grindhouse

[grahynd-hous]

noun

Slang.

1. Also grind house a burlesque house, especially one providing continuous entertainment at reduced prices.

2. a movie theater with inexpensive admission pricing that shows low-budget films one after another, throughout the day and all or most of the night.

adjective

Slang.

1. of or relating to the low-budget films shown in these theaters, as exploitation films or B-movies: His art films have a cheap grindhouse aesthetic.

   It’s an old grindhouse flick with cannibals hunting teens through an abandoned warehouse.

   His art films have a cheap grindhouse aesthetic.

grindhouse

/ ˈɡraɪndˌhaʊs /

noun

1. 1. a cinema specializing in violent or exploitative films such as martial arts movies from Japan and Hong Kong

   2. ( as modifier )

      a grindhouse film

Word History and Origins

Origin of grindhouse¹

First recorded in 1920–25; grind ( def. ) (in the combined sense “to operate an early movie projector by turning a handle or crank” and “a low-budget film that a studio grinds out”) + house ( def. )

Example Sentences

Gratefully, Robinson clearly loves her characters too and makes their screen time count rather than treating them like grindhouse fodder, that kind of violent vaudeville where you can’t wait for the hook, to drag someone off screaming.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Imbuing everyone’s favorite mythical horned horse with bloodlust is such a ready-to-rock concept that it keeps your grindhouse hopes alive for the horror-comedy “Death of a Unicorn,” even as your wandering attention betrays the reality of a wannabe cult movie that mostly gallops in place.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It is Cronenberg’s empathic, almost tender approach to the material that humanizes the film; his tonal approach is redemptive rather than grindhouse exploitative.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He didn’t just passively watch the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone or the grindhouse films of the 1970s, he dissected them scene by scene.

Read more on BBC

And several boutique home media labels, including Arrow Video, Blue Underground, Grindhouse Releasing, Something Weird and Vinegar Syndrome, have made their most popular titles available for subscribers.

Read more on New York Times