What is a Grindhouse Movie?

One of the things I love about cinema is that as an art form, it can be used to do so many different things.

We’ve written about camera angles and other elements of polished filmmaking, but there’s a lot of down-and-dirty filmmaking that’s equally important to the form.

Today, I want to focus on one of those versions of Grindhouse movies. We’ll go over the definition, look at some examples, and pull out the characteristics of these kinds of films.

Let’s dive in.

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Grindhouse Movie Definition 

The term “grindhouse movie” refers to a specific type of low-budget film characterized by exploitation themes.

These themes include graphic violence and explicit sexual content.

The Origin of Grindhouse Movies

During the cinematic heydey of the 1970s, there were lots of movie theaters across America showing lots of different movies.

To stay open, these theaters were continuously showing films throughout the day, often with multiple features going back to back to back.

These theaters “ground out” films, running them repeatedly to maximize profits. Typically, ticket prices would be low, and sometimes they would increase as the day went on.

Still, many frequented these rundown cinemas which often showed salacious movies featuring sex and violence to sell more tickets.

So the movies that were shown in these grindhouse theaters were called ‘grindhouse movies.’

Grindhouse Characteristics 

Of course, it was hard to just limit the definition of grindhouse to movies shown in rundown theaters.

The term now applies to a bunch of movies that are identifiable via the following characteristics.

• Low-Budget:
  • These films were typically made with very limited funds, leading to a raw and unpolished aesthetic.
• Exploitation:
  • These kinds of films over taboo subjects or niche topics, like:
    • Graphic violence and gore.
    • Explicit sexual content.
    • “Sexploitation” films.
    • “Blaxploitation” films.
    • Martial arts films.
• Raw Aesthetic:
  • This could manifest in rough editing, lower-quality special effects, and sometimes less experienced actors.

Grindhouse Movie Examples

In order to understand the idea more, let’s look at a few examples of these kinds of movies.

• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): A quintessential example of raw, shocking horror.
• I Spit on Your Grave (1978): A controversial exploitation film.
• Death Race 2000 (1975): A cult classic combining dystopian sci-fi with violent car races.
• Grindhouse (2007): A double feature by Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) and Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof) that paid homage to the Grindhouse genre. This modern film brought the grindhouse style back into the mainstream.

Summing Up Grindhouse Movies 

This is a niche subset of movies, but an important one to study. Even if you don’t like these kinds of films, you cannot deny their artistry and contributions to film history.

Let me know what you think in the comments.