Exploitation Film: Difference between revisions

Line 7:

A film which focuses on morbid elements a lot, the type of morbid elements that fascinate or excite people. For example, a crime movie which focuses more on the details of committing the crime or its effects on the victim, rather than the efforts to solve it. Or a movie that's excessively violent for no real reason. In fact, that - excessive violence or sexuality - seems to be the main definition of an exploitation film.

In the past, such films were sometimes made featuring lurid scenes with the supposed intent to be educational, such as ''[[~~Reefer Madness (Film)|~~Reefer Madness]]''. However, the lurid scenes were often meant to be the main source of entertainment.

In the past, such films were sometimes made featuring lurid scenes with the supposed intent to be educational, such as ''[[Reefer Madness]]''. However, the lurid scenes were often meant to be the main source of entertainment.

It's sometimes debatable as to whether a given film is an [[Exploitation Film]] or not. If there's a heavy emphasis on plot and background detail, yet at the same time the visceral elements are emphasized and played up in detail, then people will disagree on whether or not it fits this category. For example, ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' goes into a ton of detail in watching [[Jesus]] be tortured. Yet, many churches were turning out in droves to see it, despite it being a film that consists of two hours of torture followed by the death of the lead character. Due to the movie's theme and background material, most argue that it isn't exploitation at all, since Jesus's torture was not intended for the audience's excitement.

Line 23:

* ''The Girl Next Door'' (2007 film, as there are multiple films with that name) is about a teenage girl who is held captive and horribly mistreated by her adoptive family. It's based on a novel which in turn is inspired by a similar horrible real life case.

** ''An American Crime'' (2007 film, as there's ALSO another film with the same name!) is based on the case more directly, but goes out of its way to humanize the characters and go into detail about other things, leaving most of the tortures implied rather than shown. Yet, ironically, perhaps because it's directly based on the real life torture case and not simply being inspired by it, some reviewers accused ''this'' movie of being exploitative, even though it held back in the portrayals of violence.

* ''[[~~Reefer Madness (Film)|~~Reefer Madness]]'' is an odd case. It was originally created by a church in an attempt to warn about the dangers of marijuana, and was titled ''Tell Your Children''. A company specializing in exploitation films bought the rights to it and spiced it up with extra scenes and a new title, changing it into an intentional exploitation film.

* ''[[Reefer Madness]]'' is an odd case. It was originally created by a church in an attempt to warn about the dangers of marijuana, and was titled ''Tell Your Children''. A company specializing in exploitation films bought the rights to it and spiced it up with extra scenes and a new title, changing it into an intentional exploitation film.

* ''[[Grindhouse]]'' was an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the exploitation films of the 1970s.

* ''The Child Bride'' was a rather infamous one back in the day. It was ''supposed'' to be an indictment of irregular marriage laws in the Appalachian Mountains. So why the extended scene of a naked 12-year old girl going swimming?