Long before filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino confused audiences with Grindhouse, exploitation films made their way across the dirty and long-lost theaters of Times Square and rapidly disappearing drive-ins strewn across the U.S.

Exploitation films are gritty, unpolished, and produced on shoestring budgets. The production's uncertain, the talent's reasonably experienced, and the subject's selected to catch the interests of young and curious audiences daring to rebel.

Exploitation and horror films are a vital element of modern entertainment. The themes laid down and mastered by these films filter into modern cinema. And modern cinema is influencing the modern game. It's a strangely modern development for exploitation and horror to influence gaming. Are games becoming the new medium for compelling but gritty adventures and jarring horror?

The Saw movie series, coupled with Hostel, wouldn't exist without one man -- Herschell Gordon Lewis, aka the godfather of gore. In 1963, Blood Feast hit the drive-in scene with vibrant blood and brutal mutilations. Before this, Lewis produced nudie films, which were steadily waning in their popularity. Creating the gore subgenre, Blood Feast ushered in a new age in horror cinema. It also horrified and inspired modern-day directors.

Gore films certainly influence the more violent games. Manhunt was the first game to focus almost exclusively on the method of execution. It isn't just the subject matter that likens Manhunt to horror and exploitation films -- Rockstar's desire to shock and awe is a great as the auteurs of gore. No other developer seems to be as dedicated to causing a fuss, and their occasional media explosions are surprisingly beneficial.

Rockstar's need to push the envelope gives their games this tantalizing aura of wrongness that bewitches the masses. The more extremists like video-game violence crusader Jack Thompson hate something, the more someone wants to see what all the fuss is about. This tactic sold tickets in the '60s, and it sells games for Rockstar now. Consider that Rockstar's the first developer to show full-frontal male nudity in a game -- why would they do that if not to shock the audience?

Manhunt is the essential cog in the machine that gives us the Saw game. The door was thrown open for gritty games of torture and ridiculous execution, and it's only fitting that the latest installment is more entrenched in cinematic spectacle than Manhunt.

Bridging the gap between gore and exploitation, the developers of House of the Dead: Overkill are quite open about their influences. Overkill's designed as a sharp-tongued tribute to gore, cop, and science-fiction films. It also bares an alarming similarity to Rodriguez's Planet Terror, but that's hardly an avoidable comparison when you combine artificial film grain with jump cuts, zombies, and unresolved plot points.

There's nothing wrong about Overkill's openness. The final project is ham-handed and goofy, but it's enjoyable if played under the right circumstances. Overkill resembles Blaxploitation in particular, which emphasized cool action and snappy dialogue sometimes to the detriment of plot development. Goofiness is not something I'd attribute to all Blaxploitation, but humor is certainly an ingredient in these films.

But Overkill misses the mark because it tries to do too much at once. Rodriguez and Tarantino referenced many of the same themes in Grindhouse, but their success comes from homing in on one element by the end of their films. Rodriguez remained true to his survival plot, and Tarantino eventually gave into his habit of having women seek revenge. Overkill spreads itself too thin, pokes fun at its holes too openly, and overpowers with the hundreds of genre references that the developers wanted to include.

Overkill did something right: It accepted its influences and played around with them. Overkill then passed the torch to Bethesda, who in turn delivered Wet.

Wet progresses from inspiration and influence and manages to become an exploitation film in its own right. The plot reads like a campy action film filled with Eastern influence, criminal organizations, and a disorienting amount of redirection.

With a soundtrack throwing back to Ennio Morricone but with a debauched twist, the game comes together with the feeling that it was designed to entertain in an over-the-top yet passionate way.

Wet isn't the final step in the integration of horror and exploitation; it's merely the first ridiculous amalgamation that absorbs influence and inspiration and delivers something almost original (except for the main character being a blatant reimagining of The Bride in Kill Bill). Though it tosses the horror aside in favor of the gore, Wet marks a rebirth of the essence of exploitation cinema that's presently lost in the film industry.

As films become more polished and overblown, video games could be the next frontier of gritty entertainment. With video game development becoming more accessible, as filmmaking did from the '60s to late '80s, Grindhouse-themed games will likely leave the hands of larger developers cashing in on retro interests and instead become the product of smaller studios with a sense of what sells -- just like Grindhouse films.