As part of its theatrical presentation, Grindhouse also features fictitious exploitation trailers directed by Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, and Jason Eisener.

Despite the box office failure, Rodriguez and Tarantino have expressed interest in a possible sequel due to Grindhouse's positive reviews and successful home media sales.

The odds become a bit more even when Cherry, who lost her leg to a hungry ghoul, gets a machine-gun appendage and lets the bullets fly.

The insane Mike may be in over his head, though, when he targets a tough group of female friends, including real-life stuntwoman Zoë Bell, who plays herself.

Before each segment, trailers advertising fake films are shown, as well as vintage theater snipes and an ad for a fictional restaurant called Acuña Boys.

Professional wrestlers Andrew "Test" Martin and Oleg "Vladimir Kozlov" Prudius also featured, plus Olja Hrustic, Meriah Nelson, and Lorielle New as the Werewolf Women.

[15] The trailer featured appearances from Jason Isaacs, Matthew Macfadyen, singer Katie Melua, Lee Ingleby, Georgina Chapman, Emily Booth, Stuart Wilson, Lucy Punch, Rafe Spall, Wright regulars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and a voice-over by Will Arnett.

[11][16] Mark Gatiss, MyAnna Buring, Peter Serafinowicz, Michael Smiley, and Nicola Cunningham (who played the zombie "Mary" in Shaun of the Dead), among others, made uncredited cameo appearances.

During editing, he scratched some of the film with steel wool and dragged it around a parking lot to make it appear neglected by wayward projectionists.

Produced in the style of holiday-themed slasher films such as Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night, April Fool's Day, and My Bloody Valentine,[11] the trailer starred Jeff Rendell as a killer who stalks victims while dressed as a Pilgrim; Jordan Ladd, Jay Hernandez, and Roth himself as his intended victims; and Michael Biehn as the Sheriff.

According to Roth, "My friend Jeff, who plays the killer Pilgrim – we grew up in Massachusetts, we were huge slasher-movie fans and every November we were waiting for the Thanksgiving slasher movie.

"[11] In 2010, Roth confirmed in an interview with Cinema Blend's Eric Eisenberg that he and co-writer Jeff Rendell were working on a possible feature film.

In the trailer, he is shown killing numerous persons, ranging from armed robbers to corrupt cops to a pedophilic Santa Claus.

During one screening in 2003, Rodriguez noticed that he owned the same double-feature movie poster as Tarantino for the 1957 films Dragstrip Girl and Rock All Night.

"[10] Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror during the production of The Faculty: "I remember telling Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett, all these young actors, that zombie movies were dead and hadn't been around in a while, but that I thought they were going to come back in a big way because they'd been gone for so long.

[10] As Planet Terror took shape, Tarantino developed the story for Death Proof, based on his fascination for the way stuntmen would "death-proof" their cars.

This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car.

Tarantino attempted to cast both Kal Penn[30] and Sylvester Stallone[31] in Death Proof, but both were unable to work due to prior commitments.

During shooting for these scenes, McGowan wore a special cast which restricted her leg movement to give her the correct motion, and helped the effects artists to digitally remove it during post-production.

"[28] Grindhouse is rated R in the United States for "strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity, and drug use".

Grindhouse performed poorly at the box office,[38] surprising box-office analysts and fans alike given the strong reviews and favorable media buzz.

In 2017, Rodriguez told Variety that he thinks Weinstein "buried" the film, due to the director's decision to cast Rose McGowan in Planet Terror.

The site's critics consensus reads, "Grindhouse delivers exhilarating exploitation fare with wit and panache, improving upon its source material with feral intelligence.

"[52] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a positive review, commenting, "by stooping low without selling out, this babes-and-bullets tour de force gets you high on movies again.

"[55] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle awarded the film a high rating, but noted, "the Rodriguez segment is terrific; the Tarantino one long-winded and juvenile.

Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star wrote that the use of the trailers helps the film establish "its credibility as both mock-artifact and geeky fetish object even before the opening feature.

[60] Jeff Vice of Deseret News, who gave the feature films negative reviews, called the trailers "the strongest aspect of the entire presentation".

"[67] Many European fans saw the split as an attempt to increase profits by forcing audiences to pay twice for what was shown as a single film in the United States.

[87] Tarantino said that he wants to shoot an "old-school Kung Fu movie in Mandarin with subtitles in some countries, and release a shorter, dubbed cut in others" for his segment.

[91] "Robert mentioned something about the end of the world and Hollywood action films, where we'd be trained in Mexico to come back here and fight", Electra Avellan told Bloody Disgusting.