0
0
My husband couldn’t stomach the demolished head in Planet Terror, so he walked out of the theater, offering to pick me up later. I was having such a great time; it was déjà vu. He just didn’t understand, as he asserted that he never saw a “Grindhouse” movie. In fact, the same claims were made from most of my friends and family members.
Yes, I must now admit, I did frequent these movie theaters on a regular basis. I don’t remember the term “Grindhouse,” just “cheap, dirty Movie Theater.” These movies were never in multiplexes, just in huge, old theaters, usually in the seedy part of town. There were often scents of a questionable substance permeating the aisles. I am told that many of the movies were also shown at drive-ins, but by the time I experienced them, most of the drive-ins had closed and had become swap meets.
Grindhouses featured movies filled with horror, sex, go-go dancers, martial arts, crazies, zombies and any combination thereof. Though many view all zombie movies as part of the Grindhouse genre, I disagree. I had to cough up more money for George Romero’s 1978 classic, Dawn of the Dead, as it only played at the respectable, expensive theaters. In my opinion his “Dead” movies are classics and are included as some of my favorites. The Grindhouse movies were always rated “R” or “X” (the equivalent of today’s NC17). Down the street from where I lived in Hollywood was a Grindhouse showing triple features for three bucks. There was also one theater in Los Angeles that exclusively featured Kung Fu flicks for all of the Bruce Lee fans.
I must say the current movie Grindhouse is stylistically pretty true to form: grainy film, abrupt scene changes and broken reels. (Yes, the lights turned on many a time in the old theaters). The music was just like I remembered—1960’s guitar melodies that seemed outdated for the late 1970’s. Of course, Planet Terror was such an extreme parody; writer/director Robert Rodriguez threw all of the plot elements into one movie. Right when I had an “ah, hah!” moment and thought that he missed one, he tossed it right in. A shot appeared from a classic “women in prison” movie, Women in Cages. Yep, I saw that one, too but in high school. It was a double feature with Big Bird Cage starring Pam Grier in both. In fact many of the Grindhouse movies featured the same actors in both films. Rodriguez and Tarantino got that right also.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed the hilarious Planet Terror, Tarantino’s plot in Death Proof was more realistically “Grindhouse.” Yes, even at the real Grindhouses, we were yawning during the second or third feature. Some aspects of the plot of Death Proof reminded me of Russ Meyer’s 1965 classic, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Watch it sometime and notice the slight similarities to the drag-racing and revenge scenes and also the half-wit, “Vegetable.” However, none of Tarantino’s stunt ladies were nearly as intimidating as the voluptuous and psychotic Varla, played by Tura Satana. I saw Faster! Pussycat! again on television a few months ago, and her image hauntingly stayed with me for days.
Now I swear that I’ve seen a real Grindhouse movie featuring a character similar to Kurt Russell’s Stuntman Mike; I just can’t remember what it was. This is because these movies were just not that memorable. In fact, we usually didn’t remember them past the weekend. What they did do for us was provide cheap entertainment and quite an enjoyable evening.
Upon waiting for my ride home from Grindhouse, an elderly man approached me, asking what I thought of it. I briefly related my old Grindhouse experiences. He gave me a bewildered look and admitted that he had no idea of what I was talking about.
