The book It Came From
the 80’s: Interviews with 124 Cult Filmmakers is a veritable masterpiece
devoted to the wild world of 1980’s low budget B-movies, which is truly a must
own for fans of cult cinema and trash flicks. Author Francesco Borseti’s new paperback
takes a look at 28 low budget American and Canadian productions from different
genres, using an assortment of interviews from the cast and crew. The questions
that were used in the interviews have been removed from the book, so as to create
a format in which it appears that each person is telling their individual
accounts on their biography and memories of the picture.
I was pretty much instantly sold on this book after two very
interesting and highly detailed stories from Ted Newsom, writer on Blood Frenzy, and George Goldsmith,
writer on Blue Monkey. The movies
that were selected for this have had virtually nothing dedicated to them in any
literary form, so this is essentially the first time that any of these have received
this kind of in depth treatment. There is no critical analysis of the films,
instead the author focuses on the unique personal accounts and the day-to-day struggles
that were and are a part of the world of low budget filmmaking.
While each of the events that described are specific to
these motion pictures that came out in the 1980’s and the VHS era, they can easily
transfer to the glory days of the drive-in circuit when Roger Corman ruled the
low budget industry. Even though times have drastically changed since then,
many of it can still be applied to the industry today as well. The tales
include pornography filmmakers trying to break into the mainstream, extremely
fast deadlines and turnarounds, incredibly short filming schedules, long hours,
dangerous conditions, directors and cast members freaking out, aging stars
forced to appear for a quick buck, producers hiding from creditors and juggling
money, and many people gaining experience while on the job.
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| This thing is not going to fit into my Blu-ray player |
It may be beneficial to have seen these movies before
reading about them, but I found it fascinating regardless of whether I’ve
watched them before or have never seen them at all. It paints a vivid picture
of what the hectic and sometimes bizarre life of the low budget filmmaker was
like during the 1980’s. This comes highly recommended for cult and low budget
films fans and would be a valuable addition to their collection.
This book was published by McFarland and can be purchased online at www.mcfarlandpub.com or by calling their order line (800-53-2187). It is also available as an ebook from all major ebook providers, for a complete list of providers see www.mcfarlandpub.com/customers/ebooks.
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