Tremors had a budget of $11 million...and Kevin Bacon. Not sure if it qualifies as a B-movie, but I guess that's a pretty arbitrary definition anyways. Either way, awesome movie.
That puts it solidly in the "B Movie" territory. Screamers came in at $21m and it was totally B-movie. Pitch Black was $18m and it was totally a B-movie. Fuckin' Arachnophobia was $31m and that's totally a B-movie. Keep in mind: B-movies have an actual definition. If you take that definition and apply it to modern filmmaking, it means "any major studio production that isn't a tentpole." That definition would include The Sixth Sense because yes, Tremors had Kevin Bacon in it but like Bruce Willis after him, his career was at an ebb. He'd done Quicksilver & Footloose but he'd also done The Big Picture and She's Having A Baby. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who's ever seen either of those films. Tremors, much like Sixth Sense, got Kevin Bacon back in the public eye. Tremors is a way better B-movie than Sixth Sense and it kicks the shit out of Pitch Black or Screamers.
ALWAYS call me on my shit. The definition of B-movie is 50 years out of date which makes it very much a subject of opinion... and my opinion is simply more well-formed than yours. It's no more correct because opinions can't be by definition. By your definion of B-movie, I've worked on several. It is my professional opinion that there's more enjoyment and more to learn from films in my definition of B-movie simply because people are a lot more careful with $10m than they are with $100k. It's a "you must be at least this tall to ride this ride" sort of problem and separating the wheat from the chaff is well worth the trouble.
Ho. Lee. Shit. I had a rough 36 hours (I had to unexpectedly put down my cat) and I needed to get my mind on something else. So thank you for posting those NaHs. That was absolutely fascinating for a film junkie who has very little conception of the sorts of problems that plague film production. I was able to figure out what Pokey Stick 2's real title is and I just watched it. You were right. Fucking terrible. I love shitty horror movies and I still hated it. So many problems. I can't imagine what that script looked like. It's just heaps and heaps of pointless exposition and backstory. Then it all gets delivered in wooden monotone by actors who seem extremely uncomfortable . Then there is no way to differentiate the characters. Then the whole last half of the movie is underexposed so you can't see much of anything. But the worst problem is that it's just flat out boring. That is a criticism that I try not to use, but it is the defining characteristic of PS2. I like your idea with the Front Line Assembly cut. Maybe work some public domain classical fugues in there with the industrial. Regardless, it sounded good. Which is amazing given what you wrote. You are a miracle worker. Have you written NaH#3 yet? I am curious as to how it all shook out.