Z-grade

Z movies are low-budget films that have qualities lower than B movies.

The term Z movie (or grade-Z movie) arose in the mid-1960s as an informal description of certain unequivocally non-A films. It was soon adopted to characterize low-budget pictures with quality standards well below those of most B movies and even so-called C movies. While B movies may have mediocre scripts and actors who are relatively unknown or past their prime, they are for the most part competently lit, shot, and edited.

The economizing shortcuts of films identified as C movies tend to be evident throughout; nonetheless, films to which the C label is applied are generally the products of relatively stable entities within the commercial film industry and thus still adhere to certain production norms. In contrast, most films referred to as Z movies are made for very little money on the fringes of the organized film industry or entirely outside it. As a result, scripts are often poorly written, continuity errors tend to arise during shooting, and nonprofessional actors are frequently cast. Many Z movies are also poorly lit and edited. The micro-budget "quickies" of 1930s fly-by-night Poverty Row production houses may be thought of as Z movies . Later Zs may not evidence the same degree of technical incompetence; in addition to bargain-basement scripts and acting, they are often characterized by violent, gory, and/or sexual content and a minimum of artistic interest, readily falling into the category of exploitation, or "grindhouse" films. Additionally, with the popularity of Internet media such as YouTube low-budget films are having a resurgence due to the easy access low budget filmmakers have to publish their films. In 2014 Raindance Film Festival published an article naming YouTube as a primary venue for low-budget filmmakers. While the abilities of some of these filmmakers has varied, the average quality of many of these films remains on the z-grade. One of the best examples of this is The Melonheads which was originally released on YouTube, and gained a large following after being featured in an article on cracked.com. The movie shows many of the technical imperfections that were visible on earlier films considered to be grade-Z.

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