Lists and reviews alternative and underground films that have achieved cult status.

Here is a guide for alternative film fans, cult flick devotees, connoisseurs of trash and every movie buff with a twisted sense of humour. This book profiles 1000 really good bad movies, really bad bad movies and really good movies that were largely overlooked.

Videoland offers a comprehensive view of the "tangible phase" of consumer video, when Americans largely accessed movies as material commodities at video rental stores. Video stores served as a vital locus of movie culture from the early 1980s until the early 2000s, changing the way Americans socialized around movies and collectively made movies meaningful. When films became tangible as magnetic tapes and plastic discs, movie culture flowed out from the theater and the living room, entered the public retail space, and became conflated with shopping and salesmanship. In this process, video stores served as a crucial embodiment of movie culture’s historical move toward increased flexibility, adaptability, and customization. In addition to charting the historical rise and fall of the rental industry, Herbert explores the architectural design of video stores, the social dynamics of retail encounters, the video distribution industry, the proliferation of video recommendation guides, and the often surprising persistence of the video store as an adaptable social space of consumer culture. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, cultural geography, and archival research, Videoland provides a wide-ranging exploration of the pivotal role video stores played in the history of motion pictures, and is a must-read for students and scholars of media history.

The only video guide devoted exclusively to movies made outside the Hollywood studio system. Here are reviews of 1,000 films, many of which have moved out of the art houses and into mainstream theaters. The book brims with attitude and humor, trivia, 50 intriguing sidebars of information, and approximately 100 photos.

This volume explores the lower reaches of cinema and its paradoxical appeal. It looks at films from the B-movies of the 1930s to the mockbusters of today, and from the New York underground to the genre variations of Turkey's Yesilçam studios (and their YouTube afterlife). Critically examining the reasons for studying, denigrating, or celebrating the detritus of film history, it also considers the place of a trash aesthetic within and beyond 1960s American avant-garde and looks at the cult of trash in the fanzines of the 1980s. It draws on debates about cult, paracinema, and camp, arguing that trash cinema exists in relation to these but brings with it a particular history that includes the ordinary as well as the strange. Trash Cinema places these debates, and the strand of self-proclaimed low culture that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, within a historical and international perspective. It focuses on American cinema history but addresses Eurotrash reception as well as the related field of garbology, examining trash cinema as a distinct but fluid category.

While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are more famously known for their straight comedy routines, they did make a number of films in which horror played a crucial role. The first part of this critical reference examines the Abbott and Costello "Meet the Monsters" spoof films (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Mummy). The second sections deals with Abbott and Costello's films with horror elements that do not follow this formula: Hold That Ghost, The Time of Their Lives and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. The plot of each film is examined in detail with special attention paid to the comedians' styles of comedy, the effect of the horror scenes, and the place of the film in the Abbott and Costello canon. The reactions of critics (then and now) and the influences the films have had on the horror and comedy genres and on pop culture are also discussed. A lengthy introduction provides background on the lives of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and the development of Universal Studios as the premier horror factory.

"Loads of listings, indexes and categories for cross-referencing, and a very useful distributor guide". -- Virginian Pilot Parent's Magazine contributing editor and family entertainment reviewer Martin Kohn makes it fun and easy to select videos the whole family can enjoy, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to The Phantom. This fully updated and enhanced new edition presents 1,000 new reviews, including 500 new kidvids, plus warnings about drugs, violence and sexual content. With a total of more than 4,000 films for children or the whole family, this is by far the biggest and most comprehensive family guide on the market.

This comprehensive guide contains the most extensive listing of movies available on video--with 1,000 new movies, added categories, and more--plus a multitude of cross-referencing within its 13 primary indexes.

Take a giddy guided tour through the greatest moments of 1950s and 1960s spage-age pop and exotica. From newly rediscovered musicians like Esquivel and Yma Sumac to lesser-knowns like Markko Polo Adventurers, this collection of bizarre and fascinating vintage musical ephemera with enthrall both the serious collector and the neo-Swinger weekend enthusiast. Exotiquarium supplies information about the artists (both musical and visual), the (mood) music they created, definitions of the odd instruments they used to create these strage and beautiful sounds (like the theremin), and much more. Complete with a foreward by Lenny Dee-Decca recording artist and "Organ Lounge Master"--Exotiquarium offers a vibrant portrait of this surreal time in American music history. A must-have for lounge lizards young and old.

How far have we progressed from the days when showing a film such as Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures landed the cinema’s programmer, projectionist, and ticket taker in jail? What are some of the hidden clues modern audiences are overlooking in older films that suggest a character’s bisexuality? Which famous actors, actresses, directors, and screenwriters were attracted to people of both sexes? In Bisexual Characters in Film, the first book to focus on the role of bisexual characters in film, you’ll find answers to these questions and many more as you explore, analyze, and celebrate 80 years of bisexual movie characters (and the people who have created them) from around the world. A lively, entertaining, and informative commentary, this book examines the treatment of bisexual film characters and shows you how that treatment has been affected by societal forces such as censorship, politics, religious prejudices, homophobia, and sexual stereotypes. Bisexual Characters in Film looks at the contribution of bisexual people (and others who have had lovers of varying sexes) to the body of work available on film today. These include the directors, writers, actors, composers, and designers whose sexual orientation has informed their work. An analysis of the Motion Picture Production Code and its devastating effect on bisexual and homosexual screen images forms an important part of the book. You learn how, specifically, it eradicated gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters from Hollywood films as well as the role of bisexual, lesbian, and gay filmmakers in finally defeating it. Other questions you’ll find answers to include: Who, or what, is a bisexual? How were bisexual characters represented in silent film, before the forces of censorship banned them from the screen? What bisexual myths and stereotypes are portrayed on film? What is the role of “camp” in bisexual film? Bisexual Characters in Film is a unique resource for researchers; librarians; film festival planners; the queer media; professors and students of lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies; bisexual activists; and general bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgendered readers. It provides a much-needed view of bisexual representations in a major segment of our popular culture.