So after stirring up more than enough trouble with my “50 New Pulp Books To Get You Started” why then would I go ahead and go ahead and dive into making up a list of New Pulp movies? And how can there be New Pulp movies in the first place when New Pulp has been barely recognized as a genre in the first place?
Simple: I think there should be a way for people unfamiliar with what I and a whole bunch of other writers/editors/like-minded creative folks term “The New Pulp Movement” should be able to get into the genre and movies are a terrific way of doing that. First of all, what is New Pulp? Broken down to the simplest of elements it is fiction written in the mold and sensibilities of the style of Classic Pulp of the 1930s and 40s. Linear storytelling, creative use of words and phrasing, larger than life characters but with the added layer of modern perceptiveness and sensitivity.
Take CONGO, for instance. One of the movies on my list. It’s a movie that has a lost city in Africa containing a fortune in diamonds guarded by killer gorillas, a Great White Hunter (played by a black man) a gorilla who can talk to human using sign language and enough cliifhangers to give Indiana Jones the vapors. Many of the elements of that movie wouldn’t have been out of place in an adventure movie of the 1930s but it’s told in modern times, using modern technology and with modern characters but still evokes that sense of adventure and wonderment all of us who love Pulp so much hunger for.
For a long time now I’ve been noticing that there are movies that I feel would fit into the category of New Pulp. These are movies that usually straddle genres. Take into account that Pulp both Classic and New can encompass many other genres such as science fiction, horror, western, crime, romance, martial arts and thriller. Take BUCKAROO BANZAI for instance. Is it science fiction, action adventure, satire? Yes. It’s all of those things and for my money because it has all of those elements and so many more as well, to me it qualifies as a New Pulp Movie.
But I’ve run off at the mouth more than enough. You came to read the list, not to hear me pontificate. So here it is for better or for worse 50 NEW PULP MOVIES TO GET YOU STARTED:
