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'By taking fans' nostalgia seriously, Grindhouse Nostalgia makes a brilliant contribution to understanding cult movies and fandom. Exploring historical complexities of the drive-in and the grind house, David Church builds an impressive theory of subcultural value, retrosploitation and cultural memory. The "new" might not always be better, but this new study most definitely challenges and surpasses previous work in the field.' Matt Hills, Professor of Film and TV Studies, Aberystwyth University Too often dismissed as nothing more than 'trash cinema', exploitation films have become both earnestly appreciated cult objects and home video items that are more accessible than ever. In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today. Arguing for the importance of cultural memory in contemporary fan practices, Church focuses on both the re-release of archival exploitation films on DVD and the recent cycle of 'retrosploitation' films like Grindhouse, Machete, Viva, The Devil's Rejects and Black Dynamite. At a time when older ideas of subcultural belonging have become increasingly subject to nostalgia, Grindhouse Nostalgia presents an indispensable study of exploitation cinema's continuing allure, and is a bold contribution to our understanding of fandom, taste politics, film distribution and home video. David Church is based at the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University, where he specialises in genre studies, taste cultures and histories of film distribution and reception.
List of contents
List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter 1: A Drive-in Theatre of the Mind: Nostalgic Populism and the Déclassé Video Object; Chapter 2: 42nd Street Forever? Constructing 'Grindhouse Cinema' from Exhibition to Genre to Transmedia Concept; Chapter 3: Paratexts, Pastiche, and the Direct-to-Video Aesthetic: Toward a Retrosploitation Mediascape; Chapter 4: Dressed to Regress? The Retributive Politics of the Retrosploitation Pastiche; Conclusion; Appendix: Selected Filmography and Videography of Retrosploitation Media; Selected Bibliography; Index
About the author
David Church is a film and media scholar specializing in genre studies, taste cultures, and histories of film circulation. He is the author of
Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom (EUP, 2015),
Disposable Passions: Vintage Pornography and the Material Legacies of Adult Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2016), and
Mortal Kombat: Games of Death (University of Michigan Press, 2021).
Summary
Exploitation films have become sincerely appreciated cult objects on home video. In this new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to home video formats. Church examines how nostalgia shapes the aesthetics and politics of exploitation films and the fan cultures devoted to them.
