MrPopo wrote:How do these sorts of movies get made? Do the people making them think they're good?
It can vary upon the studio and distributor. This particular movie was made by Action International Pictures, which was founded in 1986 by David A. Prior, David Winters, and Peter Yuval. A good chunk of AIP pictures were directed by David Prior and star his brother, Ted Prior. They specialized in low budget action movies.
Mostly the folks in these kind of films want to try to make money but also want to make movies but can't get into the major studios, don't want the sort of restrictions placed on them that a studio will dictate, need a starting point to gain experience, or want to keep working during their off time or when they are past their prime. And they've actually done us a huge service over time by giving work to young upstarts who eventually develop their careers into major talent, or who stick to the B-side of things but still manage some level of celebrity. They also give a place for older stars who are winding down to continue to work and collect a paycheck. Whole genres of film that don't see much action at times from the major studios are supported by the B-movie types, particularly science fiction and horror. And these kinds of companies also often handled the US releases of foreign films that were low budget or genre movies or independent films that could not get a national release otherwise. Sure, these studios realize that what they are making or distributing is generally crap, but it's their crap, and they often manage to realize artistic dreams with only a shoestring budget. And crap will sometimes hit it big and make a ton of money.
Businesses will also pay for it. For example, The Asylum specializes in mockbusters; they got their start doing low-budget horror movies but really took off when Blockbuster offered to buy 100,000 copies of their rip-off version of War of the Worlds in 2005. From then on, that was exactly the kind of film they produced, and they have now released the likes of The Day the Earth Stopped, The Da Vinci Treasure, Snakes on a Train, AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, Transmorphers, Paranormal Entity, Titanic II, Battle of Los Angeles, and so on.
Other companies that have been in this kind of business include:
American International Pictures - Home of Roger Corman and employed the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles B. Griffith, Charles Beaumont, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and many more. This was the first user of focus groups in the film industry. Also, many blaxploitation films found a home here.
Empire International Pictures - Released films like Re-Animator, Trancers, Ghoulies, and From Beyond.
The Cannon Group, Inc. - Known for films like Death Wish III and Missing in Action, which employed the likes of Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris. They were also an early proponent of anime films in the US and released movies like Robotech: The Movie.
Full Moon Entertainment - Created specifically to produce low-budget horror, science fiction, and fantasy films, such as the Puppet Master series, or to reissue older films like Tourist Trap.
And those are just US companies. Film companies all over the world have done this for years, like K.Y. Lim's Silver Star Film Company.
You'd also be surprised about how much money some of these movies can make. Do you know how New Line Cinema made it big? A Nightmare on Elm Street. Artisan Entertainment got its start releasing movies like Silent Night, Deadly Night before merging with Carolco Pictures(which ended up releasing the likes of First Blood, Total Recall, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day). Heck, Lionsgate Films' first major success was American Psycho, but Saw and Fahrenheit 9/11 are where it really took off.
A lot of these movies are now considered classics by movie fans and genre aficionados, but I'd bet you could easily find someone who would call them crap.
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