Beauty in the B Grade brings low-budget wonders and cringe-worthy cult faves to the big screen
Let’s be honest, most of us have a soft spot for a good dupe – and B movies are some of the most enjoyable dupes of all. What’s not to love about outlandish plots stuffed with haunted houses, oversized creatures, mystical arts and scientific hubris? If this style of film speaks to you, we have news that is bound to get you excited. Coming to GOMA Cinema from May 3–29, Beauty in the B Grade is a stunning collection of cinema that will make you laugh, gasp, cringe and marvel all in equal measure.
Beauty in the B Grade brings together a tightly curated program of films that showcase the B-movie at its peak, ranging from the 1930s to the 1960s. From campy yet ingenious classics like The Blob through to ‘creature features’ like It Came From Beneath The Sea, this amazing program is packed with gems that encapsulate the highs (and sometimes comical lows) of a movie-making practise that time has forgotten. Now that the media landscape has changed entirely, the B-movie has been seemingly lost – so what better way to pay our respects than to revive it?
These days B-grade films are largely classified as having gaudy plots and lots of low-budget scares, but the origins of the B-movie are far more nuanced than what many people realise. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and B-movies back in the day were a testament to this adage – the low budget often gave directors a chance to show just how much they could do with very little coin, stretching their imaginations even further than their dollars. Beauty in the B Grade celebrates the directors who made the genre their own – think along the lines of James Whale (The Old Dark House), Jacques Tourneur (I Walked with a Zombie), William Castle (The Tingler) and Roger Corman (The Little Shop of Horrors).
Want to indulge your inner cult-classic fanatic? Beauty in the B Grade kicks off at the GOMA Cinematheque from May 3 and runs through until May 29 – to check out the full program and grab tickets, head to the QAGOMA website.
To find out more about what’s on in Brisbane, head to our Event Guide.
