Product Description

Trash Cinephile is an irreverent guide to 99 intriguing examples of exploitation cinema from a wide variety of sub-genres. These are films that are often branded as B-movies, Trash films, and also rather unfairly as 'bad movies'. Many are so bizarre that they defy any kind of generic definition; which is why you will find the films discussed within these pages gathered together in eight very loosely themed chapters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #319279 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 252 pages

Customer Reviews

Nightmare Cities
The murdering "performance artist" Sardu in the the film Bloodsucking Freaks said it all:

"To display sadism and discipline alone would only lead to imprisonment. But . . . simply disguising it with a story, a minimal plot, and a score will result in me being hailed as a creative genius."

What the character in that exploitation film from 1976 said applies to many of the directors, writers, producers, and actors in the trash cinema covered in this book.

Trash Cinephile by Blake Ryan covers most of the categories of exploitation, such as:

The early "roadshow" pictures of the 1930s, comprising the original über-exploitation film Reefer Madness, and the World War II hygiene (read VD) films like Ship of Shame.

Films that some (okay, films that I) would call the Golden Age of Exploitation--from the 1950s and 60s--including Roger Corman's Bucket of Blood, Robert Clarke's The Hideous Sun Demon, and John Hall's "surf monster" movies.

The meat movies from the 1960s and 70s we all know and love, for instance Herschell Gordon Lewis's Two Thousand Maniacs and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes.

The "rape-revenge" movies that gave some exploitation films the feminist touch that launched a thousand Ph.D. theses--Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave, Abel Ferrara's MS. 45.

Actual "quality" movies by filmmakers who want to do more than just exploit, such as Larry Cohen's Q the Winged Serpent, John Carpenter's They Live, and Kathryn Bigelow's vampire film Near Dark--in my opinion the best film discussed in the book, and whose influence you can see in the new Danish vampire flick Let the Right One In.

The Italian gore of Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Classics of Blaxploitation like Jack Hill's Foxy Brown.

And last but not least, the Queen of Exploitation, who deserves her own category, Doris Wishman. Can anyone resist the film Deadly Weapons, starring Chesty Morgan, who smothers her victims to death with her large breasts. For me, though, Doris Wishman will be remembered not for a particular film she made, but for something she said.

"ALL movies are exploitation movies."

Trash Cinephile only has two problems: the proofreading could be better ("apostrophe s" is frequently used incorrectly as a plural ) and the book needs an index or table of contents that indicates which films are in which chapters.

I've only mentioned a small percentage of the films Blake Ryan covers in Trash Cinephile. He puts the movies in context as to their genre (space invaders, women in prison, etc.) and their historical time. There's a lot of interesting information about a lot of very guilty pleasures.

One mans trash is really another mans treasure
I bought this book a couple of weeks back after reading about it. Unlike a lot of horror and exploitation film guides around, this one has a sense of humour. The author looks at obscure horror, blaxploitation, kung fu, biker, sci-fi, revenge, and sexploitation movies. There's even a section on the Bruce Lee rip-offs that starred my favourite Lee-alike, Bruce Li. Another section looks at the Italian post-nukes of the eighties. If you're into offbeat cinema, I'd recommend this as a great guide...

Comprehensive guide to world of exploitation cinema
This is a great read for the serious film aficionado who truly likes and appreciates film in its many weird and wonderful genres.
Trash Cinephile is not only a movie review book but a genre specific guide to the other side of cinema, a great movie companion for both the fanboy and the casual film appreciator.