The murdering “performance artist” Sardu in the the film Bloodsucking Freaks said it all:

“To display sadism and discipline alone would only lead to imprisonment. But . . . simply disguising it with a story, a minimal plot, and a score will result in me being hailed as a creative genius.”

John Carpenter's Ode to the Reagan Era

What the character in that exploitation film from 1976 said applies to many of the directors, writers, producers, and actors in the trash cinema covered in this book.

Trash Cinephile by Blake Ryan covers most of the categories of exploitation, such as:

The early “roadshow” pictures of the 1930s, comprising the original über-exploitation film Reefer Madness, and the World War II hygiene (read VD) films like Ship of Shame.

Gidget Meets the Monster

Films that some (okay, films that I) would call the Golden Age of Exploitation—from the 1950s and 60s—including Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood, Robert Clarke's The Hideous Sun Demon, and John Hall's “surf monster” movies.

The meat movies from the 1960s and 70s we all know and love, for instance Herschell Gordon Lewis's Two Thousand Maniacs and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes.

The “rape-revenge” movies that gave some exploitation films the feminist touch that launched a thousand Ph.D. theses—Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave, Abel Ferrara's MS. 45.

Parochial school can be strict: Zoe Tamerlis in MS. 45

Actual “quality” movies by filmmakers who want to do more than just exploit, such as Larry Cohen's Q the Winged Serpent, John Carpenter's They Live, and Kathryn Bigelow's vampire film Near Dark—in my opinion the best film mentioned in the book, and whose influence you can see in the new Danish vampire flick Let the Right One In.

The Italian gore of Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Classics of Blaxploitation like Jack Hill's Foxy Brown. (Here's more on Blaxploitation film.)

And last but not least, the Queen of Exploitation, who deserves her own category, Doris Wishman. Can anyone resist the film Deadly Weapons, starring Chesty Morgan, who smothers her victims to death with her breasts. For me, though, Doris Wishman will be remembered not for a particular film she made, but for something she said.

“ALL movies are exploitation movies.”

Auteur Doris Wishman's sci-fi masterpiece

 Thanks for taking a walk with me in this seedy neighborhood. 

Remember . . .