Gabe Powers

As of this writing, nine of the top ten grossing films of all time (not adjusted for inflation) land somewhere in the category of sci-fi and/or fantasy*, but there was a time before Star Wars and Close Encounters where science fiction was considered strictly a B-genre, worthy only of drive-ins, pre-feature serials, and the bottom end of double-bills. There were always exceptions, but, when the ‘40s rolled around, budgets and quality standards were plummeting.

Here at Genre Grinder, Patrick Ripoll and I have had an annual tradition of taking a deep-dive into a single year in which a genre fad peaked. The first of these was our three part look at the slasher movies of 1981. If you’re very liberal with the term, about 42 slasher or at least slasher-esque films were released between January and December of that year, including classics, like George Mihalka’s My Bloody Valentine and Jeff Lieberman’s Just Before Dawn, overlooked foreign variations...

Before VCD and DVD took over the home video market and Ringu-inspired kaidan became the export of choice, a home-grown, straight-to-video underground splatter movement reintroduced Japan to cult horror audiences. Characterized by short runtimes, sloppy gore, and mega-ambitious, do-it-yourself special effects, the movement is largely tied the legendary Guinea Pig series, but also produced more likeable films, like Akihiro Kashima’s Biotherapy (1986), Takuro Fukuda’s Conton (aka: Legend of the...