legendary B-movie producer and director Roger Corman cannot be overstated. The original “King of Cult” was a shrewd and thrifty operator who identified a gap in the market during the 1950s, namely among a young demographic of movie-goers who wanted cheap thrills when they went to their local fleapit or drive-in theater. And he gave them what they wanted in abundance, producing over 300 pictures and directing around 50 himself, often low-budget flicks full of sex, violence, rocket ships, monsters, hot rods, and plenty of rebellious attitude. The other side of Corman was a mogul of good taste, who distributed three Best Foreign Language Oscar-winners (“Amarcord,” “Dersu Uzala,” and “The Tin Drum”) and brought the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, and Ingmar Bergman to wider U.S. audiences. Not only that, his films served as a launchpad for many future directors and actors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, and Sandra Bullock.
But despite all that and making some pretty good films along the way, Corman will always be remembered most for his schlock. in that regard, he is probably best enjoyed from a distance unless you’re really into bad movies because he did make an awful lot of crud — flicks like “Teenage Cave Man” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” are only just about survivable with a riff track from the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” guys. But say what you want about the quality, Corman’s low-budget films were clearly intended to offer fun and a few kicks without offending anyone too much. While there are some controversial titles in his filmography (such as “Humanoids from the Deep”), by and large, Corman wasn’t in the business of scandalizing viewers unlike the grandfather of splatter, Herschell Gordon Lewis (“Two Thousand Maniacs!”), Russ Meyer (“Vixen!”), or the Pope of Trash, John Waters (“Pink Flamingos”). Yet one horror film he co-produced in the ’80s fell foul of censors in the United Kingdom and remained on the naughty list until the year he passed away in 2024. That movie was Deborah Brock’s “Slumber Party Massacre II” (1987), but what did it do to remain banned for so long?
