Grindhouse

Grind House (n): A theater playing back-to-back films exploiting sex, violence, and other extreme subject matters.

The creative minds behind the project Grindhouse are marketing their double-feature idea with wit. Auteurist filmmakers Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Desperado) are back but, this time, as the poster reads, “They’re back to back.”

The film is actually two movies or, better, two exploitation films for the price of one. Rodriguez’s portion is a zombie-based movie called Planet Terror and stars Freddy Rodriguez and Rose McGowan. Tarantino’s segment is called Death Proof and according to Tarantino is, “sort of a slasher film, but instead of a knife, it’s a car”. His horror film stars Kurt Russell.

The footage revealed in the ads seems as though it were forgotten in the backroom of a studio, trapped in canisters, accumulating mountains of dust over the years. The horror films of the late 60s and 70s that were solely shown in American Grind House cinemas often matched this grainy, worn-out look because they were shot on shoe-string budgets. Tarantino and Rodriguez surely found that aspect of those films amusing enough to recreate that grainy aesthetic look in their own horror films.

The project stems from the minds of Tarantino and Rodriguez who are two directors that eat, breathe, and sleep movies. At last year’s ComicCon convention, both filmmakers enthusiastically commented on the project and even unveiled the films’ promotional posters (which also look purposely worn out, wrinkled, and faded).

The movies are said to be violent. They promise to appeal to fans of the horror genre and to those who like their horror films extra bloody. Plus, Tarantino claims his segment contains, “the best chase scene ever filmed.” A cheap attempt to attract viewers to see Grindhouse? Probably not. We’re more likely to believe this director whose films rarely deceive viewers.

Be sure to check out Grindhouse as it cuts through cinema screens with the exactitude of a machete.this Friday.

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