I have also researched upon the grindhouse genre and some of the very early examples of films within the grindhouse genre.This task helped me realise how the films within the genre have changed over time and so helping in making sensible decisions for example in terms of shot styles, locations and editing.
Grindhouse is the American term for theatres which that played all of the exploitation genres. Our trailer fits into the grindhouse genre because of the effects and sounds that we have used in order to follow a conventional grindhouse film but with a British setting.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez followed this theme and took on a project to create two films which would fit into the grindhouse genre and would be shown back to back in the cinema as well as including fictional trailers in between.
However the films were released separately in extended versions because outside the U.S. and Canada there wasn’t the tradition of double features so it was deemed to lengthy for a single film yet the single extended versions were seen by some as an attempt to make profits by selling two the film as singles even though they were sold together in the U.S.
Although the films were separated and the ‘big project’ was not as successful as it was thought to be the separated films were successful because there were modern remakes.
The grindhouse sub-genre is part of the exploitation genre which includes early examples such as the following;
Ingagi is a 1931 exploitation film , it stated itself to be a documentary by Sir Hubert Winstead of London on an expedition to Africa, and it involves a tribe of gorilla worshiping women who have been discovered by the explorer. It was produced by Congo Pictures and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Even though it was marketed as an attempt to make it seem as if it were a real ethnographic film, the film was fabricated which lead to Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association to draw back any involvement with the film. The film trades heavily on the suggestion of sex between a woman and a gorilla.
Freaks is an1932 American Pre-code (Hollywood era between introduction of sound and enforcement of the Hays Code censorship guidelines,) 1934 horror film about sideshow performers, it was directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers.
The film was based on Tod Robbins' 1923 short story “Spurs". Browning took the one of the biggest and first steps in Hollywood history by casting real people with deformities as the sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup. Browning was a member of a travelling circus when he was younger and a lot of the film was taken from his personal experiences. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are naturally trusting and honourable people but the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who make plans to murder one of the performers to take over his large inheritance.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a 1974 American independent horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote the film with Kim Henkel. The film follows a group of friends who become victims to a family of cannibals when on their way to visit an old homestead.
Even though it was marketed as a true story to attract more audiences its plot is totally fictional. Only the character of Leatherface and minor plot details were inspired by the actions of the real-life killer Ed Gein. Hooper produced the film for less than $300,000 using a cast of relatively unknown actors drawn mainly from central Texas where the film was shot. The limited budget meant that Hooper had to film seven days a week for long hours so he could finish as quickly as possible and decrease rental costs on the equipment which he was using.
As a result of the film's violent content, Hooper found it difficult to find a distributor.
However, Louis Perano of Bryanston Pictures purchased the distribution rights. Hooper limited the quantity of onscreen gore in the hopes to receive a “PG rating”, but the Motion Picture Association of America rated it "R" and the film faced similar difficulties internationally. During its October 1974 release the film was banned outright in several countries and a number of theaters later stopped showing the film in response to viewers’ complaints due to its violence.
The film was a commercial success, grossing over $30 million at the United States box office and at that time becoming the highest-grossing independent film ever. It has since gained a reputation as one of the most influential horror films in the history of cinema. It is credited with creating several conventions common in the slasher genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons and the characterization of the killer as a large and faceless figure.
The popularity of the film led to a franchise which continued the story of Leatherface and his family through sequels, comic books, video games and a remake.
There has been a new wave of the content and themes of grindhouse which includes the recently very popular films such as SAW and the Human Centipede. The two films have had critical receptions but nevertheless they have been successful in following horror conventions.
Grindhouse enthusiasts may argue that such modern remakes of the horror theme look too real and this means that you aren’t able to enjoy the purposefully bad quality films which are key to separating grindhouse from other horror sub-genres.
The reason as to why grindhouse films were bad quality and had a really bad soundtrack was mainly due to the VSH video players of the time and this meant that when films were recorded the cassettes were too worn out because you had to record over other materials which ruined the quality of the film.
However some argue that this lead to films being made purposefully bad such as the big grindhouse project by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez in order to bring back the grindhouse genre.
As well as analysing posters, magazine covers, trailers and an overall analysis of grindhouse slasher films I have also analysed the conventions within the horror genre as a whole. I have made a powerpoint to illustrate the genreal themes and forms within the horror genre and I have placed the powerpoint the powerpoint sharing site 'slideboom' which allows everyone to post powerpoints electronically worldwide.
Please follow the link to view the powerpoint.
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/357599/Conventions-Of-Slasher-Films
The above video is of the storyboard which I used in order to get a sense of how the music and the different camera shots used will work together to create a sense of the trailer itself. This allows an insight into how we might want to change the pace of the editing or maybe use different camera shots and so by carrying out this task it helps to figure out what decisions we may want to finalise on before starting filming the actual trailer.
Location; the house & park
Exterior; Suburban area
• A guy is picked on at school & he goes missing for sometime (commits suicide)
• There is a house party someone’s 17th birthday
• The girl that bullied him the most gets killed first; this happens when she is having sex in the car, there is a whistle (a nursery rhyme) outside the car. Her boyfriend comes out of the car but nobodies there so he walks around, the girl gets out of the car as well, she turns around and she is stabbed by a guy in a mask.
• There is a pause (the girl doesn’t turn up at school for a while; nobody takes a notice because she’s done this sort of thing before.
• The killer pretends to be dead, lying in a hall way covered all in blood. There is no whistling at this point and there is no mask.
• A couple and the main girl are walking home through the woods/park at this point the main girls mum comes to pick her up. The couple are playing chase there is the whistling and one of the couple finds the body of the other one.
• A girl gets into a taxi; the taxi driver is a rapist, the whistling starts, the driver rapes and kills the girl so the killer is not satisfied because it wasn’t him who killed her so he kills the driver.
• The main girl is panicking, she tells everyone that something is happening but no one listens.
• The main girl is sitting in the park and the park career comes up to her telling her to go home and be carful because he saw something suspicious, she asks questions, he tells her he saw blood by the exit
• The killer is waiting by the gates, the whistling starts, the benefactor (park career) pushes the girl and she runs home while the old man (benefactor) gets killed.
• The girl gets home, shouts for her mum and no answer so she goes up to her room and she as she gets there she hears the front door slam and she hides in the closet. He’s coming upstairs while whistling.
