The Top 10 Essential B-Movies #4: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, More
Posted by Chad Webb on 07.13.2006
If you have read so far, you have to just keep reading. You know you want to.
The B-Movie Tidbit
According to cinema website editor Tom Mes, films were "... divided into degrees of importance, and then the studio would control and monitor films according to the whether a film as an A-movie, B-movie, or C-movie. Since C-movies were not important to the studios, the director of a C-movie typically had more freedom than directors of A- and B-movies.
Ed Wood has been called the master of the C-movie [4], although the term better applicable to his work might be "Z-movies". David A. Prior and Mario Bava have also been called prominent figures in the C-movie industry. In the 1980s, with the growth of cable television, the C-grade movie designation also began being used to refer to low-quality genre films such as horror and science fiction films [5] that were used as "filler" programming for late night television programs such as the 1990s television series. The "C" in the term may refer to the "C" in the cable TV destination of many of the films or to these films' below-B-movie standards.
With shows such as "Mystery Science Theater 3000", poor quality horror and science fiction films were edited for brevity and presented with sarcastic commentary voiceovers that highlighted the films' scriptwriting or production shortcomings. "The Elvira - Mistress of the Dark" syndicated horror series, which starred Cassandra Peterson, also used this same approach of screening genre films with sarcastic commentary, but it focused on the horror genre.
By the 2000s cable and satellite companies were offering hundreds of channels catering to many niche interests. To cut costs, channels often program "direct to video" movies - modest-budget genre films (action, war-action, horror, etc) that were shot on video and never released in theatres.
4. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
Starring: Don Knotts, Joan Staley, and Dick Sargent
Directed By: Alan Rafkin
1966
Leonard Hayhurst
After five seasons of "The Andy Griffith Show" Don Knotts thought that Andy would end the series. So he and his agent negotiated a five picture deal with Universal. Griffith went on to do three more seasons of the series without Knotts, but helped his friend by assisting in the conception of his first movie of the deal. This is one of the funniest movies ever. If you watch each scene individually there are so many bits of business tossed in that really add to a whole. Like the segment where the elevator doesn't work right, it doesn't effect the story, but it's so funny and so smoothly threaded into the narrative. Given the world of the film you totally buy it. Knotts gives a great performance that appears to be all flailing limbs and bugged eyes on the surface, but plays into a sympathetic and likable character. Scene for scene it's constructed really well and they mine the comedic potential out of every situation. Most famous for a running gag where a guy keeps yelling "Attaboy, Luthor" at Knotts' character from off screen.
4. Night of the Living Dead
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O' Dea, and Karl Hardman
Directed By: George A. Romero
1968
Matthew Craggs
The reason Night Of The Living Dead is one of my favorite B movies is the same reason it was so successful for everyone else. The allegory for race in 1950/1960s America is advanced for the time, even though the decision to cast Duane Jones as Ben was made because he was
the best actor they found. The picture benefited from being released at a time where the full impact of the scares could be felt. In 1968 audiences hadn't quite seen anything as graphic as a zombie eating human remains. If they had, it wasn't as detailed as the props used in
this picture. In Roger Ebert's review of the film he talks about the audience of children and teens staying still, terrified and crying, at the carnage on screen. So, let's see her: eerily accurate zombies and a potent message about human rights set to the backdrop and low brow
entertainment? Right on.
4. Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
Starring: Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, and Bruce Campbell
Directed By: William Lustig
1990
Bryan Kristopowitz
"You have the right to remain silent… forever."
The alleged rule of sequels is that they're never as good as the first movie. "Maniac Cop 2," the sequel to the Bruce Campbell/Laurene Landon/Tom Atkins flick "Maniac Cop," directed by William Lustig, laughs at that rule. It laughs so hard it momentarily stops breathing, falls down, waits a second, calms down, then sits back up and keeps laughing. It starts off with a bang, using the last few minutes of the first flick to set up just how bad a monster the once thought dead/wrongfully accused cop who now helps criminals and slaughters innocent people with the three foot blade he has hidden in his nightstick Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) is. A huge, hulking monster cop with a scarred face that just won't die (Jason with a badge, basically). When the movie proper starts, we find out that the horrific truck crash at the end of the part one didn't kill Cordell, and he's still out there, killing innocent people and helping criminals (like Marco Rodriguez, playing a slightly less psycho version of the psycho cult terrorist shotgun killer he played in the underrated Stallone flick "Cobra." Yeah, he gets blown away here, too). And Cordell is still after Campbell and Landon, who are forced to see super hot police psychologist Claudia Christian because they refuse to believe the official police story that Cordell is now, really, dead. Campbell and Landon separate and go about their business, each one dispatched in a grisly way. Cordell is on the job, dammit.
In comes Detective Sean McKinney (the wonderfully sleazy Robert Davi), a bad ass scumbum cop who believes Campbell and Landon were telling the truth. Meanwhile, McKinney is also hot on the trail of Turkell (the great Leo Rossi in a bushy beard and a very not snazzy tan brown leather coat), a weird beard psycho strangler of hot strippers. Eventually, everyone's' paths cross, leading to a fiery action finale and a crap your pants jump scare that, even though you see it coming a mile away, still makes you crap said pants. The flick also features a hilarious bit part by Clarence Williams III, an even more hilarious cameo by Charles Napier as the local TV crime show host who says "You can't con ConEdison") a gratuitous cameo by uber cop and Sean Hannity butt kisser Bo Dietl as a foul mouthed cop, Frank Pesce (he actually appears in all three "Maniac Cop" movies), a fire stunt that probably took ten years to film, and an absolutely insane two part car stunt featuring driving around on rims and a woman handcuffed to the steering wheel while hanging out the window as the car goes downhill. Insane. A William Lustig classic, and his best movie.
4. Dawn of the Dead
Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, and Scott H. Reiniger
Written/Directed By: George A. Romero
1978
Ben Moser
I love this movie. I'm in love with it. I love it so much I even love the remake in spite of it lacking a lot of the social punch Romero's original has. Absolutely my favorite of Romero's zombie movies. Heck, it's my favorite zombie movie period. You want to be preached to about America's consumerism? Watch this movie. You want to know how delicately our society hangs by a thread? Watch this movie. At the same time, do you want a disgusting zombie movie and don't care what social commentary it makes? Watch this movie. There's something in it for everyone. Even the over-the-top dialogue seems right in place in a world where you end up seeing just how doomed our heroes are. It doesn't burden itself with clever explanations, it just tells its story. It does so in a powerful and wonderful way. It's hard to have more fun watching a movie.
4. Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Starring: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, and John Allen Nelson
Directed By: Stephen Chiodo
1988
Ryan Latimer
Talk about dedication to a gimmick. "Killer Klowns" features sadistic, alien court jesters from outer space who feed on the blood of the human race with cotton candy caccoon guns, alien popcorn, crazy straws, invisible-dogs-on-a-leash and a giant circus tent space ship. Where did they get the funding? Do clowns exist on Mars? Are they all bloodthirsty psychopaths? Were the filmmakers serious when they said they wanted the shower scene to rival Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece "Psycho?" Just me, but the killer longneck popcorn babies in the hamper may have hindered that particular goal. And, you know, everything else. I love this movie.
Chad Webb
I went through many phases during my childhood, from Batman to He-man, and so on, but one phase was particularly odd. It was my fascination for monster movies. I had my Godzilla and King Kong dolls all set up before popping in one of these VHS tapes. I loved the Godzilla vs films. I remember Mechagodzilla, Mothra, and even that three headed dragon thing. My favorite has always been Godzilla vs King Kong. I respect it even more so now after experiencing Peter Jackson's epic. Their really isn't a whole lot to say about the movie itself. I can ramble about the plot, but the point is the two giants are unearthed to do battle. It is your typical monster movie mayhem, but it is special because it s the two most popular monsters of all time. These movies are so silly and preposterous, but who cares, they rock anyway. I will do something rare here and talk about the ending. Personally I was more of a fan of Godzilla when I was young, and was pissed when I first saw King Kong win, but looking back it was appropriate I think.
Honorable Mention
The Octagon
Starring: Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, and Lee Van Cleef
Directed By: Eric Karson
1980
Honestly, I am surprised that no one else used a monster movie at all. On the other hand I am not surprised to see George A. Romero on this countdown. I hope to see you back for pick 3. (history provided by Wikipedia.org)
