think many porn movies in the 1980's started with the transistion from film to recorded video tape before many low-low budget films.


For those courious to know why Direct-to-Video started so late (here is my theory)

I also know [partly because I was reading this stuff in the early 1980's] that Hollywood was against the the idea of video store rentals and in the late 1970's to the early 1980's protested it in court. Hollywood's (actually its the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers union and maybe serveral other unions too) they fear the decline of theaters and wanted to know who was going to get paid for their services. (I think the unions were more intrested in the "paid" part and they tossed in the decline of theaters as part of "fearmongering" typical unions).

Why was the pay part important?

Incase you didnt know (I'm assmuing most do) the unions setup an agreement with most networks so when they broadcasted a movie the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers would get some "cash." The video store rentals needed to be profitable and needed to charge an affordable rental fee. If they hand to added a cost to the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers we would be looking at a 25 dollar rental charge for a movie. The unions disagree and the court battle started.

So how did they fix it?

The movie producers/unions decided to add the cost to the videotape. In the 1980's most of the video tapes costed between 30 to 100 dollars. I know this because I was stuck paying 95 dollars for Aliens, in 1987.

Eventually the cost when down once more video stores spawned from the woodworks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiUgJklnmhE
	Small | Large

Then these video stores started a demaned for quantity, because they need to keep people comming to their video store so a small aisle of movies in a 7-11 wasn't happening... people needed more then just Rambo...

To fill the demands many video cassette dealers started buying older movies mostly foreign films (and sometimes pirated movies) and repackage them. It was great to fill up the store but it didnt get people into renting.




So this is how Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) was born.

Then came Direct to video... (almost)

Starting around 1985, a Direct to video movie are actually a failed movie at the boxoffice that was in the theater for a few weeks and instead of shelving the movie and forgetting about its existence like old Hollywood had did in the past, they would quickly repackage the failed movie to video stores.

So films like:



Trancers (1985)  and Never Too Young to Die (1986) were born.


Also during the mid 1980's video cassette dealers would repackage older films that had a big name star...



So films like Parasite (1982) and BMX Bandits (1983) were born...


Then... Robot Holocaust (1986) (V) was born...



Ok, I'm not actually sure if Robot Holocaust is credited as the first made for video movie. But I do believe that no film studio wanted to buy it and release the movie in a theater, so Wizard Video picked it up as well as several other films and tag them "Too Gory for the Silver Screen."

I dont think Hollywood was planning on making direct to video films yet. But the late 1980's and early 1990's Hollywood has seen a shift (althought as predicted that people would slowly stop going to theaters... ) but they also found out that failed films from the box office were making big dollars [$$] (I think The Thing and Bladerunner both box office bombs in 1982 were grossing millions in the 1990's something that Hollywood has not dreamed)

I would like to give Troma credit in the made for video market when they started pushing their Toxic Avanger series, with success that Hollywood took notice and formed Full Moon (which supose to be better quality made to video)

And started a new trend of film making since made for video put more people to work...


Going direct to video...

In the 1990's several movies had issues...

Theodore Rex (1995) (V) ~ Whoopi Goldberg wanted to leave during pruduction and was forced to finish the film, the movie ended up so bad that the studio decided to make it a direct to video movie.

Disney started to pimp a few of their movies in a form of series of part 2 from a bigger hit, also they thought the movies wouldnt do well in the boxoffice and decided to make them direct to video. Actually, I think the intention was to make more money by selling their videos to the public and not the video stores.

wow... I know I have more to say but I'll take a break on the topic... :)

[joejoeherron]

flicks made in the early 90's?  Big hair,big guns,maybe a camaro,ferarri,a cop car screaming by?
I think (my own opinion,other varie)they were low cost,high distrubition movies.Look at an Andy Sidaris flick or a movie with a would been/has ben actor or actress. I'm not putting down anybody, but it seems to me the studios were milking any money they could. Either you made a movie for cable, or you made it for video.If you watch them old flicks,you mightfind some good actors doing good roles.One I really like is Leo Rossi in "Relentless" with Jud Nelson.

[Psycho Circus]

One I really like is Leo Rossi in "Relentless" with Jud Nelson.

That was '89. 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Maybe the DTV stuff really had a role.  Also, eastern European locations and all the furnishings became available.   So maybe you could have more "exotic" locales for little money.  Rather than, say, finding an old cement plant outside LA, or trucking evreyone out to Bronson Canyon. 
-Ed