Machete and Writing Grindhouse Fiction

Tips for writing edgy, over-the-top action stories

One of the most fun action movies to watch is Robert Rodriguez's Machete, which combines B-movie camp with over-the-top ultraviolence and a magnetic performance by Danny Trejo. Directors like Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have delved into this type of story, which many affectionately call "grindhouse." these movies are gritty, gory, action-packed and pulpy. They don't take themselves very seriously and offer a wild ride for anyone fortunate enough to watch them. Movies aren't the only medium you can attach a grindhouse style to, though. Games like Borderlands and House of the Dead evoke a grindhouse ethos, as well as novels like I am not a Serial Killer, Graveyard Blues and Savages. If this is a style you want to use for your next story, here are some things to keep in mind for it.

Take it to the Extreme
One of the hallmarks of grindhouse fiction is how over-the-top everything is. Whether it be a woman from Planet Terror replacing her leg with a machinegun, or Machete rappelling down a wall using the intestines of a man he killed as a rope, Everything is fair game, and the more outlandish an idea you can use, the better. When you are writing scenes for your story, try to imagine the wildest, craziest, most jaw-dropping development that can happen within that scene, throw that into your scene see what happens. And then do it again. and again. Grindhouse fiction prides itself on being turned up to 11, so you need to do the same. This applies to every aspect of your story. Don't skimp on the violence, gore and dark humor. Your story doesn't want to take itself too seriously, so you can cram as much absurd ideas and details as the story demands.

Nonstop Action
Grindhouse stories move at a breakneck speed, and audiences aren't given a lot of time to catch their breath before they are thrown into the next pulse-pounding action sequence. There needs to always be something happening and some crazy sequence of events going on. You can have your protagonist go from a high speed car chase with a firetruck right into a shootout with some gangsters dressed as clowns over a shark tank right into a knife-fight with a one-armed pirate on a spaceship flying to the sun. Your action scenes should be relentless, fast paced, and stacked on top of one another, with one chaotic action scene leading right into the next. Machete Kills has four ridiculous action scenes happening back-to-back-to-back-to-back, with Machete fighting his way out of a room full of henchmen, grabbing a car and going on a high-speed chase which leads into a fight at the US-Mexico Border, which takes him to a helicopter and an aerial gunfight ending with the helicopter exploding. This is the type of sequencing you should be aiming for. Despite that, you can still keep the story unpredictable by throwing in absurd plot twists, shocking betrayals and bizarre developments that keep your readers offguard. keep your chapters short and episodic, to maintain that fast pace.

Keep it Gritty, but keep it Campy
One of the most interesting aspects of grindhouse is that it keeps a raw and gritty feel while at the same time not taking itself too seriously. All of the most overused tropes of other genres like Action, Horror and Crime Noir are fair game and you don't really need to add a lot of nuance to them. Your antiheroes are badass, your women are femme fatales, your villains are sadistic and your authority figures are corrupt. Your plots are direct. There are no questions as to where your story is going and what you are setting up with your plots, whether it's revenge, rebellion, survival or something else that drives the action. And all of the stuff you normally see in these stories are fair game: post-apocalyptic settings, biker gangs, mutants, government black ops, badass muscle cars, and any other cliche you can think of. The world should be dark and grimy, where danger is around every corner and no one can be totally trusted. use harsh environments that no one would want to spend too much time in: urban hellscapes, run-down towns, backwater towns. The closer your setting can get to something out of the Mad Max franchise, the better. The dialogue in grindhouse is often campy, full of one-liners, and exaggerated. Embrace melodrama and ridiculous lines that reflect the absurdity of the situations.

To the Point and In Your Face
To truly get the grindhouse feel, you also might want to make some adjustments to your writing style. You want to eschew the flowery, poetic, overly descriptive and emotive text and focus more on punchy prose and blunt, cruse and direct dialogue. you want your story to read as unpolished and raw and you want your writing style to be as gritty as your setting. Sex, violence and profanity are not off-limits, and you can be as edgy and provocative as you desire. Take time to explore ideas and subjects that are risque and taboo, and keep in mind that shock value is your friend. You can use your story to make sociopolitical commentary because many of the themes of Grindhouse fiction deal with confronting and exposing the flaws in normal society, whether it be corrupt authority, unfair systems, class divides, societal exploitation, and things like that. Also, dry, deadpan gallows humor is a great way to add personality to your story, so be sure to include plenty of that, also.

BadAsses Only
When developing characters to populate your grindhouse world and drive your plots forward, you want to use characters that fit the gritty world. that means plenty of morally ambiguous antiheroes, oftentimes vigilantes, outlaws and outsiders. Think characters like Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, Barb Wire, Ash from the Evil Dead series and Alice from the Resident Evil Movie franchise. you want jaded, hard-boiled attitudes and lots of snarky dialogue and inner thoughts full of one-liners. You want your characters to believably be able to survive and thrive in your dark and gritty world.

Conclusion
A Grindhouse story can be fun, trashy, action-packed romp that could be equally as fun to write. Get in touch with your dark side and let your imagination go nuts when you write one. if your stories are wild and almost out of control, you're doing it right.

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Also, what are your favorite grindhouse-styled books, movies or games? Tell me about them in the comments.