What’s Streaming from Shout Factory TV-Cult-Tastic! Guns, Mass Explosions, Scantly Clad Women, Careening Cars & Monsters-A Study in “B” Movies…
Above- Humanoids From The Deep -US Title- International Title- Monster (New World was the distributor for US market)
It lives!!!! , They’re back ..Their coming from another dimension with all the mayhem and carnage that a good cult film and the fans deserve. Yes the Cormans -Roger and Julie are sharing their combined and vast knowledge of the filmmaking business and what it means when we say this is a cult film. All those exploitation cinema fans can rejoice It’s here, All the episodes of this brand new series airing/streaming on Shout Factory TV .
Trailer- Humanoids From the Deep
left-Roger Corman with Vincent Price between scenes
IF you are looking for a blueprint on how to make a movie and do it on a “shoestring” budget and never lose a dime, then this series Cult-Tastic: Tales From the Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman should be considered required “Reading” ! If I was getting ready to produce a film I would be taking careful notes and all the while being thoroughly entertained. Be prepared to be wowed by the amount of history and trivia -plus all the behind the scenes you could ask for. Learning from a master of production what to do with the final product- marketing your creation, your baby. So sit back and enjoy.
Roger and Julie give what is basically a fireside chat. Completely off the cuff. And having fun as they both recall the various projects that they produced over a span of 50 decades. Looking young as ever. We are treated to a run down of almost every production and many stories of what worked or did not. Sometimes coming so close to the e wire in terms of the time allotted based on the budget. Each episode covers a specific genre(War, Sci-Fi, Horror, Action & Exploitation). And over the course of the series almost every one.
Even TV was not safe from the Corman magic-Black Scorpion- 2001 (Originally premiered on SCI-FI Channel) based on 2 very successful made for Showtime films provided the catalyst for this campy superhero series that owed more than the casual nod to DC Comics Batman of the mid 60’s which starred Adam West and Burt Ward. In fact one particular storyline featured the great Frank Gorshin(Riddler) as the villain, Clockwise. The complete series is now streaming on Prime Video. TV Promo-
Above- Cormans answer to Star Wars featuring a rousing score by a young James Horner
Below : The theme
For those of you who don’t know who Roger Corman is? Just think of Eat My Dust(one of Ron Howard’s first films), Battle Beyond the Stars and Humanoids From the Deep. The Arena, Big Bird Cage ( Pam Grier).
Here is something to put you in the mood -over 4 hours of Drive-In Intermission ads-
King of the Drive Ins back in the 70’s and someone who provided many filmmakers with their first times out… James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd and Joe Dante to name a few. These names are probably very familiar to you or should be since Cameron gave us The Terminator/Avatar , Dante (The Howling and Gremlins) and
Gale Anne Hurd has produced some of the more recent pop culture iconic entertainment pieces — The Walking Dead (TV), Tremors(film)
right-Fan art
& Terminator 2.
And I don’t want to leave out this guy-
Steve Carver(Big Bad Mama) who went on to helm two of Chuck Norris’ biggest, An Eye for An Eye(above poster) & Lone Wolf McQuade.
- Steve is now a co-author of a recently published book which I highly recommend-entitled Western Portraits:The Unsung Heroes and Villains of the Silver Screen featuring a forward by yours truly(not me)- Roger Corman.
- Link to Steve’s book-
Roger along with really cutting his teeth and coming into his own right as a filmmaker also learned from some of the veterans within the film industry and for some- established long term friendships and revitaliZed their careers. Turning back the clock to the early and mid sixties he did a string of movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. These films were released by AIP -American International Pictures and starred Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. The Raven(starring a very young Jack Nicholson) and Comedy of Terrors are two of the best combing black comedic moments and horror. Helping to reintroduce Vincent Price as the King of Horror the young Drive-In crowd of the times and laughing or is it screaming all the way to the box-office.
Above- Asian release for Death Race 2000(
Helping launch many up and coming actors: Tommy Lee Jones(Jackson County Jail), Pam Grier, Peter Fonda(Easy Rider) and Sylvester Stallone(Death Race 2000).
Corman co-founded several productions companies and most prominent were New World Pictures (1970’s with brother Gene) which also released/distributed international films(Seven Blows of the Dragon-Shaw Bros film) as well as produce their own product. He would later go on to sell, this company. From the salehe would build 2 new ventures- New Horizons and Concorde Pictures. The first making a name for itself in the 80’s and later the covering 90’s. He has also made numerous films for SCYFY Channel including Dinocroc. And Roger in 2008 sold the rights to Universal Studios to remake Death Race serving as Executive Producer and starred Jason Statham in the role of Frankenstein which David Carradine help make world famous in the original. A film that has a major cult following to this very day.
Thank you Roger and Julie for sharing and Shout Factory having the insight to produce this incredible time machine of celluloid…🤖
Available via Amazon and Roku. This is Shout Factory’s first original series and what a way to start off but with guns blasting as everything explodes around you ..oh if there just happens to be a couple of well endowed babes with sheer, very sheer, tight t-shirts who am I to complain.. Look we are trying to sell a picture for gosh sakes…Cultastic -See It While You Can!! You never know what waits around the corner…
Link for promo of series…
if you would like to know more about Roger — and another who took up the mantle of Drive-In and genre films- Richard Band then check out the cheezy and fascinating documentary Kings of Cult available on the streaming service Full Moon Features and DVD.
Full Moon Features-
link for:
Published By “Doc” Nersinger
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
