5 Exploitation Subgenres You Won’t See Again

I like my exploitation films like I like my women: filled with nudity, gun fights, and weird fetishistic qualities.  Well, maybe not so much the gun fights.  And you know what, probably not too much of the whole weird fetishistic stuff… ok the analogy doesn’t hold up.

Whatever, too late you  are already reading this so hang on for a bit while longer please?  You see, back in the 60s and 70s, Exploitation films acted as a certain counterculture to popular Hollywood fare dealing with issues that were seen as taboo to the average film goer.  Of course from there the train went completely of the f**king track into clowns**t insane territory and just kept going.  This lead to certain subgenres that once they showed monetary return spawned a whole bunch of imitators.  Well, here are five of the exploitation subgenres that died back in the day, and you shouldn’t expect to see again.  Ever.

Women in Prison Films

• Films: Women in Cages, The Big Bird Cage, Barb Wire Dolls
• Basic Premise: Bad ass smoking hot chicks rebellion against the system that put them there.  Also nudity.

Why Not Know?:  These films came about in the late sixties and early seventies as a sexy way for women to show that they weren’t simply sex objects or house wives.  They were culturally establishing themselves in other aspects of the world that had previously been dominated by men and to be frank, they were pretty pissed off about the whole gender inequality thing.  Today, it would be extremely short sighted to think that gender equality exists to perfection, but it has gotten better since the days of the late sixties.  They were very much a product of their time and they succeeded in large because of the connection to popular societal thinking at the time.  .  Society is catching up to the point where the spirit and fire simply wouldn’t fill women in prison films anymore.  Although I tell you what I would love to see someone try it.

Cannibal Films

Films: Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, The Man from Deep River

Basic Premise: Documentary crews or naïve asshats stumble upon cannibalistic tribes, usually in the jungle and living apart from society… who them eat them.

Why Not Know?:  These films won’t come about any more because everyone knows that they are fake.  Back in the 70s and 80s, you were able to get away with found footage films that claimed to be real, but today that simply won’t fly anymore.  Everyone on earth knows that there aren’t sacred tribes of cannibals in the world and if there were, everyone would know about them by now.  Also, it adds something to be desired when cannibals pop up in Oscar winning films like Silence of the Lambs.  The taboo is pretty much gone, so why bother trying to shock someone with  this personality trait anymore?

Spaghetti Westerns

• Films: Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the bad, and the Ugly
• Basic Premise: Cowboy on coyboy violence, some Indians, a lot more violence.  Also very silent and stoic main characters who were gun fighting badasses.

Why Not Know?:  Despite the fact that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was probably the single best film to come out of the entire genre of exploitation (ok, and Blacula), these westerns were very specific to their era.  The slightly racist name was bestowed upon these films because they were made in Italy (it was cheaper) and often had most if not all of the characters provide the dialogue in Italian, then re dubbed in English for American audiences.  It was probably pretty great to see these films have more violence in them than the Hollywood westerns, but the The Wild Bunch came along, and completely killed this genre due to its overwhelming Hollywood success.  Once they get on board, you need to hang up your sub genre cleats.

Nazisploitation Films

• Films: Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, SS Hell Camp
• Basic Premise: Pretty much the same as the women in prison films up there, however they took place in concentration camps or Nazi brothels.

Why Not Know?:  Seriously do you need to even ask me that?  Fine… well these films existsed to shock people and possible sprout some boners on the way there.  Fortunatley (or unfortunately) they definitely succeeded by showing extreme versions of torture in concentration camps which were conducted by characters on the side of the most evil people in history (well, at least top three).  I would say that today, were aren’t going to see any more of these films since no one would be shocked by them anymore.  Kids these days have lost pretty much all humanity to Nazis, growing up with them being the go-to bad guys in every history book (and rightfully so). Combine that with the fact that audiences now crave realism, especially in horror and it goes to show you why something like Hostel, which implausible becomes way more realistic than anything happening in a Naziploitation movie, and thusly the viewer will relate more to the characters on screen.

Cautionary Films

• Films: Reefer Madness (1938), Sex Madness )1938), Mom and Dad (1945)
• Basic Premise: These were films that danced around the board of censorship by showing sick and twisted behavior as long as it showed who the clear bad guy was.  For example, marijuana users, or pregnant high school girls (they are all THE DEVIL).

Why Not Know?:  What I love about these films is the fact that they were such an unsubtle f**k you to the film censorship boards.  Have you ever seen Reefer Madness?  Did you really think that the people making this film didn’t know that the portrayal of people addicted to Marijuana in the film wasn’t complete and utter bullshit?  Of course they did, but they wanted to make a shocking film, however they couldn’t do that unless the film somehow became educational.  Now a day, due to your kids fancy iBooks and internets, everyone knows how ridiculous it is to think a marijuana addict would run over people in their car for shits and giggles.  We all know that every Marijuana enthusiast turns out like Snoop Dogg, and that guy is the shit.