In the 1970s, exploitation films were being pumped out quickly and cheaply, focused on eliciting spectacle rather than a specific emotional response. As a result, they were never meant to have any longevity in the market, but due to their aesthetics, have been able to retrospectively attract audiences and have an ongoing impact on contemporary films. Exploring production design, a vastly understudied role in film theory, through case studies we see how design established these aesthetics to create spectacle for exploitation audiences, and in the process created visual worlds unbeholden to the conventions of both mainstream and arthouse filmmaking.