7 B-Movies Ideas to Get Your (Fake) Blood Racing

Between Sharknado 2 and this week’s announcement of an Evil Dead TV show, we’re in B-Movie heaven. Whether you’re tempted to create your own slice of budget horror or you harbour the suspicion that real life is becoming more like a terrible sci-fi movie by the day, we’ve got some creative nuggets that will transport you to Plan 9 from Outer Space…

DIY Sharknado

The makers of Sharknado have been crowned kings of ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ entertainment and they’re not about to let their crown slip – the release of their New York-set sequel (as any 80s kid knows, all the best sequels are set in New York) was inescapable. But how to kill the time before the inevitable Sharknado 3 is announced? Motorised shark balloons. Aww yeah.

Plasma Ball

Japanese artist Takeshi Murata probably wasn’t thinking about cheaply-produced sci-fi when he created this insane 3D zoetrope-type installation – but if you can’t afford the CG for the wibbly, wobbly plasma balls in your haunted house or alien invasion, this could be a good place to start.

Do You Want Triffids? Because That’s How Triffids Happen

We’re torn between awe and deep, irrational paranoia when it comes to RCA graduate Julian Melchiorri horticultural tinkerings. His graduation project is apparently the world’s first man-made, biological leaf, capable of photosynthesis. The potential applications are manifold and if it takes of it could, quite literally, save the planet. Still, though. Triffids.

Soft-Core Horror

OK, so this is more Simpson’s Tree House of Horror than B-Movie but it’s so bonkers that we couldn’t leave it out. Artist Lucy Sparrow has created a pop up corner shop in which everything is made out of felt. Newspapers, cigarettes, copies of Men’s Health… everything. If you fancy taking a look, the shop in London’s Bethnal Green, is open for the whole month of August.

Do Androids Dream of Slightly Easier to Unlock Smartphones?

Robot Monster, The Colossus of New York, The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy, Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine… human-machine chimeras are a staple of B-movies. And we’re creeping ever-closer to that reality with Motorola’s digital tattoos. 

Wolf Cop

I have no words. Sorry. But it is opening worldwide in September, so I guess I'll see you at the cinema.

Vintage 

If the Johnny-come-lately, try-hard ironists of modern B-movies get on your wick, check out this beautifully-researched and in-depth article on classic B-movie title sequences at ArtoftheTite.com. There’s a great selection of archive footage and screen shots .