B Movie Nation

Foundational Cinema

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ANNOUNCING THE SCHEDULE FOR THE 2013 B MOVIE CELEBRATION

Announcing the film schedule for The 2103 B Movie Celebration-Thanks Avery… FRIDAY October 25th. – 6:00 p.m. OPENING GALA – 7:00 p.m. THEATRE ONE – Short Film: “C.” [C 299,792 km/s]. [ 15 min. / U.S.A. ] Feature Film: Retro…

The Giant Behemoth

Behemoth, the Sea Monster (1959) is an American-British science-fiction film co-production. Originally a story about an amorphous blob of radiation, the script was changed at the distributor’s insistence to a pastiche of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), though elements…

When The B Is Better Than The A

Two contrasting action movies – Riddick and White House Down – are not only examples of how less can be more, and vice versa, but how a B-movie done well can be better than an A-movie blockbuster done badly. B-movie…

The B Movie Diet

How is being a director like going on a diet? Both of them require commitment, cause lots of stress, and can result in dramatic weight loss. While chatting about his happiest movie memories, “Rush” director Ron Howard revealed the experience…

A Single Shot

Sam Rockwell is one talented, free-spirited dude, with one of the longest lists of bad movies no single actor deserves. Even in a dog like Seven Psychopaths, he managed to be nothing less than watchable. Unfortunately, hiding his face behind…

Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses

Chris Nashawaty’s wonderful new book Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses is an homage to the “King of the B Movie”: Roger Corman, whose cheapo productions for American International Pictures and his own New World outfit, aimed squarely…

Great Horror Sequels

“Insidious: Chapter 2” is surprisingly a really good horror sequel that manages to not only live up to its predecessor, but exceed it. It’s no secret that most horror sequels are just cheap low budget thrills meant to make a…

A Brief History of B’s

Roger Corman is, was, and will always be the King of that too-often-dismissed, taboo genre. Now 87, the legendary director and producer has been toiling in the drive-in trenches for nearly 60 years. During his career he’s overseen 400 movies–and…

Night of the Comet

Trapped in a hellish copyright limbo for over a decade, Thom Eberhardt’s “Night Of The Comet” is a film whose reputation is due for a serious rehabilitation. Generally–and wrongly–categorized with typical 80s teen horror films, “Comet” is in fact a…

Targets

Tight, suspenseful, full of cross-cutting scenes to follow the unfolding of two stories that are about to merge into one, TARGETS is the last major feature film that BORIS KARLOFF made, and it’s one of his best during the latter…

Why Not A B Movie

The weekend has rolled in, and you and your friends are in the mood for a dorm movie night. You pull out a list of movies, or to be more precise, A-list movies. Is it because you prefer familiarity over…

Shock Con Here We Come

Horror, science fiction and fantasy invade Charleston, Sept. 20-22, as the Shocka-Con Horror/Sci-Fi Convention, comes to the Kanawha Players Theatre, 426 Beauregard Street, Charleston, WV. Tickets range from $10 to $100. Guest include Ray Wooley and RJ Haddy (o SyFy…

Insidious: Chapter 2

When we last left the Lamberts, the family whose eldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) had been trapped in a comalike state in “Insidious,” the boy had awakened from his supernatural trance thanks to a rescue mission by his intrepid father….

A bit of B-movie heaven

While some may say that Will Smith and Tom Cruise are the biggest movie stars in the world, I’d make a case that Vin Diesel is right on their heels. As proof, I submit his latest action epic Riddick, a…

Gremlins Director Joe Dante Takes on Roger Corman Biopic

Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers) will direct The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, the upcoming biopic about producer and B-movie legend Roger Corman. Presented as a comedy, the film takes place in Hollywood in the late 1960s, reports ScreenDaily. Corman —…

White House Down

Roland Emmrich, the German-born director of Wagnerian excess and operatic spectacle, is far smarter than the average blockbuster nine-to-fiver. His movies, not least the enjoyably absurd Independence Day and the preposterous eco-morality tale The Day After Tomorrow, serve up grand…

Jumping the shark

Ok, so nobody actually needs to know anything about Sharknado. All you need – and probably want – to know is right there in the title: yes, that’s shark and tornado in one word. The ultimate fish-out-of-water B-movie, Sharknado is…

He’s Good With Worms

Hollywood may be glamorous, but getting a start there often isn’t. Even James Cameron, director of blockbusters including The Terminator and Avatar, started out on the bottom floor. In a new book, Cameron says that he was able to get…

Bad Movie Nite at the Lyric

This weekend, Bad Movie Nite, which has taken place at The Lyric since November 2012, will show two 45 minute terrible and cheesy flicks with on-text commentary. The text, rather than jokes dubbed over, is one aspect that sets it…

Love Pyun

Albert Pyun is a legend among low-budget movie-makers. He’s probably directed more movies about cyborgs than anyone else. He’s been making post-apocalyptic movies since the Mad Max era, and he’s still at it. He’s worked with Rutger Hauer, Jean-Claude Van…