What B movie started it all for you?

[JaseSF]

Disney's responsible for getting me into B-movies IMO. THE BLACK HOLE is likely the first Sc-Fi movie I ever saw and it was so filled with horrific images and visions I was just blown away. It had a bit of everything. Gunslinging robots, a terrifing red devilish robot named Maximilian who absolutely fascinated me as a kid, a mad scientist determined to actually explore a black hole from the inside! It was only the somewhat dullish hard SF like approach it took towards the subject that slowed it down a bit but as a kid I adored every minute of this film. Especially strange was the visions of Maximilian and his creator Dr. Hans Reinhardt clutched together in a love death embrace descending into the pit of hell. I still consider Maximilian to be a top notch screen villain. Not too many years after this, Disney also came out with TRON. This was definitely my first introduction to the genre and soon enough I'd also be watching ASTROBOY, SPIDER-MAN and MARVEL SUPER HEROES cartoons.

[RCMerchant]

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?

Is it any good? Hmm. Your asking someone who's favorite movies include BRIDE of the MONSTER,the BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE and the HORRORS of SPIDER ISLAND this?

  Yeah...I like it! It's got Tura Santana,John Carridine babbling all sorts of psedo-scientific nonsense,goofy zombie/robots,and blood! 

[HappyGilmore]

There's no telling for me.  Growing up in the '90s, I had MST3K, USA's Up All Night, and TNT's MonsterVison, so I'm sure it was one of those movies. 

My guess is either The Toxic Avenger or Bikini Car Wash.

[Raffine]

I was four years old and the daily 'Dialing for Dollars' 3:00 movie with Tom York on Channel 6 in Birmingham aired a 'Horror Week' featuring:
THE KILLER SHREWS
THE SCREAMING SKULL
THE GIANT GILA MONSTER
FROM HELL IT CAME
THE SHE CREATURE

Yes, I still vividly remember the films they showed!

I watched each one from the safety zone behind the couch as my mother ironed clothes.



Things were never quite the same for me afterwards . . .

[akiratubo]

I grew up watching them on VHS, but the one that I mark as my true start in "bad" movies is a Franco Nero flick called "The Falcon".

[Scott123]

Ah yes Raffine, the great Giant Gila Monster! I saw it for the first time just a year or so ago ... cheesy, but I love the movie, bad lighting and all. True classic in the bad movie genre.

[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?

Is it any good? Hmm. Your asking someone who's favorite movies include BRIDE of the MONSTER,the BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE and the HORRORS of SPIDER ISLAND this?

  Yeah...I like it! It's got Tura Santana,John Carridine babbling all sorts of psedo-scientific nonsense,goofy zombie/robots,and blood! 

Thanks for the help . I'd give you karma, but Andrew disabled it for you.

[JJ80]

I think that I mentioned in another thread that "The Land That time Forgot" was the movie that got me interested in b-movies back in the early Nineties. However, I think that being a "Doctor Who" fan was probably just as important to my interest in the Sci-fi and Horror genres. I'd always been into westerns and war films which I still watch today.

[the master]

darn i feel young wich i am i was playing the videogame destroy all humans and when you beat the game you unlocked teenagers from outer space and at the drive in in the game the  movie playing is a looped clip from plan nine when the flying saucers are over holywood and the army attacks them. things havent been the same for me the last four years after that so in short thanks for such memories im going to honor for along time thq and pandemic.
its good to be young.

[Patient7]

It was actually the first B-movie that I ever saw, an obscure one but, The Creeps!  A mix of absurd plot, midgets, and a guy in a hat making jokes the whole way through just got me.

[Newt]

I am not sure: it is either THEM! or Dracula with Bela Lugosi.  They are the ones I remember as being first: I was still in single digits age-wise, so it would have been in the mid-1960's.  Dracula scared me thoroughly; but the idea of  giant ants intrigued me as well as scared me...so maybe it really was THEM! that started me 'into' B-movies. Then I got hooked on Hammer films and anything with Vincent Price...

[Shadow]

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.

Same here. In fact, it's a commonly known fact in my family that as far back as anyone can remember, I've loved horror, science fiction and fantasy films. I really cannot recall any one film that jump started my love for the genre, but early memories include the old Universal horror films (especially anything with the Wolfman or Frankenstein's monster), Godzilla flicks, giant bug movies from the 50's and of special note, the original Night of the Living Dead, which scared the living hell out of me as a four/five year old. My dad would pretty much let me watch anything and my mother was pretty lenient as well, so I got to see all sorts of stuff as a small child.

[AllisonSNLKid]

"The Gate," started the trend for me, which I saw on HBO in early 1993, when I was 10 years old.  I thought it was cool to watch a horror movie at the time, but now its so bad it's actually fun to watch.  I also watched USA Up All Night in the mid-1990s, MST3K in the late 1990s - early 2000s on Sci-Fi, though I remember Comedy Central airing reruns during the 1990s.  An old friend of mine was actually jealous of me for seeing "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders" on MST3K, which is also sentimental since it was the ABSOLUTE last airing of MST3K on Sci-Fi several years back.

Let's see....Mr. Sardonicus (a co-worker and I LOVED this movie!), Summer Camp Nightmare (different co-worker from different job loved this movie as well), and way too many Lifetime movies to name.

[Allhallowsday]

Thought about this one for a few days.  I have to give it to CARNIVAL OF SOULS which I remember seeing on CBS TV out of New York in 1968 or 1969 probably on a Sunday afternoon (could have been Saturday).  I know this film made a strong impression on me, and we watched it more than once back in those early days.  Even that early I recognized it as kind of "cheap" or "cheesy," but it also haunted my nightmares... The one good thing about my father moving our family around as much as he did, is it makes it easier to remember what year anything may have occurred, and I know I was living in Point Pleasant, NJ on Lincoln Avenue... 

[Trevor]

Thought about this one for a few days.  I have to give it to CARNIVAL OF SOULS which I remember seeing on CBS TV out of New York in 1968 or 1969 probably on a Sunday afternoon (could have been Saturday).  I know this film made a strong impression on me, and we watched it more than once back in those early days.  Even that early I recognized it as kind of "cheap" or "cheesy," but it also haunted my nightmares... The one good thing about my father moving our family around as much as he did, is it makes it easier to remember what year anything may have occurred, and I know I was living in Point Pleasant, NJ on Lincoln Avenue... 

Mine? I was six and friends of my folks took me to see Charles Jarrott's excretinous remake of Lost Horizon in 1973. I loathed it so much, it almost put me off watching films for life. I'm glad my folks took me to see Murder On The Orient Express for my next birthday.