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Along with DEATH RACE 2000, this fun-filled exploitation horror film from 1978 is one of the great achievements to emerge from New World Pictures, a low-budget company that Roger Corman created after giving up hands-on directing to become an executive. New World churned out enjoyable exploitation fare for drive-in theatres and multiplexes in the 1970s, [...]

[ August 10, 2010; ] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Hazel Court suffers the indignities of a premature burial in Roger Corman's 1962 film (see the Corman Collection, below)"][/caption]

With only a handful of titles on display, the week of Tuesday, August 10 is not an auspicious one for home video releases of horror, fantasy, and science fiction films. Fans will have to [...]

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is an eccentric horror-comedy whose very premise almost single-handedly guarantees cult status: it’s  about a goofy guy who becomes a homicidal outlaw after accidentally cross-breeding a carnivorous plant that not only craves humans for food but also talks, demanding in a ridiculously insistent voice: “Feed me! Feed meeeeeeee.”). The concept is [...]

GALAXY OF TERROR is exploitation, pure and simple – I mean, if you’ve got a giant-maggot-on-naked-woman rape scene in your film it nothin’ but, baby. Thus, it is a curious state I find myself in when having to admit to you all that I found a certain degree of fun in watching it – both in 1981 and now via its new Blu-ray DVD release. I can’t say I really stand behind it, but it does have its pluses.

[ July 20, 2010; ] The week of Tuesday, July 20 continues the month’s unfortunate trend of featuring no new horror, fantasy, or science fiction blockbusters making their home video debut. Dedicated fans of cinefantastique will have to make due with re-issues of cult movies upgraded with unrated cuts and/or Blu-ray technology.

Chief among these is GALAXY OF TERROR, one [...]

Half-Shark, Half Octopus. All Awesome.

THE WASP WOMAN was producer-director Roger Corman’s attempt to cash in on the success of THE FLY (1958), and although it looks cheap and chintzy, having been shot in five days on a $50,000 budget, it nevertheless has aspects of interest. Historically, it is significant because it is the first film Corman directed for [...]

Although many younger television and movie fans may think that the 1970s represent an archaic time in entertainment, there were certain advantages to growing up during this period. One was that television was all about local markets, and this made it necessary for local stations to find programming that would keep the viewer’s attention. One [...]

Tied in with the premiere on SyFy of DINOSHARK last weekend, IESB has an exclusive interview with legendary producer Roger Corman (PIRANHA, DEATH RACE 2000). Corman’s career ranges from classics to cult to shlock. Decades ago, he provided endless fodder for drive-in theatres; with the home video era having decimated the drive-ins, one would wonder whether he [...]

Going into Sunday evening, the 2010 Academy Awards presentation had ample opportunity to break with their standard tradition of snubbing horror, fantasy, and science fiction films in all but technical categories: two major films, AVATAR and DISTRICT 9, had been nominated not only for Best Picture but also in other top categories, such as Direction and/or Screenplay. However, when the dust settled and the wins counted at the end of the night, it was the same-old story, with cinefantastique shut out of all but a handful of categories: science fiction and fantasy films wound up with a total of six Oscar statues, almost all of them in technical categories.

At the age of 83, Roger Corman will finally receive his long overdue reward from Hollywood: A golden Oscar statuette. Here are some of Corman’s thoughts about finally receiving an Oscar, as well as his comments on the many Oscar winning people he first discovered.

Last February, I suggested on this site that Roger Corman was a director and a producer who the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should consider honoring with a special Oscar. Today, the Academy’s Board of Governors (to my great surprise and delight) have decided to heed that [...]

Starting in 1960 with THE HOUSE OF USHER, producer-director Roger Corman crafted a series of stylish horror films inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Although the screenplays (usually by Richard Matheson or Charles Beaumont) had to embellish the short stories in order to fill out the feature length running time, the production design and [...]