"We're Gonna Need a Bigger Budget"

'Cowboys & Aliens'

This month saw the release of the Hollywood blockbuster, ludicrously titled, Cowboys and Aliens. The inevitable story of alien invasion in the wild west. I also noticed whilst reading about the aforementioned film, of another release in 2010, Cowboys and Zombies. Whilst this film was originally titled The Dead and the Damned, it was released straight to DVD changed to cash in on the upcoming mega-budget movie starring Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and James Bond (Daniel Craig). It does share similarities in narrative terms, and particularly in it's genre mash-up of western and horror/sci-fi. This use of title and genre/narrative similarity has been appearing more frequently on the DVD bargain bin over the last decade. The ones I, at first, was aware of were I Am Omega (2007), to coincide with the Will Smith starring I Am Legend (2007), and Transmorphers (2007), an obvious lift from Michael Bay's Transformers (2007). What connects these last films is quite a substantial library of films all produced by film studio The Asylum. They have quite a lucrative business in producing cheap "knock-offs" of major studio output.

After struggling, since 1997, to produce cheap horror films for the video market, The Asylum (founded by David Rimawi, Sherri Strain, and director David Michael Latt), released H. G. Wells' War of the Wars (2005), in parallel to Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005). Straight-to-DVD on the opening cinema release of Spielberg's mega-hit, it was a financial success. So they plundered on capitalizing on many other Hollywood money-makers. This was followed by The Da Vinci Treasure (2006), Pirates of Treasure Island (2006), Snakes on a Train (2006), AVH: Alien vs Hunter (2007). I won't insult your intelligence by also stating the films that these examples are imitating. These were quickly titled "mockbusters" in the media. Others released include Sunday School Musical (2008), The Day the Earth Stopped (2008), and Almighty Thor (2011), to name just a few. I was simply not aware of how many there were. But this is not a new phenomenon. Cashing in on a Hollywood blockbuster really exploded after the release of another Spielberg film, 1975's Jaws.

'Up From The Depths'

Roger Cormans' New World pictures produced in 1979, Up from the Depths. The film is about a "fish monster" that was released from the depths by what must have been a slight shudder of an earthquake on the reef bed. This killer monster is terrorising a tourist hotel in a tropical location. The manager of the hotel holds a fishing competition to capture the beast. Well the similarities to Jaws are obvious. Up from the Depths' limitations are abvious. Whilst awful, I think it has just enough histrionic charm to warrant a quite enjoyable lark. The film was produced in the Phillipines, where labour was very cheap, and President Ferdinando Marcos would generously offer the services of their army. It doesn't show in this film but it does utilise the exotic landscapes. There were of course other low budget film productions to adapt similar projects, such as Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), the absolutely farcical Barracuda (1978), and the Italian produced The Last Shark (1981), which was actually sued by Universal Pictures and pulled from cinemas for being too derivative of their multi-million dollar earning "exploitation" film. There are some good examples of this trend, John Sayles (early in his career) wrote the screenplays for both the aforementioned Piranha, and the brilliant-yet-ridiculous Aligator (1980), with his tongue firmly placed in his cheek. And it pays off in both of the films.

'Mac & Me'

After this of course was Star Wars (1977), which spawned many imitators on the margins of hollywood: Luigi Cozzi's Star Crash (1978), Battlestar Galactica (1978), and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). This also instigated many more big budget films set in space, such as Disney's The Black Hole (179) and Tron (1982). The animated Starcrash: The Legend of Orin (1985), used the gimmick of 3D in the cinemas to try coax people in to see the same story again - my memory of the cinema visit, was some very sore eyes after the constant use of the old red and green spectacle. Fundamentally any Hollywood genre film that was a success, would be followed with more of the same. E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was "mockbustered" with Mac & Me (1988); Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) have been imitated an unbelievable amount - although it could be argued that writer Dan O Bannon lifted the story from Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965). To name just a few of the Alien-alike; Star Crystal (1986), Galaxy of Terror (1981), Creature (1985), Xtro II: The Second Encounter (1991), and Contamination (1980). Well you can see the pattern. These narrative, thematic trends continued well into the 1990's, and really can still be seen in cinema today.

'Battlestar Galactica'

It could be argued that with the advent of Hollywood funding genre pictures with increasingly large budgets, they too were working in parallel with the exploitation film makers such as Roger Corman, who had been producing these kinds of films for decades on very limited budgets, for drive-ins and grindhouse cinemas. Only the studios had the resources - particularly the money - to produce better looking films, with better distribution (this was the beginning of saturation marketing, and of cinema spaces/screens). Hollywood was also increasingly focusing on recreating the performances of the films' success at the box office each summer. But what happened in the process of a committee-based system, these films also became very derivative. It seems that the new Hollywood "Moguls" of the 1970's and '80's were the producers of B-Movies, and exploitation pictures, but they could wear the more expensive suits. Of course the exploitation film makers of the 1960's and 1970's had been in the business of imitation years before Jaws. As soon as a producer/director/studio had a hit, they would flood the market with similar product, and of course all other's would follow. Examples being the Woman In Prison strand (The Big Bird Cage (1972), Women In Cages (1971) etc.), the Slasher sub-genre following Halloween (1978), and hitting a new factory-produced height after Friday the 13th (1980) - which was distributed by big studio Paramount. Italian genre cinema production is notorious for it's capitalisation of contemporary cinema. Lucio Fulci's zombie output after George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), is well documented (Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) et al). Pretty much any blueprint sci-fi or horror film that has had any kind of success has been "recreated" by the Italians. Bellissimo!

The B movie, being produced as an A movie had an effect on cinema. The drive-in's and grindhouses of America were being closed and torn down, as the exploitationers were marginalised, and would eventually find their way on the straight-to-video market. Of course the quality of these films can't mimic to verve of the exploitation films from 1960 to 1986. The modern day equivalents produced by companies like The Asylum, just don't have the ingenuity of the film makers involved, and the down-right bravura of them, in the face of danger. Getting scars for their art, man! But I'm romanticising. The "mockumentaries" are bland. Their production values worse than most television productions such as Battlestar Galactica (2003 - 2009). And they are "safe". But I guess in a flooded market, you have to sell your product. After all, in America, isn't the pursuit of money/wealth, the dream of the nation? So, I'm wondering. Any wizard/super hero/vampire films recently?

Marc Ivamy