Quentin Tarantino is not shy about his lifelong, nerd-level love of cinema, especially B-movies and exploitation flicks. In fact, most of Tarantino's films readily steal characterizations, styles, and themes from low-budget films made in the 1960s and 1970s.
In interviews, Tarantino enjoys listing off his favorite movies. The director's encyclopedic knowledge of cinema knows no bounds, and he uses his platform to promote older films that fell through the cracks. Not all of the lurid and gritty exploitation flicks on this list have gone into obscurity, but they all surely inspired Tarantino to pick up a camera and make movies.
The Street Fighter (1974): Amazon Prime
One of the first films to become a commercial success for New Line Cinema, The Street Fighter is a martial arts classic starring Sonny China. Known for its violence, the film initially received an X-rating, which was reduced to an R-rating after 16 minutes of carnage were cut from the film.
Tarantino has referenced China's The Street Fighter trilogy numerous times in interviews. In 1993's True Romance, which Tarantino penned the script for, Christian Slater's character Clarence goes to a Sonny Chiba movie marathon on his birthday.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): Shudder
Over the decades, Tarantino has often labeled Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre one of the best horror movies of all time. The low-budget film about a cannibal family in East Texas unfolds on the screen like a gritty, unrelenting documentary.
The evolution of Leatherface and the rest of the Sawyer clan into some of horror's most iconic monsters isn't an accident. Their story taps into the darkest crevices of the American psyche, where people resort to acting on their worst impulses in order to survive.
Coffy (1973): DIRECTV & TCM
Tarantino cites Coffy as one of the best films of all time. The blaxploitation revenge thriller stars Pam Grier in the title role as a vigilante who rales against the drug dealer responsible for turning her sister into an addict.
Grier is fierce, confident, and titillating as Coffy. Tarantino loved her performance so much he wrote and directed 1997's Jackie Brown with Grier in mind, casting her in the title role as a flight attendant caught up in a money smuggling scheme.
Circle Of Iron (1978): Amazon Prime
Another textbook exploitation martial arts film, Circle of Iron features a young David Carradine as a blind master fight who agrees to help a younger man known as Cord the Seeker. Carradine's role was originally intended for Bruce Lee, who also co-wrote Circle of Iron; unfortunately, Lee died before production began.
In the movie, Carradine's character plays a large flute. This is the very same flute Carradine plays decades later in Tarantino's homage to martial arts, Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
Halloween (1978): Shudder
John Carpenter's groundbreaking film about a masked knife-yielder who wreaks havoc on the Illinois suburb he grew up is the consummate exploitation film. Viewers get to see mayhem unfold from the killer's perspective, are introduced to Jamie Lee Curtis's final girl Laurie, and even anticipate deaths through a repeated theme song -- making Michael Myers and Halloween ground zero for slasher movie tropes.
Tarantino is a huge fan of Carpenter's film, and he almost penned the script for the infamous sixth installment in the franchise, The Curse of Michael Myers. Unfortunately, Tarantino lost out to Joe Chapelle, who took the narrative into bizarre cult territory.
The Chinese Boxer (1970): Amazon Prime
The intense fight sequences in Jimmy Wang's epic The Chinese Boxer inspired the bloody House of Blue Leaves sequence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, which involves Uma Thurman's character The Bride annihilating O-Ren's large squad of fighters. Wang directed, scripted, and stars in The Chinese Boxer, one of the most emblematic kung fu movies to come out of Hong Kong.
Wang plays Lei Ming, a fighter in training, who toils day and night to become a supreme boxer. Ming wants nothing more than to avenge the Japanese karate gang responsible for destroying his martial arts school.
The Last House On The Left (1972): Hulu
Horror director Wes Craven's debut feature film is a heinous exploitation film. The Last House on the Left tells the story of two grieving parents who lure the gang responsible for murdering their daughter and her friend to their home, where they exact brutal revenge.
Tarantino is known for making his influences transparent, and he pays homage to The Last House on the Left in a very interesting way. The Hateful Eight contains a song by singer and actor David Hess, who plays the main villain in Craven's film.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968): Amazon Prime
Night of the Living Dead has a spot on Tarantino's list of the best grindhouse films -- which shouldn't come as a surprise. George Romero's black-and-white, low-budget masterpiece is an experiment in gore, exploitation, and guerrilla-style camerawork.
Even though the word zombie isn't used once in the movie, it's still considered the most influential zombie movie of all time. Made for just over $100,000, it follows a group of people in rural Pennsylvania trying to save themselves from the undead apocalypse unfolding around them.
Django (1966): Tubi
There's no doubt Sergio Corbucci's Italian spaghetti Western Django impacted Tarantino's trajectory as a filmmaker. In the film, as well as the dozens of follow-ups that came after it, Django is a dismissed Union soldier who gets caught up in all kinds of trouble.
For 2012's Django Unchained, Tarantino transforms the white character into a freed slave played by Jamie Foxx. However, the movie does contain a brief cameo from the original Django, Franco Nero.
The Blood Spattered Bride (1972): Amazon Prime
A chapter of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is named after Vicente Aranda's Spanish-language horror film The Blood Splattered Bride. Despite its B-movie trappings, the film pushed many boundaries when it was released, especially with its depictions of sexuality and gender.
In the film, a young woman goes to her new husband's family estate on a honeymoon, where she is plagued by nightmares of a beautiful woman in a purple wedding gown. The Blood Splattered Bride evolves into a dream-like, gothic horror tale from there -- one involving vampirism, desire, and mysticism.