Z movie
[2] Later Z movies may not evidence the same degree of technical incompetence; in addition to bargain-basement scripts and acting, they are often characterized by violent, gory and/or sexual content and a minimum of artistic interest, readily falling into the category of exploitation films.
[4] It features an incoherent plot, bizarre dialogue, inept acting, intrusive narration, the cheapest conceivable special effects and cardboard sets that the actors occasionally bump into and knock over.
[5] The Creeping Terror (1964), directed by Vic Savage (under the pseudonym A. J. Nelson), uses some memorable bargain-basement effects: stock footage of a rocket launch is played in reverse to depict the landing of an alien spacecraft.
The movie also employs a technique that has come to be synonymous with Z-movie horror: voiceover narration that paraphrases dialogue being silently enacted onscreen,[6] often an attempt to hide the fact that the filmmakers did not have the equipment, skill or budget to record speech synchronised with the actors' mouths, had decided to retroactively change the dialogue for plot reasons and could not do proper ADR or no longer had access to the original actors, or had ruined the original soundtrack in some other way.
The film features a character named Torgo, who was intended by the writer to be a satyr, but the only onscreen evidence of this is his large, oddly placed knees hidden underneath normal human clothing.
However, while Plan 9 is renowned for its poor production, Manos remained very obscure until being featured on a 1993 episode of the movie-mocking series Mystery Science Theater 3000, giving it cult status.
[7] The latter-day Z movie is typified by such pictures as Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold (1995) and Bikini Cavegirl (2004), both directed by Fred Olen Ray, that combine traditional genre themes with extensive nudity or softcore pornography.
The earliest usage of the term (as grade-Z movie, and without the full derogatory meaning now usually intended) so far located is in a January 1965 newspaper review by critic Kevin Thomas of The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), an American International Pictures film directed by Roger Corman.
