The meaning
A B movie is a low-budget genre film made quickly, for a known audience, with more imagination than money. The term comes from the double bill of 1930s and 1940s American cinemas, where a big studio feature, the A picture, was paired with a shorter, cheaper second feature, the B picture. The B picture was a western, a crime story, a horror film or a science-fiction adventure, and it was made in weeks rather than months.
From the drive-in to the video shop
When the double bill faded in the fifties, the B movie moved to the drive-in, and the science fiction of the atomic age arrived: It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Roger Corman made The Little Shop of Horrors in two days. In the eighties the video shop became the B movie's home, and a generation of young directors, Sam Raimi and Stuart Gordon among them, made their names there.
B movie, cult film, so-bad-it's-good
The three overlap. A B movie is defined by its budget and its genre. A cult film is defined by its audience, the people who return to it again and again. And a so-bad-it's-good film is loved for its flaws, with Plan 9 from Outer Space the most famous of all. Many of the best B movies are all three at once.
The B movie today
Today the spirit lives on in knowing creature features such as Sharknado and Snakes on a Plane, and in affectionate tributes such as Planet Terror and Machete. The B movies shelf holds twenty-five of them, and the best B movies guide picks the essentials.
