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favorite B-movies

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Aurjay:
El Mariachi was an extremely cheaply made film. So much that Rodriguez sold his body for science experiments to fund it. The franchise though was something different. In a way like Evil Dead franchise, except not such a grand scale. The 1st one was very cheap but ever consecutive film cost more. The above poster makes some really good points though about intent. Your right b-movies usually intend to be nothing grand but sometimes do pull it off, i think El Mariachi is perfect example of that. The acting wasn't great at all but still drove to be more and succeeded. 

KharBevNor:

--- Quote from: a pack of wolves on 24 Feb 2010, 18:05 ---I've got to disagree with you there. B-movies usually do have bad or amateurish acting but I think that's a side effect of the way they're produced rather than a criteria. For me, b-movie status is all about intent. It should be aiming for a particular genre audience and not be designed to break out of the genre ghetto. So you're right about Donnie Darko, big names and not being a straight genre film mean it's out of the running even if it had cost 50p. It also should be produced for money rather than any kind of artistic statement. Films like The Blair Witch Project have aspirations beyond sitting on the DVD shelves between the other horror films, but a film like Ice Spiders is not going to be winning any awards and it knows it. It's supposed to shift a few units and make a few quid by hitting genre fans' buttons, and that's proper b-movie behaviour.

--- End quote ---

This is really problematic. There's other reasons people make low budget genre films than money; for fun say, or two get up on the first rung of the film business. But mainly I'm not sure why you're saying that having any sort of artistic pretensions should magically make a film not a B-Movie. Look at films like, say,  Zombie or Tombs of the Blind Dead, even early Dario Argento stuff, any of those more atmospheric old european horror flicks. Are they not B-Movies because they try and be a little bit sophisticated? Or what about Japanese films like Tetsuo, the Iron Man or the Guinea Pig series? Back in the day, films like Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man played as B features in the US. B-movies these days, if it's a category that still means anything, are more about playing outside the taste and sensibilities of a mainstream audience. You can have films like Cannibal Holocaust trying to make a serious artistic statement, and it will still be a B-Movie because there is no way most people would even sit through Cannibal Holocaust, let alone enjoy it on any level. In some ways B-Movies have their own aesthetic sensibility, to the extent that you can make films in the B-Movie genre irrespective of their subject matter, hopefully coming up with shit like the better Troma films (Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town, Toxic Avenger) or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. You can even dress up a bigger budget film in B-Movie trappings, and when done well it'svery good. Rocky Horror and Army of Darkness are perfect examples, as are Buckaroo Banzai and pretty much everything Cronenberg and Carpenter did in the eighties. What defines a great B-Movie, I think, is a sense of fun, as in the creators were enjoying what they were doing and trying to overcome the restrictions of a limited budget and often limited talent to create something that they believe would appeal to people with similiar tastes and ideas as themselves. Thus I would say my favourite B-movies are:

Pink Flamingos
I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle
All Hammer Horror Dracula films from Dracula Has Risen From the Grave through to The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Bad Taste
The Devils
The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre of Blood (which is more of a sequel in spirit than Dr. Phibes Rises Again)
Witchfinder General
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Zombie Flesh Eaters
Tetsuo, The Iron Man

etc.

a pack of wolves:
Hmm, I explained myself really badly there. I guess I was thinking about funding and intended audience rather than the artistic aims of the filmmakers. So, a film gets funding because genre films have a certain market. Then you have people making fascinating and often really strange films within that genre format that have to tick a certain number of boxes because that's where the funding and distribution comes from. Like Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song having several sex scenes because the cash came from backers who were expecting a sex film, not a black action movie. Or Rock 'n' Roll High School. Corman didn't give a shit about The Ramones. He wanted to make a high school music film, and originally pitched Disco High. But one of his staff said that wouldn't work, it needed to be Rock 'n' Roll High School. So they found a band, and then the filmmakers took a piece of cheap exploitation and made a really good comedy out of it. That wasn't the intention at the outset, when the project was begun it was simply a matter of "here's a market, let's exploit it" which is where a lot of b-movies started. But then the filmmakers almost defied this really commercial process and made good films just because they cared about genre films, and you get that great sense of fun with the best of them.

Also, Theatre Of Blood is awesome.

Professor Snuggles:
BLOOD DINER!!

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS!!

MACHINE GIRL!!!!

TOKYO GORE POLICE!!!!!

I haven't watched Neon Maniacs yet but I refuse to accept it's not awesome.

Also that Troma ish I guess.

Ikrik:
Where do Black Dynamite and Bitch Slap fit in? One is excellent and the other is good if you happen to be into chicks. 
Theatre of Blood happens to be my favourite Price film, it also happened to be his favourite of his films.  Which is awesome.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is awesome in name only, watching the actual film was so incredibly boring it hurt. 
Would Big Man Japan be a B-movie?  Because it too, is awesome.  Zebraman as well.

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