Worst Horror Movie Directors
Just wanted to say: "thanks ..."
As of August the 17th 2012, I cannot post (or reply to) comments anymore, because I don't have, nor do I want, a Facebook account.
Just wanted to say: "thanks ..."
As of August the 17th 2012, I cannot post (or reply to) comments anymore, because I don't have, nor do I want, a Facebook account.
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- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Widely known for his frequent collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a creative partnership which lasted 10 years and produced over 20 films, Ulli Lommel is one of the most consistently creative filmmakers to come from the New German Cinema movement.
The son of German comic performer Ludwig Manfred Lommel, Ulli Lommel began his career in show business as a child. His second feature film as a director Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) brought Lommel to New York, where he began working with Andy Warhol at The Factory. The Warhol / Lommel years spawned several features, including Cocaine Cowboys (1979) and Blank Generation (1980), both of which were directed by Lommel and feature Warhol in an acting role.
In the summer of 2013 Lommel went for nine months to Brazil, where he wrote a book and also made a film about Campo Bahia, the official camp for the German National Soccer Team. His autobiography, entitled Tenderness of the Wolves, is due out in late 2015.To me an unknown name. (And who can forget a name like this).
What I mean is that I've never seen a movie of his.
He reached the imdb bottom list several times...
He even got a rating of 1.3 for one of his TV films...
According to the imdb ratings he might be
THE worst director of horror movies
Directed 53 movies...
• 1.5 - Daniel - Der Zauberer (Bottom 100: #3)
• 1.6 - Zombie Nation (Bottom 100: #12)
• 1.6 - Diary of a Cannibal
• 1.8 - Zodiac Killer (Bottom 100: #35)
• 1.8 - Boogeyman II
• 1.3 - Curse of the Zodiac
• 1.4 - Black Dahlia
• 1.5 - B.T.K. Killer
• 1.5 - Dungeon Girl- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Todd Sheets is known for Dreaming Purple Neon (2016), Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8) (2013) and Bonehill Road (2017).Directed 34 movies so far...
Just one of them got an imdb rating above 3!!!
When I checked today (9-5-2012) 15 of his movies had an average imdb rating of 1.0.... Wow!!!
Usually based on just a few dozen votes. This actually means the poor fellow doesn't even have any friends, family, acquaintances (or cast and crew members from his films), who are willing to give his films a favorable vote...
Only a few would already make a big difference.
• 1.0 - Whispers in the Gloom
• 1.0 - Chainsaw Tales
• 1.0 - Bimbos in Time
• 1.0 - Battle of Mashed Potato Mountain (short)
• 1.0 - Brothers From Hell
• 1.0 - Sanguinary Desires
• 1.0 - Blood of the Undead: The Final Splatter (short)
• 1.0 - Kansas City Blender Massacre (short)
• 1.0 - Blood of the Undead: The Unwanted (short)
• 1.0 - Thirteen Floors
• 1.0 - Land of Shadows
• 1.0 - Misty Darkness
• 1.0 - Shadows
• 1.0 - Blood of the Undead (short)
• 1.0 - Blood of the Undead II (short)
Truly amazing.
• 2.4 - Catacombs
• 2.6 - Zombie Bloodbath 3: Zombie Armageddon
• 2.1 - Biker Babes from Beyond the Grave
• 2.1 - The Shivers
• 2.7 - Violent New Breed
• 2.6 - Zombie Bloodbath 2: Rage of the Undead
• 1.9 - Moon Child
• 2.9 - Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons
• 3.0 - Goblin
• 2.8 - Zombie Bloodbath
• 1.5 - Dominion
• 1.7 - Nightmare Asylum
• 2.6 - Zombie Rampage 2
• 1.3 - Madhouse
• 1.2 - Prehistoric Bimbos in Armageddon City
• 2.6 - Sorority Babes in the Dance-A-Thon of Death
• 1.9 - Bimbos B. C.
• 1.8 - Zombie Rampage
• 4.0 - Dead Things- Producer
- Director
- Writer
As a youth, he produced a number of short films on Super 8 and video. After short stints as guest auditor at Filmacademy Vienna and Filmhochschule Munich, Boll studied literature and economics in Cologne and Siegen. He graduated from university in 1995 with a doctorate in literature. From 1995-2000, he was a producer and director with Taunus Film-Produktions GmbH. Boll was Chief Executive Officer of Bolu Filmproduction and Distribution GmbH which he founded in 1992. He continued to direct, write and produce feature films until 2016. His main companies are Event Films in Vancouver and Bolu Film in Germany. A longtime resident of Canada, Boll owned the restaurant "Bauhaus" in Vancouver from 2015 to 2020. Returned to Germany and resumed filming in 2020.Director of 26 movies.
• 2.0 - Amoklauf (1994)tt0317676[/link] (Bottom 100: #53)
• 2.3 - Alone in the Dark (Bottom 100: #74)
• 2.3 - Amoklauf
• 2.8 - BloodRayne
• 2.8 - Seed
• 2.8 - Sanctimony
• 3.0 - BloodRayne: The Third Reich- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Fred Olen Ray spent most of his childhood in Florida, where he was always a fan of horror movies on TV. He collected autographs of many of the actors in those films where he met Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. His early career was filled with low-budget horror and science-fiction films, but the market eventually dried up and he switched to producing softcore "T&A" videos of the type shown late at night on Showtime and Cinemax. His films rarely cost more than $500,000, and he has written under at least 30 different pen names; he was one of the first to fill time at the end of his films with outtakes, now a common practice in other comedy films. The outdoor sets are often CGI backdrops and many sets are in his own home or near it. Ray often can share credit for his softcore film success with the late cinematographer/director Gary Graver, big shoes for him to fill while working with an excess of tattooed and body-beaded new performers in this genre.Director of 120 movies....
And not one of them even reached a 5
• 1.9 - Wizard of the Demon Sword
• 2.1 - Honey Britches
• 2.2 - Alien Dead
• 2.2 - Super Ninja Bikini Babes
• 2.3 - Alienator
• 2.3 - Inferno
• 2.4 - Inner Sanctum
• 2.4 - Super Shark
• 2.5 - Glass Trap
• 2.5 - Submerged
• 2.5 - Stranded
• 2.5 - Droid Gunner
• 2.6 - Biohazard
• 2.7 - The Phantom Empire
• 2.7 - Dinosaur Island
One can only wonder how it's possible that guys like this, can go on and on FOREVER, only to create one stinker after the other...
Imagine, he's even worse then David DeCoteau!!!- Writer
- Director
- Actor
He was only six years old when he started composing music under the protection of his brother Enrique. After the Spanish Civil War he was able to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio de Madrid, where he finished piano and harmony. Being a Bachelor of Law and an easy-read novel writer (under the pseudonym David Khume), he signed on to enter the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográicas (IIEC), where he stayed for only two years, while he worked simultaneously as a director and theater actor. Later he went to Paris to study directing techniques at the I.D.H.E.C. (University of Sorbonne), where he used to go into seclusion for hours to watch films at the film archive. Back in Spain he began rted his huge cinematographic work as a composer, with Cómicos (1954) and El hombre que viajaba despacito (1957), and later worked as an assistant director to Juan Antonio Bardem, León Klimovsky, Luis Saslavsky, Julio Bracho, Fernando Soler and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, among others. He also worked at Ágata Films S.A. as production manager and writer. His first works as a director were industrial and cultural short films. However, he soon applied all his knowledge and experience to his feature directorial debut, Tenemos 18 años (1959). From that moment on all his work was supported by co-production. His Succubus (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation. His career got more and more consolidated in the following years, and his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films. His productions have always been low-budget, but he nevertheless managed to work extraordinarily quickly, often releasing several titles at the same time, using the same shots in more than one film. Some of his actors relate how they they were hired for one film and later saw their name in two or more different ones. As the Spanish cinema evolved, Jesús managed to adapt to the new circumstances and always maintained a constant activity, activity that gave a place in his films to a whole filming crew. Apart from his own production company, Manacoa Films, he also worked for companies like Auster Films S.L. (Paul Auster), Cinematográfica Fénix Films (Arturo Marcos), the French Comptoir Français du Film (Robert de Nesle), Eurociné (Daniel Lesoeur and Marius Lesoeur), Elite Films Productions (Erwin C. Dietrich), Spain's Fervi Films (Fernando Vidal Campos) or Golden Films Internacional S.A. He acted in almost all of his films, playing musicians, lawyers, porters and others, all of them sinister, manic and comic characters. Among the aliases he used--apart from Jesús Franco, Jess Franco or Franco Manera--were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, Frarik Hollman, Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough, Cady Coster, Lennie Hayden, Lulú Laverne and Betty Carter. Lina Romay has been almost a constant in his films, and it's very probable that in some of them she has been credited as the director instead of him. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His influence has been notable all over Europe (he even contacted producer Roger Corman in the US). From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. His work is often a do-it-yourself effort. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older ones. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government censors. He broke with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. Jess Franco died in Malaga, Spain, on April 2, 2013, of a stroke.Directed 192 films...
According to his filmorate page (which for some reason doesn't count all his pictures) only one got a rating above the 6.
A movie called Miss Muerte - aka: The Diabolical Dr. Z.
I've added it to my watchlist. I don't believe it before I've seen it...
Some of the worst (I used the English titles, if available):
• 2.0 - Grave of the Living Dead
• 2.1 - Killer Barbys vs. Dracula
(... how's THAT for a title?!)
• 2.3 - The Treasure of the Living Dead
• 2.5 - The Castle of Fu Manchu
• 2.7 - The Cannibals
• 2.5 - Lust For Frankenstein
• 2.7 - Tender Flesh
• 2.8 - Killer Barbys
• 2.8 - La chica de las bragas transparentes- Writer
- Editor
- Producer
Directed 12 movies.
None of them reached an imdb rating of 5 or higher.
• 2.0 Tail Sting
• 2.1 Alien 51
• 2.4 El Chupacabra
• 2.9 Barrio Wars
• 3.0 Destination Vegas
• 3.0 Makin' Baby
• 3.4 Vatos- Director
- Producer
A dual citizen of Canada and the USA, David DeCoteau has worked professionally in the movie business since he was 18 years old. He got his start through a generous offer from movie legend Roger Corman, who hired him in 1980 as a production assistant at New World Pictures. In 1986, DeCoteau directed and produced his first feature film for another generous film legend, Charles Band. DeCoteau has gone on to produce and direct more than 170 motion pictures over the past forty years. His passion lies in the creation of popular genre programming made for world consumption. DeCoteau's experience in creating content in countries all over the world makes him a proven choice for exceptionally challenging movie projects. He resides in British Columbia, Canada and Hollywood, California.Director of 91 movies... (!) And still going strong :-(
Please, have mercy, enough is enough!!
• 3.3 - The Pit and the Pendulum
• 2.1 - Alien Precense
• 3.7 - The Brotherhood VI: Initiation
• 2.4 - The Brotherhood V: Alumni
• 2.1 - The Invisible Chronicles
• 3.1 - House of Usher
• 2.9 - The Raven
• 2.5 - Grizzly Rage
• 2.6 - Beastly Boyz
• 4.6 - Frankenstein & the Werewolf Reborn!
• 2.6 - Witches of the Caribbean
• 3.8 - Killer Bash
• 2.7 - The Brotherhood IV: The Complex
• 2.8 - The Sisterhood
And so on, and so on...- Director
- Writer
- Producer
A 25-year veteran in the Hollywood exploitation field, writer/producer/director Jim Wynorski is responsible for over 150 varied motion pictures in a myriad of genres. Leaving behind a successful commercial business in New York, Wynorski relocated to California in 1980 and soon found himself on the doorstep of his childhood idol, B-film king Roger Corman. "The rest was destiny," recounts Wynorski, who soon found himself hired by the renowned movie mogul to cut "coming attractions" for all of the company's new action and horror films. "It was like grasshopper learning from the kung-fu master," says Wynorski, who claims his six-months internship with Corman taught him more than four years at film school.
"It wasn't long after that Corman offered me the first of many writing/directing assignments. Some distributor wanted a flick about a killer in a shopping mall," recalls Wynorski, "and Roger trusted me enough to say 'come up with something good, and you can direct it." Well, a couple days later, the director walked in with the first treatment to a film called Chopping Mall (1986), and the rest was history. From then on, Jim Wynorski turned out an average of three to five films a year as a director, and even more as a producer/writer. Throughout the 1980s came a steady stream of wild exploitation titles like Big Bad Mama II (1987) with Angie Dickinson, Not of This Earth (1988) with Traci Lords and The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) with Heather Locklear. On into the 1990s, Wynorski continued to climb to the top of the B-Film mountain with flicks like Hard Bounty (1995) starring Kelly LeBrock, Point of Seduction: Body Chemistry III (1994) & Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure (1995) with Shannon Tweed and Morgan Fairchild and Munchie (1992), which featured the first film appearance of the then-unknown 12-year-old child actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
As the years peeled by and tastes changed, Jim Wynorski kept hip by innovating new special effects techniques that landed the director no less than seven world premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel. His credits there include films like Gargoyle (2004), The Curse of the Komodo (2004), Project Viper and Cry of the Winged Serpent (2007).
As for the future, the 59-year-old Wynorski feels the audience for alternative cinema made away from the studio system will continue to grow thanks to new advances in Internet and Cable technologies. In fact, he is in post-production on another thriller, Vampire in Vegas (2009). "And you can bet I'll be there," he offers with a big smile, "with some really fun stuff." Jim has a huge following in the MidWest and is beloved in Franklin, Indiana, Home of The B Movie Celebration.Directed 90 movies & one is in post production
None of them made it to an imdb rating of 6 or above.
The highest is Chopping Mall with a 5.2
• 1.3 Lost in the Woods (a "family movie")
• 2.2 Ghoulies IV
• 2.5 Raptor
• 2.6 The Thing Below
• 2.7 Dinosaur Island (together with F. O. Ray)
• 2.9 The Curse of Komodo
• 2.6 Fire From Below
• 3.0 Komodo vs. Cobra
• 3.1 Vampirella
• 3.1 Bone Eater
• 3.3 Dinocroc vs. SuperGator- Writer
- Director
- Producer
James Nguyen is director & creator of the successful film franchise, BIRDEMIC. Currently, he is directing SEA RISING - Mavericks. James has been in the movie business for over 20 years. His films are influenced by Hitchcock's cinema & they are often about the harms of climate change (Climate Fix, Birdemic - Shock & Terror, Birdemic - Sea Eagle, Sea Rising - Mavericks, Cosmic Beauty).The only film he is known for (but that's enough) is his:
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010).
At this moment it has an imdb-rating of 2.0 based on 2181 votes. Because of this, it's placed #49 on the imdb bottom list.
I think Birdemic is one of those rare films, where the sequel is better than the original. When I'm talking about the sequel I mean the one Nguyen is filming at the moment: Birdemic II: The Resurrection 3D. We can be quite sure it will be better - can't we - because it's almost impossible that it will any worse....- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Hacks are nothing new in Hollywood. Since the beginning of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century, thousands of untalented people have come to Los Angeles from all over America and abroad to try to make it big (as writers, producers, directors, actors, talent agents, singers, composers, musicians, artists, etc.) but who end up using, scamming and exploiting other people for money as well as using their creative ability (either self-taught or professional training), leading to the production of dull, bland, mediocre, unimaginative, inferior, trite work in the forlorn hope of attaining commercial success. Had Edward D. Wood, Jr. been born a decade or two earlier, it's easy to imagine him working for some Poverty Row outfit in Gower Gulch, competing with the likes of no-talent and no-taste producers and directors--such as Victor Adamson, Robert J. Horner and Dwain Esper--for the title of all-time hack. He would have fit in nicely working at Weiss Brothers-Artclass Pictures in the early 1930s in directing low budget Western-themed serials, or directing low budget film noir crime drama features at PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) in the following decade from 1940 to 1946. Ed Wood is the probably the most well known of all the Hollywood hacks because he is imprisoned in his own time, and in the 1950s, Ed Wood simply had no competition. He was ignored throughout his spectacularly unsuccessful film making career and died a penniless alcoholic, only to be "rediscovered" when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him "The Worst Director of All Time" (mostly thanks to the Medveds' hilarious book, "Golden Turkey Awards") and he was given the singular honor of a full-length biopic by Tim Burton (Ed Wood (1994)). This post-mortem celebrity has made him infinitely more famous today than he ever was during his lifetime.
Wood was an exceedingly complex person. He was born on October 10, 1924, in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he lived most of his childhood. He joined the US Marine Corps in 1943 at the height of World War II and was, by all accounts, an exemplary marine, wounded in ferocious combat in the Pacific theater (a transgender, he claimed to have been wearing a bra and panties under his uniform while storming ashore during the bloody beachhead landing at Tarawa in November 1943). He was habitually optimistic, even in the face of the bleak realities that would later consume him. His personality bonded him with a small clique of outcasts who eked out life on the far edges of the Hollywood fringe.
After settling in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, Wood attempted to break into the film industry, initially without success, but in 1952 he landed the chance to direct a film based on the real-life Christine Jorgensen sex-change story, then a hot topic. The result, Glen or Glenda (1953), gave a fascinating insight into Wood's own personality and shed light on his transgender identity (an almost unthinkable subject for an early 1950s mainstream feature). Although devoutly heterosexual, Wood was an enthusiastic cross-dresser, with a particular fondness for angora. On the debit side, though, the film revealed the almost complete lack of talent that would mar all his subsequent films, his tendency to resort to stock footage of lightning during dramatic moments, laughable set design and a near-incomprehensible performance by Bela Lugosi as a mad doctor whose presence is never adequately explained. The film deservedly flopped miserably but Wood, always upbeat, pressed ahead.
Wood's main problem was that he saw himself as a producer-writer-director, when in fact he was spectacularly incompetent in all three capacities. Friends who knew Wood have described him as an eccentric, oddball hack who was far more interested in the work required in cobbling a film project together than in ever learning the craft of film making itself or in any type of realism. In an alternate universe, Wood might have been a competent producer if he had better industry connections and an even remotely competent director. Wood, however, likened himself to his idol, Orson Welles, and became a triple threat: bad producer, poor screenwriter and God-awful director. All of his films exhibit illogical continuity, bizarre narratives and give the distinct impression that a director's job was simply to expose the least amount of film possible due to crushing budget constraints. His magnum opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), features visible wires connected to pie-pan UFOs, actors knocking over cardboard "headstones", cars changing models and years during chase sequences, scenes exhibiting a disturbing lack of handgun safety and the ingenious use of shower curtains in airplane cockpits that have virtually no equipment are just a few of the trademarks of that Edward D. Wood Jr. production. When criticized for their innumerable flaws, Wood would cheerfully explain his interpretation of the suspension of disbelief. It's not so much that he made movies so badly without regard to realism--the amazing part is that he managed to get them made at all.
His previous film with Lugosi, Bride of the Monster (1955), was no better (unbelievably, it somehow managed to earn a small profit during its original release, undoubtedly more of a testament to how cheaply it was produced than its value as entertainment), and Wood only shot a few seconds of silent footage of Lugosi (doped and dazed, wandering around the front yard of his house) for "Plan 9" before the actor died in August 1956. What few reviews the film received were brutal. Typically undaunted, Wood soldiered on despite incoherent material and a microscopic budget, peopling it with his regular band of mostly inept actors. Given the level of dialog, budget and Wood's dismal directorial abilities, it's unlikely that better actors would have made much of a difference (lead actor Gregory Walcott made his debut in this film and went on to have a very respectable career as a character actor, but was always embarrassed by his participation in this film)--in fact, it's the film's semi-official status as arguably the Worst Film Ever Made that gives it its substantial cult following. The film, financed by a local Baptist congregation led by Wood's landlord, reaches a plateau of ineptitude that tends to leave viewers open-mouthed, wondering what is it they just saw. "Plan 9" became, whether Wood realized it or not, his singular enduring legacy. Ironically, the rights to the film were retained by the church and it is unlikely that Wood ever received a dime from it; his epic bombed upon release in 1959 and remained largely forgotten for years to come.
After this career "peak," Wood went into, relatively speaking, a decline. Always an "enthusiastic"--for lack of a better word--drinker, his alcohol addiction worsened in the 1960s due to his depression of not achieving the worldwide fame he had always sought. He began to draw away from film directing and focused most of his time on another profession: writing. Beginning in the early 1960s up until his death, Wood wrote at least 80 lurid crime and sex paperback novels in addition to hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces for magazines and daily newspapers. Thirty-two stories known to be written by Wood (he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as "Ann Gora" and "Dr. T.K. Peters") are collected in 'Blood Splatters Quickly', published by OR Books in 2014. Novels include Black Lace Drag (1963) (reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Devil Girls (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), The Sexecutives (1968), The Photographer (1969), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Only House in Town (1970), Necromania (1971), The Undergraduate (1972), A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973) and Fugitive Girls (1974).
In 1965, Wood wrote the quasi-memoir 'Hollywood Rat Race', which was eventually published in 1998. In it, Wood advises new writers to "just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better", and also recounts tales of dubious authenticity, such as how he and Bela Lugosi entered the world of nightclub cabaret.
In the 1970s, Wood directed a number of undistinguished softcore and later hardcore adult porno films under various aliases, one of which is the name "Akdov Telmig" ("vodka gimlet" spelled backwards; it helps to imagine that you're a boozy dyslexic, as Ed Wood was). His final years were spent largely drunk in his apartment and occasionally being rolled stumbling out of a local liquor store. Three days before his death, Wood and his wife Kathy were evicted from their Hollywood apartment due to failure to pay the rent and moved into a friend's apartment shortly before his death on the afternoon of December 10, 1978, at age 54. He had a heart attack and died while drinking in bed.
Due to his recent resurgence in popularity, many of his equally interesting transgender - themed sex novels have been republished. The gravitational pull of Planet Angora remains quite strong.To me Ed Wood is still THE king of bad movie making. And then I mean in technical sense. No other director has made so much goofs and mistakes continuously. But the most famous of his films are thoroughly enjoyable...
Directed 18 movies. Notable are:
• 3.7 - Plan 9 From Outer space
• 3.1 - Night of the Ghouls
• 3.7 - Bride of the Monster
• 3.0 - Jail Bait
• 3.8 - Glen or Glenda
(The numbers refer to the imdb ratings - at the moment I added the titles to my list.)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Coleman Francis was born on 24 January 1919 in Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), Red Zone Cuba (1966) and The Skydivers (1963). He was married to Barbara Francis. He died on 15 January 1973 in Hollywood, California, USA.Just 3. Thank god for that.
(Although I think The Beast of Yucca Flats is incredibly funny)
• 1.7 - The Beast of Yucca Flats
• 1.6 - The Skydivers
• 1.5 - Night Train to Mundo Fine Flats -aka- Red Zone Cuba
They're all - very prominently - in the imdb bottom list.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Bert I. Gordon, affectionately nicknamed "Mr. B.I.G." by Forrest J. Ackerman, produced, directed, and wrote more than twenty-five Sci/Fi and Horror features, such as The Magic Sword (1962), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Village of the Giants (1965), The Cyclops (1957), in addition to comedies such as How to Succeed with Sex (1970). His film, The Food of the Gods (1976), was awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International Du Paris Fantastique 1977.Directed 22 movies...
• 3.4 - Empire of the Ants
• 3.8 - Food of the Gods
• 3.1 - Village of the Giants
• 3.5 - Tormented
• 3.6 - Earth vs, the Spiders
• 2.8 - War of the Colossal Beast
• 4.1 - Attack of the Puppet People
• 4.0 - The Amazing Colossal Man
• 4.3 - The Cyclops
• 3.2 - The Beginning of the End
• 1.8 - King Dinosaur- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, and voicing radio and television commercials, Herschell literally - and single-handedly - established the "Splatter Film" category of motion pictures. He accomplished this by writing and directing (including the musical score) a mini-budget movie titled "Blood Feast," shot in Miami in 1963 and released theatrically the following year. As critics lambasted the primitive effects and inattention to script and sub-par acting, audiences flocked to theaters to see why friends who had reacted to the movie's fiery marketing campaign had said, "You gotta see this." Armed with boxoffice grosses, Herschell and his producer-partner David Friedman quickly decided to build onto their newly-discovered base. Herschell wrote and directed "Two Thousand Maniacs." The lead singer of the musical group hired to perform background music had a tenor voice. Herschell had written the title song, "The South Gonna Rise Ag'in." He wanted a baritone, and without hesitation he made the switch: the voice on the sound track is his. After their third splatter film, "Color Me Blood Red," David Friedman moved to California, engaging in a different type of motio0n picture. Herschell continued to grind out one success after another, with titles such as "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls." When major film companies began to invade his splatter-turf, Herschell took a hiatus, shifting full time to his "other career," writing advertising and mailings for marketers worldwide. He became one of a handful of experts to be inducted into the Direct Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. (Author of 32 books on marketing including the classic "On the Art of Writing Copy," Herschell is often called on to lecture on copywriting, just as he is invited to sing the theme from "Two Thousand Maniacs" at horror film festivals.) Over the years, an unusual reality came into place: Herschell's old films continued to play not just on TV screens but in theatres, years after conventional movies would have disappeared altogether. The result has been renewal of his life as a film director. Thus it is that a new Herschell Gordon Lewis movie is hoving into view: "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania," produced by James Saito in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and planned for 2015 release. Both the producer and the director encapsulate their opinion of "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania" in a single word: Enthusiastic.I'm a bit sorry I have to add H. G. Lewis. This director is more or less the inventor of the gore / splatter horror film. And mostly because of that, some of his movies can be considered as "historical" significant.
It might be possible Lewis was aware of the badness of his pictures and liked it. A bit like Troma pictures, or the John Waters movies.
In technical sense his movies aren't always that bad. But none of them - 38 titles - got a rating above 6.
His worst - and that's a pretty bad one - is:
Monster a-Go Go.
(But Bill Rebane helped!)
At the moment I'm typing this, it has a user rating of 1.5. And it is on the 6th place of the imdb bottom list- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Born in Portland Oregon, Roth was the son of Judge Phillip Roth a renowned jurist with over 35 years on the bench. He started writing short stories when he was 10 and at age 14, he got his first taste at filmmaking working at the Wilson High School cable channel. He graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 1982. After a brief attempt to go to Law school and a stint working for an international manufacturing company. In 1984 Roth went back to his childhood love of filmmaking, Directing and writing a number of action features in his home town of Portland (Honor Betrayed, Bad Trip and Fatal Revenge). During this period, he even loaned his office to then struggling filmmaker Gus Van Zant making his critically acclaimed opus, "Mala Noche." Moving to Los Angeles in 1989 he founded UFO, a production and distribution company. Since its foundation, Roth with his partner Jeffery Beach has produced written and directed over 120 feature films and series to date that have been distributed by Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony, Paramount, Columbia-Tristar, Blockbuster and various other US and International distributors such as RTL, Gaga, M-6, Telecinco, BskyB and Canal Plus to name a few.
Roth was also one of the earliest innovators in digital special effects. In 1990 Roth began using PC hardware and software solutions to create digital special effects for feature films. Up to his point almost all digital special effects had been based on far more expensive main frame technology coded for SGI and Cray computer systems. Two Sci-fi features in the early nineties, Prototype X29 and APEX written and directed by Roth opened up the use of PC work stations in features. APEX, an alternate future- science fiction was released theatrically in over 100 theatres by Republic Pictures in 1994. This was almost unheard of for an independent film, with an under one-million-dollar budget to receive a theatrical release, let alone a science fiction relying on digital special effects. Roth's innovation with PC digital applications such as with Lightwave 3-D software was quickly adapted by James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment to allow him the digital horse power to create the massive special effects required in Titanic. Up to this point movies such as this had relied on the use of far more expensive main frame softwares with limited numbers of qualified animators. This breakthrough in this digital glass ceiling is what has ushered in the massive use of digital special effects we see today.
During nineties Roth with his partner continued to write, produce and direct many films out of their Los Angeles based company. In 1999 UFO partnered with a German publicly traded company Advanced Media and set up operations in Sofia Bulgaria to take advantage of a highly skilled work force at reduced budgets. This move became a key factor to Roth and his partner further growing the company and founding their own Studio.
In Roth's nearly 20 years working in Bulgaria, he has become an expert in feature, series and commercial in the Bulgarian market making it his business model to attract producers and directors from all over the world. To further establish his foothold in the Bulgarian film community, Roth has built one of the largest studios and back lots in Bulgaria, only 2nd to NuBoyana Studios. While NuBoyana was a product of privatization, Roth's studio in Dolna Malina known as UFO Film and Television Studios was built on derelict farm land, entirely financed by international equity funding. In addition to the studio, Roth has also established one of the most prolific special effects houses from the catalyst of his first studio started in 1989 in Los Angeles. This makes his VFX companies some the longest continuous running in the world. Since opening his VFX operations in Sofia in 2002 it has been re-branded CinedigitalFX.com.
Roth lives full time in Sofia with his wife, Ekaterina and his four children; Natasha 30, Aaron 22, Elayah 13 and Roxanne 8. Natasha and Aaron having immigrated from the United States and Elayah and Roxanne born in Bulgaria. In addition to his vibrant schedule of work, Roth still actively ski races at an International level, training and racing with members of the Bulgarian National Ski Team and in addition is currently recognized as the number 1 ranked Master Wake Surfer in Bulgaria.Directed 19 movies (usually in the action/sci-fi genre) .
None of them reached an imdb rating of 5 or higher
• 2.2 Darkdrive
• 2.4 Hyper Sonic
• 2.6 Deep Shock
• 3.0 Falcon Down
• 3.0 Prototype- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Self-described schlockmeister Larry Buchanan was born Marcus Larry Seale, Jr. on January 31, 1923. Orphaned at an early age, he was sent to a Baptist orphanage. After graduating from high school in Dallas, the 18-year-old turned down a scholarship to study the ministry at Baylor University to accept an apprenticeship in the props department with 20th Century-Fox Studios. Fox eventually signed Marcus Seale to an acting contract, renaming him Larry Buchanan, the name he would keep for his entire professional life.
Buchanan studied filmmaking in the Army Signal Corps, which made him want to become a director. Back at Fox he played bit parts, most notably in the Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter (1950). However, his creative interests lay elsewhere. In the early 1950s he satisfied his desire to become a director by helming religious documentaries for evangelist Oral Roberts. He also gained experience as an assistant director on The Marrying Kind (1952), directed by the legendary George Cukor.
Buchanan left behind acting for production, taking a job as a writer on The Gabby Hayes Show (1950). In 1951 he directed his first film, )The Cowboy (1951)_, which was nominated for a Peabody Award. Buchanan would never again taste critical praise, as he segued into directing low-budget exploitation fare intended for the grindhouse circuit, the drive-in or straight-to-television. In the late 1950s and 1960s he directed movies for drive-in exploitation specialist American-International Pictures, churning out such celluloid travesties as Attack of the Eye Creatures (1967), In the Year 2889 (1969) and Creature of Destruction (1968). With some of the lowest-rated films to chart on the Internet Movie Database, Buchanan gave legendary Z-movie "shlockmeister" Edward D. Wood Jr. a run for the roses for the title of "Worst Director Ever." In her NY Times obituary of Buchanan, Margalit Fox wrote: "One quality united Mr. Buchanan's diverse output: It was not so much that his films were bad; they were deeply, dazzlingly, unrepentantly bad. His work called to mind a famous line from H.L. Mencken who, describing President Warren G. Harding's prose, said, 'It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it'."
Buchanan directed a series of low-budget films in the early 1960s addressing such topical and taboo issues as sex (Under Age (1964)) and racial relations/miscegenation (Free, White and 21 (1963), High Yellow (1965)), themes that were perennial grindhouse circuit favorites. He also solidified his reputation as a hack with a spate of ultra-low-budgeted remakes of AIP science-fiction potboilers, including Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967) and Mars Needs Women (1968), a film whose succinct title, at least, is a classic of sorts.
The year after president John F. Kennedy was cut down by sniper bullets in his hometown of Dallas, Buchanan exploited the event by writing and directing a fictionalized account of the "judicial reckoning" of J.F.K.'s alleged assassin, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964). He had been in Dallas to shoot a striptease-film at The Carousel, Oswald-killer 'Jack Ruby''s Dallas strip joint, which was eventually released as Naughty Dallas (1964). The Oswald picture was the first of what would become a lucrative vein for Buchanan: biopics and docudramas that limned the lives of everyone from Janis Joplin to Jesus, with Pretty Boy Floyd, Jean Harlow, 'Jimi Hendrix', Howard Hughes and Jim Morrison thrown in for good measure.
In the late 1960s Buchanan relocated to Texas to continue his film career, helping to boost the Lone Star State's film industry. His movies were made with budgets under $100,000 (a figure that approximates about 1/30th of Marlon Brando's daily wage on Superman (1978) and 1/20th of Robert Redford's daily haul on A Bridge Too Far (1977), to provide contrast with contemporaneous Hollywood budgets). Due to their low costs and the well-developed drive-in and grind-house circuits of the 1950s through the 1970s, almost all of Buchanan's movies finished financially in the black. His production overhead was minimal, as he typically was a picture's director, producer, screenwriter and editor.
In 1996 he published his memoirs, "It Came from Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister." In his memoir, Buchanan called his style of independent cinema "guerilla filmmaking." Classifying Buchanan as a genius of his genre, Rob Craig said on Horror-Wood.com: "Buchanan wrote or adapted prime pieces of pulp genre fiction on assignment, filmed them as best he could given his resources, and offered the results to the world with no apologies, nor any revisionist strings attached."
Buchanan was completing the editing of his last movie at his home in Phoenix, Arizona when he died on December 2, 2004, two months shy of his 82nd birthday. He considered "The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene," a story based on a Gnostic interpretation of Christ, to be his finest film. The man who had turned down the chance to become a minister had been working on the film since 1972. Returning to his roots, the film had became the goal of his career, and was an expression of his artistic as well as religious passion.
Buchanan was survived by wife of 52 years, Jane, by his sons Randy, Barry, and Jeff, and by his daughter Dee.Directed 29 movies...
• 2.3 - The Loch Ness Monster
• 2.6 - In the Year 2889
• 2.4 - Curse of the Swamp Creature
• 2.9 - Zontar: The Thing From Venus
• 2.0 - The Eye Creatures
• 2.9 - It's Alive!
• 2.6 - Creature of Destruction
• 2.8 - Mars Needs Women- Director
- Producer
- Writer
With all due respect to the man himself, it is hard to think of any horror filmmaker who made movies that were as cheap or as ridiculed as Jerry Warren's. Whether making shoestring quickies like The Incredible Petrified World (1959) or Teenage Zombies (1959), or mangling Mexican imports, Warren could be counted on through the late '50s and early '60s to deliver the lowest common denominator in horror. Warren said that he grew up with the same natural inclination that every other kid growing up in Los Angeles had: He wanted to get into the movie business. He first pursued this ambition by playing small parts in such '40s films as Ghost Catchers (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Unconquered (1947). A producer made a big impression on Warren when he said, "In this town, producers are the ones that have it all". Warren subsequently took the producers' plunge in 1956 with the horror adventure Man Beast (1956).Directed 11 movies...
• 1.8 - Frankenstein Island
• 1.8 - The Wild World of Batwoman
• 2.1 - Creature of the Walking Dead
• 1.4 - Attack of the Mayan Mummy
• 2.1 - Face of the Screaming Werewolf
• 2.6 - Teenage Zombies
• 3.1 - The Incredible Petrified World- Director
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Bill Rebane was born on 8 February 1937 in Riga, Latvia. Bill is a director and producer, known for The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), Blood Harvest (1987) and Twister's Revenge! (1988). Bill was previously married to Barbara J. Rebane.Directed 11 movies.
• 2.8 The Giant Spider Invasion
• 1.5 Monster a-Go-Go (with HG Lewis)
• 2.2 The Capture of Big Foot
• 3.4 The Alpha Incident
• 2.6 The Demons of Ludlow- Visual Effects
- Director
- Writer
David L. Hewitt was born on 18 December 1939 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Willow (1988), Gallery of Horror (1967) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). He died in 2014 in the USA.
• 2.3 - The Lucifer Complex
• 2.9 - The Mighty Gorga
• 2.1 - Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors
• 3.3 - The Wizard of Mars- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Furst started his career in television, portraying a wide variety of characters in dozens of network and cable series, before gaining recognition for his role as the original Lucas Hood in Cinemax's Banshee. He then expanded to supporting and roles in films like The Magnificent Seven, The Founder, Terminator Genisys and Focus. For his work in I Love You Phillip Morris, Variety wrote of Furst's ability to make a large impact with just a few scenes in the article entitled 'Not Nominate But Definitely Memorable.' Furst made his directorial debut with the horror feature 30 Days to Die, distributed by Lionsgate. His second feature, Starve, premiered as an official selection at the Stiges Film Festival. His early success with independent film garnered the attention of Universal Television, which commissioned Furst's directorial services on over a dozen Movies of the Week for their various networks. As of 2022, Furst has produced 37 movies. You Might be the Killer premiered at the Fantastic Film Festival, and Alice was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Furst is the president of Curmudgeon Films. My Sister's Keeper was the first film produced under his banner, starring Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz. In 2018, he produced You Might be the Killer, starring Alyson Hannigan. Furst then went on to work on the cult franchise Tales from the Hood, producing Part 2 and Part 3. The son of actor Stephen Furst (Animal House), Griff lives in Los Angeles.An actor who decided he could direct movies too...
The director of several horror movies:
• 3.8 Wolvesbayne
• 2.7 100 Million BC
• 3.2 I Am Omega
• 3.3 30 Days to Die
• 4.6 Maskerade
• 3.8 Wolvesbayne
• 3.5 Lake Placid 3
• 4.0 Swamp Shark
• ?.? Arachnoquake (in post-production)- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Although it is very unlikely that his admittedly cheap-'n'-cheesy films will ever be acknowledged as true works of cinematic art, producer/director/screenwriter Al Adamson did, nonetheless, make a slew of entertainingly trashy low-budget exploitation features for the drive-in market throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
He was born on July 25, 1929, in Hollywood, California, the son of actress Dolores Booth and actor/director Victor Adamson who, appropriately enough, specialized in shoddy B-grade - and lower - Westerns in the 1920s and 1930s, both as an actor and especially as a director. Adamson's first foray into filmmaking was helping his father as director and producer on the film Halfway to Hell (1953). In the mid-1960s, he founded the prolific grindhouse outfit Independent-International Pictures with fellow producer/distributor Samuel M. Sherman. Adamson cranked out flicks in every conceivable genre: scuzzy biker items (Satan's Sadists (1969), Hell's Bloody Devils (1970), Angels' Wild Women (1971)), grungy Westerns (Five Bloody Graves (1969), Jessi's Girls (1975)), smarmy softcore porn sex comedies (The Naughty Stewardesses (1973), Blazing Stewardesses (1975)), funky blaxploitation films (Mean Mother (1973), Black Heat (1976)), ridiculous science fiction dross (the gloriously ghastly Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970)), two Jim Kelly martial arts/action outings (Black Samurai (1976) and Death Dimension (1978)), lurid horror fare (Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), Brain of Blood (1971), Nurse Sherri (1977)) and even a tongue-in-cheek softcore porn science fiction musical (Cinderella 2000 (1977)). Moreover, Adamson served as producer for both the exciting Fred Williamson blaxploitation vehicle Hammer (1972) and the acclaimed made-for-TV drama Cry Rape (1973). The casts of Adamson's films were made up of oddball but enthusiastic amateurs and faded professional thespians whose careers were on the wane, including Kent Taylor, Russ Tamblyn, Lon Chaney Jr. and the ubiquitous John Carradine. Adamson frequently gave his wife, Regina Carrol, sizable parts in his films. Moreover, he was a mentor for future schlock feature directors Greydon Clark and John 'Bud' Cardos. He was also instrumental in launching the career of ace cinematographer Gary Graver. In addition, Adamson kept fellow top cinematographers László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond employed in the early days of their careers.
Al Adamson's life came to a brutal and untimely end at 66 when he was murdered by his live-in contractor, Fred Fulford, on August 2, 1995.Directed 30 movies.
According to his imdb filmrate page none of them have passed...
• 1.8 - Doctor Dracula
• 2.0 - Blood of Ghastly Horror
• 2.2 - Horror of the Blood Monsters
• 2.2 - Death Dimenson
• 2.3 - Brain of Blood -aka- The Oozing Skull
• 2.6 - Blood of Dracula's Castle
• 2.6 - Psycho a Go-Go
• 2.9 - Dracula vs. Frankenstein- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Cinematic jack-of-all-trades Rick Sloane will never win any special awards for his admittedly cheap'n'cheesy low-budget independent movies, but he nonetheless deserves some respect for weathering the storm of lots of harsh critical notices and cranking out a sizable number of films throughout the years. Rick was born in 1961 and grew up in Los Angeles, California (he even attended Hollywood High School). He started making fake movie trailers as a teenager and originally planned on being an animator. Sloane was inspired to become a full-fledged filmmaker after seeing the hilarious 70's drive-in exploitation schlock parody "Hollywood Boulevard" at age eighteen. Rick went to film school at Los Angeles City College, where he was told by several instructors that he was the least talented student in their classes. Sloane's debut feature was the lame horror slasher spoof "The Movie House Massacre," which he made when he was twenty-one years old. This was followed by the campy sci-fi outing "The Visitants." Rick achieved his greatest notoriety with the atrocious "Gremlins" rip-off "Hobgoblins;" this horrendous dud was famously mocked on the cult TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Sloane really hit his stride with the crudely amusing "Vice Academy" flicks; he wound up making six movies altogether in this particular series (these pictures were made popular by being shown all the time on the late-night cable TV program "USA Up All Night"). "Good Girls Don't" rates highly as Rick's best-ever cinematic venture to date; it's a surprisingly sweet and charming female buddy comedic romp that's funny and touching in equal measure. After an eight year hiatus from filmmaking, Rick Sloane made a comeback with the less than eagerly anticipated belated sequel "Hobgoblins 2."Directed 15 movies - so far...
(Pretends he does it on purpose....)
• 1.8 Hobgoblins
• 2.2 Blood Theatre
• 2.8 The Visitants
• 3.1 Mind, Body & Soul
• 2.3 Hobgoblins 2- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Don Dohler was born on January 27, 1946 in Baltimore, Maryland. Dohler became interested in fantastic films at a very young age (Dohler was a longtime reader of the popular horror magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland"). He began making 8mm shorts at age 12. Dohler also published a "Mad" magazine type spin-off called "Wild" in his teen years. Dohler's initial forays into filmmaking include the stop-motion animation short "Mr. Clay" and the sci-fi effort "Pursued." Both films won awards from the amateur filmmakers club the Washington Society of Cinematographers. In 1972 Dohler launched the movie magazine "Cinemagic," which had an eleven issue run which lasted until 1979. Dohler made his feature length debut with the enjoyably cheap "The Alien Factor." Don's follow-up films were a pretty eclectic bunch: the creepy horror offering "Fiend," the gloriously gaga "Nightbeast," the goofy "Galaxy Invader," and the outrageously gruesome "Blood Massacre." After a regrettably lengthy absence from movie-making, Dohler bounced back with the belated sequel "Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage." In addition, Don served as both writer and producer on the straight-to-video fright flicks "Harvesters," "Stakes," "Crawler," and "Vampire Sisters." Moreover, Dohler was managing editor of the newspaper the Times Herald. Don Dohler died at age 60 of cancer on December 2nd, 2006.Directed 7 movies.
• 4.0 - The Alien Factor
• 3.7 - Fiend
• 2.8 - Night Beast
• 2.9 - The Galaxy Invader
• 4.9 - Blood Massacre
• 3.5 - Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage
• 4.4 - Dead Hunt- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Paul Ziller has directed over 40 feature films and MOWs, plus various series episodes. He is experienced in all genres: drama, sci-fi, action, family, mystery, and romantic comedies. Having spent nearly a decade directing for the Syfy Channel has made Paul particularly skillful in this technical and visually creative realm. His directing style reflects his love for collaborating with cast and crew, and his extensive experience as an editor and writer gives him a unique skill set to shoot demanding shows on tight schedules, always delivering above expectations.Maybe not THE worst. But he created a lot of garbage.
Only one of his 35 movies got an imdb rating above 6.
• 3.3 - Iron Invader
• 3.6 - Snakehead Terror
• 3.6 - Moving Target
• 3.7 - Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon
• 3.7 - Ba'al
• 3.8 - Swarmed
• 3.9 - Polar Storm- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ray Kellogg was born on 15 November 1905 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. He was an assistant director, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The King and I (1956) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). He died on 5 July 1976 in Ontario, California, USA.- Editor
- Director
- Production Manager
Phil Tucker was born on 22 May 1927 in Kansas, USA. He was an editor and director, known for Broadway Jungle (1955), King Kong (1976) and Dance Hall Racket (1953). He died on 1 December 1985 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Directed 9 movies. None of them have good ratings.
Only two horror films:
• 2.8 - Robot Monster
• 2.7 - The Cape Canaveral Monsters- Director
- Writer
- Composer
Born October 22, 1947 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, William Brent Girdler launched his filmmaking career with the 1972 release of Asylum of Satan. He made a total of nine films in six years and provided the music for the Pat Patterson quickie Dr. Gore. Girdler died in a helicopter accident in the Philippines after completing his final movie The Manitou.
Girdler wore many hats in respect to his filmmaking, writing six of his nine films and composing the music for three. He also produced two of his own movies. His early works were filmed in his hometown of Louisville, KY with the assistance of many friends and local investors. Girdler's first two low budget horror entries, Asylum of Satan and Three on a Meathook, made only a slight impact on the drive-in movie scene, but they got his foot in the door with Sam Arkoff and AIP. Girdler subsequently made three blaxploitation films: Zebra Killer, Abby, and Sheba Baby. After his AIP stint ended, Girdler directed the political thriller Project Kill starring Leslie Nielsen. Eager to return to horror, Girdler sought finances from Edward Montoro and thus brought Grizzly and Day of the Animals into the world. Girdler hoped to strike gold when he bought the rights to Graham Masterton's 1976 best-selling novel 'The Manitou' for $50,000, and he did just that. Within three months of securing the rights, Girdler began shooting the movie with Tony Curtis and Susan Strasberg in the leading roles.
William Girdler's most successful effort is Grizzly, a bleak Jaws knockoff starring a giant fuzzy bear. Made on a fairly tight budget, Grizzly ranked among the most successful films of 1976. Abby, a 1974 Exorcist rip-off which prompted a lawsuit from Warner Brothers, was also a box-office hit and made more money via domestic rentals than Blacula. Legal issues prevented Girdler from seeing profits for both films. Other box office hits born of Girdler include the Pam Grier vehicle Sheba Baby and The Manitou (a posthumous hit).Directed 9 movies
Honestly?.. They don't deserve these high ratings.
• 4.7 - The Manitou
• 4.7 - Grizzly
• 5.1 - Day of the Animals.
• 4.0 - Project: Kill
• 5.6 - Abby
• 3.0 - Asylum of Satan
• 4.2 - Three on a Meathook- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Tibor Takács was born in Budapest, Hungary. Tibor is a director and writer, known for Black Warrant (2022), The Secret Ingredient (2020), and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) He has had the privilege of working with many notable actors in various genres and has extensive experience with stunts, practical effects and complex CGI. He is also one of the creators of the successful Sabrina the Teenage Witch television franchise, and directed the acclaimed film The Gate.Director of 37 movies.
Some not at all bad. I'm a big fan of The Gate, which I truly think is underrated, with the 5.4 it has at the moment. I, Madman almost gets a 6.
But he delivered some true stinkers as well:
• 3.2 Ice Spiders
• 3.2 Mansquito
• 3.4 The Black Hole
• 3.4 Rats
• 3.7 Mega Snake
• 3.7 NYC: Tornado Terror
• 3.7 Meteor Storm
• 3.9 Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep- Director
- Writer
- Producer
DANIEL ZIRILLI (director/producer/writer) CEO of Popart Film Factory BIOGRAPHY & RESUME
Daniel Zirilli founded Popart Film Factory at age 24 (after graduating from Pepperdine University in Malibu) and to date has directed and/or produced/written over 70 feature films and 250 music videos and documentaries, and has won many awards. Zirilli directed back to back films in 2021/2022 which are in post now, "Renegades" gangster crime drama shot in London, the ensemble cast includes, Ian Ogilvy, Nick Moran, Patsy Kensit, Lee Majors, Tiny Lister, Louis Mandylor, Billy Murray and Paul Barber which will be released by Saban Films. "Pheonix" - a female driven revenge thriller lead by Natalie Eva Marie, Neal McDonough, and Randy Couture shot in Miami and Las Vegas. Daniel also wrote the story for and is producing "Best Man" with Luke Wilson, Nicky Whelan, Dolph Lundgren, and Scout Taylor-Compton.
Zirilli's "Invincible" (As director/producer/co-writer) was just released by Lionsgate, March 8, 2022 - shot on location in Thailand, starring Johnny Strong, Marko Zaror, Krissada Sukosol, Sally Kirkland, Michael Pare and Vladimir Kulich, and "Hollow Point" (As director/co-writer) with the ensemble cast of Luke Goss, Jay Mohr, Juju Chan, Bill Duke, Michael Pare, Kirk Fox, and Roger G. Smith. Daniel Zirilli also directed (with Micheal Merino) "Acceleration" starring Dolph Lundgren, Sean Patrick Flanery, Natalie Burn, Chuck Liddell, Jason London, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Danny Trejo.
Zirilli previously directed "The Asian Connection" also in Thailand starring Steven Seagal & Michael Jai White which debuted on NETFLIX. (Zirilli also co-wrote the story with Tom Sizemore). And "Crossing Point" (as director/producer) starring Jacob Vargas, Shawn Lock, Rudy Youngblood, Luke Goss, and Tom Sizemore. Zirilli also wrote and directed "Black Beauty" released by Lionsgate, starring Luke Perry and Bruce Davidson.
Zirilli also produced a film about the early days of Guns N' Roses- "It's So Easy and Other Lies" based on the book by Duff McKagan, and is currently producing a documentary based on "The Grapes Of Wrath" by legendary author John Steinbeck, featuring James Franco. Zirilli has written or co-written 25 feature films that have been produced, and directed projects for Michael Jackson through Jackson's Moonwalker Entertainment, and produced the film and video for The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Lounge".
Zirilli previously directed and/or produced a slate of four films for Lionsgate films/Grindstone, including Locked Down with Vinnie Jones, and House of the Rising Sun, with Amy Smart, Dominic Purcell and Dave Bautista in his first lead role in film. Zirilli also Executive Produced films with notable actors such as Peter Bogdanovich, Rose McGowan, Stephan Lang, Bruce Davidson and Morgan Freeman.
In Music Videos, Zirilli worked his way up in the business with artists such as NWA, Cher and Danzig, then directed/produced over 250 Music Videos, with some going to #1 on MTV and BET, with more than 25 singles that reached beyond gold or platinum sales (1 million units RIAA) for artists including Three 6 Mafia (featuring Katt Williams), Dvbbs, Redman, Cypress Hill, Shaq, Scarface, Montel Jordan, Master P, Twista, Chayanne, Freddie Jackson, Roger Troutman Jr., Gerald Levert, Bobby Womack, Bokeem Woodbine, Peter Himmelman, Flea, Domino, Supercat, WC & The Madd Circle, Wilton Felder, Najee, and other Grammy Award Winning Artists. Zirilli also produced music videos for Russell Simmons film "The Show" for Def Jam, Michael Nesmith (of The Monkees) and many other legendary recording artists.
Daniel Zirilli's Public Service Announcements include projects commissioned by the Earth Communication Office (E.C.O.), Earth Summit, Save our Skies (S.O.S.), and The Garden Project L.A. (in association with Disney) which have featured socially conscious celebrities such as Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Newton-John, Ed Begley Jr., Herbie Hancock, Bob Saget, Rita Coolidge, Richard Mull, Jane Seymour and the Late John Ritter, among many others.
Daniel Zirilli graduated from Pepperdine University, Malibu and received his Bachelor Of Arts, in Speech Communication/Creative Writing.Director of 17 movies. The highest imdb rating he managed to reach was a 4.1 for Locked Down. (According to his imdb filmorate page which for some reason doesn't list all his movies.)
These are his horror movies (but I bet the other ones are pretty horrific too!)
• 1.8 - Cross Bones
• 2.1 - Voodoo Tailz
• 3.1 - Curse of Alcatraz- Editor
- Director
- Writer
Born in 1931, Bruno Mattei grew up in Rome, Italy, where his father owned a small film editing studio. At age 20 Bruno started working odd jobs at his father's company as his assistant, then went on to other small spots. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a film editor, and soon found himself working as an editor for a number of directors, including Roberto Bianchi Montero and Nick Nostro. Mattei claimed to have edited over 100 films in the 1960s and early 1970s. After working with famed Spanish director Jess Franco, Mattei made his debut as a director with the drama Armida, il dramma di una sposa (1970) under the alias "Jordon B. Matthews". He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world. He returned to editing before making another comeback in 1976 with two low-budget Nazi exploitation films, Women's Camp 119 (1977) (aka "Women's Camp 119") and Casa privata per le SS (1977) (aka "SS Girls"). Mattei followed these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno films and mondo "shockumentaries", all directed under his many pseudonyms, concentrating on "shock value" with films such as Mondo erotico (1973), "Libiodomania" and "Libidomania 2". Always on the lookout for new exploitation avenues, Mattei followed with "nunsploitation", with the softcore sex film The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) and the violent sex thriller The Other Hell (1981). Both films involved a partnership with writer/director Claudio Fragasso, who helped him write and direct the back-to-back productions. Using yet another alias, "Vincent Dawn", Mattei directed Hell of the Living Dead (1980) (aka "Night of the Zombies"), a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979). "Virus" was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad. After directing two women's prison films starring Laura Gemser, Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks, starting with The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the sci-fi/horror flick Rats: Night of Terror (1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s. Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget. He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, directing a pair of "spaghetti westerns", some action flicks and about half of Zombie 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it. In the early 1990s Mattei directed a series of erotic thrillers and a made-for-TV movie, Cruel Jaws (1995), which was inspired by Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Mattei continued making films, with more than 50 to his credit by the 200s. In early 2007 his health began to decline rapidly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite his doctor's warnings, he went through with a surgical operation to have the tumor removed in May of that year. After the surgery he fell into a coma from complications, and died a few days later on May 21, 2007 at age 75. Though some people consider his films to be cheap, insipid and technically inept due in large part to their low budgets and poor production values, Bruno Mattei remains an influential cult film director around the world for his radical film making and willingness to direct pretty much anything with a taboo-breaking topic.Director of 54 movies. None of them made it to an imdb rating of 6 or above.
• 3.2 - Cruel Jaws
• 3.3 - Land of Death
• 3.3 - Rats - Notte di terrore
• 3.4 - Cannibal World
• 3.5 - Zombies: The Beginning
• 3.5 - Snuff killer - La morte in diretta- Director
- Editor
- Cinematographer
Jeff Leroy is known for Rat Scratch Fever (2011), Predator World (2017) and Giantess Attack vs. Mecha Fembot (2019) (2019).Director of 15 movies: Look at some of these "yummy" titles (But I guess that's the only thing you should watch of his):
• 4.5 - Eyes of the werewolf
• 4.7 - Hunting Season
• 4.2 - The Screaming
• 3.9 - Hell's Highway
• 2.9 - Creepies
• 2.7 - Unseen Evil
• 2.1 - Creepies 2
• 3.6 - The Witch's Sabbath
• 4.5 - Werewolf in a Women's Prison- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Bowker is known for Twisted Illusions 2 (2004), Beneath a Dead Moon (2014) and The Evilmaker (2000).Will add titles later- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Johannes Roberts was born on 24 May 1976 in Cambridge, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) and 47 Meters Down (2017).Will add titles later- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Daryl Carstensen was born on 23 September 1956 in Lynwood, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for The Iron Giant (1999), Osmosis Jones (2001) and Unnaturally Born Killers (1996).An animation checker (whatever that may be), who also directed 2 movies.
As the titles (oh, and the ratings of course) clearly show, he didn't take it very seriously.
• 2.7 - Attack of the Virgin Mummies
• 1.9 - Unnatural Born Killers- Writer
- Producer
- Director
James Merendino is an American movie director and scriptwriter. He was born in New Jersey, and moved with his family to Salt Lake City, Utah when he was six years old. After pursuing post-secondary education in Rome and Los Angeles, California, studying Western philosophy and theology, Merendino settled in Hollywood, California when he was 19 years old, and began a tenure with Hollywood mogul Dan Melnick. In 1991, Merendino was hired for his first motion picture, Witchcraft IV. His second film, A River Made to Drown In (1997), is a movie that was pivotal to the gay community in the United States, with Richard Chamberlain coming out publicly after the film's release. Merendino's most successful film, SLC Punk, was released in 1998. The film is centered on two punk rockers living in Salt Lake City and follows their daily nihilistic lives. SLC Punk is semi-autobiographical. The 2000 film Magicians was a European co-production with Alan Arkin and Claire Forlani. Amerikana was produced as part of the Dogma 95 by Lars Von Trier. In 2016, the sequel long awaited sequel to SLC Punk, Punk's Dead was released. James Merendino has directed 18 movies also served as the writer on the majority of them. He was nominated for best original screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards.Director of 14 movies. Some of them got pretty decent ratings, but not these ones:
• 2.5 Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart
• 4.0 Trespassing
• 2.9 Toughguy
• 4.6 Hard Drive- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Jean Rollin was born on 3 November 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Night of the Hunted (1980). He was married to Simone Rollin. He died on 15 December 2010 in Paris, France.Some French guy who made a lot of movies about vampires. A lot of them got decent ratings, except for a few that is.
Also directed Emanuelle 6. Ouch!
• 2.7 - Le lac des morts vivants
• 3.4 - Les trottoirs de Bangkok
• 3.7 - Killing Car
• 4.1 - Christina, princesse de l'érotisme
• 4.8 - La fiancée de Dracula- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Darrell Roodt was born on 28 April 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a director and writer, known for Yesterday (2004), Treurgrond (2015) and Dangerous Ground (1997). He is married to Ashley Hayden.Most of his movies have good imdb ratings. Maybe he shouldn't be on this list. Nevertheless at least two horror movies were received pretty poorly.
• 2.7 - City of Blood
• 2.0 - Dracula 3000
• 5.0 - Cryptid- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Juan Piquer Simon (who goes by "J.P. Simon" on foreign releases) resides in Madrid, Spain, where he has produced and directed "exploitation" pictures for two decades running. He owns his own studio and creates and/or designs many of the impressive special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings. He grew up loving American cinema as a child in Franco's Spain, and even worked with some famous American filmmakers when they shot in Spain in the 1960's before becoming a director himself. Recent global competition from American product in Spain has forced Piquer to severely reduce his output (he can't get the wide theatrical releases he once enjoyed), but he's proven resilient if nothing else over the years. And while his films have been universally panned by the "establishment" critics, they have a kind of loopy, Ed Wood quality that must be endured to be fully appreciated. Of Piquer it can be said, "He makes them because he loves making them, whatever the outcome."Directed 15 movies.
• 3.8 - The Rift
• 1.6 - Devil's Island
• 4.4 - Slugs
• 2.7 - La mansión de los Cthulhu
• 2.7 - Mystery on Monster Island
• 4.3 - Fabulous Journey to the Center of the Earth- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Editor
Peter Mervis is known for Homeland Nation: Mescalero Apache (2010), The Da Vinci Treasure (2006) and Passed the Door of Darkness (2008).Director of 10 movies. Still young, so lets give him a few dozen more chances.
• 3.1 - Passed the Door of Darkness
• 2.6 - Snakes on a Train
• 2.1 - The Da Vinci Treasure
• 4.4 - When A Killer Calls
• 3.6 - Dead Men Walking- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Ted V. Mikels was born on 29 April 1929 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for The Doll Squad (1973), Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973) and Ten Violent Women (1982). He was married to Geneva Kirsch. He died on 16 October 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.The creator of the infamous Girl in Gold Boots directed some horror movies as well...
• 2.6 - The Astro Zombies
• 2.9 - The Corpse Grinders
• 2.1 - Blood Orgy of the She Devils
• 3.9 - Dimensions in Fear
• 3.3 - The Corpse Grinders 2
• 3.9 - Mark of the Astro Zombies
• 2.3 - Cauldron: Baptism in Blood
• 3.0 - Demon Haunt
• 4.0 - Astro Zombies: M3 - Cloned
• -.- - Astro Zombies: M4 - Invaders From Cyberspace (not rated yet - HE'S STILL MAKING MOVIES!!! Aargh!)- Ray Dennis Steckler was born on 25 January 1938 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964). He was married to Katherine Louise Coon and Carolyn Brandt. He died on 7 January 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.Director of 29 movies.
"Famous" for one of his worst (one of THE worst):
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?
It has an average 2.1 imdb rating and it's placed #60 on the imdb bottom list.
Also made:
• 2.3 - The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher
• 2.5 - Blood Shack
• 2.7 - Sinthia: The Devil's Doll
• 2.6 - The Horny vampire
• 2.5 - Las Vegas Serial Killer - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Shane Van Dyke was born on 28 August 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Titanic II (2010), Don't Worry Darling (2022) and The Silence (2019).An actor who directed 4 straight-to-dvd movies.
• 4.3 - Paranormal Entity
• 3.1 - A Haunting in salem- Actor
- Producer
- Director
After an eye-catching performance in the teen coming-of-age epic The Outsiders (1983), ex-child rodeo star C. Thomas Howell was a promising young actor in the mid-1980s.
Christopher Thomas Howell was born in Los Angeles to Candice (Webb) and Chris Howell (a professional bull rider turned stuntman). He started working in the film industry at the age of seven. In 1981, he was cast as Tyler in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Shortly thereafter, he nabbed the lead in Francis Ford Coppola's classic The Outsiders (1983). Earmarked as an up-and-coming actor, his career soon skyrocketed with roles in films including the comedy Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, and the violent Cold War invasion drama Red Dawn (1984). His career was not helped by the controversial racial comedy Soul Man (1986), which was not well-received. However, he did meet and fall in love with his co-star from that movie, Rae Dawn Chong, whom he later married. He has notched up in excess of 90 feature film appearances. including starring roles in Side Out (1990), Gettysburg (1993), Baby Face Nelson (1996), Fatal Affair (1998), Asylum Days (2001) and Hoboken Hollow (2006).
He played unpredictable Officer Bill "Dewey" Dudek in the TNT drama series Southland (2009) and as the sadistic serial killer "The Reaper" on CBS's Criminal Minds (2005). More recent television appearances include The Glades (2010) (A&E) and Torchwood (2006) (Starz Channel). He appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (Sony). A budding film director, he has directed a number of films, including The Big Fall (1997), Pure Danger (1996), The Land That Time Forgot (2009), and The Day the Earth Stopped (2008).
Outside his acting career, Howell was an accomplished team roper and later, as 'Tommy Howell', a singer-songwriter.An actor in almost 150 movies. And still found some time to direct as well, unfortunately. Not really horror, but it comes close in more than one way...
• 3.3 - The Land That Time Forgot
• 2.9 - The Day the Earth Stopped- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
The Writer/Director grew up in New England making short films and award winning music videos while attending college in Boston. In Los Angeles, he created trailers for Roger Corman, the producer for whom he directed his first feature. Morneau's science-fiction thriller, "Retroactive", for HBO/MGM/Orion received critical acclaim, including international Best Picture awards. Joel Silver and Richard Donner brought the filmmaker on to direct "Made Men" for HBO, followed by "Bet Your Life". His original story "The Brig", a military action picture, was set up at Warner Brothers.Director of 12 movies.
• 3.6 - Quake
• 2.8 - Carnosaur 2
• 3.4 - Bats
• 4.2 - The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Cousin of Oscar winner director Michael Cimino, Massimiliano (Max) Cerchi is an award-winning film director and producer.
Born In Italy, he moved to study and work in USA. He started his first movie in 1993.
He works from concept-to-completion on each film, developing the ideas, assembling the creative team, and delivering a finished production to the distributor. In every project, he is part filmmaker/part consultant/part workaholic.
His distinctive approach to filmmaking has attracted a client list that includes, celebrities, rock stars and other filmmakers.
Max's work has been featured in national and international film festivals. He has been a celebrity expert and film reviewer on various blog and video blogs such as Horror Palace and many more.Directed 9 movies.
• 4.1 - Plankton
• 2.3 - Satan Claus
• 2.1 - Hellinger
• 3.5 - The Mummy Theme Park
• 2.1 - Carnage Road
• 2.9 - Holy Terror
• 3.7 - Flight To Hell- Special Effects
- Make-Up Department
- Director
When he ran the make-up effects department at New World Pictures, Roger Corman called John Carl Buechler "...the best in the business..." An actor, writer, producer, director, special effects artist, he was always in love with filmmaking, and was the first person in history to make his way into the director's chair by way of make-up effects superstardom.
John Carl Buechler was born in Belleville, Illinois. As someone who went the entire nine yards, he made his name as an accomplished writer, producer, director and special effects artist. Since his early years, Buechler was thrilled with a passion of special effects and formed his own company, Mechanical Imageries Inc., for creating special effects for a handful of motion pictures in the science fiction and horror/fantasy genre. Although he was known for his fascinating make-up work, as a director, Buechler made his debut on an anthology fantasy film entitled The Dungeonmaster (1984). A year later, he directed and also designed the special effects for another fantasy film called Troll (1986), which became a major success during its theatrical release in 1986. Troll (1986), The Dungeonmaster (1984) and another Buehcler-directed effort, Cellar Dweller (1987), were films that were produced by Charles Band's then-collapsing Empire Pictures, in which Buechler often worked on dozens of Band's films as an effects artist. His work as a director led him to direct the seventh sequel to the ever famous Friday the 13th (1980) for Paramount Pictures. Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988), like its many sequels was another box-office success, even though Buechler at the time was skeptical about directing the film. In later years, Buechler has continued on his long accomplished work in special effects and many of his directorial efforts were released to directly to video. Premiere Magazine quoted him as saying, "if you can pull a performance out of a piece of latex, you can do it with actors...."
He died on March 18, 2019.Director of 17 movies.
• 3.8 - Troll
• 4.2 - Cellar Dweller
• 4.7 - Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
• 2.7 - Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College
• 3.3 - Curse of the Forty-Niner
• 2.8 - Deep Freeze
• 3.8 - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• 2.6 - Watchers Reborn
And he is going to direct the remake of Troll... Wow, lucky us.- Special Effects
- Director
- Actor
Olaf Ittenbach was born in 1969 in Fürstenfeldbruck, Bavaria, Germany. He is a director and actor, known for Beyond the Limits (2003), BloodRayne (2005) and 5 Seasons (2015). He has been married to Tanja Ittenbach since 30 March 2012. He was previously married to Martina Ittenbach.Director of 15 movies
• 2.8 - BloodRayne
• 2.8 - Seed
• 3.2 - Beyond Remedy
• 3.5 - Dard Divorce
• 2.9 - Legion of the Dead
• 4.8 - Riverplay
• 4.6 - Beyond the Limits- Writer
- Director
- Producer
William Sachs is an American film director/producer and writer. Besides his work as a writer and director, since working on Joe (1970), Sachs has been particularly noted for successfully doctoring others' films prior to release in order to conform them to the producers' wishes for broader commercial appeal. His films have screened and received more than 25 awards at various festivals.
Originally, Sachs studied business and accounting, but disliked it. After enlisting in the United States Air Force and serving in England, he enrolled at London Film School where he studied film and directed three short films that won awards. In addition, he studied acting with Michael Gough in London, and with various teachers in the US. Following his studies, he started working in the US, first re-working films deemed problematic by producers, including Joe (1970), for which Sachs declined a co-director credit and picked a credit as "Post Production Supervisor" because he felt it reflected his involvement in post production best.
Working in Italy in the early 1970s, he started planning his first feature-film as a writer and director: There Is No 13 (1974). This film, which is the first film in which Ralf Bode is credited as cinematographer, was screened at Berlin Film Festival 1974, where it received a lot of praise and attention. The film has been called "probably Sachs' best film, certainly his most profound."
In the following decades, in addition to directing films that became cult classics (like The Incredible Melting Man (1977), Galaxina (1980), Van Nuys Blvd. (1979)), Sachs also reworked/doctored numerous films by other directors in post-production prior to release.
His most recent feature-film work as a writer/director, Spooky House (2001), starring Ben Kingsley, received numerous awards. Currently, Sachs has multiple films in development, including one about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Beside his work in feature-films, Sachs has also directed numerous commercials, music videos, public service announcements and a special effects video used by Pink Floyd during concerts. He has also been a guest lecturer at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Cal State Northridge and the California Institute of the Arts.
William Sachs himself mentions that his style is primarily influenced by surrealists like Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel and others. In many of his films, there are surrealistic elements. There Is No 13 (1974), written, directed and co-produced by Sachs, is a highly surrealistic comedy that showcases his style very well: The mood, music and style switches from scene to scene, and realistic elements are interwoven with absurdist, surrealistic ones.
In Sachs' later films that he again often wrote in addition to directing them, producers sometimes interefered with his style, although it still shines through in many points. The Incredible Melting Man (1977), for example, was meant as a surrealistic comedy by Sachs, but many intentionally absurdist elements were removed by the producers from the final film to give it a more "serious" tone. Still, scenes like the ending (in which a janitor wipes up the molten remains of the titular character into a bucket) give a hint of the surrealist tone that Sachs wanted for the film.
In Van Nuys Blvd. (1979), a number of comedic scenes of a police officer on a beach, being handcuffed to his car, show a gradually more and more surrealist tone as the film progresses. In the course of the film, he gets approached by a mysterious biker stealing his possessions, a dog and ultimately, towards the end of the film, his own mother who is worried about her boy while police searches for his location.Director of 11 movies.
• 4.2 - South of Hell Mountain
• 3.2 - The Incredible Melting Man
• 3.0 - Galaxina
• 3.6 - Judgement
• 4.9 - Spooky House- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Charles Band is a writer, producer, director and publisher. He was born on December 27, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, as Charles Robert Band. His father was producer and director Albert Band and his brother is composer Richard Band.
Band has been writing, producing and directing films in the horror, science fiction, fantasy and comedy genres since the 1970s both for other company's and with his own studios, Empire Pictures and Full Moon Features. He was instrumental in ushering in the home video boom of the early 1980s with his companies Meda (later renamed Media Home Entertainment) and Wizard Video, the latter imprint which was responsible for being among the first entities to distribute European horror movies from such now celebrated filmmakers as Jess Franco and Lucio Fulci.
Band is perhaps best known for his work with Empire Pictures, making such pictures as Ghoulies, The Dungeonmaster, Terrorvision, Re-Animator and From Beyond and later, with Full Moon Features making films like Puppetmaster, Doctor Mordrid, Subspecies, Pit and the Pendulum, Castle Freak and many more.
Despite the changes in the home video and theatrical film marketplaces, Band has never stopped making and distributing movies. Many of his classic Full Moon pictures can be found on his Full Moon Streaming channel and now on the Full Moon Amazon channel. Band also distributes hundreds of his own and other filmmakers movies on DVD and Blu-ray via Full Moon Direct, along with a myriad toys and related Full Moon universe merchandise.
Recent Full Moon Features productions include Evil Bong High 5, Trophy Heads, Killjoy's Psycho Circus, Ravenwolf Towers and Puppetmaster: Axis Termination.Director of 36 movies.
• 2.7 - Killer Eye: Halloween Hunt
• 2.9 - Ragewar
• 3.1 - Parasite
• 3.2 - Prehysteria!
• 3.2 - Puppet Master: The Legacy
• 3.2 - The Gingerdead Man
• 3.2 - Skull Heads
• 3.3 - Blood Dolls
• 3.3 - Petrified
• 3.4 - Mystery Monsters
• 3.5 - Decadent Evil II
• 3.7 - Dangerous Worry Dolls
• 3.7 - Dollman vs. Demonic Toys
• 3.8 - Evil Bong- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Dale Resteghini's highly stylized work as a Music Video Director has brought him around the world and to the forefront of his craft as a premier Director.
Resteghini, also known as 'Rage' among his Rock, Hip Hop & Pop Music peers due to his relentless pursuit for achieving the impossible is regarded as the most working Music Video Director of the modern era and is known around the world in industry circles as being the only Music Video Director in the history of the medium to amass over 100 ROCK Videos and over 100 HIP HOP Videos from his total of nearly 700 Music Videos in less than 10 years.
Back when the MTV, BET and FUSE television networks were playing Music Videos, Resteghini's works were constantly found at the top of all of their play lists, and many have been nominated for various awards within the music community. He has worked with a stellar list of diverse artists of today such as Nicky Minaj, Fall Out Boy, Pitbull, Diddy, Soulja Boy, Ice Cube, Flo Rida, The RZA, TI, Gym Class Heroes aka Travie McCoy, Method Man, Redman, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Guns N Roses, Tyga, Camron, Hatebreed, Mudvayne, Li'l Wayne, Ja Rule, E-40, Lil Kim, The Game, Keyshia Cole, Bun B, Everlast, Chiddy Bang, N-Dubz, Akon, MIMS, Ray J, Birdman aka Baby, Lil Jon, Snoop Dogg, Sizzla, Mohombi, Alexandra Burke, Too Short, Cypress Hill, Ludacris, Trina, Lemar, Three 6 Mafia, Vanilla Ice, Dionne Bromfield, Tinchy Stryder, Juelz Santana, Kottonmouth Kings, Alter Bridge, Saigon, Children Of Bodom, Busta Rhymes, All That Remains, Craig David, Mr. Hudson, Fear Factory, Silverstein, Tanya Stephens, Adelitas Way, Mayday Parade, Hawthorne Heights and many others during his career in videos.
Resteghini has helmed projects as far as Perth, Australia to the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Argentina and Chile as well as many other places around the world and throughout the USA and Canada.
While Resteghini has several filmmaker influences which include Robert Aldrich, Tony Scott, Orson Welles Spielberg, Mann, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, John Huston and some others, he is often known for quoting 'Rocky Balboa' as he feels the essence of the famed fictional character made famous by Sylvester Stallone, represents most of the known world to some degree and it's this blue collar working class attitude and approach he brings to each and every set he works on in order to complete the task at hand.
Long before he managed to start knocking on Hollywood's door, Resteghini who is a native of Boston, moved to NYC with a focus on his craft as an actor but along the way Resteghini found himself drawn away from the front of the camera to behind it where he realized he can create any world he wants. His approach was highly original and bold which allowed him to stand tall in a sea filled with talent who were all starving for their chance to prove themselves. However, it was his very early videos which just exploded on screen which let us see an important new artist burst upon the new Music Video Industry, an industry which has suffered in recent years due to the ever evolving music economy. Due to the accolades of his early work, Resteghini was asked to direct a video for a still unknown, Fall Out Boy and their teen anthem "Grand Theft Autumn." The resulting piece was an instant hit, drawing him immediate and broad video attention and an MTV Award. It served to propel both Fall Out Boy and Resteghini into the forefront of the rock world. Work with other top artists soon followed. In 2004 he became a founding partner of the NYC based music video production company, Raging Nation Films, Inc. with his partner and wife Kim Resteghini.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Martin Munthe was born Karl Martin Emanuel Söderberg in Malmoe, Sweden in 1970. His biological father is Lasse Söderberg a poet who brought writers like Octavio Paz to the attention of the Nobel Prize in Literature through his translations to Swedish. His mother Ingrid was a model and Munthe spent his early childhood in Paris. His mother shared an apartment with super model Twiggy and as a baby he was surrounded by people like Roman Polanski and Miles Davis in the fashion circuit of Paris. Anette Lykke Lundberg, a now famous Swedish film editor, was his babysitter in Paris and later - when his mother moved back to Sweden - Rolf Sohlman had him follow around different movie sets - in particular the movies of Hasse & Tage. His stepfather Lorne Munthe de Wolfe, a Swedish pop star, entered early in his life and he had a baby sister, Lisa Munthe, who is also a director.
Munthe grew up in Stockholm and initially wanted to become a cartoonist. But through a childhood friend in school he started making Super 8 movies. His friends father was film director Jonas Cornell and the family where neighbors to actor Gösta Ekman. The director and actor was in the process of making the very first Jönssonligan movie. Munthe has been making films ever since that period and started his first production company at the age of 20.
Art, writing, film and music played center stage in his family. His grandparents, both artist, was close friends to Harry Schein who founded the Swedish Film Institute. But living in the city of Stockholm as a teen Munthe claims his finally decided on a career as a filmmaker in his late teens after having small "elevator talks" with his then neighbor Stellan Skarsgård on what made movies interesting and good.
In the 90's Munthe was one of Swedens most established music video directors working with many stars of that era of the Swedish pop exports. Denniz Pop - who founded Cheiron Studios where producer Max Martin got his start - took a liking to Munthes videos and he worked with many of the producers surrounding that time and place - like Dr Alban. For several years in the 90's Munthe tried to have his first feature film produced starring actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård. A passion project that never saw fruition.
In 2000 Munthes first feature film Hjärta av Sten was released theatrically. Munthe has been heavily involved with visual effects and emerging digital technologies for his entire career as well as working in the advertising industry. He has been working in many roles like second unit director and cinematographer and have worked with most of the current successful Hollywood Swedes. Hjärta av Sten introduced actor Michael Nyqvist to the screen and re-introduced actor Brasse Brannström after a twenty year long hiatus from the movie industry.
He is married to film critic Emma Gray Munthe and has a daughter named Ava.
• 2.1 - Hjärta av sten
• 1.8 - Camp Slaughter
• 2.5 - Stinger
• 1.8 - Trio (not one of his horror movies, but with an equally fine rating)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
• 4.4 - Woodchipper Massacre
• 3.1 - Cannibal Campout
• 1.9 - Feeders
• 2.1 - Terror House
• 2.5 - Blood Red Planet
• 2.9 - Hellgate: The House That Srceamed 2
• 2.6 - Gorilla Warfare: Battle of the Apes
• 2.5 - Dweller
• 2.9 - Night Thirst
• 2.2 - Among Us
• 4.1 - Black Mass- Special Effects
- Writer
- Director
Brett Piper was born in New Hampshire, USA. He is known for Queen Crab (2015), A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990) and Mysterious Planet (1982).Director of 15 movies.
• 1.9 - A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell
• 3.9 - Arachnia
• 3.9 - Screaming Dead
• 3.8 - Mysterious Planet- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Nick Palumbo attended film school in Los Angeles. He wrote, produced, and directed one of the most notorious horror cult films of all time; Murder-Set-Pieces. Shot on location in Las Vegas on 35mm and screened for its theatrical world premiere at the prestigious Sitges International Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain, it was the first unrated American horror film to hit theaters in twenty years. Murder-Set-Pieces was released in Europe and Asia by Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and The Weinstein Company. An edited version was released in the US by Lionsgate Films. As of 2012, Palumbo's uncut version of the enormously controversial film is still banned in several countries.
• 3.7 - Nutbag
• 4.0 - Sinister
• 3.8 - Murder-Set-Pieces
• -.- - The Last Gas Station (thriller, not rated yet)- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Bill Zebub is known for Night of the Pumpkin (2010), Jesus, the Total Douchebag (2011) and The Worst Horror Movie Ever Made (2005).Directed 24 movies...
• 1.5 - Antfarm Dickhole
• 1.7 - Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist
• 1.8 - Kill the Scream Queen
• 2.0 - Stereotypes Don't Just Disappear Into Thin Air
• 2.1 - Forgive Me For Raping You
• 2.2 - Metalheads: The Good, the Bad, and the Evil
• 2.2 - Zombiechrist
• 2.3 - The Crucifier
• 2.8 - Rape is a Circle
• 4.2 - Dolla Morte- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Donald Farmer is considered one of the most unique of the "cult-horror" directors. Directing dozens of feature films for decades, his unique film concepts, have brought film goers excitement, fear, and joy. His leading actresses are often cast for their unique beauty, and Donald seeks to empower crew members from all walks of life and skill level. As a director and producer, Donald is both supportive, creative and motivational developing long-lasting friendships with cast and crew alike.Will add titles later- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Geraldine Winters is known for Non Compos Mentis (2010), Sanctum Void and Psycho-Path: Mania (2011).
• 2.8 - Clownstrophobia
• 4.3 - Non Compos Mentis
• -.- - Psycho-Path
• -.- - Clownstrophobia Two
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kevin Lindenmuth has worked in the television/film/video production field for over 22 years. He received his BA in film/video production from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Most of his professional life was spent working in New York City in all the major aspects of video production-producing, directing, editing and camera/lighting work. He produced/wrote/directed numerous horror movies in the 1990's, the most famous Addicted to Murder, which was named "best underground horror" movie by Cinefantastique magazine in 1996. That vampire movie spawned two sequels. Most recently he co-produced/directed/shot/edited a several documentaries which have aired on PBS. They are "But You Look So Well...", "But You Still Look So Well...": Living with Multiple Sclerosis, and most recently The Healing Prophet: Solanus Casey (about a psychic monk), which was broadcast worldwide by EWTN in 2007. He is currently in post-production on "The Life of Death", a documentary featuring Jack Ketchum, Caroline Munro, Bob Fingerman, Tony Timpone and others in the horror genre. He is also the author of three books on independent filmmaking,"Making Movies on Your Own" (1997) and "The Independent Film Experience" (2001) and most recently "The Documentary Moviemaking Course" (2010, Barron's). He is also "The Gravedigger" on the website buried.comDirector of 22 movies
From his filmorate page:
• 4.2 - Addicted to Murder: Tainted Blood
• 4.1 - Rage of the Werewolf
• 4.0 - Addicted to Murder 3: Blood Lust
• 3.3 - Vampires and Other Stereotypes
• 3.3 - Addicted to Murder
• 3.1 - GoreGoyles: First Cut
• 2.9 - Alien Agenda: Endangered Species
• 2.8 - Blood of the Werewolf
• 2.6 - Alien Agenda: Under the Skin- Director
- Visual Effects
- Writer
John Lechago was born in Kingston Ontario, Canada to an Argentinean mother and a Spanish father. At age four the family moved to Los Angeles California. From an early childhood Lechago was fascinated by drawing, and would spend hours creating monsters and reproducing what he saw around him. The rest of the time John would spend playing with his fraternal twin brother. At age nine Lechago was enrolled in traditional oil painting classes and thrived, winning awards every year he was with the school. This strong base in traditional painting would be very influential in Lechago's approach to his filmmaking later in life.
John was also enrolled at an early age in self defense classes. Coincidentally the school that his father chose for his young sons was one owned by Chuck Norris. On the second day of karate class the teachers showed a 16mm film print of Chuck Norris's first film Breaker! Breaker! (1977). Lechago looked around the class realizing that most of the adults were also getting beaten up by the head teacher in the film! Three and a half years later at age ten, Lechago and his brother James were part of a children's class in Chuck Norris's A Force of One (1979). Being on set and seeing how scenes are actually set up and shot was a major motivator. It was at that point that Lechago decided that he would be involved in the movies.
As a teenager John began studying screen writing and shooting scenes with the video cameras of the day. He went so far as to found the "Cinema Productions" club at his high school. After high school Lechago attended the prestigious art school S.A.I.C. in Chicago, concentrating in film, and then finished his degree in film at the Columbia College Chicago.
When Lechago returned to Los Angeles he tried to get work on a movie set, but as luck would have it there was an actor's strike at the time. John had to get work with a corporate video company. A few months later the owner of the company (out of curiosity) gave John $5,000 and allowed him to use the cameras and office space to make a film. Lechago teamed up with Vincent Bilancio and made his first feature _Blood Gnome (Video 2004)_. Despite being a very low budget movie and being shot in only 12 days, it was distributed in Europe, Asia and North America.
Lechago would make one more film with Turning Point Productions Magus (2008), before making his first self produced feature Contagion (2010) formerly known as Bio Slime.
Lechago would follow up with writing and directing _Killjoy 3 (Video 2010)_ For Charles Band and Full Moon Features.Directed 4 movies.
• 3.1 - Blood Gnome
• 4.4 - Contagion
• 3.7 - Magus
• 4.4 - Killjoy 3
I actually have Blood Gnome on DVD. I payed 5 euro's for it. Why are productions like this "shipped" to Europe? Nobody here asked for it! Please don't do that any more!!!- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Bret McCormick was born on 29 September 1958. He is a producer and director, known for Blood on the Badge (1992), One Man War and Bio-Tech Warrior (1996).Director of 12 movies. Not as bad as some others on my list, I guess. But not very good either.
Will add some titles later.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Nick Millard was born on 28 May 1941 in the USA. He was a director and writer. He was married to Irmgard Millard. He died on 29 October 2022 in Pacifica, California, USA.Director of 55 movies...
A lot of them are so-called "adult content movies"
But in later years he turned to, lets say, more trivial horror.
• 1.3 - Death Nurse 2
• 1.8 - Doctor Bloodbath
• 2.0 - Criminally Insane 2
• 1.7 - Death Nurse
• 4.6 - Satan's Black Wedding
• 4.0 - The Turn of the screw- Producer
- Writer
- Director
With more than two dozen feature films under his belt, Leigh Scott has been working as a professional writer, director, producer, editor, and cinematographer in the film industry for nearly twenty years.
He attended USC's prestigious School of Cinema-Television. While in school he obtained an internship working for Roger Corman's "Concorde Pictures". At Concorde, he worked in production, marketing and development.
Upon graduation, at the age of 22, he successfully produced and directed his first feature film, Beach House (1996). He followed that up four years later with Art House (1998), a comedy that was an official selection at the Aspen U.S. Comedy Arts festival.
Leigh has always looked to push the envelope in both the business and creative aspects of the industry. He was one of the first filmmakers to encourage digital acquisition over film and embrace digital post production. He trained editors at Warner Bros. in the use of computer editing systems as early as 1994, was one of the first directors to shoot on RED digital cinema cameras, and supervised some of the earliest motion-capture tests and shoots for Microsoft.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Adam Minarovich was born on 30 January 1977 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Walking Dead (2010), Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013) and Chop (2011).- Director
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Doris Wishman was born on 1 June 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Satan Was a Lady (2001), Nude on the Moon (1961) and Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972). She was married to Louis Silverman and Jack Abrahms. She died on 10 August 2002 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Editor
- Director
Luigi Batzella was born on 27 May 1924 in San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy. He was an actor and editor. He died on 18 November 2008 in San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy.Perhaps...
From the wikipedia:
Today, he's remembered mostly for the Nazi-exploitation films and being an Italian version of Ed Wood. Despite many of his films being in extremely bad taste, they hold a kind of naive charm similar to Wood.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
Hawaiian-born Richard E. Cunha received his film training in the newsreel and motion picture units of the US Army Air Corps during World War II. He made his first step into the civilian film business by making industrial films and commercials, and then moved on to write, shoot and direct such early TV shows as "The Adventures of Marshal O'Dell" and "Captain Bob Steele and the Border Patrol" for Toby Anguish Productions. Cunha and his friend Arthur A. Jacobs then plunged into the adventurous arena of shoestring 1950s exploitation by forming Screencraft Enterprises and cranking out the horror/sci-fi films Giant from the Unknown (1958) and She Demons (1958) (both directed by Cunha). Cunha later added to his legend by helming two more well-remembered schlock titles, Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) and Missile to the Moon (1958).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Charles E. Cullen is known for Bros on Bikes (2012), Super Badass (1999) and Slaughter Claus (2011).Has directed 5 movies so far.
• -.- - Bros on Bikes
• -.- - Slaughter Claus
• 1.1 - Killer Klowns from Kansas on Krack
• 2.8 - Super Badass- Special Effects
- Make-Up Department
- Actor
Director, Producer, and Special Effects Artist, Joe Castro, born in San Antonio, Texas, began his career at age 15 when he was hired to create special effects make-up for a PBS affiliate and graduated to writing and directing his own feature films, in the 80's, when his parents invested in his career and bought him a portable VHS camera.
In 1985, Joe won the National special effects make-up contest in Monsterland magazine. In 1989, Joe moved to Los Angeles, California to continue his career in filmmaking.
In 1993, Joe produced and directed his first feature film, CEREMONY, shot on 35mm Panavision. The film was an apocalyptic horror thriller. This film won a Silver Award at the Worldfest Charleston Film Festival. In 1997, Joe produced his second Internationally distributed feature film, Legend of the Chupacabra on his parent's ranch.
In 2001, Joe produced, directed, and created the special effects for the wildly, successful cult film, TERROR TOONS. This film has already spawned four sequels.
In 1994, Lionsgate distributed Joe's 7th feature titled, THE JACKHAMMER MASSACRE.
In 2011, Joe released his multi-award winning film, THE SUMMER OF MASSACRE, which won him the Guinness Book Of World Record for "Highest body count in a Slasher film," which is 155 kills.
Altogether, Joe has won over 46 awards in producing, directing, and creating special effects.
Since teaming with his partner, Steven Escobar, Castro has Produced, Written & Directed 16 feature films.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Paul Leder was born on 25 March 1926 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Goin' to Chicago (1990), The Eleventh Commandment (1986) and I'm Going to Be Famous (1983). He was married to Etyl Leder. He died on 9 April 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Andy Milligan was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1929. He was a self-taught film maker, playwright, script writer and costume designer. He grew up mostly in Minnesota, but he and his family moved around the country a lot. His father, Andrew Milligan Sr. (1894-1985) was a captain in the U.S. Army who served in the military for over 50 years (retiring in the mid 1960s holding the rank of colonel). His mother, Marie Gladys Hull (1900-1953), was an overweight, neurotic-bipolar alcoholic who physically and verbally abused her husband and children. She served as the basis for scores of her son's characters when he began making films. Milligan had an older half-brother named Harley Hull (1924-1998) and a younger sister named Louise Milligan Howe (1931-2021). After finishing grade school, Milligan joined the U.S. Navy where he served four years. After his honorable discharge, he settled in New York City in 1951 where he dabbled in acting on stage and opened a dress shop.
During the 1950s Milligan became involved in the nascent off-off-Broadway theater movement where he mounted productions of plays by Lord Dunsany and Jean Genet at the Caffe Cino, a small Greenwich Village coffeehouse that served as a hothouse for rising theater talent like Lanford Wilson, Tom Eyen and John Guare. Milligan also became involved with directing low-key theater productions at Cafe La Ma Ma Experimental Theater Club. During this period he operated and designed for a clothing boutique named Ad Lib and used his crude dressmaking skills to costume many theatrical productions.
In the early 1960s Milligan turned to film making. He met some of the actors for his early films at Caffe Cino. His first released film was a 30-minute black-and-white 16 mm short drama entitled Vapors (1965). Set in the notorious gay bathhouse St. Mark's Baths, it was written by Hope Stansbury, the raven-haired beauty who would star in a few of his later films. The film, set on one Friday evening in the St. Mark's Baths, portrays an emotionally awkward and unconsummated meeting between two strangers. Milligan was later employed by producers of exploitation films, particularly William Mishkin, to direct softcore sexploitation and horror features, many featuring actors known from the off-off Broadway theater community.
Milligan then hooked up with famed sexploitation producer William Mishkin and made 11 features, all shot with a single hand-held 16mm Auricon camera on short ends (snippets of film left over from other productions). Some of those include Depraved! (1967), Seeds of Sin (1968) ("Sown in Incest! Harvested in Hate!") and Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972). Many of these early works play like bizarre morality tales where sleazy characters get violently paid back for their excesses.
In 1966, Milligan set up shop in a Victorian mansion located on northern Staten Island, within walking distance of the ferry and his own house. The house soon became "Hollywood central," where he filmed most of his movies on budgets ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Milligan was a one-man army--he wrote, directed, built sets and sewed costumes for his splatter epics like The Ghastly Ones (1968). His usual "stock company" (Stansbury, Neil Flanagan, Hal Borske) was often supplemented by Staten Island locals who were dragged into performing.
Milligan even married one of his actresses, Candy Hammond, who starred in a number of his films, most notably as Pussy Johnson in Gutter Trash (1969). No one took the wedding seriously, because Milligan was unabashedly homosexual and an avowed misogynist. The service took place at the Staten Island house, which was still decorated for the movie shoot Seeds. That night, Milligan cruised gay bars to celebrate.
In 1968, Milligan began to make horror movies featuring gore effects with The Ghastly Ones (1968), a 19th century period piece and his first color film which was produced by JER and titled by Sam Sherman. In 1969, he made his next horror movie, Torture Dungeon (1969), a medieval period piece after which he moved to London, England to make movies there after having made a deal with producer Leslie Elliot. After directing Nightbirds (1970) in London, his partnership with Elliot collapsed as he was working on The Body Beneath (1970). Milligan then teamed up again with William Mishkin again where Mishkin produced and Milligan directed three more period piece British horror films which were Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), The Man with Two Heads (1972), and The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1972) (all shot in 1969) before Milligan's return to Staten Island in 1970.
On his return to New York, Milligan wrote and directed another medieval period piece titled Guru, the Mad Monk (1970), which was shot for the first time with a 35mm Arriflex camera and filmed entirely inside a Chelsea, Manhattan church. This movie was released on a double feature with The Body Beneath. Through the next years, Mishkin released Milligan's British-made pictures, some with additional scenes shot in New York. The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here! was one of Mishkin's films in which he had Milligan insert new killer rat scenes shot in New York, mostly at his new Staten Island house on Corson Street where Milligan lived during that time and filmed another horror period piece there in 1973 which was titled Blood (1973).
After directing the 1972 sexploitation drama Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972), Milligan's output was restricted mostly to gory horror movies as he moved to the southern tip of Staten Island in the Tottenville neighborhood where he lived in and owned and operated a dilapidated hotel located at the end of Main Street right next to the southern end of Staten Island Railway.
In October 1977, Milligan moved into 335 West 39th Street in Manhattan (a four-story building purchased for $50,000 by Milligan and stockholders), where he founded and ran the Troupe Theater, a seedy but fun off-off Broadway venue above which he lived in a third-floor loft until he left New York City for good in March 1985. He moved to Los Angeles, California, where he shot three more contemporary horror movies between 1987 and 1988 as well as operated another theater company, called the Troupe West, which ran until 1990.
Andy Milligan was heavily into S&M and had very few serious relationships (all with men). The few friends he did have were just as emotionally troubled and dangerously disturbed as he was. A Vietnam veteran and ex-convict named Dennis Malvasi, who once drifted into and worked at Andy's Troupe Theater in the late 1970s and early 1980s, later made news headlines in March 2001 when he and his wife were arrested for aiding the flight of fugitive James Kopp, the suspected murderer of a New York abortion doctor. One boyfriend, "human toothpick" B. Wayne Keeton (so-named for his gaunt physical build), was a good natured Louisiana hustler who appeared in a small role in Monstrosity (1987), one of Milligan's last films. Keeton's death from AIDS in June 1989 hit Milligan hard, and he soon began having his own health problems. He learned shortly afterwards that he, too, had contracted AIDS, apparently from Keeton. With no insurance, little money, and the era of exploitation films over, Andy Milligan went into a reclusive decline until his death on June 3, 1991 at age 62.- Producer
- Visual Effects
- Writer
David Michael Latt is the co-founder of The Asylum, the film industries most prolific independent film studio in Hollywood. Latt heads up production which produces a feature film every three to four weeks. He develops and overseas all physical productions. Latt has won more than three dozen films awards, and his films have been invited in over 100 film festivals worldwide.
In addition to production, Latt's company, The Asylum, has acquired over 400 movies over its course of 10 years. The Asylum is self-financed, and employs 8 full time staffers, and about 200 crew members every year. The Asylum, with their unique marketing and constraints on budget, has never made a film that has lost money.
The Asylum has been featured in hundreds of publications, radio, and television shows including The Today Show, Countdown with Keith Oberman, Talk Soup, E! Entertainment News, The New York Post, Los Angeles Magazine, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, New York Times Magazine, Empire Magazine, NPR, T4, and, most recently Time Out London.
Latt is also an invited guest speaker for the Screen Actors Guild, UCLA, LMU, AFI, USC, amongst others.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Paul Matthews was born in February 1957. He is a producer and writer, known for Berserker (2004), Hooded Angels (2002) and Africa (1999).- Editor
- Producer
- Sound Department
Tony Malanowski was born on 26 January 1957 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is an editor and producer, known for Night of Horror (1981), The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982) and Tales of Frankenstein (2018).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Rough-and-tumble character actor Ross Hagen was born Leland Lando Lilly on May 21, 1938, in Williams, AZ, the son of Lando Irvin Lilly and Mary Alice Johnson. Handsome and rugged, with a highly distinctive deep gravelly voice and a commandingly raw masculine screen presence, Ross was frequently cast as charming and likable tough guys on both sides of the law in a colorful and eclectic array of films and TV shows.
Hagen began his acting career in the mid-'60s doing guest spots on various television programs before crossing over into exploitation theatrical features with leading roles in the biker flicks The Hellcats (1968), The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968) and Five the Hard Way (1969). Hagen's most memorable movie roles include smooth insurance agent Mike Harber in Wonder Women (1973), bumbling former coal miner turned wannabe mobster Charlie Jacobs in Bad Charleston Charlie (1973), vicious hitman Ray Mitchell in Avenging Angel (1985), backstabbing con artist Cory Thorton in Armed Response (1986), all-girl baseball team owner Midnight in Blood Games (1990), hard-nosed Army Capt. Jason Briggs in _Dinosaur Island (1989)_ (qv_, a skeptical sheriff in _Sideshow (1988)_ and private investigator Elwood Dick in Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (2005). Among the TV series he has guest-starred on are The Virginian (1962), The Big Valley (1965), The Fugitive (1963), The Invaders (1967), Daktari (1966) Bonanza (1959), Gunsmoke (1955), Mannix (1967), Kung Fu (1972), Mission: Impossible (1966), Cannon (1971), The Wild Wild West (1965) and The Fall Guy (1981). He acted in almost 20 pictures for director Fred Olen Ray. His wife Claire Polan acted in a few movies with Hagen (the couple also briefly ran an acting school). In addition to acting, Hagen directed seven films (which include the immensely enjoyable action oddity The Glove (1979) and the not half bad medical thriller B.O.R.N. (1989)), and he either co-produced and/or co-wrote a handful of features.
Ross died from cancer at age 72 on May 7, 2011.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Bill Cowell was born in Niagara Falls, NY and is a film writer, producer, and director. Bill spent most of his childhood being mentored by his Grandfather (Charles Martino), one of the first big pioneers of Niagara Falls, NY from the 1930's through the late 1960's. Bill's Grandfather was the owner and operator of several thriving industries of that time including a gas station, motel, tourism centers, bowling alley, and his Grandfather's pride - ABC Billiards, which soon after became the visiting hot spot for many rising stars, including billiards legend Willie Mosconi and 'Rudolf Wanderone Jr.' aka 'Minnesota Fats'. Bill's Uncle (Charles Martino Jr.) at the age of 16, became the youngest person ever to win the New York State Billiards Championship.
Bill developed his creativity, artistic abilities and his sense of honor and business from his Grandfather. Bill graduated from the school of Hard Knox and enlisted in the United States Navy in 1983, earned his choice of orders for his next duty for Yokosuka Chuo, Japan where he traveled the world aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Midway as an Aviation Specialist, Aircrew Survival Equipmentman (ASE), Parachute Rigger (PR), and Seal Team advocate.
Bill is a long-time veteran Martial Artist and holds a 4th Degree Black Belt in Tae-Kwon Do under long-time Grand Master Jong Soo Park and the late Tae-Kwon Do Founder General Choi Hong Hi.
Bill has won several genre awards including a Most Promising Filmmaker Award and "Best Suspense Film Award" at the New York International Film Festival. Bill went on to write, produce and direct several independent films which were purchased and released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and others.
Bill went on to write his next project "The Magic Shoe" which quickly gained interest from Christopher Walken, Diane Lane, Helen Hunt and Legendary Actor James Garner who was attached to play the heartfelt story-telling Grandfather. Do to a decline to James Garner's health the film was never shot.
In 2006, Bill Founded the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival which has quickly grown to be one of the largest and most exciting film festivals to visit in New York. The Buffalo Niagara Film Festival has been the breaking ground for many successful films such as The Cake Eaters (2007), Sinner (2007), The Still Life (2006), Cold Ones (2007), Christina (2010), along with many celebrations and participation with major celebrities such as Robert Redford, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Culp, Tom Holland, Lou Ferrigno, Louis Gossett Jr., Cindy Williams, William Fichtner, Tom Sizemore', Evander Holyfield', and many more.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Rafael Portillo was born on 11 November 1916 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico. He was a director and editor, known for Emilio Varela vs Camelia la Texana (1980), Terror, Sex and Witchcraft (1968) and Un tipo dificil de matar (1967). He died on 30 November 1995 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico.(4.41) - La momia azteca (1957)
(3.96) - La maldición de la momia azteca (1957)
(2.10) - Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)
(2.02) - Attack of the Mayan Mummy (1964) (TV)
(1.93) - La momia azteca contra el robot humano (1958)- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
Jeffery Scott Lando was born on 24 September 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Savage Island (2004), Lissa's Trip (2022) and Supercollider (2013). He has been married to Rachel Scott Lando since 17 August 1998. They have one child.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Brett Kelly was born on 29 October 1972 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and actor, known for Raiders of the Lost Shark (2015), Thunderstorm: The Return of Thor (2011) and She-Rex (2009).- Producer
- Director
- Writer
James Felix McKenney was born on 27 May 1968 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He is a producer and director, known for The Girl from Mars, Wrack (2022) and Villain.- Cinematographer
- Producer
- Editor
Christine Parker was born on November 25, 1962 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England as Christine Patricia Parker. She is a director, cinematographer and producer, known for her feature films Forever Dead, Fistful of Brains, A Few Brains More, Fix It In Post and countless short films including her award winning film The Tell-Tale Heart: Sisters (2016). She runs two production companies, Adrenalin Productions and her female-centric company Sick Chick Flicks. She spends much of her time creating films and making guest appearances at scifi and horror conventions along the east coast but lately has begun to focus her efforts on her latest endeavor the Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival in Cary North Carolina. Sick Chick Flicks Film Fest will focus on supporting women directors and bringing their amazing talents to the masses.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Joel M. Reed was born on 29 December 1933 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Killer Zombies from the Titanic, The G.I. Executioner (1971) and The Renegade Ghouls of Kaplan's Swamp. He died on 14 April 2020 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Enzo G. Castellari was born on 29 July 1938 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and actor, known for Light Blast (1985), Warriors of the Wasteland (1983) and The Big Racket (1976). He has been married to Mirella since 17 December 1961. They have two children.- Producer
- Director
- Actress
Tommy Brunswick was born on 24 September 1970 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is a producer and director, known for The Remake (2006), They Must Eat (2006) and Cannibals of Carnage (2014).