ABSTRACT
In 1963, the magazine Film Comment, then one year old, devoted an article to exploitation film. Blaxploitation, Nazisploitation, torture porn, and Mondo and Snuff Film, for instance, are the result of a grouping of modes of representation. So is the yo-yo cycle of films around women in prisons, a combination of naughty and nasty that received respectability thanks to the television series Orange Is the New Black. One of the most effective ways of discussing exploitation film is by distinguishing various sub-genres. The cult reception of many exploitation films, from the drugged teens warning film Reefer Madness to the drunk women in prison and Hans and Gretel hallucination Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby, is testimony to that. Film Comment and Matinee, when taken in combination, are beacons for the cult trajectory of exploitation film, from a curiosity that was in need of commentary in order to ‘place’ it to an over-the-top self-reflection on an afternoon binge rush.
