B movie - Wikipedia. A B movie or B film is a low- budget commercial movie, but one that is not an arthouse film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less- publicized bottom half of a double feature (akin to B- sides for recorded music). ![]() Although the U. S. B movie continues to be used in its broader sense to this day. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient; on the other, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low- budget science- fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the top- billed films they were paired with,[1] many had running times of 7. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics. Latter- day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common. As the average running time of top- of- the- line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher- budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation- style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie. From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided opportunities both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Replicants, superheros, and reboots await you in our Fall Movie Guide. Plan your season and take note of the hotly anticipated indie, foreign, and documentary. Well, this is a weird turn. We had heard a couple months back that Lena Dunham would have a role in the upcoming clowns-and-Trump smorgasbord of American Horror Story.
Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies. They are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson first became established, and they have provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. Some actors, such as Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine and Pam Grier, worked in B movies for most of their careers. The term B actor is sometimes used to refer to a performer who finds work primarily or exclusively in B pictures. History[edit]Columbia's That Certain Thing (1. Soon, director Frank Capra's association with Columbia would help vault the studio toward Hollywood's major leagues.[2]In 1. Hollywood studio ranged from $1. ![]() Fox to $2. 75,0. 00 at Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer. That average reflected both "specials" that might cost as much as $1 million and films made quickly for around $5. ![]() Who doesn’t love a good horror movie or even a really terrible one? The Japanese horror genre (known by the abbreviated term “J-Horror”) has given us films. These cheaper films (not yet called B movies) allowed the studios to derive maximum value from facilities and contracted staff in between a studio's more important productions, while also breaking in new personnel.[3] Studios in the minor leagues of the industry, such as Columbia Pictures and Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), focused on exactly those sorts of cheap productions. Their movies, with relatively short running times, targeted theaters that had to economize on rental and operating costs, particularly small- town and urban neighborhood venues, or "nabes". Even smaller production houses, known as Poverty Row studios, made films whose costs might run as low as $3,0. With the widespread arrival of sound film in American theaters in 1. A new programming scheme developed that would soon become standard practice: a newsreel, a short and/or serial, and a cartoon, followed by a double feature. The second feature, which actually screened before the main event, cost the exhibitor less per minute than the equivalent running time in shorts. The majors' "clearance" rules favoring their affiliated theaters prevented the independents' timely access to top- quality films; the second feature allowed them to promote quantity instead.[5] The additional movie also gave the program "balance"—the practice of pairing different sorts of features suggested to potential customers that they could count on something of interest no matter what specifically was on the bill. The low- budget picture of the 1. B movie, of Hollywood's Golden Age.[6]Golden Age of Hollywood[edit]The major studios, at first resistant to the double feature, soon adapted. All established B units to provide films for the expanding second- feature market. Block booking became standard practice: to get access to a studio's attractive A pictures, many theaters were obliged to rent the company's entire output for a season. With the B films rented at a flat fee (rather than the box office percentage basis of A films), rates could be set virtually guaranteeing the profitability of every B movie. The parallel practice of blind bidding largely freed the majors from worrying about their Bs' quality—even when booking in less than seasonal blocks, exhibitors had to buy most pictures sight unseen. The five largest studios—Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Fox Film Corporation (2. Century Fox as of 1. Warner Bros., and RKO Radio Pictures (descendant of FBO)—also belonged to companies with sizable theater chains, further securing the bottom line.[7]Poverty Row studios, from modest outfits like Mascot Pictures, Tiffany Pictures, and Sono Art- World Wide Pictures down to shoestring operations, made exclusively B movies, serials, and other shorts, and also distributed totally independent productions and imported films. In no position to directly block book, they mostly sold regional distribution exclusivity to "states rights" firms, which in turn peddled blocks of movies to exhibitors, typically six or more pictures featuring the same star (a relative status on Poverty Row).[8] Two "major- minors"—Universal Studios and rising Columbia Pictures—had production lines roughly similar to, though somewhat better endowed than, the top Poverty Row studios. In contrast to the Big Five majors, Universal and Columbia had few or no theaters, though they did have top- rank film distribution exchanges.[9]In the standard Golden Age model, the industry's top product, the A films, premiered at a small number of select first- run houses in major cities. Double features were not the rule at these prestigious venues. As described by historian Edward Jay Epstein, "During these first runs, films got their reviews, garnered publicity, and generated the word of mouth that served as the principal form of advertising."[1. Then it was off to the subsequent- run market where the double feature prevailed. At the larger local venues controlled by the majors, movies might turn over on a weekly basis. At the thousands of smaller, independent theaters, programs often changed two or three times a week. To meet the constant demand for new B product, the low end of Poverty Row turned out a stream of micro- budget movies rarely much more than sixty minutes long; these were known as "quickies" for their tight production schedules—as short as four days.[1. As Brian Taves describes, "Many of the poorest theaters, such as the 'grind houses' in the larger cities, screened a continuous program emphasizing action with no specific schedule, sometimes offering six quickies for a nickel in an all- night show that changed daily."[1. Many small theaters never saw a big- studio A film, getting their movies from the states rights concerns that handled almost exclusively Poverty Row product. Millions of Americans went to their local theaters as a matter of course: for an A picture, along with the trailers, or screen previews, that presaged its arrival, "[t]he new film's title on the marquee and the listings for it in the local newspaper constituted all the advertising most movies got", writes Epstein.[1. Aside from at the theater itself, B films might not be advertised at all. The introduction of sound had driven costs higher: by 1. U. S. feature film cost $3. A broad range of motion pictures occupied the B category. The leading studios made not only clear- cut A and B films, but also movies classifiable as "programmers" (also known as "in- betweeners" or "intermediates"). As Taves describes, "Depending on the prestige of the theater and the other material on the double bill, a programmer could show up at the top or bottom of the marquee."[1. On Poverty Row, many Bs were made on budgets that would have barely covered petty cash on a major's A film, with costs at the bottom of the industry running as low as $5,0. By the mid- 1. 93. U. S. exhibition model, and the majors responded. In 1. 93. 5, B movie production at Warner Bros. The unit was headed by Bryan Foy, known as the "Keeper of the Bs".[1. At Fox, which also shifted half of its production line into B territory, Sol M. Wurtzel was similarly in charge of more than twenty movies a year during the late 1. A number of the top Poverty Row firms consolidated: Sono Art joined another company to create Monogram Pictures early in the decade. In 1. 93. 5, Monogram, Mascot, and several smaller studios merged to establish Republic Pictures. The former heads of Monogram soon sold off their Republic shares and set up a new Monogram production house.[1. Into the 1. 95. 0s, most Republic and Monogram product was roughly on par with the low end of the majors' output. Less sturdy Poverty Row concerns—with a penchant for grand sobriquets like Conquest, Empire, Imperial, and Peerless—continued to churn out dirt- cheap quickies.[1. Joel Finler has analyzed the average length of feature releases in 1. B production[2. 0] (United Artists produced little, focusing on the distribution of prestigious films from independent outfits; Grand National, active 1. Poverty Row, releasing mostly independent productions[2. Studio. Category. Horror Movies - Free Streaming Movies Online. Let’s get scary with some Horror movies starring Peter Lorre, John Carradine, Vincent Price, Howard Keel,Lee Montgomery, Rock Hudson, Duane Jones, Joseph Cotton, Paul Sorvino, Michael Beck; and actresses Marilyn Eastman, Mary Louise Weller, Beatrice Straight, Susan Anspach, Olivia d’Abo. Some of our famous Horror Movie directors include Wes Craven, William Castle, Ralph Nelson, George Romero, Mel Welles, Herk Harvey and Richard Jefferies. Horror is a film genre or category seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience’s primal fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, horror films have for more than a century featured scenes that startle the viewer. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Thus, they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres. Horror films often deal with the viewer’s nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include: ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific. Some of the sub- categories or sub- genres of Horror films are: Action Horror- A subgenre combining the intrusion of an evil force, event, or supernatural personage of horror movies with the gunfights and frenetic chases of the action genre. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical action- horror films include gore, demons, vicious animals, vampires and, most commonly, zombies. This category also fuses with fantasy. Body horror– In which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. Other types of body horror include unnatural movements, or the anatomically incorrect placement of limbs to create ‘monsters’ out of human body parts. David Cronenberg is one of the notable directors of the genre. Comedy horror– Combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction. The comedy horror genre usually features some black comedy. The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving is cited as “the first great comedy- horror story.”Gothic horror– Gothic horror is a type of story that contains elements of Goth and horror. At times, it may have a romance sub- plot that unfolds in the setting of a horror tale, usually suspenseful. Some of the earliest horror movies were of this subgenre. Natural horror– A subgenre of horror films “featuring nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold- blooded killers.” This genre may sometimes overlap with the science fiction and action/adventure. Psychological horror– Relies on characters fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and at times, the supernatural and ghosts, to build tension and further the plot. Science fiction horror– Often revolves around subjects that include but are not limited to killer aliens, mad scientists, and/or experiments gone wrong. Slasher film– Often revolves around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, mainly with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. Slasher films may at times overlap with the crime, mystery and thriller genre, and they are not all the entire horror genre. Splatter film– These films deliberately focus on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. With the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, they tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation. Not all splatter films are slashers, and not all splatter films are horrors. Zombie film– Zombie films feature creatures that are usually portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless human beings. Distinct subgenres have evolved, such as the “zombie comedy” or the “zombie apocalypse.”.
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