| When regular action films or comedies don’t satisfy your film cravings any more, it’s time to dig deeper into specialized genres.
WACKY RACES
Films in this category typically feature some kind of frantic cross-country race, in which a big, star-studded cast of fun-loving zanies bend every rule in order to come out on top. The villains tend to be charismatic, but essentially harmless, using underhanded tactics with moustache-twirling aplomb, while the heroes… er, are a lot like the villains, come to think of it.
A wide variety of peculiar vehicles are on display, and comic-relief bit part characters constantly turn up to assist/impede the racers’ progress. Examples include Genevieve (1953), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Great Race (1965), Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965), Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969), Cannonball (1976), The Gumball Rally (1976), The Cannonball Run (1981), and Rat Race (2001). Also check out any movie featuring Herbie the Love Bug, as well as the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from which this category gets its name, Wacky Races (1968).
For a more violent (but equally funny) variation, check out Paul Bartel’s satirical Death Race 2000 (1975), starring David Carradine, Mary Woronov and Sylvester Stallone.
SPORTS ANIMALS
Disney doesn’t have a monopoly on this category – it just feels like they do. Plots usually hinge on underdog protagonists attempting to boost their team’s flagging fortunes by bringing in an athletically gifted animal (usually to sour protests from the humourless opposing team).
Disney’s Gus (1976), about a field-goal-kicking mule, serves as the template for the form. The style is getting a bit overstretched these days. I can easily picture a family flick in which Jenna Elfman’s pet jellyfish darts through a community swimming pool, delivering painful shocks to the bottoms of the nasty foreign-accented team, while boyfriend Brendan Fraser comments "There’s nothing in the rules that says a Portuguese Man-O-War can’t play water polo!"
Examples of the genre include Ed (1996) Air Bud (1997), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Air Bud: World Pup (2000), Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch (2002), Air Bud: Spikes Back (2003), MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000), MVP2: Most Vertical Primate (2001), and MXP: Most Xtreme Primate (2003).
There are many other ways for plucky underdogs to cheat at sports, including divine intervention – Angels in the Outfield (1951; remade in 1994) – ghostly visitations –Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) and The 6th Man (1997) – technology – The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) – Shaolin kung fu – Shaolin Soccer (2001) – and lycanthropy Teen Wolf (1985).
ART SMUT
Occasionally filmmakers will be hired to make pornography, but they’ll rebel and try to make a real movie instead. Intriguing plotlines, clever dialogue, imaginative twists, and/or sincere performances will be shoehorned into the project, in a desperate attempt to make a legitimate work of "art," capable of breaking into the mainstream.
The filmmakers include the contractually necessary "wet shots," but secretly hope that they will be deleted if the film is found worthy of a broader release than erotica normally enjoys. For this reason, many films in this category exist as more than one version, depending on how much hardcore stuff is left in. Examples include Flesh Gordon (1974); a fun homage to classic sci-fi notable for some fine special effects; and Café Flesh (1982); a relentlessly downbeat but imaginative post-apocalyptic fable with a distinctively anti-porno feel.
GIALLO
This refers to a type of violent crime thriller that originated in Italy. The term "giallo" means literally "yellow" in Italian, and refers to the yellow-covered crime novels that inspired the genre, just as the black-bound series noir inspired the film noir style of film.
Typical giallo films are visually stylish and shockingly violent, with more emphasis put on spellbinding visuals than on making narrative sense. Common elements include close-ups of the killer’s hands (always wearing black leather gloves), heroes who try to solve the mystery themselves instead of calling the police, glimpses of important clues that don’t make sense until later, and an abundance of beautiful women.
The style was a major influence on Friday the 13th (1980), which in turn influenced a slew of stalk ’n’ slash horror flicks in the ’80s. Examples include Blood and Black Lace (1964), Twitch of the Death Nerve (a.k.a. Bay of Blood) (1971), Black Belly of the Tarantula (1972), The Bird with Crystal Plumage (1970), and Deep Red (1975).
VINCENT PRICE PINES AWAY AT HIS DEAD WIFE’S PORTRAIT
Special thanks to VideoHound’s Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics for identifying and naming this category. Onscreen, Price always did have trouble with matrimony, didn’t he? In movies where his wife wasn’t dead yet, he was usually trying to kill her – see The House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Tingler (1959) and Shock (1946) for details. Give him a cobwebby castle and a thunderstorm though, and nobody could pine like this guy. Watch him do his thing in The Raven (1963), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and The Fall of the House of Usher (1960). |
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