Letters to the Editor
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It's not just moviemaking
It's not just the exploitation elements that have disappeared from filmmaking. I'm sure there are many filmmakers who would still love to grind out films like Terror Planet, but once they do, there are virtually NO outlets left to show them in. It's more than the closing of all the former grindhouses. In fact, I'm sure there are more screens than ever. For instance, there are now 21 screens in my small town of 50,000 people, but film makers literally have zero access to most of those screens. Even the independent screens (five of them) run by a friend of mine, you would be amazed how hard it is for him sometime to bring a film to town. The politics and placating of distributors is stunning. There are dozens of screens in town, but the distributors literally hold theater owners in a "DeathGrip." (Wouldn't that be great title?)
Another signifigant change is in film financing. The days when a young film maker could go out and con a group of bored dentists into coughing up a couple hundred grand were done away with long ago. It used to be a fun tax write-off for these people.
But ultimately it is true that the corportization of financing, distribution and film making has leached all the sleazy fun from movies. A great example might be another film in theater's right now, "The Hills Have Eyes 2" a sequel to a remake of a much superior original film. The original was gritty, gruesome, and horrible. Somehow, the remake was both more graphic and yet less horrifying. Frankly, the remake was boring and pointless.
I haven't seen the current film, but it seems to be even more clueless about what made the original the grotesque treat it was. The grindhouse films were formulaic, sure, but they were also, often, surprisingly personal films, as filmmakers working at lightning speed dumped grotesque bits of their own psyche and obsessions onto the screen.