Grindhouse Nostalgia : Memory, Home Video and Exploitation Film Fandom

Exploitation films have become sincerely appreciated cult objects on home video. In this new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to home video formats. Church examines how nostalgia shapes the aesthetics and politics of exploitation films and the fan cultures devoted to them.

In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today.

Too often dismissed as nothing more than ''trash cinema'', exploitation films have become both earnestly appreciated cult objects and home video items that are more accessible than ever. In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today.

Arguing for the importance of cultural memory in contemporary fan practices, Church focuses on both the re-release of archival exploitation films on DVD and the recent cycle of ''retrosploitation'' films like Grindhouse, Machete, Viva, The Devil''s Rejects and Black Dynamite. At a time when older ideas of subcultural belonging have become increasingly subject to nostalgia, Grindhouse Nostalgia presents an indispensable study of exploitation cinema''s continuing allure, and is a bold contribution to our understanding of fandom, taste politics, film distribution and home video.