Cine Film Movies - Home Page

• B Movie

• Definition

• Golden Age B movie

• Minimal artistic ambitions

• Pam Grier

• History

• Roots of the B movie: 1920s

• Columbia Pictures

• American theaters

• Hollywood's Golden Age

• Bs in the Golden Age: 1930s

• MGM, Paramount, Fox

• Standard Golden Age model

• Brain Taves

• The introduction of sound

• Studios

• The Western Movie

• Various Genres Films

• Tarzan

• Bs in the Golden Age: 1940s

• Big Five

• David O. Selznick

• RKO thriller

• Ronald Reagan

• Val Lewton's horror

• Stranger on the Third Floor

• B noirs

• Johnny Weissmuller

• Republic

• The B movie in: 1950s

• Allied Artists

• Golden Age–style

• Ida Lupino

• Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer

• The fear of nuclear war

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers

• AIP

• Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow

• Roger Corman

• William Castle

• The phenomenon of the drive-in

• British Hammer Film

• Hercules

• The golden age: 1960s

• Roger Corman

• Variety of B movie subgenres

• Grindhouses

• The Softcore Pornography

• This Nude World

• Vixen!

• Paramount's Psycho

• Herschell Gordon Lewis

• Roman Polanski

• George Romero

• Women in Cages

• Easy Rider

• The golden age: 1970s

• Brian De Palma

• Blaxploitation

• David Cronenberg

• The Brood

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show

• Asian martial arts

• TV movies

• The Exorcist

• George Lucas's American Graffiti

• Decline of the B (1): 1980s

• Star Wars

• Amityville Horror - Meteor

• The Slumber Party Massacre

• Larry Cohen

• Sam Raimi

• Troma Pictures

• Decline of the B (2): 1990s

• Nightmare on Elm Street

• Violent B movies

• Monster Movies

• The B movie in the 2000s

• Fox

• Analog Videotape

• Associated terms

• C movie

• Z movie

• Psychotronic movie

Cine Film Movies - Home Page

Z movie

The term Z movie (or grade-Z movie) is used by some to characterize low-budget pictures with quality standards well below those of most B and even so-called C movies.

Most films referred to as Z movies are made on very small budgets by operations on the fringes of the commercial film industry. The micro-budget "quickies" of 1930s fly-by-night Poverty Row production houses may be thought of as Z movies avant la lettre.

Glen or Glenda (1953)

The films of director Ed Wood, such as Glen or Glenda (1953) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)—frequently cited as one of the worst pictures ever made—exemplify the classic grade-Z movie.

Latter-day Zs are often characterized by violent, gory, and/or sexual content and a minimum of artistic interest; much of this product is destined for the subscription TV equivalent of the grindhouse.

B Movie - Psychotronic movie