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For the MxPx DVD, see B-Movie (DVD).
File:Plan 9 poster.JPG
Ed Wood's Plan Nine from Outer Space is generally considered the most famous B-movie of all time.

The term B-movie originally referred to a Hollywood motion picture designed to be distributed as the "lower half" of a double feature, often a genre film such as a Western "cowboy" film, a gangster movie, or a horror film. In the early twentieth century, "production lines of varying quality [were] formed based on budget, leading actors’ popularity, genre, and story quality. Films from these production lines were graded A, B, or C, and admission prices were set accordingly." [1] In the 1930s and 1940s, during the age of the "studio system", this also gave rise to the practice of referring to "A-list" or "B-list" stars.

The major studios had "B-units", which provided a function analogous to a farm team in North American professional sports, in that they provided a testing ground and training opportunities for new talent. In addition, some small studios such as Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures specialized in making B-movies. Some actors, such as Ronald Reagan, made a career out of B-movies. When the "Golden Age of Hollywood" came to an end, it took the studio system with it, and double features—the raison d'être of the B-movie—became a rarity.

The B-movie industry has had an important role in the film industry, because it created an additional point of entry into the film industry. Directors such as Jonathan Demme and John Sayles learned their craft in B-movies, and the B-movie industry provided work for émigré directors from Europe such as Fritz Lang and Edgar Ulmer during the period when they were still unknown to North American audiences. As well, actors such as Jack Nicholson and John Wayne got their start in B-movies. B-movies also provided work for former A-movie actors whose careers were on the downturn, such as Vincent Price.

B-movies: 1930s–1950s

In the 1930s and 1940s, the term B-movie had a narrow definition: a genre film making up the "lower half" of a double feature. While screening double features became less common after this "golden age of Hollywood", the term "B-movie" continued to be used, albeit with a broader sense that referred to any low-budget commercial film that used lesser-known actors (B-actors), formulaic plots and "stock" characters and themes. While B-movies were professionally made commercial products, the lower budgets, lower degree of oversight by studio managers, and diminished focus on box office returns allowed B-movie directors to take more creative risks.

This was especially true in the years following World War II, the Eisenhower era. During this period, movies with big budgets and top stars were often conservative and conventional (Around the World in Eighty Days, The Greatest Show on Earth) while B-movies explored a wider range of themes that touched on the 1950s xenophobic anxieties and fears of atomic radiation, such as The Thing from Another World and It Came from Outer Space. The most creative B-movie directors influenced filmmaking in the A-movie system. Some 1950s B-movies, especially in the science fiction and horror genres, are still popular among film buffs today.

One of the major producers of B-movies was American International Pictures (AIP), a U.S. company founded in 1956 by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Its films include works by Roger Corman, Vincent Price, Herman Cohen and the early efforts of then-unknown figures such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson.

Roger Corman is often credited with being "King of the B's," although he claims that he was not technically a B-movie director, because B-movies (in the 1930s and 1940s sense of the term) had died out by the time he began directing. Instead, Corman describes his films as "low-budget exploitation films." Corman has made over 350 films, and as of 2005, he was still creating new movies. [2]

B-movies: 1960s–1980s

During the 1960s and 1970s, there were several subgenres of films that can be categorized as the "exploitation genre of B-movies." These included films that depicted women being psychologically or physically abused by men, such as the 1961 film Damaged Goods , a cautionary tale about a young woman whose boyfriend’s promiscuity leads to venereal disease. Another type of exploitation film, the “sexploitation film,” used footage from nudist camps, which was sometimes loosely intercut with a flimsy plot. In the so-called “blaxploitation” genre from the 1970s, actors such as Isaac Hayes, Ted Lange, and Pam Grier were featured in stereotype-filled films whose stories revolved around drugs, crime, or prostitution. [2]

In the 1970s, film companies such as Independent-International Pictures, Film Ventures International, Charles Band Productions, Cannon Films, New Line Cinema, Golan-Globus, and others created a new generation of B-movies. Most of these companies were unable to continue as budgets soared in the early 1980s and even a comparatively low-budget, low-quality picture would cost millions of dollars, due to the public's increased expectations (e.g. for color filmstock, original music scores, and realistic special effects). However, the 1980s saw the production of a great deal of low-budget genre films, such as horror and "slasher" movies including The Fog and Slumber Party Massacre and apocalyptic or futuristic genre films such as Escape from New York.

The growth of the cable television industry in the 1980s helped fuel this massive surge in B-movie production, as many of these films quickly wound up as late-night "filler" material for 24-hour cable channels. However, as VCRs became more affordable and common, many people became able to select individual A-list films and watch them at any time, which caused a decline in the popularity of B-movies on cable.

B-movies: 1990s and 2000s

Today, the distinction between "A-movies" and "B-movies" is not as clear, but there are still different tiers of perceived quality for movies. The subjective assessment of quality no longer depends entirely on production values or the reputation of actors; in some cases an artistically daring film with unknown actors that is dismissed by mainstream audiences may be lauded as a masterwork by critics.

In recent years, the production of B-movies has undergone a resurgence. In part this is due to recent technological developments in film production. Although there have always been lower cost methods of shooting movies, such as 16 mm film in the 1970s or video cameras (recording onto analog video tape), these methods could not produce films that could rival 35mm film quality. In the 2000s, the development and widespread usage of digital cameras and digital production methods allow even lower-budget filmmakers to produce films with good image quality. In particular, High Definition (HD) digital filmmaking allows filmmakers to produce 35mm-quality films.

Another factor is a shift in audience and critical preferences. As indicated above, B-movies allow for greater creative freedom, which allows B-movie filmmakers to tackle themes or topics that are less salable in the mass-market feature-film industry. As North American and European populations are becoming more diverse, the moviegoing population is seeking out a broader range of themes and stories. As well, some actors such as Bruce Campbell and Eric Roberts have embraced their role as B-movie actors.

C-movie

According to cinema website editor Tom Mes, films were “... divided into degrees of importance, and then the studio would control and monitor films according to whether a film was an A-movie, B-movie, or C-movie. Since C-movies were not important to the studios, the director of a C-movie typically had more freedom than directors of A- and B-movies. [3]

Ed Wood has been called the master of the C-movie [4], although the term better applicable to his work might be "Z-movies". David A. Prior and Mario Bava have also been called prominent figures in the C-movie industry.

In the 1980s, with the growth of cable television, the C-grade movie designation also began to be used to refer to low-quality genre films such as horror and science fiction films [5] that were used as "filler" programming for late night television programs such as the 1990s television series. The "C" in the term may refer to the "C" in the cable TV destination of many of the films or to these films' below-B-movie standards.

With shows such as Mystery Science Theater 3000, poor quality horror and science fiction films were edited for brevity and presented with sarcastic commentary voiceovers that highlighted the films' scriptwriting or production shortcomings. The Elvira - Mistress of the Dark syndicated horror series, which starred Cassandra Peterson, also used this same approach of screening genre films with sarcastic commentary, but it focused on the horror genre.

By the 2000s, cable and satellite companies were offering hundreds of channels catering to many niche interests. To cut costs, channels often program "direct to video" movies — modest-budget genre films (action, war-action, horror, etc) that were shot on video and never released in theatres.

Z-movie

German director Timo Rose (l) on the set of his z-movieThe Legend of Moonlight Mountain

The term Z-movie (or "Grade-Z movie") is used to describe low budget films with quality standards far below those of B-movies and C-movies. While B-movies may have mediocre scripts and lesser-known actors, they are typically competently filmed, lit, and edited. C-movies may be thematically or conceptually more unusual, due to the greater latitude afforded to C-movie directors, but C-movies are nonetheless products of the commercial film industry, and so they still adhere to a number of production norms.

In contrast, Z-movies are typically made outside of the mainstream studio system. Without the financial backing of a studio, Z-movie directors usually have very small budgets. As a result, scripts occasionally include errors, continuity errors can be made during shooting, and non-professional actors are cast in some roles. These films also have a reputation of being poorly lit and edited.

Z-movies of the 1970s are often characterized by the inclusion of violent, gory, and/or sexual content that is not counterbalanced by redeeming artistic or creative elements in the script or cinematography. These are oftentimes referred to as "Exploitation" or "Grindhouse films".

Directors such as Ed Wood and Vic Savage shot films that are considered to exemplify the Z-movie genre:

  • Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space has an incoherent plot, bizarre dialogue, inept acting, and shoestring special effects and sets. Stock footage is often used in place of newly-filmed sequences, scenes are used more than once to cut costs, boom mics are visible in the finished film, and some actors appear to be reading from cue cards.
  • Vic Savage's The Creeping Terror uses inexpensive effects and production techniques, such as stock footage of a rocket launch played in reverse as the visuals for the landing of an alien rocket ship and what appears to be shaggy carpet draped over several slow-moving people for the alien 'creeping terror' referred to in the title. The movie also use a technique that has come to be synonymous with Z-movie horror: narration voice-overs that paraphrase the dialogue that is silently occurring onscreen.

Just as B-movies introduce themes, plots, and genres that are sometimes later used in big-budget A-movies, sometimes even the unusual material in Z-movies is picked up by the major studios. The plot from a Z-movie called Parts: The Clonus Horror was used by DreamWorks' to produce the big-budget film entitled The Island in 2005, which resulted in a lawsuit from the original's creators.[1]

Troma

Troma Entertainment is probably the best-known producer of Z-movies. Since its founding in 1974, Troma has become associated with films that contain shocking imagery, overt sexuality, graphic violence, and gore. Troma film releases include Redneck Zombies, Surf Nazis Must Die, The Class of Nuke 'Em High series, Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD, Cannibal! The Musical, Terror Firmer, Blood Sucking Freaks, and Vegas In Space.

Some Troma films are produced in-house, while others are purchased from other studios and re-released, especially when such films represent the early work of an actor that subsequently becomes famous. A good example of this is Sizzle Beach U.S.A., one of Kevin Costner's first films; it was purchased by Troma and re-released to capitalize on his popularity in Silverado and the then-upcoming The Untouchables. Troma has produced or acquired early films with Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, James Gunn, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Troma's most notorious film is The Toxic Avenger, a 1985 film about a man who, after being immersed in toxic waste, mutates into an ugly creature with enhanced physical strength (the titular "toxic avenger"), who then seeks revenge on his previous tormenters. After this film's release and the subsequent media attention, the toxic avenger character became the symbol of Troma Entertainment.

Psychotronic movies

"Psychotronic movie" is a term coined by movie critic Michael J. Weldon to denote movies which are generally ignored by the critical establishment, whether because of obscurity or of mediocre quality as judged by mainstream taste. He got this term from the Chicago cult film The Psychotronic Man about a man who develops the bizarre ability to kill using psychic energy.[citation needed] According to a Psychotronic Film Society in Chicago, the term "psychotronic" can be defined by breaking the term into its two subcomponents: "'psycho-' as in horror, '-tronic' or electronic as science fiction".

Weldon published The Psychotronic Guide to Film and Psychotronic Video Magazine using the term "psychotronic" in this sense.[citation needed] According to the Washington Psychotronic Film Society, the term "psychotronic" is as broad as the music genre label of "alternative music", in that it refers to "...just about everything except the Norm".

B/C/Z-movie directors

Selected B/C/Z-movie actors

See also

Look up b movie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Notes

  1. ^ Uniform Prices for Differentiated Goods: The Case of the Movie-Theater Industry. By Barak Y. Orbach and Liran Einav January 2006 Available at: http://www.law.arizona.edu/faculty/FacultyPubs/Documents/Orbach/ALS0607.pdf
  2. ^ a b Duane Martin: What Exactly is a B-Movie?
  3. ^ Tom Mes, editor of Midnight Eye
  4. ^ Journal of American Studies of Turkey 3 (1996): 133-134
  5. ^ DAVID PAYNE: DO FEAR THE REEKER by Eric Campos (2005-12-27)
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