'Grindhouse' cast spills blood over new flick

by Jon Seaborn, editor-in-chief

With Zombies, slashers, and fake horror-movie trailers, “Grindhouse” has everything a true B-movie fan needs.

With two of the best writer/directors, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, teaming up for this double feature, it’s sure to not disappoint.

Before diving into the gore-infested, shock-fest that “Grindhouse” will surely be, a history lesson is in order. Back in the 1960s and 1970s before the straight-to-DVD generation, there were grind houses. They were old, run-down theaters where double features of low-grade horror films would be shown.

The term “grind house” could come from a number of places. Some have said that the name refers to the types of films shown, such as “Bump-and-Grind”  films. Others say it’s from the form of presentation, because movies were “grinded out” in old projectors one after another.

Frequently, the movies were grouped by exploitation subgenre.  Splatter, slasher, sexploitation, cannibal and zombie movies would be grouped together and shown with graphic trailers. “Grindhouse” has all of this and more.

In production notes for the film, Tarantino and Rodriguez talk about what grind houses are to them.

“They were old houses that were more dilapidated than existed for the people in the big city neighborhoods, or they were all-night theaters that would play three or four movies,” Tarantino explains.  “It would be a place for the bums to go and sleep. If you’re hiding out from the law, you’d go there for the night.  Then, at six in the morning they wake you up and send you out, and you’d walk around for 90 minutes and come right back in again.”

But exploitation movies weren’t just for urbanites.

“Drive-ins had the same shows, but were a whole different setting,” Tarantino says.  “Grindhouse theaters were in more urban areas.  Dallas would have grind houses, and Houston would have grind houses, but when you get into the outer regions of Texas, it’s more about drive-ins.”

 “Because they made so few prints that they would be scratched up and worn out, and have chunks chopped out of them by the time anybody saw them,” Rodriguez adds.

“Grindhouse” is a double feature, with one film from each writer, Tarantino’s “Death Proof” and Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror.” Both are horror films, but on different ends of the horror spectrum.

In “Planet Terror,” married doctors William and Dakota Block, played by Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by gangrenous sores. Among the wounded is Cherry, played by Rose McGowan, a go-go dancer whose leg was ripped from her body during a roadside attack.  Wray, played by Freddy Rodriguez, her former significant other, is at her side and watching her back. 

Cherry may be down, but she hasn’t danced her last number.  As the invalids quickly become enraged aggressors, Cherry and Wray lead a team of accidental warriors into the night, hurtling towards a destiny that will leave millions infected with the zombie-like infection.

Rodriguez says he had wanted to do a zombie movie for some time. He says that he has had the idea for the story as far back as when he was filming ‘Spy Kids.’ So when the chance to do the double feature with long-time friend Tarantino, he jumped on it.

In “Death Proof” one of Austin’s hot young DJs, Jungle Julia, played by Sydney Tamiia Poitier, and two of her closest friends, Shanna and Arlene, played by Jordan Ladd and Vanessa Ferlito respectively, set out into the night. Covertly tracking their every move is Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, a scarred, weathered rebel who leers from behind the wheel of his muscle car.  As the girls settle into their beers, Mike’s weapon, his car, revs just feet away from the girls as they are about to face their maker.

Even if Tarantino’s  “Death Proof” is categorized as a slasher film, upon closer analysis, he amends the film’s genre classification: “It fuses the slasher film with high-octane car chase action, which was a big staple.” Tarantino says in production notes.  “They’re fused so much so that the genres switch hands at some point in the movie.  I don’t even know exactly where that point is, but there is some point in the film when you’re watching the last 20 minutes, you’re not watching what came before.  You have actually switched genres, and you’re into a different movie. You’re involved with the characters, so you don’t notice it, but you’re actually in a different movie.”

The cast for the movie is excited to have had the chance to have worked with the two film making masterminds.

“Even though the movies are meant to be bad, or in B movie fashion, it gets hard to try to act bad when you are working with people like Tarantino who produce such great stuff,” said Vanessa Ferlito in a recent phone interview with the Plainsman Press.

The cast is also excited to be working on grind house B movies. “When I was a kid in Chicago, my dad would take us to this big theater called The Tiffany, which used to play three karate movies for three bucks.  We always joked that we would go in when the sun was up and come out when the sun was down and it was nighttime.” Said Freddy Rodriguez during a phone interview. “We had a lot of fond memories going to grind house movies.”

Some of the cast are first-timers on a Tarantino or Rodriguez set, but others are returning champs. Tracie Thoms, a first-timer, and Rosario Dawson, the returning champ, even auditioned together.

“I really wanted the part, and knowing Rosario from “Rent,” and at the same time knowing she had worked with both of the directors in “Sin City,” I talked her into auditioning with me,” said Thoms during the phone interview.

Thoms, who plays Kim in “Death Proof”, added that “It’s a slasher movie, a car movie, an action movie, and then a Quentin Tarantino movie, all at once. You have all the great dialogue that Quentin is brilliant at coming up with, and you have a crazy killer coming after you, and then you have a big car chase with dust and flips.  There’s no CG.  It’s just two cars going at it and ramming into each other repeatedly, and chasing each other.  There’s a lot of action.”

When asked about what it was like going from “Rent” to “Grindhouse,” Thoms said, “I loved doing “Rent,” but I also loved this film. Tarantino was great. This film was a lot of fun.”

So whether you are in it for the chills, chicks, or cheap thrills ‘Grindhouse’ has it all. So head down to your local movie theater and check out this piece of horror art out.