The first movie I saw that wasn’t a kid’s movie was Asylum. It was a horror anthology movie. It had four different stories. Maybe I was too young for that, but for a long time I kept thinking of different scenes from the movie for a long time. Not too long ago I watched it again. It wasn’t as good as I remembered.
I think there are separate categories here that sometimes overlap:
Cult Movies, and B-Movies.
Just realized that, since my first reaction was “Dark Star! Yay! A cult classic!”
.
I’ve been reading this and almost posting one of my faves, but realizing it’s too good.
So I want a thread titled “What is your favourite B+ movie?”
Night of the Lepus – very loosely based on the novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit.
Bunny rabbit.
Wild rabbits possibly could be scary, but the rabbits in Night of the Lepus were chubby, fluffy-- well-groomed– pet bunnies.
Yes,
WW is correct her. Altho certainly low budget, it was not designed to be shown as a B movie.
I loved the book. No interest in ever seeing the movie.
It was a little like an invasion of chonks, who could be stopped as long as you put a window with a sunbeam between you and them. Or distracted them with a feather on a stick.
According to a friend, she was in a birthing suite with a TV that no one thought to turn off. Yes, she was watching Night of the Lepus while giving birth.
The child appears normal, but I’m just waiting for some weird Donny Darko manifestations…
Not like those fearsome C.H.U.D.S.
Does anybody remember a 1981 movie called Wolfen? I loved the detective part of it. He was investigating a series of murders in NYC. Pretty good werewolf movie that was a bomb at the box office, coming between The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.
Wolfen was just short of excellent. The photography was innovative and it had Albert Finney.
Another Finney film was Looker, written and directed by Michael Crichton. Co-starring Susan Dey and James Coburn. Worth a look, if you can find it.
My first impulse was to go with Tremors, but since that’s been declared not B enough, I’ll select The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Thirded.
I had a kind of fascination for this movie when I was a kid because it was on TV often, yet I was not allowed to see it because, well, it was a horror movie and it was usually broadcast late at night. All I knew about it was the synopsis and a couple of pictures from TV magazines, but that was enough to draw my interest.
I finally saw it some twenty years ago, and while I can’t say it’s one of my favourite horror movies ever, I was very impressed with the general mood. Long shots of derelict buildings - whole neighbourhoods in ruins actually - slow pace, vague sense of an ease. Very well done.
I really would not classify Harold and Maude as a B-movie. But, as others have noted, it is a subjective call. One of my all-time favorite movies.
Repo Man (which you also mentioned) is one of the best ever B-movies IMO.
I’ll add The Toxic Avenger to this list. SUPER violent and shocking but somehow it works as long as you are a long way from easily offended.
Part of what I considered B-movies is whatever Morse included in his Video Trash and Treasures books. (Goodreads 4.3/5). He could not resist adding a couple “movies that deserve wider audiences”.
It’s not a B movie until Joe Bob says check it out.
Really? No one else has seen Two on a Guillotine?
I had to check Wikipedia to make sure, but that film was scored by multi-Oscar winner Max Steiner.who is quoted saying, "it wasn’t a picture, it was an abortion.”. Another hilarious quote in that article is by lead actress Connie Stevens: "I thought the script was stupid when I read it but I came away thinking, ‘yeah, it could have happened.’ “
I am shocked SHOCKED! I tell you, that Steiner scored it. He must have wanted to do just something, quickly, to get out of a two-picture contract. That’s how a lot of bankable stars end up in what would otherwise be B pictures.
Two on a Guillotine had a contrived plot with a catalogued device (“wacky will”) to get attractive, interesting, otherwise strangers to spend a few nights together in an old, creepy, aka “haunted” house. It had a mysterious death in the long past, that might be a murder to be solved. or just might be a tragedy in the past of our beautiful protagonist-- an orphan no less-- who is also currently a damsel in distress.
It also had a magician, and lots of his props popping up in odd ways, a bitter, former employee who might be a threat (and was played by Norman Bates’ mother’s voice).
All you need is a pet, and a love interest-- hey! it has those too! In B&W, looking like the details of the script were deliberately crafted to make use of old sets and costumes that were already available.
And it was campy-- in the original sense-- the actors looked like they were having fun, without an eye to the end product.
I was 11, and only recently allowed to stay up as late as I liked on non-school nights the first time I saw it. It was pure gold.
For some reason, I thought it was a Disney picture.
TIL: Directed by William “Cannon” Conrad.