- Highlight
- #1
Something I've always wondered is how the "grindhouse" and exploitation films could ever make a viable comeback outside of the occasional Tarantino or Eli Roth throwback or the more self-aware stuff from The Asylum.
I used to think it was impossible with the rise of the major studio consolidations and the massive chain theaters, to say nothing of SJW woke culture and their hatred of anything remotely seen as "edgy" or "problematic" but now I think there could be a possibility for it to make a comeback in the 2020's or 2030's.
Just so we're clear, I'm not saying it will make a comeback or that it's likely. Just that it's now actually within the realm of possibility.
COVID-19 and the rise of studio-owned streaming services have more or less screwed the chain theaters, and the old "block booking" practices of the Golden Age of Hollywood has come back in the form of said streaming services. It's all the same sterile and censored corporate crap, and the movie theater chains have been hit hard by this, with COVID-19 being a potential death knell.
But I still think people want to go to the movies since it's a good social activity, but the studios mostly just release garbage. It's either awful remakes and Whedon-esque blockbusters or pretentious boring indie arthouse garbage these days and that's been a growing problem since the Great Recession at the very least and likely even before then. There's no edge and very little variety compared to before.
Even the 2000's seemed a lot more varied and interesting than the 2010's in terms of movies and pop culture, despite being the decade where a lot of the worst Current Year movie trends like superhero movies and remakes first started to really take off, to say nothing of the 1970's, 1980's, or 1990's.
If we see SJW woke culture feel a massive cultural backlash post-2020, I could see a lot of independent filmmakers and studios try to make low-budget movies in genres or about subjects that are currently deemed as too "edgy" or "problematic" and I wouldn't put it past a few entrepreneurs to open up smaller theaters in the vein of the old grindhouses after Corona has more or less burnt itself out.
The theater chains could also loosen some of their restrictions and host more of these non-studio movies just to survive, especially since it looks like more of the big studios like Disney, Warner, and Sony are going to try and aim more towards the direct-to-streaming model. Smaller no-name streaming services could also pick up the more successful of these movies just to have more content as well.
The golden age of exploitation films and "hard" R-rated horror movies in the late 60's, 70's, and 80's came about because of the one-two punch of Paramount vs. United States putting an end to block booking and studio-owned theaters and the demise of the Hays Code more or less ending censorship and making foreign and independent productions more viable than before.
Even as grindhouse theaters themselves began to die out in the late 80's and 90's, the genre lived on and thrived in the Direct-to-Video market too.
I think the rise of streaming media, COVID-19 taking a razor wire baseball bat to the major studios and theater chains, and a potential backlash against SJW woke culture could produce a similar "leveled playing field" effect as the demise of the Hays Code and the collapse of the old Golden Age studio system did for the old grindhouse theaters and edgy exploitation films of the 70's and 80's.
I used to think it was impossible with the rise of the major studio consolidations and the massive chain theaters, to say nothing of SJW woke culture and their hatred of anything remotely seen as "edgy" or "problematic" but now I think there could be a possibility for it to make a comeback in the 2020's or 2030's.
Just so we're clear, I'm not saying it will make a comeback or that it's likely. Just that it's now actually within the realm of possibility.
COVID-19 and the rise of studio-owned streaming services have more or less screwed the chain theaters, and the old "block booking" practices of the Golden Age of Hollywood has come back in the form of said streaming services. It's all the same sterile and censored corporate crap, and the movie theater chains have been hit hard by this, with COVID-19 being a potential death knell.
But I still think people want to go to the movies since it's a good social activity, but the studios mostly just release garbage. It's either awful remakes and Whedon-esque blockbusters or pretentious boring indie arthouse garbage these days and that's been a growing problem since the Great Recession at the very least and likely even before then. There's no edge and very little variety compared to before.
Even the 2000's seemed a lot more varied and interesting than the 2010's in terms of movies and pop culture, despite being the decade where a lot of the worst Current Year movie trends like superhero movies and remakes first started to really take off, to say nothing of the 1970's, 1980's, or 1990's.
If we see SJW woke culture feel a massive cultural backlash post-2020, I could see a lot of independent filmmakers and studios try to make low-budget movies in genres or about subjects that are currently deemed as too "edgy" or "problematic" and I wouldn't put it past a few entrepreneurs to open up smaller theaters in the vein of the old grindhouses after Corona has more or less burnt itself out.
The theater chains could also loosen some of their restrictions and host more of these non-studio movies just to survive, especially since it looks like more of the big studios like Disney, Warner, and Sony are going to try and aim more towards the direct-to-streaming model. Smaller no-name streaming services could also pick up the more successful of these movies just to have more content as well.
The golden age of exploitation films and "hard" R-rated horror movies in the late 60's, 70's, and 80's came about because of the one-two punch of Paramount vs. United States putting an end to block booking and studio-owned theaters and the demise of the Hays Code more or less ending censorship and making foreign and independent productions more viable than before.
Even as grindhouse theaters themselves began to die out in the late 80's and 90's, the genre lived on and thrived in the Direct-to-Video market too.
I think the rise of streaming media, COVID-19 taking a razor wire baseball bat to the major studios and theater chains, and a potential backlash against SJW woke culture could produce a similar "leveled playing field" effect as the demise of the Hays Code and the collapse of the old Golden Age studio system did for the old grindhouse theaters and edgy exploitation films of the 70's and 80's.
Last edited:
