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The term B movie originally referred to a motion picture made on a low or modest budget and intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood.
Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continues to be used in a broader sense, referring to any low-budget, commercial motion picture meant neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography.
In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides: on the one hand, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity; on the other, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient. In some cases, both are true.
 Obsessed pathologist Dr. Chapin (Vincent Price)
discovers a parasitic creature that grows in the spinal cords of people
when they experience fear. Once the parasite grows large enough, it
will attack and kill unless the host lets out a blood-curdling scream.
During the film's initial release, director William Castle, famous for his horror-film gimmicks, rigged theater seats to shock patrons and planted screamers and fainters in the audience!
This 1953 sci-fi classic, directed by Eugene Lourie and starring Paul Christian, Ross Elliott
and Cecil Kallaway, brings to the screen Ray Bradbury's short story
"The Fog Horn." The powerful force of atomic testing in the Arctic has
awakened a sleeping rhedosaurus that's been frozen solid in ice, and
the creature rises from the sea to exact revenge in the streets of New
York. Features animation by Ray Harryhausen.
A gigantic octopus -- who's a real sourpuss -- terrorizes an atomic
submarine shuttling the Pacific. By the time the crew realizes the
monster is the nasty by-product of a hydrogen bomb experiment, the
creature is well on its way to destroying San Francisco. The octopus is
yet another example in a long line of fantastic stop-motion animation
from the technique's master, Ray Harryhausen.
Based
on a Ray Bradbury story. An alien ship crashes in the Arizona desert,
and the extraterrestrials assume the identities of the locals in order
to buy enough time to make repairs. But one man (Richard Carlson)
discovers the truth, and soon his wife is replaced by one of the
aliens. Desperate to get her back, Carlson pleads with authorities to
not kill the aliens.
Ray Milland stars in this pair of shocking tales directed by Roger Corman.
First, a man is convinced his father was buried alive and lives in
absolute fear of his own live interment in The Premature Burial, a tale
adapted from an Edgar Allan Poe story and co-starring Hazel Court and Alan Napier.
Then, in The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, a doctor experiments on his own
vision and ultimately begins to see things no human can bear.
Evil lurks in the mind of a hospitalized amnesiac who's forced to take
a volatile drug that causes him to suffer grisly visions of young women
being killed. But when he escapes the institution and meets a troubled
teenage boy, his memory starts to return. Will his visions lead them
both to salvation or to destruction? Shawn Pyfrom, Reed Diamond, Julian Berlin and Lucy Lawless star in this chilling tale of vision, memory and violence.
When
Terry's friend Glen moved away, he left the gate to hell that he
discovered in his back yard unguarded so that anyone who wanted to
could open it again. Now, five years later, teenaged Terry (Louis Tripp)
returns to the scene and starts practicing rituals to summon the
demons, this time to prevent his dad from losing his job. But for Terry
to get his wish, he and his friends will have to sacrifice part of
themselves.
Testing
munitions is always a good idea, right? It ensures that all things will
go according to plan when the time comes. But the inhabitants of a
small Southwestern town feel the real "fallout" when radiation from
bomb tests creates giant, mutant ants that descend on their community.
Filled with creepy creatures large and small, this 1954 sci-fi
spectacular falls squarely in the realm of B-movies.
Ron Perlman (Hellboy) stars as the resident Catholic priest in this horror flick from director Warren P. Sonoda
set in a reform school. When five troubled teenage girls are sent to
the academy, they expect to clash with their keepers -- what they don't
expect is that their keeper will be a demon named Legion who holds the
institution in thrall. Luckily for the girls, they possess unique
powers that enable them to battle the ancient ghoul.
Brooke Shields
was 9 years when she made her debut in this shocker thriller. Who is
the murderer behind the mask? Is it the young sweet Alice or it someone
else? Includes audio commentary and still gallery.
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