Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies? B-grade fare vies for its turn in the spotlight at Cannes

You've seen the movie Black Swan, but what about White Swan? Or Avengers Grimm? Or Darker Shades Of Grey? Or Attack Of The Lederhosen Zombies?

You won't catch these features at your local mainstream movie theatre, but they and other B- and C-grade flicks are doing booming business in the Cannes market running in parallel with the film festival.

Sales to television and video-on-demand companies are strong, with China emerging as a key customer for the trashy niche, producers and distributors dealing with such films said.

Those in the sector are frank about what they're selling.

"I think there's really good independent movies that deserve to be seen. And outside that there's a bunch of crap," said Lawrence Silverstein, vice-president for sales and marketing at one Los Angeles-based outfit called Osiris Entertainment.

Silverstein pointed to a poster of House Of Bad on his stand (plotline: three fugitive sisters with a suitcase of stolen heroin hide out in their childhood home, haunted by their parents) and said: "It's not a great horror movie, but it's not bad."

But he also showed a teaser of a crowd-funded indie horror-comedy called Clinger, in which an accidentally decapitated teen returns to stalk his unrequited love. It looked well-paced and entertaining.