Exploitation movies are the sleazy underbelly of cinema. The delicious, forbidden sleazy underbelly of cinema. Despite their reputation for being low budget and poorly made, exploitation films have delighted fans of alternative cinema for decades. Trash cinema addicts exist in their millions, and the thought of that makes me really happy. I have tried, in this article, to explore which films exemplify the exploitation genre. In order to do this, you cannot dwell upon one subgenre of exploitation - as this is far too narrow a scope. So I have chosen 10 subgenres of exploitation cinema and I have picked the film which I feel best represents the subgenre it belongs to. This is no mean feat as there is a plethora of goodies to choose from in each subgenre. But I hope you enjoy my top picks and if you disagree just leave your comments in the box below.
10. Mondo Movies - Faces of Death (1978)
Sparked off by the commercial success of the Italian documentary Mondo Cane in the early 1960s, the Mondo Movie blueprint was firmly established by the time Faces of Death came along. Previous Mondo films had dealt with the subject of death and featured segments in which an actual or faked death occurred (such as Savage Man, Savage Beast and Africa Addio), but Faces of Death, made for the Japanese market, stripped away any veneer of respectability that the Mondo Movie had and turned it into a gruesome, pandering to the lowest common denominator, spectacle. With its silly narrator - Dr Francis B Gross - at the helm, Faces of Death is simultaneously chucklesome and repellant. Dr Gross is a self proclaimed expert in the field of death but he really looks like a man who has escaped from Broadmoor. His narration is supposed to lend gravitas to the proceedings, but instead renders it ridiculous. In the film we are treated to fake snuff footage (monkey brain eating) and real life atrocities such as bodies washed up onto the beach and policemen scraping bits of body tissue off the ground following fatal car wrecks. Now isn't that jolly? The makers of Faces of Death think so. The music set to these terrible goings on is completely inappropriate with the rooftop suicide of a woman scored to a soundtrack that goes "One, two! A one two three four!" and splat. The woman is on the ground. Proudly proclaiming to be banned in 40 countries, Faces of Death is something of a rites of passage film. Deeply unwholesome, it nevertheless preys on our fear of death and fascination with it. Part of me thinks at least it had the cojones to show outright what many movies merely hinted at. For this chutzpah and for sparking thousands of imitators, Faces of Death exemplifies the Mondo Movie