'House' of pain

Rose McGowan and Marley Shelton in "Grindhouse" (Credit: Dimension)

"Grindhouse" is the kind of experience that could only be hatched by the Hollywood outlaw minds of Robert Rodriguez ("Desperado," "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Sin City") and Quentin Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill").

A loving homage to over-the-top exploitation cinema in which anything goes—from graphic gore to rampant nudity to mind-scrambling action—"Grindhouse" is actually two movies for the price of one: Rodriguez's zombie splatter-fest "Planet Terror" and Tarantino's revved-up vehicular thriller "Death Proof." Both run close to 90 minutes and are bridged by fake trailers created by some of the directors' pals in rebel filmmaking like Rob Zombie ("The Devil's Rejects") and Eli Roth ("Hostel").

"The best thing about these exploitation movies is that sometimes you'll be watching them, and at one point you just can't believe what you're watching," Rodriguez says of the "Grindhouse" template. "You say to yourself, 'Is this really happening?'"

As the movie's breakout icon thanks to a machine gun leg (yes, you read that right) she sports for most of "Planet Terror," Rose McGowan heads-up a wild cast of big names (Kurt Russell, Bruce Willis), hot young rising stars (Rosario Dawson, Marley Shelton), familiar TV faces (Naveen Andrews of "Lost," Freddy Rodriguez of "Six Feet Under") and even a chart-topping singer (Fergie). All of them get to run around covered in blood, mud and zombie splooge, while Tarantino and Rodriguez feed them badass lines and even better music.

If it sounds like the best party you weren't invited to, that's because it was. But, hey, they did find time to make a movie.

HOUSE PARTY

The first thing the cast and crew of "Grindhouse" had to do before strapping on their fake legs or fine-tuning their hot rods was attend Prof. Tarantino's B-Movie Lecture Series, including screenings at the auteur's house of films like "A Cat in the Brain," "Zombie" and "Vanishing Point" that were more homework than social outings.

"Quentin said to us, 'Anything that's referenced in this movie, if you haven't seen it, watch it twice," laughs Zoe Bell, a professional stuntwoman (she was Uma Thurman's double in "Kill Bill") who makes her acting debut as herself in "Death Proof."

And the lessons didn't stop once the cameras starting rolling: "On weekends, they would rent out the Alamo Drafthouse theater and show grindhouse movies from midnight until sunrise," says B-movie veteran Jeff Fahey, with a weary shake of his head.

Rodriguez, however, knows that without these all-night movie benders, there would be no "Grindhouse" to begin with.

"Quentin was the one who grew up with these movies the most," says Rodriguez. "Since he's a film collector, he's been showing me these double and triple features. About three years ago it dawned on me, Hmmmm; I should do a double feature. When I took the idea to Quentin after 'Sin City,' I said, 'I'm thinking about doing a double feature, but I should direct one and you should direct the other.' And he said, 'We've got to call it 'Grindhouse,' and we'll have fake trailers…' We just started going."

D.I.Y. MOVIEMAKING

For most directors, coming up with an idea to change the way people watch a movie would mean endless soul-crushing meetings with studio heads who couldn't "get it" with both hands and a map. But when you own your own studio, camera equipment, editing facilities and special effects house, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you feel like. And Rodriguez does.

"They are like outlaws," explains Andrews, who's a long way from his role on ABC's "Lost" as a mad scientist with an unusual hobby in "Planet Terror." "You look around and there's not a producer for miles. It brings freedom, and that filters down to the actors. You really feel like you can do anything. You can put balls in your mouth if you want to." (Hey, we said it was "unusual.")

Shelton seems breathless just thinking about Rodriguez's daily workload: "He writes, he directs, he shoots, he scores, edits, mixes—he even cooks for the cast! There's nothing this man isn't capable of."

But he does have one limit: When asked if he'd ever step in front of the camera like his buddy Quentin, Rodriguez just smiles.

"I like being the crazy puppeteer rather than the puppet."

FANS FIRST
For Rodriguez and Tarantino, putting "Grindhouse" together wasn't just an excuse to have some deliberately schlocky fun, it allowed them to assemble a fanboy's dream film cast.

"One of the things about Robert and Quentin is that they're really proud of being fans," says Fahey, whose filmography alone has kept the straight-to-video business thriving. "They are very open about letting you know that."

And they're very open about being total film geeks.

"I'd be sitting there, falling asleep in the car, waiting for them to light a scene and suddenly I'd hear, 'You're going to have to go in after the president…'" laughs Russell, who starred in the cult classic that quote comes from, "Escape From New York." "And then I'd hear, 'President of what?' And I'd look up, and they'd all be around the monitor laughing…Those guys are a moving party."

AND ACTION…
Handing a couple of rule-averse directors a genre in which rules were meant to be broken is bound to lead to either a complete disaster or the most titillating renegade material ever put to film.

"The reason Robert and Quentin liked these grindhouse directors was because they were outcasts, they were outside the studio system," notes McGowan. "And because of that, they could do anything they wanted. Kill a dog. Kill a kid…break all the sacred rules of filmmaking."

"Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" both benefit from having all shackles removed, as the action is as intense as it is often difficult to watch. In one sequence for "Planet Terror," Freddy Rodriguez hacks and slashes his way through a hospital corridor teeming with the living dead.

"It was hard. I've never played an action hero before in my life. It was all new territory for me," he admits. "We shot the whole film at night, so it was four in the morning and I'm nodding off in my trailer when there's a knock at the door: 'C'mon, we're going to do that elaborate fight sequence.' When we finished the sun was up."

McGowan, of course, had a whole other issue to deal with: "If you're going to save the world with a machine gun leg, make sure you're at least wearing a high heel boot on the other foot," she deadpans. Not that she'd change a thing. "There's a picture of me after I leap over a wall and I'm sliding across asphalt and, even though I lost skin in the process, I did have a huge smile on my face."

The "Death Proof" cast had a whole different set of challenges on a set where fast-and-dangerous driving was the order of the day.

"No special effects or CGI were used," says Rosario Dawson, who plays one of the potential victims. "If we couldn't actually do it, Quentin didn't want it in the movie."

Dawson's co-star, Tracie Thoms, quickly realized she wasn't getting off easy: "We were doing things we probably shouldn't have been doing. Kurt and I are driving against each other, and there's a part where he's on the grass and I won't let him back on the road. The stunt people were like, 'You've got to ease up and let him back up before you reach that shadow because there's a ditch.' I'm like, 'OK, if I don't pull up in time, I will kill Kurt Russell. No pressure.'"

WHAT'S MISSING?
Audiences may be left scratching their heads when they realize that huge chunks of both "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" have, literally, been left on the cutting room floor. Just as the action gets hot and heavy, a huge 'missing reel' slams onscreen, forcing your imagination to fill in the gaps. But those missing reels may not be all that missing (the two halves of "Grindhouse" will be released separately overseas, in longer cuts). "Quentin wrote and shot scenes that he meant to cut out, just for the experience," says Dawson. "So there's a lot that can be put back in."

Director Rodriguez sees the cutting not so much as a deliberate tease, but as part of what makes these old movies great. "Those prints were usually all screwed up, but that added a texture and a vitality to them. When I go back and watch a movie on DVD that's been all cleaned up, it's lost half of its charm. I thought it would great to use the damage as a dramatic device. As another tool in your toolbox."

A RETURN TO 'GRINDHOUSE'?
As for those fake trailers, like Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the S.S." and Roth's "Thanksgiving," don't be surprised if they get the full-length "Grindhouse" treatment sometime down the road. Rodriguez himself contributes a promo for a self-described "Mexploitation" film called "Machete."

"I've been writing the 'Machete' thing for [frequent Rodriguez collaborator] Danny [Trejo] since '94," says Rodriguez. "So when Quentin first mentioned fake trailers, I said, 'I know which one I'm going to do.' I've been wanting to do 'Machete' forever."

Fan response is, obviously, a huge factor in the "Grindhouse" franchise's future, but at least one member of the cast is firmly optimistic. "I still see 'Scream' masks trick-or-treating at my house," says McGowan. "This year, there had better be some machine gun legs. And I really want it to be a drag outfit. I think drag queens will love that. I'll be the new Judy Garland, except with guns."

Check out the "Grindhouse" official site.