b movies?
I was asked earlier this week as to what is a b movie or a trash movie? I answered the question with a partial quote I had once read about sci-fi films, “B Movies are kind of like Porn, when you see it you’ll know”, but that was more of a wisecrack than the actual meaning. How things got started was that years ago movie companies would semi force theaters to buy all their movies for a particular season. Out of this the double feature was born so when you went to the theater you would pay to watch the mainstream high budget film (a movie) and could watch a second movie (b movie) which would generally be an under produced and not as financed as the headlining film. In today’s terms we can think about it like sports teams, we have major league and minor league baseball. Though more of a guideline than a rule, b movies can be of all genres that reflect the personality and expressions of the creator. Because of the lower financing this expression can get very creative in it’s presentation and to me that is what makes these films entertaining. Also like the minor leagues, with b movies, many new faces and talent can be seen for the first time. Many new directors and actors have gotten their debuts in creating or starring in b movies. Some film makers and actors even like the b movie market and fans so much that they fully embrace their role as a b movie star and have entire careers based in it. Some production houses also have joined in the fun to the point that all they release is b movies.
Trash movies are just another term for b movies with maybe a little more modern of a twist since technically b movies are not shown in theaters today. The double feature is few and far between so these modern movies are not technically b movies but rather trash movies. If these films would have been made 50 years ago could have been billed under a headliner making them a b movie.
Today’s streaming movie companies are having an almost similar fashion the older days of Hollywood approach to them. In that when a company picks up streaming nowadays they want to get as much content as they can snatch up at a fair price because more content and selection is good for customers. Many movie studios are making their back catalogs available to these streaming companies because it makes good business sense to be able to make money off of older and lesser known films that would not see the light of day under normal avenues of standard broadcast or theater re-releases. This makes for an exciting time if you are into media and movies. If you happen to like b movies then streaming is the way to go right now because this content is abundant and growing. Streaming is taking over in exciting ways, you can even watch “Poultrygeist” on your smart phone that you carry in your pocket and suggest that other people watch it with you where ever you are. If that is not proof of us living in an exciting time for movies and media then I don’t know what is.