50 Fun Facts About Grindhouse

Grindhouse (2007) is a double feature made by which two directors?

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino made Grindhouse as a double feature, an idea born at the vintage-trailer double-bill nights Tarantino hosted at his home.

Which director wrote and directed Planet Terror, the zombie half of Grindhouse?

Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed Planet Terror; he had begun its zombie script about nine years earlier, convinced zombie movies were due for a comeback.

Who plays Stuntman Mike, the killer who murders women with his modified cars in Death Proof?

Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike; Tarantino cast him because he wanted a younger audience to see Russell "be a badass again".

In Planet Terror, go-go dancer Cherry Darling loses a leg and eventually replaces it with what?

A machine gun replaces Cherry Darling's lost leg; in those shots the actress's real leg was digitally erased, first behind a wooden table-leg prop and then behind the weapon.

Which actress plays Cherry Darling in Planet Terror?

Rose McGowan plays Cherry Darling in Planet Terror and also appears in the Death Proof half as Pam, earning a Saturn Award nomination for the double bill.

Which studio released Grindhouse in the US on April 6, 2007?

Dimension Films, The Weinstein Company's genre label, released Grindhouse in the US on April 6, 2007; the film opened in a disappointing fourth place that weekend.

Grindhouse grossed only about $25M in the US against a production budget in what range?

Grindhouse cost an estimated $53–67 million to make, yet it opened to roughly $11.6 million, finishing behind the second weekend of Blades of Glory.

How did the studio handle Planet Terror and Death Proof outside the US after the domestic flop?

Outside the US the studio "Released them separately as extended films", each running longer than its Grindhouse cut; Death Proof went on to gross about $30 million on its own.

In what year did the full theatrical Grindhouse first appear on US home video?

The complete theatrical cut first reached US home video in 2010 as a Blu-ray; earlier US discs had sold Planet Terror and Death Proof only as separate extended editions.

Which three fake Grindhouse trailers were later turned into full feature films?

The trailers "Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun and Thanksgiving" each became a feature, trickling out over the following sixteen years, the last in November 2023.

According to Rodriguez, whose idea was it to put fake trailers in Grindhouse?

Rodriguez credits Quentin Tarantino with the fake-trailer idea, saying he first learned of it by reading it in the trades and thinking, "There are?"

Rob Zombie said his SS werewolf trailer would be either a Nazi movie or which other exploitation subgenre?

Women-in-prison was Zombie's other candidate; he chose the Nazis, citing Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS as the most bizarre genre going, and shot enough footage for a half-hour short.

Which Hollywood star appears in Werewolf Women of the SS as Fu Manchu?

Nicolas Cage turns up as Fu Manchu in the trailer's closing gag, alongside Sheri Moon Zombie and Sybil Danning as the werewolf SS sisters.

Edgar Wright's fake trailer, styled after a 1970s Hammer horror ad, has what one-word title?

Don't is Edgar Wright's trailer, a pastiche of 1970s British horror ads in which no actor speaks, mimicking how US distributors disguised a film's British origin.

Who provides the voice-over for Edgar Wright's fake trailer?

Will Arnett provides the voice-over for Edgar Wright's trailer, whose on-screen cast includes Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Isaacs, Matthew Macfadyen and singer Katie Melua.

In the Thanksgiving fake trailer, the killer stalks his victims dressed as what?

A Pilgrim costume hides the killer, played by Roth's childhood friend Jeff Rendell; the two had dreamed up a whole Thanksgiving slasher as kids in Massachusetts.

The title design for the Thanksgiving trailer was based on a slasher parody in which magazine?

The parody was called Arbor Day; the trailer also borrows excerpts of the Creepshow score.

Whose fake trailer nearly earned Grindhouse an NC-17 rating?

Eli Roth's Thanksgiving trailer nearly pushed Grindhouse to NC-17; Roth said the ratings board relaxed once they saw it with all the splices and scratches, and the film went out rated R.

Which fake trailer, shown mainly in Canada, came from a South by Southwest contest?

Hobo with a Shotgun won the South by Southwest trailer contest; made by Dartmouth, Nova Scotia filmmakers Jason Eisener, John Davies and Rob Cotterill, it was added to Canadian prints and became a feature in 2011.

Who plays the title role in the 2011 feature made from the hobo-vigilante trailer?

Rutger Hauer plays the hobo in the 2011 feature, while David Brunt, who played the hobo in the original trailer, appears as a dirty cop.

Rodriguez first wrote Machete back in 1993 as a star vehicle for which actor?

Danny Trejo was the intended star; Rodriguez wanted him to headline his own line of "Mexploitation" films, the way Charles Bronson had his own vehicles.

Before Grindhouse, Machete had already appeared in which Rodriguez film series?

Spy Kids introduced Uncle Machete in 2001; Rodriguez has said the kid-friendly gadget maker and the blood-soaked federale are, canonically, the same guy.

Which action star made his first theatrical release since 2002 in Machete?

Steven Seagal, playing the drug lord Torrez, made his first theatrical release since 2002's Half Past Dead in Machete; his films in between had gone straight to video.

The 2023 film Thanksgiving is set in which Massachusetts town, where a Black Friday riot turns deadly?

Thanksgiving is set in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the killer wears a John Carver mask, after the first governor of Plymouth Colony, and Patrick Dempsey plays the sheriff.

Grindhouse was born when Rodriguez and Tarantino found they owned the same poster for which 1957 double feature?

Both directors owned the AIP poster for Dragstrip Girl and Rock All Night; Rodriguez suggested they each direct one half of a similar double bill, and Tarantino supplied the title Grindhouse.

Which recurring Texas Ranger, first seen in From Dusk till Dawn, appears in both halves of Grindhouse?

Earl McGraw is played by Michael Parks, who introduced the Ranger in From Dusk till Dawn; Parks's real son James plays McGraw's son Edgar in Death Proof.

Death Proof gave Tarantino his first screen credit in which crew role?

Cinematographer was a new credit for Tarantino, who shot Death Proof himself; Rodriguez, long his own director of photography, likewise shot Planet Terror.

What device, borrowed from a beat-up Italian crime film, lets Grindhouse jump straight to the third act?

A "missing reel" card lets the film skip ahead; Rodriguez loved that a battered Italian crime print he watched could lose twenty minutes and work anyway, cutting the predictable late second act.

How long is the extended cut of Death Proof that competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007?

Tarantino said there was half an hour's difference from the Grindhouse cut, which he'd trimmed "like a brutish American exploitation distributor".

Which stuntwoman plays herself riding a Dodge Challenger's hood in Death Proof?

Zoë Bell plays herself; she had doubled for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and for Lucy Lawless on Xena, and performed the ship's-mast hood stunt for real.

The women in Death Proof test-drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger because it's the car from which 1971 film?

Vanishing Point, the 1971 road movie, made the white 1970 Dodge Challenger famous; the women leave their friend Lee with the owner as collateral after telling him she's a porn star.

The first half of Death Proof is set in which Texas city, home of Congress Avenue?

Austin, home of the Texas Chili Parlor where the first half's bar scenes unfold, is the setting; the second half jumps 14 months ahead and moves to Lebanon, Tennessee.

In Death Proof, Jungle Julia's radio contest requires listeners to recite part of which poem to Arlene?

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening supplies the line "miles to go before I sleep" that a listener must recite to Arlene to win a lap dance; Stuntman Mike has been listening and claims it.

Why can't Stuntman Mike be charged after his head-on crash kills four women?

The Texas Ranger investigating is sure the crash was deliberate, but since "He was sober and they were intoxicated" there is no case to build, and Mike is never charged.

In Planet Terror, what is the deadly biochemical agent that turns the town into zombie-like mutants?

DC2, codenamed Project Terror, is the gas; Lt. Muldoon's men are buying it from chemical engineer Abby when the deal goes wrong and it is released.

Which action star plays the mutant soldier villain of Planet Terror?

Bruce Willis plays Lt. Muldoon, the infected soldier; he had previously worked with both directors, in Pulp Fiction and Sin City.

Which pop star appears in Grindhouse as Tammy, the ex-lover of Dr. Dakota Block in Planet Terror?

Fergie, the Black Eyed Peas singer, plays Tammy; between Poseidon and the musical Nine, it is one of her few film roles.

Which actress plays anesthesiologist Dakota Block, whose husband disables her hands, and cameos in Death Proof?

Marley Shelton plays Dr. Dakota Block; Rodriguez had given her a bit part in Sin City before this starring role, and she reprises Dakota in a Death Proof cameo.

Which composer's music, often played on set, inspired Rodriguez's own score for Planet Terror?

John Carpenter's synth scores, which Rodriguez often played on set, shaped his own music for Planet Terror; Death Proof, by contrast, uses no original score at all.

How did Roger Ebert split his ratings for the two halves of Grindhouse?

He gave the whole thing two and a half stars; many other critics preferred Planet Terror.

Per historian David Church, the term "grind house" first appeared in print in 1923 in which trade paper?

Variety, per film historian David Church, printed "grind house" in 1923; the name comes from the "grind policy" of continuous cut-rate screenings, not from bump-and-grind burlesque as often assumed.

Grindhouse theaters are often wrongly linked to burlesque houses on which New York street?

The 42nd Street burlesque houses of Manhattan are the usual false etymology; the "grind" really refers to the continuous, cut-rate screening policy, not bump-and-grind striptease.

In 2020, Tarantino called Grindhouse his most misunderstood film, saying he and Rodriguez had been what?

Tarantino said he and Rodriguez had been "A little too cool for school", arguing that audiences simply had no concept of double features or exploitation history.

Which two actors play the Crazy Babysitter Twins, appearing in both halves of Grindhouse?

Electra and Elise Avellan are Rodriguez's nieces; they play the twins in both halves, and he once floated a sequel pairing them with Machete.

How long did each of the fake Grindhouse trailers take to shoot?

Rob Zombie pitched Werewolf Women of the SS to Rodriguez at the Scream Awards.

Which actor plays Death Camp 13 commandant Franz Hess in Werewolf Women of the SS?

Udo Kier plays Commandant Franz Hess, running Death Camp 13 alongside Sheri Moon Zombie and Sybil Danning as the SS sisters Eva and Gretchen Krupp.

Which band's cover of a Dead Kennedys song features on the Planet Terror soundtrack?

Nouvelle Vague, the French bossa-nova covers act, turns a 1981 Dead Kennedys punk single into a lounge number for the film; Rodriguez composed the Planet Terror score himself.

What average grade did CinemaScore audiences give Grindhouse?

Critics were kinder still: 84% positive on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Marley Shelton auditioned unsuccessfully for which Rodriguez film before Grindhouse?

The Faculty, Rodriguez's 1998 teen horror film, turned her down; she was eventually cast as a customer in the opening sequence of Sin City before landing Dr. Dakota Block.

Which company released the two-disc Blu-ray Special Edition of Grindhouse in October 2010?

Vivendi Entertainment, partnering with The Weinstein Company, put out the two-disc Blu-ray Special Edition, the first US disc to carry the full theatrical double feature with its fake trailers.