This is something I have been thinking about for a while now, so instead of planning this any further, I just decided to do this. The point being that I am going to write a series of posts about movies, directors and related concepts that might be considered guilty pleasures.

Now, first off, I don’t think the moniker of “guilty pleasure” really means anything anymore. This has been going on for a while now, but last year’s The Substance gaining mainstream recognition, including a bunch of Oscar nominations, is a sure sign that exploitative genre movies are no longer a domain of just enthusiasts. These movies are now a legitimate part of the conversation around movies. There might still be cheap shit, but there are also auteurs who are using the same aesthetics to make true art.

This is not new. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been a source of inspiration for many directors and was in Sight & Sound Critics’ Poll just outside of the top 100.

Let’s talk a little philosophy. In moral philosophy, we have instrumental and intrinsic value. Intrinsic value is something that is in itself important, while instrumental value is something that helps us get to the intrinsic value, so you have the means and you have an end.

My problem with this thinking is that what actually has intrinsic value? Let’s say we need to eat. So, is the act of eating producing intrinsic value? Maybe, but there is a reason we eat. We need to eat to live, so isn’t eating just instrumental to living? Yes, and that also leads to another level: why do we live? The only reason to live is to do things, so now suddenly the things we thought of as instrumental are actually the end goal, which means that there isn’t really any difference between instrumental and intrinsic goals.

Once upon a time, a couple of Mormon kids tried to sell me on the idea of their religion by telling me that when they die, they get to bask in the eternal glory of God. But why? To me, existence is about the instrumental, not about some end goal. I need to do things to feel alive, so what they are telling me is that their version of eternal life is actually just a different version of death.

So, how the fuck does that have anything to do with this concept? Because, by writing these kinds of things, I turn the passive act of watching movies into an active act of thinking of and reviewing and criticizing and interpreting those movies. That is what makes movies fun. That is what makes movies interesting.

Instead of keeping those thoughts to myself, I am now allowing others to join in on them and for them to find movies to do the same. Whether all of this was worth it… Well, you be the judge. I loved writing these and while I’m not rich, my finances are fairly stable, so I don’t need to make money out of this. As a teacher by profession, I would love it if I could change someone’s perspective with all of this nonsense.

What I Won’t Include in This Series

At least half a million movies, but that is not a satisfying answer, so I’ll give you some examples.

There won’t be the usual suspects like The Room and the Transformers series. I have very little interest in both of these. Okay, I have some interest in The Room, but I have never seen it and I’m not planning on doing anything to see. I also doubt I will just see it randomly anywhere. To widen this a little bit, I’m probably going to cover some Michael Bay movies at some point, but they won’t be the ones you would expect. I won’t cover the other people often mentioned beside him like Roland Emmerich, Paul W. S. Anderson, Joel Schumacher or Renny Harlin.

Nor will I cover movies that were deliberately made to be so bad that the audience would find them funny, because I don’t. I’m referring to movies like Shark Tornado here.

What Is Included

We’ll see. The first part will be a brief post on Jean Rollin, who really, really liked nude vampires. After that, other directors I’m planning on covering include John Waters, Russ Meyer, Herschel Gordon Lewis (if I can get my hands on his films), Frank Henenlotter, Ken Russell, and Alex de la Iglesia. I will probably have a few posts focusing on people who weren’t directors, but have a strong brand of some kind.

Other topics I am planning on covering include Pink Films (Japanese movies where young upcoming directors get an opportunity to make a movie as long as they include enough sex and nudity in them), French Extreme, body horror, unusual Creature Features, Shudder, Cultpix, weird superhero movies, mid-budget action, Troma, and some other things I don’t really know how to categorize yet (like where do I put Head, the movie The Monkees decided to make for whatever reason).