Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are promising to resurrect the long dead tradition of trash cinema for the mainstream with their upcoming, double-bill opus, Grindhouse. Celebrating the filth infested, gore soaked, grub drenched pictures of the 70í¢â‚¬â„¢s and 80í¢â‚¬â„¢s, Grindhouse promises to take us back to the not-so PC days, where in cinematic terms, anything went. If you happened to find yourself in Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London on Saturday May 5^th, then you will have already been transported back to the era of Grindhouse. Nightmare USA promised ten hours of Grindhouse Movie Mayhem and it certainly delivered. Held by Stephen Thrower and his Fab press cohorts and serving as a launch for Throwerí¢â‚¬â„¢s new book, also titled Nightmare USA, the festival showcased five features all which will not be turning up at your local video store anytime soon. Proceedings kicked off with the films Doní¢â‚¬â„¢t Go in the House (1979), Pigs (1972) and Bloody Brothers (2003).

Watch the trailer for Doní¢â‚¬â„¢t Go in the House:

House is a startling film that still has the power to shock today. Spinning its own version of the Psycho story, House deals with the murderous impulses of factory worker, Donny, who likes to set fire to women in his specially built steel room. A grimy atmosphere, superb acting and one truly infamous scene that gave it the label í¢â‚¬Ëœvideo nastyí¢â‚¬â„¢, House still has the power to get under the skin.

From down and dirty realism, into all out surrealism with Marc Lawrenceí¢â‚¬â„¢s, Pigs. An everyday tale of escaped lunatics, people eating pigs and tripped out Seventies weirdness, Pigs is the true definition of strange. Next up was Bloody Brothers, Frederick Friedelí¢â‚¬â„¢s new movie, cut together from his two exploitation classics, Lisa, Lisa and The Kidnap Lover. Twin brothers separated at birth, simultaneously go on separate kidnap and killing sprees all the while edging closer to each other for a final, bloody denouement. Excellent acting and photography make this a dark journey into the American landscape.

The Grindhouse experience was wrapped up with Victims (1977) and the completely bonkers, Boarding House (1982). Victims is an often harsh and uncompromising look at the birth of a rapist. Unrelenting in its nihilism it overcomes amateurish production values to be a truly disturbing, if overlong, experience. Rarely seen anywhere, Victims is an obscure film and as director Thrower says himself, so rare, í¢â‚¬Å“ití¢â‚¬â„¢s even absent from the Internet Movie Database.í¢â‚¬  And so, from the nihilism of Victims to the complete delirium of Boarding House. Words cannot describe what a unique experience Boarding House is. In fact, ití¢â‚¬â„¢s difficult to even describe what ití¢â‚¬â„¢s about.. Basically the film throws in everything horrible from the 80í¢â‚¬â„¢s (fashion, cheap computer effects, narcissism, mystic mumbo jumbo and a complete lack of logic) and comes up with a film that had the crowd whooping, hollering, laughing and almost crying at the absurdity of each scene.

Watch the trailer for Boarding House:

The Grindhouse genre of cinema is often looked down upon by the higher echelons of film society, but it is a genre that has a lot to offer. Nightmare USA offered some of the best of its kind and with special guests Joseph Ellison (director, Doní¢â‚¬â„¢t Go in the House) and Frederick Friedel (who also showed his new short film, Squish), the experience very much conveyed the love and appreciation for this kind of cinema.

Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents by Stephen Thrower is available now from Fab Press priced í‚ £39.99.

Order it at www.fabpress.com