Although I began life as a film addict by loving films that most people consider to be great or genre defying, such as The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Evil Dead, it took a year or so before I discovered the wonders of Plan 9 from Outer Space.

 

It was a slow burning experience, but my love of trash cinema and films generally regarded as schlock or garbage has puzzled many who can't understand how I can pour scorn on big budget films (generally those directed by Michael Bay or Gore Verbinski) when I would happily watch something which is completely inept. This is where the rather difficult category of 'so bad they're good' films comes in as you can have films that are so bad they're terrible or so bad they're unwatchable but others that are so bad they become charming.

 

I do like to be challenged by a film and watch those which show a true master at work and those, like the terrible films, also puzzle people because they can be old, black and white, in a foreign language with subtitles and aren't particularly accessible. Something like Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece Les Diaboliques will only be appreciated by a minority of film fans because of its slow pacing, lack of dramatic action and language barrier. Similarly, films like the aforementioned Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space (despite its exploitation of Béla Lugosi) and Bride of the Monster and others by directors such as Al Adamson,, whose Dracula vs Frankenstein is barrel-scrapingly bad but great fun to watch.

 

This brings me neatly on to The Asylum, a production company that seems to revel in churning out films as quickly as possible without regard for quality. However, these films have no aspirations of greatness and are sometimes deliberately cheesy with terrible visual effects, ridiculous storylines and 'inventive' titles so no one in their right mind would watch them expecting anything other than a B-movie that you can put on, turn your brain to Stand By and accept the film for what it is.

 

The first film distributed by The Asylum I watched was Titanic II, a film that you can guess from the title is going to be bad and, predictably enough, it lived down to all my expectations! That brought me on to Mega Piranha, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus (a DVD that is currently on its way from the US). There is something about these films that makes them almost compulsive viewing and I intend to add every film from The Asylum’s extensive back catalogue to my DVD collection even though I know full well that they will have rock bottom production values, a cast comprising first time actors or those who only have experience of making DTV movies and a team of writers and directors with tiny filmographies or, like the actors, have never set foot on a big budget film set.

 

Looking into this subject and films distributed by The Asylum Home Entertainment made me realise that I had watched and appreciated one of their films for being competently made and almost equal to the film which it was deliberately ripping off: Paranormal Entity. This was one of many films released by the Brain Damage label and was easily the best that they had released so, even though The Asylum seem to specialise in trash, they occasionally stumble on films which are actually pretty good!

 

In recent weeks, with Sharktopus, Dinoshark and the upcoming DVD Dinocroc vs Supergator (which I've already seen on TV), it seems as if Roger Corman, the King of Exploitation, has decided to jump on board by producing monster movies with a catchy title, bizarre creatures from a bygone age, seaside settings (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico), attractive women in bikinis and plenty of people (and boats) being attacked and eaten by the monster.

 

I suppose this attraction boils down to my fascination and love for science fiction and horror B-movies from the 1950s and 60s, many of which featured a giant creature mutated by atomic bombs, women in peril, a fairly predictable plot and predictable characters that are virtually the same from film to film. This fascination it's not only line, but Gareth Edwards made his superb debut film, Monsters, because of his love for 1950s sci-fi B-movies. Also, Larry Blamire made The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, a brilliant spoof of such films, because he loves them and found a great deal of common traits that can be parodied.

 

None of this would be possible without the SyFy channel, which shows these films in the US and then in the UK with a couple of million people watching. They also commission some of these films, such as the brilliantly titled Stonehenge Apocalypse. It speaks volumes about these films popularity that they are not only shown on TV but released on DVD and sold by all the major Internet retailers.

 

Whether they are from decades ago, distributed by The Asylum, shown on the SyFy channel or produced by Roger Corman – long live B-movies– I know I'm not alone in that sentiment.

 

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