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Horror
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Directors
Kurt Russell
Stuntman Mike (segment "Death Proof")
Rose McGowan
Pam (segment "Death Proof") …
Zoë Bell
Herself (segment "Death Proof")
Freddy Rodríguez
Wray (segment "Planet Terror")
Rosario Dawson
Abernathy (segment "Death Proof")
Marley Shelton
Dr. Dakota Block (McGraw) (segment "Death Proof") …
Vanessa Ferlito
Butterfly (segment "Death Proof")
Josh Brolin
Block (segment "Planet Terror")
Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Jungle Julia (segment "Death Proof")
Jeff Fahey
JT (segment "Planet Terror")
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Lee Montgomery (segment "Death Proof")
Michael Biehn
Sheriff Hague (segment "Planet Terror")
Tracie Thoms
Kim (segment "Death Proof")
Jordan Ladd
Shanna (segment "Death Proof") …
Bruce Willis
Muldoon (segment "Planet Terror")
Quentin Tarantino
Warren (segment "Death Proof") …
Marcy Harriell
Marcy (segment "Death Proof")
Eli Roth
Dov (segment "Death Proof") …
Directors
User reviews2
Review
Featured review
Grindhouse exploits its modern B-movie experience through a bloody expressionistic tribute. Two feature films. Four fictional trailers (five if you’re lucky...). And an authentic conceptual presentation of the 70s exploitation genre, missing reels and all. Rodriguez/Tarantino’s admiration for cinema in general is tangible. Both a credible experiment in genre resurrection and a fetish for babes, blood and bolted machine gun legs. It is, at its core, a retrospective piece of entertainment. But does the double feature presentation, trailers included, work as a solid film in itself? Yes. Just about.
Two of the four fictitious trailers worked. Wright’s ‘Don’t’ replicated the essence of Hammer Film Productions perfectly with a quintessential amount of British campiness to illustrate the ghoulish plot. Not to mention the laugh out loud vagueness of the title. Roth’s (yes, this is surprising...) was another hilarious trailer with ‘Thanksgiving’, a holiday-themed slasher. Imitating existing features, such as ‘Halloween’, to deliver a barrage of nudity and decapitations. Absurd, yet sadistically amusing. These two especially suited the overall aesthetic of Grindhouse, particularly with ‘Planet Terror’. Rodriguez’ ‘Machete’, which later became a feature film’, summoned the desolate heat of the Mexploitation sub-genre. It’s fine. Occasionally becomes lost in itself when Trejo is randomly throwing machetes everywhere. Zombie’s efforts in ‘Werewolf Women of the SS’ (I know...) didn’t work for me. The concept felt like he was trying way too hard in being over-the-top and radical by merging a bunch of sets together. Intentional or not, it juxtaposed the other trailers. Cage as Fu Manchu though, I want more! Although varying in quality, these trailers do provide impressive contributions to the overall presentation and are embedded intricately before each feature film.
Speaking of features, do both ‘Planet Terror’ and ‘Death Proof’ work as a project of duality? No. The former is an absurdist’s perspective of the zombie genre, whereas the latter just resembled an ordinary Tarantino flick without the excessive exploitation. The two, together, have different paces, styles and tones which exhume varying levels of contrast, diminishing the whole feature’s flow.
There’s plenty of passion and heart being injected into this project, ultimately resulting in an enjoyable cinematic experience. Yet a prevention exists that disallows me from fully connecting to the concept. A myriad of pastiches, with varying levels of quality, as opposed to an actual presentation. I’d watch it again just for ‘Death Proof’...
themoviediorama16 Jan, 2020
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