Grindhouse (2007) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

The episode of Revisited covering Grindhouse was Written by Cody Hamman, Edited and Narrated by Lance Vlcek, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Quentin Tarantino. Robert Rodriguez. Rob Zombie. Edgar Wright. Eli Roth. Back in 2007, these five filmmakers joined forces, all contributing to the same project. A film that brings us sights like deformed, decomposing zombies. Vehicular homicide. Limbs replaced with weaponry. Danny Trejo wiping out bad guys. A holiday slasher. Supernatural beings dripping white goo. And even some Nazi werewolves. It was a fun experiment… and a box office bomb. The film is called Grindhouse (watch it HERE) – and we think it’s time for it to be Revisited.

In the ‘90s, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez decided to collaborate on From Dusk Till Dawn, with Rodriguez directing from a screenplay by Tarantino. The result was one of the most entertaining vampire movies ever made. It’s sort of a sneak attack of a story. It starts off as a crime thriller. With a pair of homicidal, bank robbing brothers taking a family hostage so they can cross the border into Mexico. Once they’re in Mexico, they stop by a bar… and discover they have stepped right into a nest of vampires. As soon as the vampires bare their fangs, the movie dives into horror territory. It’s almost like you get two movies in one. A decade later, Tarantino and Rodriguez decided to collaborate on another project. This time, they really would be bringing the audience two movies for the price of one. They were going to make a grindhouse double feature.

This was an immensely cool experiment that they got Dimension Films to agree to finance. But there was a flaw as soon as it was announced: the fact that the concept of a grindhouse double feature had to be explained to the public. Grindhouse was an American term for a theatre that would primarily show low budget horror and exploitation films. Often in double features. The most popular grindhouses stood on 42nd Street in Manhattan. But by the time Tarantino and Rodriguez were planning their movie, the grindhouse era had been over for twenty years. Some parts of the United States didn’t even have grindhouses to begin with. The equivalent would have been the drive-in double feature. Also a thing of the past in most areas. Viewers in other countries would have to be clued in about this grindhouse concept as well. So when Grindhouse was announced, the average movie-goer didn’t even know what Tarantino and Rodriguez were talking about.

But they pushed on. The plan was that Rodriguez would write and direct one feature and Tarantino would do the same for the other. For his part, Rodriguez decided to make Planet Terror. Which can basically be described as, “What if John Carpenter had made a zombie outbreak movie in the ‘80s?” Then that idea is filtered through Rodriguez’s wild, over-the-top style. Tarantino was initially thinking of making a Blaxploitation ghost story called Jody the Grinder. Lifting the title from a comedy routine by Rudy Ray Moore, the man who played Dolemite. This story would have followed a group of college history students who go on a tour of Southern plantations. Where they run into the ghost of a slave who has been cursed by the devil. And is now compelled to assault white women. But Tarantino decided to set that idea aside and instead draw inspiration from ‘70s car movies like Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. He described his feature, Death Proof, as “sort of a slasher film, but instead of a knife, it’s a car.” And he was determined to have it end with one of the best car chases ever put on film.

In their attempt to replicate the grindhouse double feature experience, the filmmakers also intended to shoot fake trailers. Some would play before the first feature, while others would be sandwiched between the two movies. Along with fake ads and vintage clips. They had a lot of ideas for the fake trailers. Tarantino alone intended to make four: a Blaxploitation trailer, a Spaghetti-Western one, a kung fu promo, and a European sexploitation trailer. He even announced the title for that last one: Cowgirls in Sweden. But filming Death Proof and its extended car chase took so long, he didn’t have time to make any of those. Rodriguez did shoot a faux trailer for a Danny Trejo action movie called Machete. Which he called a Mexploitation movie. But to get more trailers in there, they had to recruit other filmmakers to contribute to the project. Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Eli Roth.

The Machete trailer gets the experience started – and it’s an awesome way to kick things off. Digitally created film damage, the story, the narration, and the scenes we’re shown make this come off like an ‘80s Cannon production. Jeff Fahey hires Danny Trejo’s character Machete, who seems to be an average day laborer, to pull off a political assassination. Then he makes the mistake of double crossing him. So Machete seeks the help of his priest brother, Cheech Marin, and they set off on a rampage of revenge. There’s amusing lines, bloodshed, breasts, and action that escalates to a ridiculous level. This trailer went over so well, Rodriguez turned Machete into a feature just three years later… and followed it with a sequel.

Then we dive into the madness of Planet Terror. Where Rodriguez continues to digitally manipulate the image so it looks like the film print has been neglected and beaten up. It appears to have been around for decades – even though the movie is set in modern day, complete with characters texting on cell phones. There’s even a moment where the film melts and breaks, which leads into a missing reel notification. When the movie resumes, we’ve missed several minutes of action. As you would if a theatre didn’t have one of the film reels on hand.

The trouble starts at a military base. A group of soldiers led by Bruce Willis arrive hoping to score a batch of a deadly chemical called DC2. Created as part of an experiment called Project Terror. The soldiers were dosed with the stuff while on a mission. Now, if they don’t have a steady supply of DC2, they’ll turn into pus-spewing, rotting zombies with a hunger for human flesh. Things go wrong, tanks full of DC2 are ruptured, and the gas begins to spread through the nearby town. Soon it’s overrun with grotesque flesh eaters. The characters who have to deal with this zombie outbreak include tow truck driver El Wray, played by Freddy Rodriguez. His go-go dancer, aspiring comedienne ex Cherry Darling. Who is played by Rose McGowan and ends up losing a leg. So her leg is replaced with a grenade launching assault rifle. Jeff Fahey as the owner of a barbecue joint, with Michael Biehn as his sheriff brother. Naveen Andrews as a scientist who makes shady deals and collects testicles. Special effects legend Tom Savini, playing a deputy. Michael Parks shows up as Earl McGraw, a character he played in From Dusk Till Dawn and Kill Bill. Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton play married doctors William and Dakota Block. Who are dealing with intense marriage issues when the zombies interrupt their lives. And there’s also the Crazy Babysitter Twins.

Planet Terror is a fun, disgusting horror movie. The build-up of the zombie outbreak is handled very well. Then it gets increasingly goofy and really goes off-the-rails toward the end. By the time Cherry is blasting enemies with her assault rifle leg, it’s practically a live-action cartoon. It has several cool, memorable characters, and moves along at a fast pace. But, despite the ‘80s vibe and film damage, it doesn’t quite feel like an authentic grindhouse movie. Because it has bigger action sequences than a grindhouse movie ever would have been able to afford. Rodriguez could have pulled back and toned it down a bit… But then again, the absurd action is part of its charm.

Following Planet Terror, we get three more fake trailers. Plus a quick ad for a Tex-Mex restaurant. First is Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women of the SS, set during World War II. A mix of Nazisploitation, werewolves, and lounge singing. Nazis played by Udo Kier and Tom Towles come up with a plan to create werewolf soldiers with the help of a mad scientist played by Bill Moseley. As well as “the She-Devils of Belzac”, played by Sheri Moon Zombie and Sybil Danning. A werewolf in a Nazi uniform is seen firing a machine gun. Nicolas Cage shows up for a cameo as Fu Manchu. It’s a bunch of oddball insanity that Zombie really should turn into a feature.

Moving on to Edgar Wright’s trailer, DON’T. Combining Hammer Films and Italian horror influences. A narrator informs us of all sorts of things we shouldn’t do. A nod to the fact that many films of the grindhouse era had “Don’t” in the title. Don’t Go in the House, Don’t Look in the Basement, Don’t Answer the Phone, Don’t Look Now. You get the idea. Wright shows off things like a fog-enshrouded mansion. People being turned into homicidal maniacs with completely white eyes. And a white substance oozing from their eyes and hands. Plus there’s a diapered man-baby chained in the basement. It’s not clear what is going on in Don’t. But there are a lot of familiar faces. Jason Isaacs, Lucy Punch, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Emily Booth. If Wright were ever to try turning Don’t into a feature, it would be interesting to find out what exactly the story is.

Then we get Eli Roth’s holiday slasher tribute Thanksgiving. A glimpse at the best ‘80s slasher that was never made. With Creepshow music over the imagery. It sets up the story of a blade-wielding madman dressed like a pilgrim. Who ruins Thanksgiving for the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Various teenagers are slashed up, including ones played by Roth and Jay Hernandez. Jordan Ladd is chased by the killer. A cop played by Michael Biehn is on the case. A cheerleader has a bad experience on a trampoline. Viewers were left anxiously waiting for Roth to turn this one into a feature. And sixteen years later, he finally did.

Select theatrical screenings of Grindhouse in the U.S. and Canada also included a trailer called Hobo with a Shotgun, directed by Jason Eisener. Who won a contest run by Rodriguez and South by Southwest to get his trailer attached to some prints of the movie. Eisener turned Hobo with a Shotgun into a feature soon after.

The second half of the double feature, Tarantino’s Death Proof has been criticized as being poorly paced and overly talky. The structure is unusual, the dialogue is long-winded and self-indulgent… but there’s still a lot of fun to be had. It starts with friends played by Jordan Ladd, Vanessa Ferlito, and Sydney Poitier on a girls’ night out in Austin, Texas. We notice they’re being followed by a car with a white skull painted on the hood. The driver is played by Kurt Russell – who turns in an awesome performance. Adding this character, Stuntman Mike, to the long list of great characters he has played. While the girls hang out in a bar, dancing and drinking to excess, Mike is watching them. Drinking non-alcoholic drinks. And acting like a really nice guy.

Then the girls head out to a lake house with another friend. In your average slasher movie they would make it to that destination, then the slasher would start picking them off. But this isn’t your average slasher. Stuntman Mike’s car is death proof, reinforced to protect the driver in major crashes. And he uses that car to kill a girl who asked him for a ride, played by Rose McGowan. Then he kills the group of friends in a head-on collision. Tarantino makes sure that we get a good look at exactly what injuries cause each of their deaths. It’s shocking, spectacular, gross… And halfway through the movie, we have lost all of the characters we had been following. But Stuntman Mike is still alive.

While Mike is briefly hospitalized, there are cameos by Marley Shelton as Doctor Dakota Block. Michael Parks as her dad, Earl McGraw. And James Parks as her brother Edgar. A character he also played in Kill Bill and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. Then there’s a jump in time and location.

Here’s Death Proof’s biggest problem. After spending half of the movie with a bunch of characters who did a whole lot of talking, we’re now introduced to a new batch of characters. Who do a whole lot of talking about very similar subjects. The new characters are played by Tracie Thoms, Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. And stunt performer Zoë Bell, playing herself. There’s a lot of dialogue for the sake of dialogue. But things get back on track once Zoë gets a couple of her friends to take a 1970 Dodge Challenger out for a spin. So she can play an ill-advised game called Ship’s Mast. It’s while she’s doing this, riding on the hood of the car, that Stuntman Mike shows up to ruin their day. And this climactic car chase is a beautiful thing to behold. Featuring around twenty minutes of vehicular action. It saves the second half of Death Proof and works with the first half to really make the movie something special. Along the way, there’s a great, hilarious turn-around with the Stuntman Mike character. He has been a calm and cool, sick bastard… But when his victims fight back, he falls apart.

The Grindhouse double feature is highly entertaining overall. It’s a blast to sit through its full three hours. Unfortunately, not a lot of people did when it was first released in 2007.

Since this was a tribute to low budget films of the past, it should have had a low budget as well. But it didn’t. Grindhouse had a budget somewhere over fifty million. Possibly almost seventy million. So when Dimension Films gave it the baffling release date of April 6th, it bombed. It only made twenty-five million at the domestic box office. Then pulled in another twenty-five million internationally. Since the double feature wasn’t performing well, Dimension released Planet Terror and Death Proof on their own in some countries. And when they first came to home video, they were still separated. Fans had to wait three years before the double feature Blu-ray was finally released.

Rodriguez and Tarantino had high hopes for Grindhouse. They thought it could be the start of a franchise they would return to from time to time. There would be Spaghetti-Western and kung fu follow-ups. Those were the days before Tarantino started looking forward to retirement. But it wasn’t to be.

The movie may not have done much for the studio. But it was warmly welcomed by fans who got what Rodriguez and Tarantino were going for. It gained a cult following. Spawned feature expansions of some of its fake trailers. And even had an impact on pop culture. In the years since its release, many other filmmakers have tried to replicate the look and feel of the grindhouse era. Including those who didn’t even know what a grindhouse was until Rodriguez and Tarantino showed them the way. The experiment was a failure on a financial level. On an entertainment level, it was a massive success.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!

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