IFC's Grindhouse

With the apparent demise of TCM's Underground on Friday nights, cult movie lovers need a new outlet. That alternative programming premiered a few weeks before Underground was cut, in IFC's Grindhouse series, showing 11:00 CST on Fridays.

Grindhouse is intentionally rougher than Underground ever was, with a larger variety of subject matter as well. While Underground managed to cover many cult genres in its brief span, from Horror to Blaxploitation to all-out cheese, Grindhouse is only concerned that the subject matter be edgy -- but it's an honest edge and not a bunch of flash. Some of the movies are just this side of pornographic (questionably!) but they are all rough by some measure. 

They've shown pretty much everything from Horror to Arthouse (read: slightly pornographic) to Comedy to Kung Fu, and I can't say that any of the selections they've shown so far have been all-out stinkers; each one has been at least decent enough to sit through, even if my attention was divided while it was on.

That's the best thing about it: It's unabashedly "cult," and cult films are taken to by small groups -- not every film is for every taste. That's what gets me about people who claim to like "cult" movies in general, although there really are some of them out there. 

Still, Underground wasn't bad, by any means, I just don't think it took off like TCM hoped it would. It was a good experiment to reach younger viewers and they definitely had some decent flicks, but it was on far too late and Rob Zombie acted like he was doing everyone a favor just by talking.