“That boy’s got the devil in him.”
I was too young to ever experience a grindhouse theater – those late-70’s, early 80’s, usually urban theaters that would primarily show low-budget horror and exploitation films. There WAS a drive-in theater near where I lived that did show those sorts of movies, but I was too young to go to that as well. As I grew up and developed a taste for those same kinda of films (though mostly horror), I always felt like I missed out on something. I loved grabbing two horror films at the rental store and putting together my own double-bill of cheap awesomeness, but I knew it wasn’t the same. So when I heard that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were going to put out a double bill of exploitation movies, complete with fake movie trailers, I was all in. I knew it wouldn’t be exactly like watching them at a drive-in (or a grindhouse), but it would probably be as close as I could get.
So yeah, Grindhouse was an event for me. I saw it twice in the theater – once on my own and once with my brothers. I loved it. LOVED it. I especially enjoyed those fake trailers between the main films and the interstitial candy/local restaurant ads. Unfortunately, the film bombed at the box office, and when the films came out on DVD, separately, they contained almost none of that material. (Except for the Machete trailer on the Planet Terror disk.) I was pissed – not just at losing out on the trailers etc., but also at losing the whole experience. It was a double bill, dammit! I kept hoping that Dimension would get its head out of its ass and release a special edition with both films, the trailers and extra stuff. And they did. In Japan.
That was the state of things for a few years, and I grudgingly purchased a copy of each film, expecting that all I’d have of the full experience was my memories. Luckily, they did fairly well on DVD and eventually Dimension got around to releasing the whole megillah on Blu-ray. I immediately went out and bought a copy so I could see Grindhouse again as God intended – in my basement with a bunch of friends.
It’s actually been a while since I saw it last, and I only decided to watch it this week when I ran across the companion book that came out in 2007, “The sleaze-filled saga of an exploitation double feature.” While I didn’t have a bunch of friends come over to watch it with me, I still had a good time.
Oh, and fair warning, for both films (though mostly Planet Terror), we’ll be heading down
(This means gory descriptions and images below.)
The Medium
I have the 2010 Blu-ray release from Vivendi with the black slipcover. That slipcover is a little beat up now, but given the movies contained within, that’s only appropriate! The individual releases of the films contained extended versions of each film, but this release does not (although there are a bunch of extras).
As far as I can tell with a quick search, Grindhouse as a full streaming experience can only be rented or purchased online at Fandango. The individual films (but not the trailers etc.) are available for subs on a bunch of different services, including Tubi, and can be rented/purchased at the usual places.
The Movie
I won’t go into the interstitial stuff, but it’s fun to see candy ads, “Feature Presentation” visuals and adult content warnings. I will do a quick rundown of the trailers, though!
Machete Trailer
The two trailers my brothers and I most wanted to see made into full films were Thanksgiving and this one, the Danny Trejo filled awesomeness that is… MACHETE! This trailer really sets the tone for the Grindhouse experience with bad edits, scratched film, boobs, blood and general bad-assery. That final shot with Machete flying up on his motorcycle, Gatling gun blazing away? Sheer magnificence. I think I actually yelled ‘Yes!’ in the theater when I first saw it.
Rodriguez eventually made a full version and if the complete film didn’t quite capture the madcap, gleeful violence of the trailer, it was still fun. I somehow haven’t seen the sequel, Machete Kills.
Planet Terror
Planet Terror tickles me deeply. Watching the movie for the first time (in a theatre maybe half-filled) I found I was the only one laughing – and I laughed a lot.
The whole movie feels like a comfortable shoe – it just fits. Everything is familiar and over the top at the same time. We’ve got experimental gasses, rogue military units, untrustworthy young men with pasts, broken-but-with-hearts-of-gold go-go dancers, suspicious sheriffs, murderous husbands, and zombies, amongst other wickedly familiar characters and situations.
A deal with a rogue military unit, dependent on an experimental gas since their accidental exposure, goes bad and the gas is released into the surrounding countryside (where previous subjects of gas exposure have already recently escaped).
Meanwhile an anesthesiologist plots to leave her abusive doctor husband and a young woman quits her go-go dancing job only to run into an old flame at the local BBQ joint, run by the sheriff’s brother. At the local hospital, bite victims start coming in with fast-progressing symptoms.
As things spiral out of control, the husband tries to kill the wife, the go-go dancer loses a leg, the old flame turns out to have surprising skills (and a long-standing enmity with the sheriff) and everyone ends up at the BBQ joint, which catches on fire as the zombies attack.
It’s like Rodriguez distilled all the awesome elements from every zombie movie ever, then mixed it with napalm and loaded it into a projector.
God I love this movie. A ton of familiar faces – Bruce Willis as the Lieutenant leading the military unit, Rose McGowan as go-go dancer Cherry Darling, Josh Brolin as Dr. Block and Marley Shelton as his wife, Dakota, Jeff Fahey as J. T., the owner of the BBQ joint and Michael Biehn as his brother, the sheriff. Quentin Tarantino shows up as a soldier who experiences a particularly nasty erectile disfunction. Also, I never noticed before, but Dakota’s dad is played by Michael Parks, portraying the same character that he did in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn and Kill Bill.
And that spot in the middle where the film breaks just as things are getting interesting, only to start up again after several important events seem to have taken place? Genius! I nearly fell out of my chair laughing in the theater, even as I heard people say things like “what the hell just happened?” I loved that – I loved all the assumptions you have to make, all the gaps you have to fill. For me, because it all felt familiar already, it was like a wink from the director. “Yeah, you know there’s always these scenes where the hero is revealed, the characters all get together and the shit really hits the fan. Let’s just say that all happened and get to the good stuff!”
And there’s still plenty of good stuff to go. Pocket bikes, women in prison moments, a certain melting member, explosions, helicopter blades slicing zombies, brotherly reconciliation, and that awesome machine gun leg.
If there’s any drawback for me in this guilty pleasure, it’s the sometimes cartoony nature of the gore. I mean, sure, it’s all an ultraviolent cartoon, and I really appreciate things like the exploding zombies as the tow truck hits them and the goopy way the zombies spread the infection (poor Josh Brolin), but sprays of blood are a little too gelatinous and orange for me. That’s such a minor quibble, however, and generally the mix of practical and digital effects are enjoyably over the top.
Werewolf Women of the SS Trailer
For me, this is the weakest of the trailers. It goes on too long and isn’t quite as coherent as the others. I like the IDEA of it, but the execution doesn’t thrill me. Maybe because I was never a fan of that particular sub-genre (like Ilsa the She-Wolf). Still, it’s fun to see Udo Kier hamming it up, and a typically demented Nicolas Cage “as FU-MANCHU!” I understand director Rob Zombie shot enough footage for a nearly half-hour version, though, and I’d probably watch it if it was ever released.
Bottom Line(s)
The Movie: I know it’s not high art, but Planet Terror deeply satisfies. From the soundtrack (composed by Rodriguez himself), to the characters (I forgot to mention Freddy Rodriguez as El Ray and the Crazy Babysitter Twins), to the effects. The plot is disjointed and thin, but that’s unimportant. It never slows down, it never backs off, and it feels like a love-letter to a particular kind of gory, cheesy zombie flick that never existed in the 80’s, but should have. It’s my favorite of the two feature films, but given my horror history that’s not really surprising.
The Trailers: Machete was so good it spawned two feature two feature films. The first one didn’t quite live up to the trailer, but honestly, what movie ever does? Werewolf Women of the SS wasn’t my cup of tea, but if you like Rob Zombie’s films (or the Nazi exploitation sub-genre) you might find more to love.
