I was hanging around with my brother the other day and out of the blue he asked me what exactly it was that I saw in B-movies. I thought that I knew the answer to this question but after five minutes of starting the explanation over I realized, quite shockingly, that I didn't know exactly what it was that I saw in them :buggedout:. I didn't feel that "because they are funny/because they entertain" was a good answer because some of them, for me, do not entertain and cause emotional anguish that I'll never get that hour of television back and missed the dinosaur show. In the end I said I'd have to think about it, something that's odd for a film category that requires very little of that. He thought it would be interesting to propose this question to the community and see what answers came up.
What do you see in B-movies/what do you get out of them?
If you ask me this question 10 times, I'll probably give you 10 different answers. But overall, my favorite B-movies are definitely 1970s drive-in flicks . . . and especially the European ones. I think there is something about low production values, jumpy film editing, and sub-par acting that gives movies a certain nightmarish look and feel. Larger budget movies are often too sleek and polished. I think the grittier a movie looks, the more it pleases me. I especially enjoy low-budget flicks that take place in isolated and/or rural settings (for instance, movies like LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, I DRINK YOUR BLOOD, and DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT on the horror side . . . THE PIGKEEPER'S DAUGHTER, SASSY SUE, and VIXEN on the sexploitation side). I also enjoy the ones that take place in Europe . . . especially in castles (LADY FRANKENSTEIN, MARK OF THE DEVIL, FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS, THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE, and just about any movie by Jean Rollin). There's just something creepy and/or sleazy about these types of movies that you just don't get when you watch "good" movies. Next week, I will provide a completely different answer to your question!
B-movies are like..I dunno-comfort food for the soul. Kinda like what the Burgomaster said. I'll take a peanut butter and cheese sandwhich over a perfect steak any day. :smile:
My momma always said, B-movies are like a box of chocolates . . .
you never know what you're gonna git! :teddyr:
Actually, my mom never said that, but it does sum up what I like about this genre. Most of them are pretty generic, but every now and then one of them makes you sit up and go "WHAT did I just see?????" :buggedout: :buggedout: :buggedout: and rewind and watch it again!
They are so much more fun and have a lot more heart than most of the big time stuff. Sometimes just the ideas they contain are so whacked out that it boggles the brain. I love to laugh at all the mistakes, failed attempts at ideas and etc... There is no simple answer. It's one of those things that you just either get it or you don't. Not to mention how great they go with :drink:
I love to watch VHS tapes because they take me back to the format I grew up with. When .99 cents was tough to come by (being too young for a job) and it was a serious gamble. Sitting on the rental store floor with stacks of tapes, reading synopsis' and trying to gauge the best ones off of the cover art and the little thumbnails on the back. I love the antiqued sound quality with that little VHS hum that's always going on. The often times wobbly and static picture quality. It's a mixture of nostalgia and deeper appreciation.
I can't really explain it but there's lots of us out there that "get it". To me, these films are always more entertaining than the new stuff coming out. And sometimes, I just have to laugh that certain movies ever even saw the light of day. Like, who in the hell green-lit that idea? And I especially love awesomely bad characters. It's like, we all know and love Chuck Norris because he is awesomely cheesy. Well, so is Tim Tomerson (one of my favs)!
We could probably go on forever about this but, for most of us, I think it's kind of like trying to describe what true love is like. Everyone will describe it in a different way but (those who have felt it) have an unspoken understanding of what it's like.
I think part of it is b-movies tend to be 'guys with cameras' more than trying to be bigger than what they are.
Many of us played around with 8mm, Super-8 and/or video at some point; we've 'studied' the art of making visual effects work on film. We appreciate a "fun" story, whether it has social meaning or is just a campfire thriller.
B-movies, to me at least, seem truer to this "art" of just having fun with the visual medium than do most main-stream movies. The latter seem focused on making either a statement to money. Something often seems to get lost there.
Indiana said the fun is "what did I just see?" I think that's a big part of it for me too.
Kudos to Burgomaster for putting it so well. I like b-movies for most of the same reasons. They definitely have a more nightmarish quality about them. The things that make b-movies "bad" can also give them a surreal and otherworldly atmosphere which I find very entertaining. The ideas and situations in these films are also generally much more interesting and imaginative than the popular films of today, even if the execution isn't perfect. The slick production of modern, big-budget movies actually makes them look more fake to me. This is especially true of the ones that rely heavily on CGI, which other people seem to think looks totally real and natural. To me CGI effects look like cartoons with lots of detail. I'll take stop-motion, or a person in a rubber suit over that over-rated and overly expensive crap any day! I find it sad and amusing at the same time that there are actually people on this forum who don't seem to like b-movies at all. They take the name of the forum too literally and think this is a place to talk about how horrible the films are, and what a waste of time it is to watch them. Do they even realize it's actually a forum for people who really like these movies? Then there's people like that guy who went on and on about the Home Alone movies a while back. For the sake of humanity, I hope he wasn't serious.
Quote from: SynapticBoomstick on February 10, 2008, 05:13:24 PM
What do you see in B-movies/what do you get out of them?
Seems like an easy answer ...
1. Unscripted needless nudity.
2. An undaunted belief by the cast and crew that they are actually making a good movie. (Plan 9 is the benchmark for this.)
3. Unbelievable monster/aliens/plot/event/etc. (See anything from the 1950's)
4. Unscripted needless nudity and ultra cheap sets (See 'Kiss Me, Quick')
5. Nonsensical dialog and/or made up words/history/legends/facts that are easily checkable.
6. Must use stock footage, footage from another film or footage from the same movie more than once.
7. Any expensive FX must occur just off-screen or behind a mountain/hill/house etc.
8. Either not enough or far to much blood must be used, never a believable amount. Guy gets shot 20 times he has 20 small red dots on him, get a arm cut off and you lose roughly 200 gallons of blood.
9. One girl that will, come hell or high water lose her top and fall down.
10. Scripts optional. (Here Uwe Boll)
I'm going to give a Zen answer to this one:
Just watch PUMAMAN!
Laugh. Fall down. Be amazed. Repeat.
If you have derived some deep enjoyment from this, then nothing I say will affect it.
If you have derived nothing from this, then nothing I say will affect it.
peter johnson/denny crane
As for watching the bad ones, humanity has a macabre interest in the worst of things that almost matches its love of the best.
I love them because they try a lot of things that big budget productions would avoid (or wouldn't find worthwhile to attempt). Along with that, the skewed versions of reality that come out. Look at the alien overlords and their pet dinosaurs in "Future War" or all the masked wrestlers defending the world in the Mexican wrestling films.
And don't forget Ash, mighty champion of chainsaws and patron saint of S-Mart!
I guess b-movies are like condoments. They're these little magical things that will last forever on the shelf, but once you open them up they go can bad, but for some reason you still use them and enjoy them. I guess I just don't understand....condoments.
I love movies that either bombed in the box office (If it was in the box office) and was good, or it wasn't in the box office and was just awful.
Watching things that people make that fail is enjoyable at times, even though at times I feel I have wasted my life watching it.
I like bad movies because it makes good movies even better. You can't appreciate something that's good without being well versed in the depths of badness.
Plus, I just get a kick out of B-movies...
The comedy aspect is probably the main reason i enjoy watching them along with the combination of sex and violence of course.
I enjoy them most for pure comedic relief and the fact anyone can make fun of them. Especially the ones that attempt to take themselves serious. I love a movie where I can say out loud "oh yeah right" when something ridiculous happens. I don't care if you have the best sense of humor or the worst, someone can always say something about B-movies and be humorous about it.
I've liked "B" movies ever since I was young, they were the only ones I could afford to see, didn't have VHS or DVDs, very few had color TVs. Watching them you can tell that the people involved, cast and crew, almost know what they're doing, but not quite. It's sort of like watching one of your children learning to ride a bicycle, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, but in general an enjoyable experience, and for about 90 minutes or so you can relax and forget about everyday life's little problems.
They commonly had three elements I really loved:
1) a threatening monster of some sort which inevitably sends people screaming in terror (or howling with laughter depending on its effectiveness)
2) at least one very familiar star whose performance I looked forward even if what he or she had to work with was very little
3) action-adventure as our heroes set out to defeat the monsterous threat often threading through dangerous climates and domains to get there
Conveinently, b-movies make great gifts! I gave "THE STUFF" to a friend as a graduation present and "EVIL SPAWN" to a friend as an 18th birthday present. The later now hates me! :teddyr:
I usually prefer the movies with a higher budget than a B-movie but there on those rare times when I have enjoyed a certain B-movie to a high budget movie----for example, I prefer almost any family comedy starring Hulk Hogan-such as Mr. Nanny or my personal favorite Hogan movie Suburban Commando to high budget trash such as Home Alone 3.
As for the reason why I like to watch B-movies at all?
Basically it's because I like to see how much effort and love will be put into the movie and see if the movie is being made to entertain people or entirely for money. It's usually pretty easy to tell them apart-a movie made for people to enjoy is done with a lot of care, and a movie done just for the money is given very little care or no care at all........
I just love how stupid some of them are and how I can point out problems in what's going on. "Why is the school suddenly empty? The killer's been there for, what, 5 minutes. :question:"
I grew up with B movies. As a kid in the 70's, all the Saturday afternoon and late night movies were flicks from the 40's and 50's, so to me, stuff like that was just normal. As I got older, I incorporated stuff that came after the 50's into my viewing habits and the rest is history.
Exposure when young definitely has something to do with developing the ability to appreciate B-movies. I grew up watching them with my Dad. I got to stay up late as a treat and saw some of the classics with him. Price/Karloff/Cushing/Lee were my heroes. Maybe once a summer we'd see a triple-feature at the drive-in. Heaven! (This was back in the late 60's-early 70's) I have no doubt that my world-view has been altered: expanded, if you will.
My ten-year-old has been bugging me for an answer to 'the question' for a while now. Seems he really wants to know what I see in these movies.
He looks at the older b+w baddies and cringes at the effects. "So Mom; tell me how they can be so bad they are good, again? They are so bad they are funny? How are they fun? I don't get it."
He has a hard time seeing anything of value in them - including humour. For example, I was enjoying "Attack of the Giant Leeches" and "The Devil Bat" and "Killer Shrews" and more (you get the idea) and he thought I had lost my mind.
This from a child who has cherished his well-viewed copy of the original Godzilla for most of his life. :lookingup:
Then: I was watching the original "Night of the Living Dead" yesterday evening and he kept taking peeks. At the end he said, "You know, for an old one that wasn't so bad".
There is hope.
Exposure when young, that's how I got hooked. 9 p.m. wciu, every Saturday night! HOORAY!!!! :twirl:
I grew up in the late '70s and early '80s, when they had slashers at the theaters, made-for-TV horror movies on TV, and post-apocalyptic T&A movies and every form of straight-to-video cheese at the video store. I also watched a ton of Kung Fu movies, and Elvira's Movie Macabre probably contributed as well. As a fan of horror and sci-fi, if all I watched was "good" movies, I'd have about 6 movies a year to watch. And 5 of them would suck.
I think I probably just don't have very good taste, as bad acting, cheap effects, stock footage and ludicrous plots don't bother me at all. I enjoy the creativity and heart that low budget stuff has. I almost always find the characters in low budget movies to be sympathetic and likable, something I can only rarely say about the big budget stuff.
yup,it's the heart that goes into them,same reason i work on grade z indie movies for free,with no credit.i get such joy from helping these kids who are very serious about their stuff,no matter how little money they have!i also cook for them,but that's a different story.
and i must agree that i grew up with these moviesin the 60's and 70's,both from the drivein and tv.i watch very few movies made after 1980,and i STILL have hundreds to find,buy and watch!
I like them because they are often unbelievable and terribly cheesy. I've always liked weird. Even better if they're black and white. It's a good combination. I feel like I'm truly being entertained, instead of watching some people bicker over mundane things. I find reality boring these days. That's where b-movies come in!
A lot of great and diverse answers thus far, I don't feel as dumb for not having an all-inclusive answer :teddyr:
Quote from: threnody on February 17, 2008, 09:50:24 PM
I like them because they are often unbelievable and terribly cheesy. I've always liked weird. Even better if they're black and white. It's a good combination. I feel like I'm truly being entertained, instead of watching some people bicker over mundane things. I find reality boring these days. That's where b-movies come in!
Black and white is fine, unless you're like me and your single source of bad movies has to show ONLY black and white until universal realizes that it's made movies in color. Evey Saturday night I hope for somethin, but it's just another classic. And after you've seen b&w films every Saturday for MONTHS, you realizze that old films don't really have much of a plot. Even by bad movie standards.
Quote from: Patient7 on February 17, 2008, 10:28:54 PM
Quote from: threnody on February 17, 2008, 09:50:24 PM
I like them because they are often unbelievable and terribly cheesy. I've always liked weird. Even better if they're black and white. It's a good combination. I feel like I'm truly being entertained, instead of watching some people bicker over mundane things. I find reality boring these days. That's where b-movies come in!
Black and white is fine, unless you're like me and your single source of bad movies has to show ONLY black and white until universal realizes that it's made movies in color. Evey Saturday night I hope for somethin, but it's just another classic. And after you've seen b&w films every Saturday for MONTHS, you realizze that old films don't really have much of a plot. Even by bad movie standards.
That's true. I just like the old feeling. It's comforting. On my television, more colour horror films are played than black and white films. I would trade with you if I could.
Quote from: threnody on February 17, 2008, 10:36:13 PM
Quote from: Patient7 on February 17, 2008, 10:28:54 PM
Quote from: threnody on February 17, 2008, 09:50:24 PM
I like them because they are often unbelievable and terribly cheesy. I've always liked weird. Even better if they're black and white. It's a good combination. I feel like I'm truly being entertained, instead of watching some people bicker over mundane things. I find reality boring these days. That's where b-movies come in!
Black and white is fine, unless you're like me and your single source of bad movies has to show ONLY black and white until universal realizes that it's made movies in color. Evey Saturday night I hope for somethin, but it's just another classic. And after you've seen b&w films every Saturday for MONTHS, you realizze that old films don't really have much of a plot. Even by bad movie standards.
That's true. I just like the old feeling. It's comforting. On my television, more colour horror films are played than black and white films. I would trade with you if I could.
Oh, don't get me wrong, black and white is great, it's just that like most good things, you can overdose on it.
Quote from: Patient7 on February 17, 2008, 10:28:54 PM
And after you've seen b&w films every Saturday for MONTHS, you realizze that old films don't really have much of a plot. Even by bad movie standards.
That's a strange thing to say. Maybe you've just run into a bad string of old movies. Or maybe what seemed a little fresher back then seems stale to you now, because by the time you saw the originals you'd already seen the plots imitated dozens of times by future moviemakers.
I agree with Threnody's original comments. Also, B&W seems more dreamlike to me. Unless a modern film really uses color well, I actually prefer B&W.
Quote from: Rev. Powell on February 19, 2008, 10:08:38 PM
Quote from: Patient7 on February 17, 2008, 10:28:54 PM
And after you've seen b&w films every Saturday for MONTHS, you realizze that old films don't really have much of a plot. Even by bad movie standards.
That's a strange thing to say. Maybe you've just run into a bad string of old movies. Or maybe what seemed a little fresher back then seems stale to you now, because by the time you saw the originals you'd already seen the plots imitated dozens of times by future moviemakers.
I agree with Threnody's original comments. Also, B&W seems more dreamlike to me. Unless a modern film really uses color well, I actually prefer B&W.
That could be it, because these were CLASSICS!!! Like The Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Mummy, those kinds of old films, which I'm sure I would love if it was a "once in a while" kind of thing but it's also the same ones without showing the REALLY REALLY classic ones like Dracula or Frankenstein.
Yeah, if you're seeing the same movies over and over, they can get old and lead you to over-generalize. I like maximum variety: everything from silent movies to today's independent movies. It helps you to realize that generally things aren't better or worse in any era, just different.
Quote from: Rev. Powell on February 21, 2008, 07:04:39 PM
Yeah, if you're seeing the same movies over and over, they can get old and lead you to over-generalize. I like maximum variety: everything from silent movies to today's independent movies. It helps you to realize that generally things aren't better or worse in any era, just different.
That's definitley the best way of thinking.
I grew up near Cleveland, and every Friday night, if I could keep awake until 11:30 I watched the Big Chuck and Hoolihan show. They usually would show old B&W stuff, and threw in the occasional sound bite during the movie (a la MST3K).
In high school I'd catch low budget stuff (in color) at the drive-in like Motel Hell and Pirhana.
It's not the medium, it's the message.
how can i judge whats good without seeing the bad
every film serves a purpose..............even if its as a bad example to others
For me...it's more than just watching the movies...it's a way of life! I like to hunt down obscure stuff at flea markets and yard sales...I suppose it would be easier-(but more exspensive!) to buy them through amazon or such. But before I had a computer, or bought catalogs from SINISTER CINEMA and SOMETHING WEIRD, I hunted down tapes.
Even before that....I would stay up late and watch DOUBLE CREATURE FEATURE and SHOCK THEATER on uhf channels in the dead of night...catch double features at the Strand on Saterday afternoons,save my fruit-picking money for FAMOUS MONSTERS of FILMLAND and CASTLE of FRANKENSTEIN magazines, built Aurora monster model kits, order books from FM's like Denis Giffords HISTORY of the HORROR FILM and William K.Eversons CLASSICS of the HORROR FILM,
...I was what they call nowadays a 'Monster Kid'-someone who grew up in the early 60's to mid '70's obssesed with monster movies!
And my appretiation of even the worst of those old films led to my appretiation of other 'BAD' films...kung fu,expliotation,sexpliotation,spaghetti westerns,....all of 'em!