Download or read book The Films of Larry Buchanan written by Rob Craig and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2007-05-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The first serious examination of Buchanan's body of work, addresses themes such as the end of suburbia, the rebel outsider, the oppressive establishment, the curse of fame, and creatures of destruction. Information on some of the unfinished, unreleased, deliberately destroyed projects is offered, as well. Photographs illustrating nearly all the films are included"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Regional Horror Films 1958 1990 written by Brian Albright and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-11-07 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the second half of the 20th century, landmark works of the horror film genre were as much the product of enterprising regional filmmakers as of the major studios. From backwoods Utah to the Louisiana bayous to the outer boroughs of New York, independent, regional films like Night of the Living Dead, Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Evil Dead stood at the vanguard of horror cinema. This overview of regionally produced horror and science fiction films includes interviews with 13 directors and producers who operated far from mainstream Hollywood, along with a state-by-state listing of regionally produced genre films made between 1958 and 1990. Highlighting some of the most influential horror films of the past 50 years, this work celebrates not only regional filmmaking, but also a cultural regionalism that is in danger of vanishing.

Download or read book It Came from Hunger written by Larry Buchanan and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-11-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It Came from Hunger! Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister By Larry Buchanan Mars Needs Women, Zontar; the Thing from Venus, It's Alive!, The Naked Witch, Swamp Creature, Mistress of the Apes-these are just a few of the movies that self-described "schlockmeister" Larry Buchanan created over a lifelong career as a guerrilla "B"-filmmaker. Fiercely independent, Buchanan would embark on a production with such pathetically inadequate funding it resulted in painfully unintended, yet highly entertaining camp. Buchanan left behind a slate of poorly made films, many of which have become cult classics for being so-bad-they're-good. As a result, he is credited with single-handedly inventing his own genre; the "good/bad" movie. "It Came From Hunger!" is an essential read for aspiring filmmakers, dreamers, and those who admire whimsical pursuits bordering on the quixotic. This heartfelt, honest and surprisingly sincere autobiography is filled with stories that take us on the arduous yet inspiring journey from Buchanan's humble beginnings in a Texas orphanage to film director on the soundstages of Hollywood. A rich and engaging read, "It Came From Hunger!" is testament to the magic inherent in confronting seemingly insurmountable odds in pursuit of a dream, a life-affirming sojourn of human experience and perseverance that extends far beyond the realm of the film industry. When Larry Buchanan passed away in 2004, the New York Times paid homage with a lengthy obituary that summarized his work thusly: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from H.L. Mencken, who, describing President Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.'" In a 1997 interview, Buchanan summed up a career where the majority of the films he created ended up on "worst" lists, with a self-effacing, unapologetic reflection; "I don't know that I bring any great command of the art to my pictures, but I love what I'm doing, and I believe that shows through in the least of my pictures. We certainly weren't trying to make anybody laugh. We meant to entertain, perhaps to provoke, to enlighten, and certainly to defy the customary formulas." When asked why he made some of the films he did, Buchanan responded; "It came from hunger!"

Download or read book Conspiracy Cinema written by David Ray Carter and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only guide to this emerging genre of cinema. Still marginalized by mainstream media, conspiracy theories are a growing influence on the contemporary political imagination, thanks to internet distribution of conspiracy cinema – documentaries presenting conspiratorial explanations everything from 9/11 to the Kennedy assassinations, Roswell to the causes of HIV. One hundred million people around the world have watched one of these films and this is the first book to explain and explore what they are seeing. Lighthearted, funny, and interactive, this is the definitive and only guide to this intriguing and immensely popular form of modern entertainment.

Download or read book Dueling Harlows written by Tom Lisanti and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-07-18 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1965 producers Joseph E. Levine and Bill Sargent were racing to get their problem-laden biopics of Jean Harlow (both titled Harlow) into theaters first. Levine's film starred Carroll Baker in a big-budget, color production. Sargent's movie starred Carol Lynley in a quickie, black and white production shot in a new process called Electronovision. In the press the two producers conducted one of the nastiest feuds Hollywood had ever witnessed, nearly culminating in fisticuffs at the 1965 Academy Awards ceremony. In recounting the making of the two films, this book (expanded from the original self-published edition) touches on Jean Harlow's life, the failed attempts to make a Harlow biopic in the 1950s, and the reviled, bestselling 1964 biography. It details the aftermath of each movie's release, from scathing reviews to disappointing box office returns to the several lawsuits. Newly discussed are the portrayals of Jean Harlow on stage shortly after the Levine and Sargent films, and the making of the 1977 film Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell starring Lindsay Bloom as Jean Harlow. The book is generously illustrated and includes interviews with people associated with all three films, including Carol Lynley and Lindsay Bloom.

Download or read book Science Fiction Film Directors 1895 1998 written by Dennis Fischer and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enormous and exhaustive reference book has entries on every major and minor director of science fiction films from the inception of cinema (circa 1895) through 1998. For each director there is a complete filmography including television work, a career summary, a critical assessment, and behind-the-scenes production information. Seventy-nine directors are covered in especially lengthy entries and a short history of the science fiction film genre is also included.

Download or read book Ghouls Gimmicks and Gold written by Kevin Heffernan and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Tingler, the Mole People—they stalked and oozed into audiences’ minds during the era that followed Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein and preceded terrors like Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Chucky (Child’s Play). Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold pulls off the masks and wipes away the slime to reveal how the monsters that frightened audiences in the 1950s and 1960s—and the movies they crawled and staggered through—reflected fundamental changes in the film industry. Providing the first economic history of the horror film, Kevin Heffernan shows how the production, distribution, and exhibition of horror movies changed as the studio era gave way to the conglomeration of New Hollywood. Heffernan argues that major cultural and economic shifts in the production and reception of horror films began at the time of the 3-d film cycle of 1953–54 and ended with the 1968 adoption of the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system and the subsequent development of the adult horror movie—epitomized by Rosemary’s Baby. He describes how this period presented a number of daunting challenges for movie exhibitors: the high costs of technological upgrade, competition with television, declining movie attendance, and a diminishing number of annual releases from the major movie studios. He explains that the production and distribution branches of the movie industry responded to these trends by cultivating a youth audience, co-producing features with the film industries of Europe and Asia, selling films to television, and intensifying representations of sex and violence. Shining through Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold is the delight of the true horror movie buff, the fan thrilled to find The Brain that Wouldn’t Die on television at 3 am.

Download or read book American International Pictures written by Rob Craig and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-02-15 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American International Pictures was in many ways the "missing link" between big-budget Hollywood studios, "poverty-row" B-movie factories and low-rent exploitation movie distributors. AIP first targeted teen audiences with science fiction, horror and fantasy, but soon grew to encompass many genres and demographics--at times, it was indistinguishable from many of the "major" studios. From Abby to Zontar, this filmography lists more than 800 feature films, television series and TV specials by AIP and its partners and subsidiaries. Special attention is given to American International Television (the TV arm of AIP) and an appendix lists the complete AITV catalog. The author also discusses films produced by founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff after they left the company.

Download or read book At a Theater or Drive in Near You written by Randall Clark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of Americans have been thrilled, scared, titillated, and shocked by exploitation movies, low budget films with many scenes of sex, violence, and other potentially lurid elements. The term derives from the fact that promoters of such films exploit the contents in advertising that plays up the sexual or violent aspects of the films. This is the first comprehensive study of the American exploitation film to be published. It discusses five distinct genres: the teen movie, the sexploitation film, the martial arts movie, the blaxploitation film and the lawbreaker picture. Contained within these genres are many popular American film types, including beach movies, biker pictures, and women's prison movies. The study provides a history and sociopolitical analysis of each genre, focusing on significant films in those genres. It also discusses the economics of exploitation films and their place in the motion picture industry, the development of drive-in theaters, the significance of the teenage audience, and the effect of the videocassette. Finally, the book applies major film and cultural theories to establish an aesthetic for evaluating the exploitation film and to explore the relationship between film and audience.

Download or read book The New Poverty Row written by Fred Olen Ray and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since cinema's earliest beginnings, there has been friction between producers and directors. Shady accounting practices, which favored the distributors at the expense of the filmmakers, were all too common, causing many filmmakers to form independent companies to make and distribute their own product. This book examines six such low-budget exploitation companies--Associated Distributors Productions, Filmgroup, Hemisphere Pictures, American General Pictures, Independent-International Pictures, Dimension Pictures, and the author's own American-Independent Productions. A brief history of each company, laced with quotes from the company's principals, is presented, followed by a filmography that lists all known credits for that company.

Download or read book Down and Dirty written by Mike Quarles and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-06-21 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taboo breakers and trendsetters, shameless hucksters and famous directors. Exploitation filmmaking has seen it all. Fred Olen Ray made his first movie for $298. In 1936 Marijuana-Weed with Roots in Hell showed drug use and nudity on screen in an effort to "educate the public." Kroger Babb, the man behind Mom and Dad, spliced color medical footage of a baby's birth into his black and white "classic." Russ Meyer, John Waters, Andy Milligan, Doris Wishman, and many others are covered. "Classic" films such as The Immoral Mr. Teas, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nude on the Moon are examined. Production techniques and innovations are also discussed.

Download or read book The Cult Film Reader written by Mathijs, Ernest and published by McGraw-Hill Education (UK). This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An invaluable collection for anyone researching or teaching cult cinema ... The Cult Film Reader is an authoritative text that should be of value to any student or researcher interested in challenging and transgressive cinema that pushes the boundaries of conventional cinema and film studies." Science Fiction Film and Television "A really impressive and comprehensive collection of the key writings in the field. The editors have done a terrific job in drawing together the various traditions and providing a clear sense of this rich and rewarding scholarly terrain. This collection is as wild and diverse as the films that it covers. Fascinating." Mark Jancovich, Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of East Anglia, UK "It's about time the lunatic fans and loyal theorists of cult movies were treated to a book they can call their own. The effort and knowledge contained in The Cult Film Reader will satisfy even the most ravenous zombie's desire for detail and insight. This book will gnaw, scratch and infect you just like the cult films themselves." Brett Sullivan, Director of Ginger Snaps Unleashed and The Chair "The Cult Film Reader is a great film text book and a fun read." John Landis, Director of The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson's Thriller "Excellent overview of the subject, and a comprehensive collection of significant scholarship in the field of cult film. Very impressive and long overdue." Steven Rawle, York St John University, UK Whether defined by horror, kung-fu, sci-fi, sexploitation, kitsch musical or ‘weird world cinema’, cult movies and their global followings are emerging as a distinct subject of film and media theory, dedicated to dissecting the world’s unruliest images. This book is the world’s first reader on cult film. It brings together key works in the field on the structure, form, status, and reception of cult cinema traditions. Including work from key established scholars in the field such as Umberto Eco, Janet Staiger, Jeffrey Sconce, Henry Jenkins, and Barry Keith Grant, as well as new perspectives on the gradually developing canon of cult cinema, the book not only presents an overview of ways in which cult cinema can be approached, it also re-assesses the methods used to study the cult text and its audiences. With editors’ introductions to the volume and to each section, the book is divided into four clear thematic areas of study – The Conceptions of Cult; Cult Case Studies; National and International Cults; and Cult Consumption – to provide an accessible overview of the topic. It also contains an extensive bibliography for further related readings. Written in a lively and accessible style, The Cult Film Reader dissects some of biggest trends, icons, auteurs and periods of global cult film production. Films discussed include Casablanca, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Showgirls and Ginger Snaps. Essays by: Jinsoo An; Jane Arthurs; Bruce Austin; Martin Barker; Walter Benjamin; Harry Benshoff; Pierre Bourdieu; Noel Carroll; Steve Chibnall; Umberto Eco; Nezih Erdogan; Welch Everman; John Fiske; Barry Keith Grant ; Joan Hawkins; Gary Hentzi; Matt Hills; Ramaswami Harindranath; J.Hoberman; Leon Hunt; I.Q. Hunter; Mark Jancovich; Henry Jenkins; Anne Jerslev; Siegfried Kracauer; Gina Marchetti; Tom Mes; Gary Needham; Sheila J. Nayar; Annalee Newitz; Lawrence O’Toole; Harry Allan Potamkin; Jonathan Rosenbaum; Andrew Ross; David Sanjek; Eric Schaefer; Steven Jay Schneider; Jeffrey Sconce; Janet Staiger; J.P. Telotte; Parker Tyler; Jean Vigo; Harmony Wu

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film written by R. G. Young and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2000 with total page 1028 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty-five years in the making, and destined to be the last word in fanta-film references! This incredible 1,017-page resource provides vital credits on over 9,000 films (1896-1999) of horror, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, heavy melodrama, and film noir. Comprehensive cast lists include: directors, writers, cinematographers, and composers. Also includes plot synopses, critiques, re-title/translation information, running times, photographs, and several cross-referenced indexes (by artist, year, song, etc.). Paperback.

Download or read book Drive in Dream Girls written by Tom Lisanti and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-07 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1960s, a bushel of B-movies were produced and aimed at the predominantly teenage drive-in movie audience. At first teens couldn't get enough of the bikini-clad beauties dancing on the beach or being wooed by Elvis Presley, but by 1966 young audiences became more interested in the mini-skirted, go-go boot wearing, independent-minded gals of spy spoofs, hot rod movies and biker flicks. Profiled herein are fifty sexy, young actresses that teenage girls envied and teenage boys desired including Quinn O'Hara, Melody Patterson, Hilarie Thompson, Donna Loren, Pat Priest, Meredith MacRae, Arlene Martel, Cynthia Pepper, and Beverly Washburn. Some like Sue Ane Langdon, Juliet Prowse, Marlyn Mason, and Carole Wells, appeared in major studio productions while others, such as Regina Carrol, Susan Hart, Angelique Pettyjohn and Suzie Kaye were relegated to drive-in movies only. Each biography contains a complete filmography. Some also include the actresses' candid comments and anecdotes about their films, the people they worked with, and their feelings about acting. A list of web sites that provide further information is also included.

Download or read book Fantastic Cinema Subject Guide written by Bryan Senn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-10-16 with total page 699 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About 2,500 genre films are entered under more than 100 subject headings, ranging from abominable snowmen through dreamkillers, rats, and time travel, to zombies, with a brief essay on each topic: development, highlights, and trends. Each film entry shows year of release, distribution company, country of origin, director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, cast credits, plot synopsis and critical commentary.

Download or read book The Psychotronic Video Guide To Film written by Michael Weldon and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1996 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bible of B-movies is back--and better than ever! From Abby to Zontar, this book covers more than 9,000 amazing movies--from the turn of the century right up to today's Golden Age of Video--all described with Michael Weldon's dry wit. More than 450 rare and wonderful illustrations round out thie treasure trove of cinematic lore--an essential reference for every bad film fan.

Download or read book Wanted Women written by Mary Elizabeth Strunk and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2010-09-18 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The iconic photo of Bonnie Parker—cigar clenched in jaw, pistol in hand—says it all: America loves its bad girls. Now Mary Elizabeth Strunk tells us why. Wanted Women is a startling look at the lives—and legends—of ten female outlaws who gained notoriety during the tumultuous decades that bracketed the tenure of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Strunk looks at real-life events and fictional portrayals to decipher what our obsession with these women says about shifting gender roles, evolving law-enforcement practices, and American cultural attitudes in general. These women's stories reveal what it takes-and what it has meant--to be a high-profile female lawbreaker in America. Strunk introduces us to Kathryn "Mrs. Machine Gun" Kelly, Ma Barker, and Bonnie Parker from the 1930s, and, from the 1970s, we meet heiress-turned-revolutionary Patty Hearst, five other women of the Symbionese Liberation Army, and Black Panther Assata Shakur. All saw themselves as struggling against an oppressive legal system. All became "wanted" criminals and would play a part in shaping Hoover's legacy. And all spent enormous amounts of energy attempting to manipulate public opinion in their favor. Strunk argues that each woman's public persona was to some degree invented by Hoover, who saw outlaw women as an alarming threat to public morality. He went after them with a vengeance, but in many ways his obsession only added to their reputations. Strunk shows how Hoover's repeated use of popular culture to publicize the threat of violent women initially succeeded in strengthening his FBI, but his approach became a liability by the time law enforcement was pitted against the women outlaws of the 1970s. The book chronicles the careers of these infamous outlaws both in the real world and in popular culture—film, ads, true-crime stories, autobiographies—as well as Hoover's own forays into filmmaking. It boasts 27 compelling images of movie stills, wanted posters, and other ephemera that have been assembled nowhere else, including rarely reproduced SLA artifacts. Strunk's book is the first study to define the narrow "formula" necessary for a woman to cross over from criminal to outlaw. Hitting on key notes of American culture from Black and gender studies to cinematic and legal history, Wanted Women sets a new benchmark for how we view women and crime as it contributes fresh insights into twentieth-century social history.