It Came From Hunger

It Came from Hunger! Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister By Larry Buchanan Mars Needs Women, Zontar; the Thing from Venus, It's Alive!, The Naked Witch, Swamp Creature, Mistress of the Apes-these are just a few of the movies that self-described "schlockmeister" Larry Buchanan created over a lifelong career as a guerrilla "B"-filmmaker. Fiercely independent, Buchanan would embark on a production with such pathetically inadequate funding it resulted in painfully unintended, yet highly entertaining camp. Buchanan left behind a slate of poorly made films, many of which have become cult classics for being so-bad-they're-good. As a result, he is credited with single-handedly inventing his own genre; the "good/bad" movie. "It Came From Hunger!" is an essential read for aspiring filmmakers, dreamers, and those who admire whimsical pursuits bordering on the quixotic. This heartfelt, honest and surprisingly sincere autobiography is filled with stories that take us on the arduous yet inspiring journey from Buchanan's humble beginnings in a Texas orphanage to film director on the soundstages of Hollywood. A rich and engaging read, "It Came From Hunger!" is testament to the magic inherent in confronting seemingly insurmountable odds in pursuit of a dream, a life-affirming sojourn of human experience and perseverance that extends far beyond the realm of the film industry. When Larry Buchanan passed away in 2004, the New York Times paid homage with a lengthy obituary that summarized his work thusly: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from H. L. Mencken, who, describing President Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.'" In a 1997 interview, Buchanan summed up a career where the majority of the films he created ended up on "worst" lists, with a self-effacing, unapologetic reflection; "I don't know that I bring any great command of the art to my pictures, but I love what I'm doing, and I believe that shows through in the least of my pictures. We certainly weren't trying to make anybody laugh. We meant to entertain, perhaps to provoke, to enlighten, and certainly to defy the customary formulas." When asked why he made some of the films he did, Buchanan responded; "It came from hunger!"