The Velvet Vampire (1971)
Dec 20, 2021Lesbian Vampire
From cult director Stephanie Rothman, a provocative and intriguing entry in the 1970s lesbian vampire film
New World Pictures
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Aug 6, 2000Future Road Race/Black Comedy
Satiric hit produced by Roger Corman, a spoof of Rollerball, with David Carradine as a driver in a futuristic road race where points are won by running down pedestrians. Also featuring a young unknown Sylvester Stallone
Piranha (1978)
Dec 26, 2000Killer Fish
The second film from Joe Dante. Mounted as a quickie copy of Jaws by producer Roger Corman, Dante succeeds in peppering it with a lot of sly jokes and genre in-references
Deathsport (1978)
Jan 18, 2001Post-Holocaust Action
Terrible film made to exploit the success of Death Race 2000 with David Carradine as a mystical post-apocalyptic Range Guide. This is however a post-apocalyptic action film that prefigures much of Mad Max 2
Up from the Depths (1979)
May 2, 2017Killer Fish
A Jaws copy made by regular Roger Corman scriptwriter Charles B. Griffith. Shot on the cheap in the Philippines and featuring a fish of unidentified species attacking a holiday resort, this is one of the most miserably cheap Jaws copies that came out during this era
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Jan 15, 2011Space Opera
Roger Corman jumps aboard the Star Wars fad and offers up a version of The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven located in space. Corman has thrown a reasonable budget at the film for once and it emerges as colourfully enjoyable
Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
Aug 19, 2015Horny Mutant Fish People
Monster movie featuring mutant fish monsters come onto land to breed with women. Absurdly entertaining, this at least brings the interspecies lust in films like The Creature from the Black Lagoon out into the open
Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Oct 19, 2002Enigmatic Alien Planet
An Alien copy produced by Roger Corman that creates a constantly eerie atmosphere in between the usual slime-drooling monster attacks. With production design by a then unknown James Cameron
Android (1982)
May 4, 1999Android Gains Self-Awareness
Witty and quite charming low-budget SF film with Don Opper as a gawky android on a space station trying to understand the human condition amid the arrival of escaped convicts
Saturday the 14th (1981)
Jul 2, 2019Genre Parody
Friday the 13th so changed the horror genre that within two years it produced two four parodies of its title. From Roger Corman, this is more of an occasionally amusing parody of classic monster movies than the slasher film
Battletruck (1982)
May 22, 1999Post-Holocaust
A fairly blatant copy of Mad Max 2, although this is one of the better-made and budgeted. Crucially what is lacking is much in the way of the action that made Mad Max a hit
Forbidden World (1982)
Aug 25, 2002Mutating Monster
One of the numerous copies of Alien. This was produced by Roger Corman, which means more of an exploitation emphasis – the alien is three times the size, there is more of a T&A emphasis and the effects are cannibalised from his other films
Stryker (1983)
Nov 9, 2023Post-Apocalyptic Action
A vigorous copy of the Mad Max post-apocalyptic action film made by the underrated Cirio H. Santiago
Crimes of Passion (1984)
Feb 4, 2005Psycho-Sexual Thriller
Team-up between Ken Russell and Anthony Perkins with both in full-on lunacy mode. Kathleen Turner gives her best performance ever as a fashion designer moonlighting as a hooker who is stalked by Perkins as a psycho priest
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Jul 2, 2001Time Travel Experiment Amok
Based on a non-fiction, fringe science book that makes claims that the US Navy conducted experiments that turned a ship invisible during WWII, this spins the idea out into a modest time travel story
Angel (1984)
Jun 1, 1999Teenage Hooker vs a Psycho
Trashy film about a regular high school student who leads a double life as a hooker on Hollywood Boulevard who becomes targeted by a serial killer. Several sequels followed.
Children of the Corn (1984)
Jun 5, 2000Pagan Child Cult/Stephen King Adaptation
A fifteen page Stephen King story about a patricidal child cult has spawned this film, nine sequels and a remake. Not a very good film, this is stuck with padding a very slight original out to a full-length film
The Stuff (1985)
Aug 31, 2000Possession by Sentient Fast Food
One of the films of cult director Larry Cohen in which he makes a body snatchers film involving sentient fast food. As to be expected from Cohen, this also becomes a sharp and witty satire
The Boys Next Door (1985)
Jul 26, 2022Teens on a Killing Spree
This caused quite a shock when it came out, a Penelope Spheeris film with Charlie Sheen and Maxwell Caulfield as two teenagers who feel they have no future and go on a killing spree in Los Angeles
Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
Sep 11, 2003Famous Monster Bash/Comedy
Painfully unfunny comedy from Mel Brooks writer Rudy De Luca with journalists Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr encountering monsters while on assignment in Transylvania
Vamp (1986)
Mar 21, 2001Vampire Nightclub
Very 80s film that feels like Martin Scorsese's After Hours rewritten with vampires set around vampire nightclub. The comedy is uneven but there is is a striking performance from Grace Jones as the vampire
House (1986)
Sep 2, 2003Haunted House/Horror Comedy
Amiably silly haunted house film with William Katt fighting rubbery pop-up monsters. This doesn't take itself too seriously. A minor hit that produced three sequels.
Shadow Play (1986)
Feb 12, 2014Ghost Story
Very obscure independently-made ghost story – and justly so … It seems more interested in being a vague, incredibly pretentious woman's psychodrama than it ever is in the usual ghost story stuff of spooking and scaring an audience
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987)
Jan 18, 2001Tongue-in-Cheek Post-Holocaust
Madcap film that offers a wacky take on the post-apocalyptic action film with Roddy Piper as one of the last fertile men in a world that has been overrun by mutant frogs
Flowers in the Attic (1987)
Jun 18, 2001Twisted Family Melodrama
Film adaptation of Virginia C. Andrews’ popular Gothic potboiler about a brother and sister who develop an incestuous relationship after being locked in the attic by their mother. Andrews’ turgid melodrama gets the screen adaptation it deserves
House II: The Second Story (1987)
Nov 21, 2003Haunted House/Horror Comedy
The first sequel to House, this is largely unrelated to its predecessor and plays itself with a sense of humour to emerge as the superior film. Now a skull opens doorways in the house into different eras
Nice Girls Don’t Explode (1987)
Apr 21, 2021Pyrokinesis Comedy
Charmingly nonsensical comedy variant on Firestarter where a girl’s dating life is a nightmare due to her causing things to spontaneously combust when she becomes emotionally aroused
Creepshow II (1987)
Mar 7, 2001Horror Anthology
The sequel to the hit George Romero-Stephen King horror anthology. This misses the original’s black humour by a mile and instead becomes overblown and filled with shrill unlikable characters
Dead Heat (1988)
Nov 5, 1999Cop and his Zombie Partner
Made not along after the success of Lethal Weapon, this offers a wacky spin on the buddy cop formula having a cop paired with a zombie. The mildly amusing notion is killed by the excruciating comedy relief of Joe Piscopo
Invasion Earth: The Aliens Are Here (1988)
Apr 4, 2010Aliens Invade Movie Theatre/1950s SF Film Clip Compilation
A film about the alien invasion of a movie theatre that is screening an all-night marathon of old films. This has been constructed around clips of old 1950s sf films
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
Aug 25, 1999Bimbo Horror Hostess
The film debut of the horror hostess Elvia (Cassandra Peterson), a good natured film containing more bimbo jokes, double entendres and bad puns than one thought possible
18 Again (1988)
Jun 14, 2002Grandfather/Grandson Bodyswap
One of the spate of 1980s bodyswap comedies a la Big, Vice Versa and Like Father, Like Son in which octogenarian George Burns swaps bodies with his teenage grandson Charlie Schlatter
Not Of This Earth (1988)
May 8, 2000Alien Vampire
The Roger Corman 1950s cheapie about a mystery man who proves to be an alien space vampire is remade as a vehicle for Traci Lords. The script is essentially the same but with the addition of a lot of topless women
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
May 1, 2001Sadomasochistic Demons
The first of the Hellraiser sequels. This lacks Clive Barker's original dark obsessive vision but is worthwhile in its own right, expanding the scope of the story out into a magnificent vision of Hell
Warlock (1989)
Oct 8, 2005Witchfinder Pursues Warlock Through Time
Richard E. Grant is a witchfinder who pursues warlock Julian Sands through a time vortex into the present day. David Twohy's script takes all the Old Wives' tale aspects of Middle Ages superstition seriously to immensely entertaining regard
Brenda Starr (1989)
Aug 1, 2000Girl Reporter Comic-Strip Adaptation
Disastrous Brooke Shields starring film adaptation of the famous comic-strip about a girl reporter. Nobody involved is taking the show seriously and everything is blown into camp farce.
The Punisher (1990)
Jul 6, 2001Comic-Book Vigilante
Dolph Lundgren's The Punisher is minus his trademark t-shirt and the film takes considerable liberties with the source material but this is a hugely entertaining action comic-book of a film with hilariously tongue-in-cheek dialogue
Meet the Applegates (1991)
Jul 3, 2000Family of Insects/Black Comedy
Rather funny satiric comedy about a family of insects who set up house in suburbia posing as humans