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Grindhouse...

Grindhouse: Planet Terror & Death Proof.

A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.

History[]

In the film Lady of Burlesque (1943) one of the characters refers to the burlesque theatre on 42nd Street, where they are performing stripteases and bump and grind dances, as a "grindhouse".

The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single-screen movie theatres, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with urban decay after white flight out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theatres to either close or offer something that TV could not. In the 1970s these theatres were put to new use as venues for exploitation films, either adult pornography and sleaze, or slasher horror and dubbed martial arts films from Hong Kong.

Grindhouse films characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence or bizarre subject matter. One genre of film featured were "roughies" or sexploitation, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and critical praise. Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters. The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by the magazine Sleazoid Express.

By the 1980s, home video and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City's Times Square and San Francisco's Market Street. By the mid-1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the US. Very few exist today.

TheRobert Rodriguez , Planet Terror and the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof, which were released

together as Grindhouse, were created as a homage to the genre. Similar films such as Machete (also by Rodriguez) and Drive Angry have appeared since. The video games House of the Dead: Overkill, Wet and Shadows of the Damned serve as homages to the grindhouse horror movies. The author Jacques Boyreau released the book Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box in 2009 about the history of the genre. The field is also the focus of the 2010 documentary American Grindhouse.

Grindhouse[]

main article: Grindhouse (film)

Planet Terror[]

main article: Planet Terror (film)

Death Proof[]

main article: Death Proof

Hobo with a Shotgun[]

main article: Hobo with a Shotgun

See Also[]

List of Grindhouse films

Sources[]

Planet Terror
Grindhouse Planet Terror - Death Proof
Fake Trailers Machete - Hobo with a Shotgun - Werewolf Women Of The S.S. - Don't - Thanksgiving
Main Characters Cherry Darling - El Wray - Dr. Dakota Block - Dr. William Block - Abby - Crazy Babysitter Twins - Lt. Muldoon - J.T. Hague - Sheriff Hague - Tammy Visan - Joe - Earl McGraw - Skip - Tony Block - Rusty
Locations The Bone Shack - Skip's Go-Go-Go Club - Hospital - Military Base - Police Station - Block Family Home - McGraw Home - Tulum
Music Planet Terror (soundtrack)
Galleries Planet Terror Gallery - Fan Art - Posters
Items Red Apple cigarettes - Great White Bites - "My Friends" - All Or Nothing Box - To Do List - DC2
Terms/Concepts Grindhouse - Amputation - Dismemberment - Useless Talents - Wray's Wreckage - Sickos - Movie References - Women in Cages
Vehicles AM General HMMWV - AM General M-939 - Blata - Cadillac DeVille Convertible - Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado - Chevrolet Bel Air - Chevrolet C/K-Series - Chevrolet Impala - Custom Made Dominator - Ford Crown Victoria - International Harvester R-Series - Lincoln Town Car Stretch Limousine - Mercedes-Benz SEL - Toyota Celica - Volvo 240
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