25 Best Modern Exploitation Movies - from Rolling Stone

[Neo]

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/25-best-modern-exploitation-movies-20150706

Spring Breakers (2012) is #1.

[Crazy Vick]

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/25-best-modern-exploitation-movies-20150706

Spring Breakers (2012) is #1.

and flagrant dino-sploitation doesn't make it?   

I guess T will clear this up come September.   

[Ari]

sheesh they just add "sploitation" to anything.

[110x75]

The people at RS do crapsploitation!

[Crazy Vick]

 

[CSM]

The people at RS do crapsploitation!

Yes, yes they do!

[brude]

More proof that RS is worthless drivel.

[110x75]

More proof that RS is worthless drivel.

 

[50s]

I skimmed through Showgirls a week ago, just checking out the good bits. there were certainly lots of good bits 

[mwright]

Another shitty top 25 list.

[erik1925]

I skimmed through Showgirls a week ago, just checking out the good bits. there were certainly lots of good bits 

Very true, Steve. 

[rumble]

I thought it was a pretty interesting list overall, and I've seen most of the entries. I'd maybe have expected more horror (like HOSTEL 2 for instance) and a more international view had been good (e.g. some Asian RING variant). But I like the fact that they are including a lot of art-house fare rather than going the lazy "so bad it's good" route (no SHARKNADO or BIRDEMIC, thank you very much).

I'm curious: what would have made a better list?

[Harry Caul]

I thought it was a pretty interesting list overall, and I've seen most of the entries. I'd maybe have expected more horror (like HOSTEL 2 for instance) and a more international view had been good (e.g. some Asian RING variant). But I like the fact that they are including a lot of art-house fare rather than going the lazy "so bad it's good" route (no SHARKNADO or BIRDEMIC, thank you very much).

I'm curious: what would have made a better list?

Agreed.  I thought it was a decent list.

[mwright]

I thought it was a pretty interesting list overall, and I've seen most of the entries. I'd maybe have expected more horror (like HOSTEL 2 for instance) and a more international view had been good (e.g. some Asian RING variant). But I like the fact that they are including a lot of art-house fare rather than going the lazy "so bad it's good" route (no SHARKNADO or BIRDEMIC, thank you very much).

I'm curious: what would have made a better list?

I agree, If I throw out a line like "another shitty top 25 list" I should back it up with something.  I just don't see where movies like CRANK, JOHN WICK, and DJANGO UNCHAINED fit into this list.  If you add them you've got to have movies like FAST AND THE FURIOUS 6 on there and a whole boatload of others like them.  DRIVE being on there doesn't make any sense either, it's to intelligent to be listed as an exploitation film.  KIDS certainly not.   I think SHOWGIRLS nods it's hat to the exploitation film but is looking at it from outside the window as opposed to being in the room.  HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN...yes, great call.  BLUE RUIN...this should have been at the top.  It's a great exploitation flick that reminded me of VIGILANTE with Robert Forster.  I just feel many of the films on the list are influenced by and "emulate" exploitation film as opposed to being it.  In writing this I am seeing that my "shitty list" opinion is completely biased based on my relationship with what I personally see as exploitation film . I worked at Roger Corman's company CONCORD PICTURES for a year as an assistant editor and was exposed to some real exploitation film making.  There was no budget and the focus was solely on the elements and not the drama.  Hence "exploitation".  I remember one day I was in a room with another assistant who was working on a film where a woman was sexually infatuated with a serial killer.  She turned to me an said "we are working from the bowels of hell."  Exploitation also reminds me of Cirio Santiago and the great Eddie Romero.  I used to pull stock footage from Cirio's films to use at Corman's place and man that was some serious exploitation.  I saw a scene in a movie called SILK 2 where Monique Gabrielle fought a ninja in slow motion while bare breasted.  It's the single greatest exploitation moment I've ever seen.

My argument is not well presented.  My opinion is based on a personal feeling more than something I can define.  I have no answer and can only leave you with this:


TRAILER

[rumble]

Thanks for putting some thought into this argument! But I don't agree...

The major argument about exploitation movies for the last 25 years or so has been that the big studios have pretty much assimilated them. What once used to be taboo (sex, violence) is now mainstream. The small producers have been marginalized to the point of extinction, or at least to the point where the production values are non-existent. Movies like DJANGO and NYMPHOMANIAC are made by established directors who are considered arthouse, but they consciously pick up exploitation elements and incorporate them into their movies. Tarantino took a lot of inspiration from Italian westerns, and von Trier for all practical purposes re-made a 70s Swedish sexploitation flick (ANITA) and even picked the same lead actor! (Stellan Skarsgård)

I was intrigued enough to check out SILK 2 on IMDB, where it doesn't exactly get a glowing reception. This doesn't have to mean anything, but I don't get any urge to watch it over any of the films on the list. I think it is time to realize that the great exploitation auteurs like Corman, Russ Meyer, etc. are a thing of the past. Modern low-budget exploitation is what is crap, barely ambitious enough to cover its own ass (c.f. SHARKNADO as naueseum) and the spirit lives on in the kind of stuff Rolling Stone pointed out. There are many good low-budget movies made today, especially horror (IT FOLLOWS, BABADOOK, etc.) but they are considered "intelligent" rather than grindhouse, so I guess they don't count either.

BTW; one movie on the list that I DO think is crappy is HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN. I thought it was far too obvious in trying to be an old-style exploittion film, and stretched its one idea far too thin. BLUE RUIN I have not seen.

[Roughoutline]

Yeah, its a very odd list, with seemingly zero understanding of what makes an exploitation film.

You'd think an obvious inclusion would be one of the "so bad they're good" films like Sharknado, which is what you might call (I apologise in advance) naff-ploitation or kitsch-ploitation. Films that have EXPLOITED the trend started by films like The Room.

Spring Breakers is an odd choice. Its a satire, so the stylisation isn't used to exploit, but to undermine.

[rumble]

I think they covered the obvious exploitation angle pretty well with PIRANHA 3D, which was fun despite being awful in many ways. THE ROOM is not an exploitation film but an honest failure that gained a cult following (cult movie is not the same as exploitation movie, although they sometimes get confused). I don't think SHARKNADO et al were at all inspired by the badness of THE ROOM, but are simply weak attempts to emulate old-style monster flicks.

However, although I can easily roll off a hundred films from the 60s and 70s that are both great exploitation AND great films (FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CAGED HEAT, DEATH RACE 2000... you get the idea) it gets much harder for the last few decades. Something like ROBOCOP could have been a Corman production if it had a lower budget - all the exploitative elements combined with the future-world satire makes it a sbiling to DEATH RACE 2000. But that's what I mean - what used to be exploitation has pretty much been picked up by the major studios. I'd be interested to see some lists that challenge this!

[Roughoutline]

They're worlds apart in terms of genre, but The Room is the ultimate "so bad, its good" film, and films like Sharknado have jumped on that.

Its difficult to talk about exploitation films now, because as you say, a lot of the elements have been assimilated by mainstream films, so the starkness and boldness is no longer possible, as easily. Can't believe I didn't mention Human Centipede or A Serbian Film, which are proper boundary pushing exploitation films.

[mwright]

Seems to me like exploitation films have finally jumped the Sharknado.