Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video and Exploitation Film Fandom

by David Church

Too often dismissed as nothing more than ‘trash cinema’, exploitation films have become both earnestly appreciated cult objects and home video items that are more accessible than ever. In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today. Arguing for the importance of cultural memory in contemporary fan practices, Church focuses on both the re-release of archival exploitation films on DVD and the recent cycle of ‘retrosploitation’ films like Grindhouse , Machete , Viva , The Devil’s Rejects , and Black Dynamite . At a time when older ideas of subcultural belonging have become increasingly subject to nostalgia, Grindhouse Nostalgia presents an indispensable study of exploitation cinema’s continuing allure, and is a bold contribution to our understanding of fandom, taste politics, film distribution, and home video.

Genres: Film

296 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2015

Reviews

[no elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

took a minute to get into the groove with this but once i did! wow! especially enjoyed the chapter about the spate of neo-exploitation films that were prevalent about a decade ago & the stuff about the grindhouse as an inherently masculine sphere/retrosploitation as reliving a sort of glory days of horror/exploitation cinema. good stuff!

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot like reading a textbook or someone’s thesis.

[Victoria Timpanaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

It looked at places of memory for exploitation cinema like drive-ins and grindhouse theaters, but also trying to relive/reclaim it through physical media consumption. It also looked at the retroexploitation movement in the 2000s that tried to go back to that style and try to recapture what was special but with (and sometimes without) modern perspectives. Not gonna lie, it was not the easiest read for me, but hit some interesting points.

[$am · Rating 4 out of 5]

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