Overview

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.

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9781474409001

Table of Contents

Reviews

David Church's new book for Edinburgh University Press, 'Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom', is a book which very ably takes its title and spins it into an entertaining and informative read. Church does what so many authors fail at, in that he lays out the exact amount of historical context required to understand the topic at hand... It's a fabulous addition to any film library. -- tarburst Magazine Grindhouse Nostalgia is a serious study of a subject rarely treated seriously, namely exploitation cinema and its continuing allure...This is a thought-provoking study, especially noteworthy in the part dealing with rape-revenge films, and deserves the attention an endurance of those with a more scholarly inclination. -- ue Morgue By taking fans' nostalgia seriously, 'Grindhouse Nostalgia' makes a brilliant contribution to understanding cult movies and fandom. Exploring historical complexities of the drive-in and the grind house, David Church builds an impressive theory of subcultural value, retrosploitation and cultural memory. The 'new' might not always be better, but this new study most definitely challenges and surpasses previous work in the field. -- Professor Matt Hills, Aberystwyth University True exploitation-film fans will appreciate this smart, swift volume. Although technically an academic tome, it's hardly work when the subject matter is so fun, and David Church traces the history of grindhouse cinema from its dirt-cheap roots (when what was playing was largely secondary) to its corporate co-opting today as a catchall term. While Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford's 'Sleazoid Express' remains the definitive depiction of the Times Square moviegoing experience, Church's book excels in examining the scene ever since: namely, the second wave ushered by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's big-screen 'Grindhouse'; the subsequent coattail-riding DVD reissues of B-, C- and Z-level fare; and now the faux-retro vibe of such titles as blaxploitation spoof 'Black Dynamite' and women-in-prison romp 'Sugar Boxx'. -- Bookgasm.com + FlickAttack.com

David Church's new book for Edinburgh University Press, 'Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom', is a book which very ably takes its title and spins it into an entertaining and informative read. Church does what so many authors fail at, in that he lays out the exact amount of historical context required to understand the topic at hand... It's a fabulous addition to any film library. -- tarburst Magazine Grindhouse Nostalgia is a serious study of a subject rarely treated seriously, namely exploitation cinema and its continuing allure...This is a thought-provoking study, especially noteworthy in the part dealing with rape-revenge films, and deserves the attention an endurance of those with a more scholarly inclination. -- ue Morgue By taking fans' nostalgia seriously, 'Grindhouse Nostalgia' makes a brilliant contribution to understanding cult movies and fandom. Exploring historical complexities of the drive-in and the grind house, David Church builds an impressive theory of subcultural value, retrosploitation and cultural memory. The 'new' might not always be better, but this new study most definitely challenges and surpasses previous work in the field. -- Professor Matt Hills, Aberystwyth University

Author Information

David Church is a film and media scholar specializing in genre studies, taste cultures, and histories of film circulation. He is the author of Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom (EUP, 2015), Disposable Passions: Vintage Pornography and the Material Legacies of Adult Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2016), and Mortal Kombat: Games of Death (University of Michigan Press, 2022).

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