Exploitation films have never been viewed as high cinematic art which makes it all the more surprising when you find one that is an amazing cinematic experience. While the 10 films in this list may not be the greatest films ever made some of them are bonafide classics and have had a significant impact on the history of film. Exploitation films are a very interesting genre because they have literally no barriers set to forbid them from displaying anything. The bounds of good taste and artistic credibility have no place in a grindhouse theater and are responsible for the careers of many great filmmakers. Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Jonathan Demme are just a few of the legendary directors who got their start making B-pictures for Roger Corman when they couldn't get any studios to finance their efforts. In this way the grindhouses and exploitation films are more relevant to the development of cinema than many other genres that are held in much higher regard. Horror would be virtually unrecognizable to a more modern viewer without the influence of the directors pushing the bounds of what can and can't be shown in a film with their exploitation movies.
10. Mom and Dad
I know in the title of this article I said that everyone should watch the movies on this list but if you decide to skip this one then you would be forgiven. Mom and Dad is a movie that came at a really odd time in cinema and followed on the heels of one of the more bizarre movements in film history. Mom and Dad is the greatest film in the canon of the 'Birth of a Baby' exploitation sub-genre and this movie is an exploitation film through and through. The actors are all painfully amateur, the budget is virtually non-existent but it really delivers on its main premise. Mom and Dad claims that you will see a baby being born and it makes good on that promise but it really only serves to heighten the sensationalism of the exploitation film genre instead of the story.