Project X and Modern Exploitation Films

The marketing for “Project X” suggests a new wave of exploitation films.

If I wanted a movie with a flimsy plot, crazy stunts, low production values and a lot of hot women in a softcore porn setting, wouldn’t I usually go to a shady, straight-to-DVD bargain bin?

Then why is a movie like “Project X” screening at multiplexes everywhere this Friday as though it were the next “Hangover?”

Watching “Project X,” a horrible, offensive and sexist film, I realized a lot of the adjectives I used to describe how much I hated it also applied to cheesy fun exploitation films from the ‘70s.

But I was convinced the exploitation genre was dead. I interviewed film scholars studying the genre who explained that most exploitation films today have either migrated to video and DVD starting as early as the ‘80s home video boom or are now self-referential parodies of older films, like the ones Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez crank out.

And that audience who craved a unique form of action and other pleasures has transferred over into cult fans for graphic novel based movies. One such example is “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” which ironically or not shares co-writer Michael Bacall as a screenwriter for “Project X.”

My question is, did the exploitation genre morph or evolve into found footage films without anyone noticing? Continue reading “Project X and Modern Exploitation Films”

Chronicle

“Chronicle” puts a twist on the found footage drama and creates a compelling and inventive teen drama of epic proportions.

You’ve found a bottomless pit with a glowing alien object buried deep inside. Interacting with it gives you and two friends telekinetic powers. Do you use it to stop crime, unveil a government conspiracy, battle an alien invasion or turn evil?

Hell no! In “Chronicle,” you use it to fly, pull pranks and lift up girls’ skirts. God knows finding out she’s wearing black panties is more of a mystery than an Area 51 cover up.

“Chronicle” is a clever, fun, intense and at times twisted take on a high school teen drama, and for that this “found footage” film surpasses all the cliché monster or horror movies that typically litter the genre. Continue reading “Chronicle”