The Los Angeles cinema Quentin Tarantino called “the perfect grindhouse theatre”
In 2007, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez paired up to make the double feature Grindhouse, which included the Pulp Fiction director’s Death Proof and the latter’s Planet Terror, and there could be nothing more suited to the two of them, for revelling in vintage aesthetics and low-budget titles is what made each filmmaker fall in love with cinema.
Grindhouse was, of course, named after the grindhouse movie theatres known for showing exploitation films, and for Tarantino, these theatres have always been a godsend, which allowed audiences to cheaply view splatter films, gruesome horror movies, cheesy B-movies, sexploitation movies, and everything in between that didn’t exactly fit into the mainstream.
While many of them were cheaply-made and likely featured poor special effects, they attracted dedicated cult followings, for people craved this transgressive vision of cinema, which pushed boundaries and tapped into the more shocking side of life, no holds barred.
You really could see anything, from movies that bordered on pornography to those which were incredibly silly, perhaps made with little more than a few thousand dollars and a strong sense of ambition.
These days, such theatres are pretty much obsolete because of the rise in home video, and any exploitation or bizarre splatter movie can now be easily sought out on DVD or streaming, but back in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, the director frequented various local spots, which also showed a lot of martial arts films, something that definitely pulled Tarantino, whose interest in the genre can be seen across his filmography, particularly his hit 2003 film Kill Bill, so what was his favourite grindhouse theatre?
He cites a certain Los Angeles joint as one of his favourites, although it was sadly demolished in 1990. “The Carson Twin Cinema, that was pretty much the perfect grindhouse theatre,” he once said, “It was family-owned, this cool old Italian guy ran it, and it was in the Scottsdale Shopping Centre.”
In particular, a martial arts double bill took his fancy, as he added, “They would show Enter the Dragon and The Five Fingers of Death as a double feature three times a year, because it would always sell out”. You know it’s a good cinema if they’re selling out the same double bill multiple times a year.
Spending much of his time in grindhouse theatres, that’s when he wasn’t advising customers on movies to rent at his workplace, Video Archives, Tarantino was able to immerse himself in cinema that opened up a portal to a new world, one where endless bloodshed, witty dialogue, strange characters, fetishes, monsters, and everything else that was unusual and perhaps a little taboo could be found and celebrated.
While grindhouse cinemas might have since died out, Tarantino will never forget how important they were to his cinematic education, subsequently paying homage to them in his collaboration with Rodriguez decades later, but sadly, he never got to show a double bill of Death Proof and Planet Terror at the Carson Twin Cinema, which is now just a block of condos.
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