Los Angeles Times

Review: The graphic novel 'Blood of the Virgin' brings '70s LA, grindhouse movie biz to gory life

Sammy Harkham’ s comics-style self-portrait.

Grindhouse wasn't a movie genre afflicted by subtlety. The plots celebrated mayhem: chain-saw-wielding maniacs, murderous supernatural forces or a young woman on a revenge killing spree. There was fake blood (gallons of it), as well as gratuitous female nudity (cue the bouncing bosoms). And don't forget the screamy posters that boasted, for one example, "the most violent, blood-spurting fight ever filmed!"

This '70s-era genre may be fondly remembered by directors such as and , but these cheap flicks often inhabited a spot on the cinematic spectrum between god-awful and unwatchable. "Exploitation movies were like layers of grit wrapped around a few minutes of 'the good stuff' of in 2007. "Savvy distributors with calculators for eyes grabbed on to these exploitable elements and flogged the hell out of them."

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