American Grindhouse
Directed byElijah Drenner
Written byElijah Drenner
Calum Waddell
Produced byElijah Drenner
Narrated byRobert Forster
CinematographyDan Greene
Edited byElijah Drenner
Andrew Goldenberg
Dan Greene
Music byJason Brandt
Production
companies
Lux Digital Pictures
End Films
Distributed byLorber Films
Release date
  • March 13, 2010 (2010-03-13) (SXSW)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

American Grindhouse is a 2010 documentary directed and produced by Elijah Drenner.[1] The film made its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2010.[2]

Overview

The documentary chronicles the history of the American exploitation film from the days of Thomas Edison to contemporary films of the 21st century.[3] The film features interviews with John Landis, Joe Dante, Jack Hill, Don Edmonds, Fred Williamson, Allison Anders, James Gordon White, Larry Cohen, William Lustig, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Judy Brown, Jeremy Kasten, Jonathan Kaplan, Bob Minor, Lewis Teague, David Hess and Fred Olen Ray. The documentary also features film historians Eddie Muller, Kim Morgan and Eric Schaefer. Robert Forster narrates.[4][5]

Films referenced

Many film titles and posters get shown in passing, but this is a list of the films that are commented on or analyzed in the voiceover or by the interviewees. The list is in chronological order, but some of the films are mentioned in the documentary out of that sequence to fit with the themes.

The main films referenced[6][7][8] in the documentary are:

Reception

The film earned positive reviews from critics, with some like The Village Voice's Mark Holcomb saying "nitpicky enough to please film-history nerds but lively in a way that should tickle the merely curious".[9][10]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of eight critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ SXSW Review: American Grindhouse - Film School Rejects
  2. ^ "American Grindhouse Preview at SXSW '10". Dread Central. March 3, 2010.
  3. ^ Slant Magazine
  4. ^ Underground Film Journal
  5. ^ Drenner, Elijah (31 December 2011). "My Favorite Year". iwakeupscreaming. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  6. ^ Hale, Mike (4 February 2011). "Exploitation 101 (Published 2011)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
  7. ^ Puppet Nazis vs. the Grindhouse Gang!
  8. ^ DVD Talk
  9. ^ Holcomb, Mark (February 2, 2011). "American Grindhouse Traces the Lineage of Cheapjack Cinematic Slop". The Village Voice.
  10. ^ Hale, Mike (February 3, 2011). "Exploitation 101". The New York Times.
  11. ^ American Grindhouse at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

Categories