By Chris Haberman
The beauty of B-Movies
By Chris Haberman
Staff Writers
An explanation is deserved for those who may need one; B-movies are films usually shot on what industry hounds call a “shoestring budget”. This is just another term for ‘low budget’. Hence the term ‘B’-movie, as opposed to an ‘A’-movie. These films which lack funding are made by struggling new filmmakers or seasoned producers and directors who prefer the often more realistic look and feel of a dirt-cheap film. Nevertheless, relentless overload of every possible manner typically occurs when a person watches a B-movie. The absence of money is what makes these films either ugly, cheap, and forgotten or wildly successful, revered, and historical. “The Blair Witch Project” can be used as a perfect example of the latter.
“Relentless overload” may seem a bit extreme, but it is not at all. B-movies, because of their appearance, typical no-name actors, and peculiar plots, have the power to grip your throat tightly or bore you into a gentle, relaxing coma. The people behind the cameras and scripts are all aspiring to generate as much bang for their buck. Overload is taking place already before anyone even witnesses the film. Everyone involved, from the directors to the actors, are trying to substitute budget with passion, big names with intense performances, and stereotypical Hollywood script formulas with memorable unpredictability. Since the easiest way to go about earning a spot in the memories of viewers is to outrage them, horror films seem to be the most effective forms of B-movies. In all honesty, there have been many wonderful low-budget dramas (“Kids”) and comedies (“Clerks”), to name a few genres, but the low-budget horror film has proven time and time again to be gold in disguise or a cinematic piece of trash that you won’t likely forget very soon.
“The Exorcist”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and “Halloween” are all examples of low, low budget films that not only scared the hell out of people in the theaters, but scared the hell out of their kids and grandkids in the years to come. The method still works today with films such as “The Blair Witch Project”(I don’t care how stupid people thought that movie was; all it took was a fleeting moment of imagination and a vacation from arms-folded cynicism to derive some real entertainment out of that picture). It’s really quite easy. The director stops to think about what scared them when they saw films, what hasn’t been done before, and how can cliches, predictability, and gobs of blood can be avoided. That’s right. The four films I’ve mentioned contain little or no blood at all. Yet they are four of the most regarded fright films in the industry. That’s because they are scary. You don’t need blood and guts to scare people. These guys probably couldn’t afford much blood and guts anyway.
Then again, the only films visited so far have been the success stories. What about those nasty, seedy little gems that most people ignore in the cult section of your local video store? “The Toxic Avenger” is a success story, to a degree, but it also remains a fleeting example of lowest common denominator filmmaking. It’s a format that you’ll see again and again in low budget horror. Brutal and unflinching violence, bad acting, sorry special effects, illogical script and story, and insulting to the viewer’s morals and intelligence. Hence, the guilty pleasure of it all. Those scenes of people on the street with pit stains and food on their shirts. The absurd amounts of blood and cruelty are sometimes unbearable to the weaker viewer.
If you haven’t seen the movie, though, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s a lot of fun primarily due to its disgusting nature and audacity. A movie like this should be burned and forgotten, according to most people. It’s, unfortunately, very important though. Without films like these, we’d be constantly spoon-fed the same lame Ben Affleck action flicks over and over again, with nowhere to run and hide. The cheaper the successful films are, the more encouragement young, innovative directors and filmmakers gain to create something new for us. Whatever they may present to us, be it gruesome, so stupid it’s funny, so bad it’s good, or so scary it’s historical, it can never be worse than the likes of big budget crap-fests like “Armageddon”.
