Which catches your eye first?

[Sugar_Nads]

When you check out or buy a B film, which catches your eye first... the title or the packaging?

[Scott]

1.) Title - Love a strange title. It catches my mind first, but naturally it isn't a way to pick a film, but that is what catches my attention first.

2.) The Year - Certain years are my favorite, like 60's & 70's films.

3.) Actors/Actresses/Directors that are involved - A good Actor "can" turn a bad movie into an interesting  movie.

4.) The Storyline - Story dosen't matter as much since  film is more art than a story and dialogue is also sometimes more important than story. To have a good story is like an extra bonus. As long as the story can flow in some recognisible direction or have some type of idea. When I reflect on a film it's more of an idea, mood, or feeling. Almost like a religious icon that entrances you. Sometimes a films that says "What was that?" or "What did I just see?" are more interesting that a story that makes "sense".

5.) Sometimes what country and year a film was produced. - Some countries also have a certain style and mindset to them.

6.) Packaging - Though I like movie poster art, I will never pick a movie by the cover. Some of my favorite Mexican Horror films have the worst covers like the ones distributed by Telefilms International.

7.) A list helps me find to movies. If I make a list of movies that I haven't seen to view I always manage to find something even more interesting along the way. Also your interests and understanding of film will increase as you stay open and interested in all things in life and that would include all type genre films. A list is most important from my experience.



Post Edited (09-06-04 16:30)

[Haze]

Usually, the Title is what grabs me first, followed by packaging. However, I too usually bring along a list so that I can guid myself to what I really want.

[Eirik]

The packaging for me.  I don't think I am an especially slow reader, but I take in raw visual data (a picture) much faster than phoenetically coded data (words).  Actually, what catches my eye first is probably the predominant color on the box.  White is bad, black isn't much better because it's so common.  If I'm looking for a Bad Movie, I generally scan for the shade of green used in this forum.

[Fearless Freep]

That I haven't already seen it.

Alphabetical Order helps

[peter johnson]

Packaging, nine out of ten times --
Unless I've heard of the title before/read about it on this website, I'm not going to trust that alone --
Someone here once posted a loonnng thread about grading a B flick by the box:  Eg:  Award points for is it a painting/drawing instead of photos, does it show a bulging-eyed screaming woman, etc. etc.
Short version:  If the box looks cheeseball enough, chances are the film within will be grade-A Wisconsin Dairy Product.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Kory]

Generally it's the Title.  A good example was when I saw "Sergant Kabukiman, NYPD".  That stuck out.

[Dave Munger]

The tities, I mean title.

[daveblackeye15]

Let's see now...often when I'm looking for TERRIBLE B-movies at this one video store (DJ's Video Rental. Mom and Pop RULE!) that's in Ashland Oregon (a 2 1/2 hour drive) I often go Cover,Title,Tagline,back cover,Summary and I shall make an example of this with "Prototype X29A" ( post review coming sometime soon..I think)

Cover: On this cover is a full body shot of a robot man wearing a dumb helmet that covers the entire head which has large stell tubes going into the shoulder and neck. Robocop-I mean Robot Man is armed with a big ass guns that has machine gun and rocket launcher attachments also the laser sighting thing is aiming at something over screen. And the background is a red lined grid with black squares and some light appearing out on the edge. So this deffinatly cought my attention

Title: Okay dokey what'll we call this baby. "Protoype X29A"!? Now if the title's theme is similar to many other "evil robot movies" (Terminator, Robocop (good ones) R.o.t.o.r. (bad one)) then you've quite possibly have found a good terrible movie.

Tagline: Now this is a really fun part. Here's the tagline:

Part Man,
Part Machine,
All Killer.

Now if there are TWO taglines then you've found some rare GOLD!

Mankind Doesn't Stand A Chance.

Seriously this movie has two taglines. No I don't think it's one long one, although if you find a long tagline then that's GOLD also, but I doubt it's one tagline because there is a LARGE gap inbetween the two. And my radar is now activated for badness.

Back Cover: The same red edged black "virtual" squares are on the back, there are three pictures from the film that are set in a triangle formation. On the left bottom is a woman holding a pistol, on the bottom right is a man holding a large futurestic gun and the top square is a close up of the Robot Man's head.  If there are more than one picture of  people holding guns then that's another blib on my TERRIBLE movie scanner brain. Also if the pictures don't make you interested in actually wanting to watch the movie with a hope of COOLNESS then my radar get's two more blibs (BLIB BLIB!!!!)

Summary: O boy this can be fun too:

 Part Man, Part Machine, All Killer.
PROTOTYPE
X29A
Mankind Doesn't Stand a Chance.

daveblackeye15: Sorry to interupt but I have another note. If the tagline(s) appear on the back of the box then the radar get' two more blibs and if the tagline(s) are placed so that they appear to be part of the movies title then my radar get's three more blibs. And if the title is really long then that's another blib (BLIB BLIB BLIB BLIB BLIB BLIB!!!!)  Part Man,Part Machine,All Killer Prototype X29A Mankind Doesn't Stand A Chance (Christ! Nine "Blib"s on the back alone!) Back to summary!

Los Angeles-2057- a lawless,war-torn terrain where a beautiful young woman,Chandra, and her ex-lover, a crippled soldier, Hawkins, share a vivid psychosexual dreams.

daveblackeye15: If the summary mentions "psychosexual dreams" then that's another three blib's (blib blib blib!!!) (Oh no! My radar's about to explode!)

When a brilliant research scientist (Brenda Swanson) experiments on Hawkins,he becomes Prototype, a half-man, half-machine (db15:ALL KILLER!) robot. The experiment goes out of control and the Prototype goes hunting for Chandra, whom he is programmed to kill.

daveblackeye 15: If the summary makes you go "WTF!?" more than one time then my radar shows 4 blibs!

In an explosive climax, the ultimate battle commences that will determine whether mankind or machines will survive.

If the summary promises you a " explosive climax" and will "determine whether mankind or machines will survive" then that's three more blibs (blib blib blib!!!)

So the blib count: 19. Wow so I mean five will usualy make me kick and scream if I want it but 19 made we want it so bad that I would have killed for it to see the terribleness.

And that..is the "daveblackeye15 TERRIBLE B-Movie Deduction Examen" (oops long title! that a blib!) Any questions my fellow colleauges?

[loyal1]

The Reasons why titles are most always what catch my eye first:

1.  It will sound familiar and something I wanted to see or was reccommended to me
2. The video store I work at places them from a sideview if they are not new releases  
3. I unintentionally seek out titles that have the word "Attack" with some creature following it...it's even better if they are much larger than normal size :)
4.  If the title sounds strange or intriguing like "The Butcher Boy" or "Attack of the Killer Tomatos". From there I will pick it up and examine the cover and summary of the movie.
5. I also look for review captions such as "cult classic".

**But ironically, the graphics of the title itself will inspire me to pick it up, and not just the name itself. Does it have cool drippy letters?  Does it resemble the old DOS computer font? Does it have slashes through it's title?  Are the colors some nuclear glowing green melting on the image?  This too has it's effect on me.

[Sugar_Nads]

I would like to thank everyone for their honest input. Your opinions have been very helpful to me and I appreciate it.