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Free TV Networks and legendary actress Pam Grier are teaming up on a new free, ad-supported streaming television (Fast) channel that offers around-the-clock independent Black cinema.

The channel, called Soul Flix, is “a celebration of our legacy,” Grier said in a statement on Tuesday after the channel landed on free streaming platforms Plex and The Roku Channel.

“I could not be more pleased with my Free TV Networks partnership — it builds upon my life’s work to support all independent women and fans of Black cinema,” Grier said. “These films don’t just entertain – they inspire, empower, and tell stories that need to be heard. As someone who’s lived through this journey and fought to bring strong characters to life, I’m thrilled to shine the spotlight on the brilliance and resilience of our community.”

“We are beyond thrilled to announce our collaboration with Pam Grier, a true icon,...

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The second season of Prime Video's horror anthology series, Them, drops on April 25, 2024, and while the first season was dubbed Covenant, this time around it's being billed as Them: The Scare, and takes viewers from the 1953 setting of the first season, all the way to 1991 Los Angeles after the release of the Rodney King video when racial tensions are at their peak. It sees the return of Deborah Ayorinde in the lead role, only this time, instead of playing a homemaker, she finds herself acting as an LAPD Detective investigating a string of bizarre murders.

Joining Ayorinde in the new season are Luke James, Joshua J. Williams, and legendary icon Pam Grier, who portrays Ayorinde's mother, Athena. MovieWeb recently had the opportunity to sit down with Grier to talk about her role in Them: The Scare, and what it was like to...

In his review of the new horror film Immaculate (you can read it Here), JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray said the movie – which reunites Sydney Sweeney with Michael Mohan, who directed her in the erotic thriller The Voyeurs and the Netflix series Everything Sucks! – is “a decent throwback to Dario Argento-style Italian horror movies.” During a recent post-screening Q&a at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Boston Seaport, Mohan also revealed that one particular scene in the movie was inspired by the work one of my favorite grindhouse era filmmakers, Jack Hill – and that same scene also had to be salvaged with the help of Saw X director Kevin Greutert!

Our friends at Bloody Disgusting shared the information from the Q&A, reporting that Mohan said, “The biggest scene that did not work and I’m still not happy with is the scene when Isabelle tries to drown Cecilia. I studied a...

Pam Grier, the pioneering action hero who starred in such Blaxploitation classics as Roger Corman’s The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage and Friday Foster, is set to receive a career achievement award at the upcoming Toronto Black Film Festival.

Grier, who went on to star for Quentin Tarantino as the title character in Jackie Brown in 1994, will be feted at the Tbff’s upcoming 12th edition on Feb. 15 in Toronto. In the 1970s, she starred in films such as Coffy and Foxy Brown, portraying a female vigilante looking for revenge in a world of vice and crime.

Her notable roles paved a path for Black actresses over the decades to follow her lead and boost representation on screen as Grier became known as a pioneering female action hero. “The award recognizes Grier’s enduring contributions, not only as a captivating actor but also as a trailblazer who...

Exclusive: Pam Grier, the actress from such cult classics as Jackie Brown, Foxy Brown and Coffy, has inked with APA.

Grier’s five decades-plus cinematic canon includes work with filmmakers such as Roger Corman, John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, among many others.

Her film résumé fired up with 1971’s The Big Doll House, followed by iconic roles in such films as Foxy Brown, Coffy, The Big Bird Cage, Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream and Sheba, Baby.

During the 1980s she became a regular on Miami Vice and played a supporting role as an evil witch in Ray Bradbury’s and Walt Disney Pictures’ 1983 title Something Wicked This Way Comes. She then returned to action in 1988’s Above the Law. Grier also starred in such notable features as Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, In Too Deep and a comedic turn in Jawbreaker.

Grier also starred in the Showtime series Linc’s and...

The writer/director returns to talk about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Trick Baby (1972)

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Pelli’s trailer commentary

The Untouchables (1987)

Predator (1987)

Purple Rain (1984) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Loved One (1965) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Live And Let Die (1973)

Enter The Dragon (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Green Hornet (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Last Dragon (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Dead Presidents (1995)

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Shaft (1971) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Coffy (1973) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Julie Corman...

Skin: A History Of Nudity In The Movies , Available On Demand August 18th, explores the history of nudity in film, beginning with the silent movie era through present day. The film features revealing interviews with actors including Pam Grier and Malcolm McDowellas well as directors Peter Bogdanovich, Kevin Smithand Amy Heckerling. Check out this trailer:

A definitive documentary on the history of nudity in the movies, beginning with the silent movie era through present day, examining the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped this rich history.

Skin: A History Of Nudity In The Movies delves into the gender bias concerning nudity in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has pushed for gender equality in feature films today. A deep discussion of pre-code Hollywood and its amoral roots, the censorship that...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Happy Birthday to one of Wamg’s favorite movie stars! Pam’s iconic movie career began when she moved to Los Angeles in the late ‘60s from her native North Carolina at age 18. After a tiny role in Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), she landed a job as a receptionist for American International Pictures where she was discovered by Jack Hill, an Aip director who cast her in a pair of women’s prison films: The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Soon she was known as the “Queen of Blaxploitation” at a time when film roles for African-American women were, as Grier puts it, “practically invisible, or painfully stereotypical”.

Here, according to We Are Movie Geeks, are Pam Grier’s ten best films.

Honorable Mention: Greased Lightning

Greased Lightning is a biographical...

Who brings fear and passion into the heart of the Philippine jungle, striking with terror and hot, venomous lust? Why it’s the Cobra Woman of course, and in Night of the Cobra Woman (1972) she does just that, in a cheap, exploitation-filled frenzy of snakes, breasts, and incoherence. I’m afraid to say you won’t even win the small stuffed bear if you guessed that Roger Corman brought this to the screen.

Released by Corman’s nascent New World Pictures in January as part of a bill with Lady Frankenstein, Cobra was the perfect fit for the bottom half of a double header; short (77 minutes) and very weird, it offers up exploitation goodness as sweaty as the jungle itself.

Mr. Corman was as usual, busy busy busy, and when one has a location as visually sumptuous as the Philippines, one milks it for all its worth. The Big Doll House,...

A new trailer for festive horror movie Hanukkah gives us a last look at horror legend Sig Haig, who sadly passed away in September at the age of 80.

Many years ago, Judah Lazarus (Haig), a serial murderer known as the Hanukiller, was shot dead right before he was about to sacrifice his young son Obadiah. In the intervening time, Obadiah disappeared without a trace, only to now resurface and take on his father’s bloody work as a force of warped morality, killing Jews not affording proper reverence to their faith. A number of twenty-somethings become targets of his wrath and, aided by a creepy rabbi who appears suspiciously knowledgeable about events, must embrace the teachings of the Torah if they want to survive the holidays.

First Official Images from Rob Zombie’s 3 From Hell 1 of 9

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Although Haig...

Tony Sokol Sep 23, 2019

House of 1000 Corpses star Sid Haig was a Roger Corman regular, First Lawgiver on Star Trek, and played 8 villains on Mission: Impossible.

Sid Haig, a character actor who appeared in all genres but is best known as a horror icon, died at the age of 80. "On Saturday, September 21, 2019, my light, my heart, my true love, my King, the other half of my soul, Sidney, passed from this realm on to the next," Haig’s wife, Susan L. Oberg, announced on Instagram."

"He has returned to the Universe, a shining star in her heavens He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans. This came as a shock to all of us. He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans.”

Born Sidney Eddy Mosesian in Fresno,...

With the release of Arrow Video’s The Annihilators, read film historian and author Chris Poggiali’s introduction into New World Pictures – Roger Corman’s now legendary cult movie production company that brought it to life….

When Roger Corman cut the ribbon on New World Pictures in May of 1970, he was in the right place at the right time with the right idea in mind for his latest business venture: a production and distribution company that would provide a training ground for young filmmakers eager to get into the business. Less than a year after the release of Easy Rider, every studio in town was trying to duplicate its success by seeking out independent filmmakers with an eye on the youth market and all things counterculture. This was the height of the New Hollywood era, which Corman himself had helped usher in with his trailblazing 1966 smash The Wild Angels. Mostly known as a producer-director,...

In today’s film news roundup, Pam Grier is honored by the Tallgrass Film Festival, Paramount hires Michelle Hagen, “Hallowed Ground” has launched production, and musician Glenn Danzig is making a movie.

Honor

Pam Grier has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Ad Astra Award for the 16th edition of the Tallgrass Film Festival, held Oct. 17-21 in Wichita, Ks.

Tallgrass Film Festival’s program director Nick Pope said, “Pam Grier is someone that Tallgrass has sought to bring to Wichita and honor for the longest time. She is the iconic feminine face of urban cinema in the ’70s. A prime inspiration both for an entire genre’s mainstream success, a muse for multiple filmmakers, and an inspiration and trend-setter for many actors and filmmakers that followed, it will be the biggest thrill to welcome her and celebrate her career.”

Grier broke into films with prison movies...

The one and only Pam Grier will be honored by Cinema St. Louis with a ‘Women in Film Award’ when she’s in town for this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Pam’s iconic movie career began when she moved to Los Angeles in the late ‘60s from her native North Carolina at age 18. After a tiny role in Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), she landed a job as a receptionist for American International Pictures where she was discovered by Jack Hill, an Aip director who cast her in a pair of women’s prison films: The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Soon she was known as the “Queen of Blaxploitation” at a time when film roles for African-American women were, as Grier puts it, “practically invisible, or painfully stereotypical”.

Sliff, which runs Nov. 2nd-12th will kick off with...

“Even for criminals you’re just a particularly poor reflection on womanhood.”

Caged Heat screens Friday, June 9th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). This is the first film in their ‘Tribute to Jonathan Demme’ The movie starts at 8:00pm.

Who doesn’t love a good Women’s prison film? – Chained Heat, Hellhole, Ilsa She Wolf Of The SS, The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House, Reform School Girls, and The Concrete Jungle all sit proudly on my Wip (Women in Prison) DVD shelf. One of the very best of this beloved subgenre is Caged Heat (1974), a wonderful exploitation masterpiece and the directing debut of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, that has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, lesbian coupling, race wars, murder, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and shock therapy!

Chained Heat stars Erica Gavin (of Russ Meyer’s Vixen fame) as Jackie,...

Never mind the holidays; dealing with family can be stressful any time of year. Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, or just a mandatory visit to a forgotten aunt you haven’t seen in 15 years can all hold their share of tension and misery. But at least be thankful you’re not part of the Merrye clan, the family at the center of Jack Hill’s Spider Baby (1967), a quirky yet clever examination of the prototypical horror tribe that influenced the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

Filmed in 1964 but not given a limited release by American General Pictures until late ’67, it languished in general obscurity until a video restoration in the mid ‘90s shone a light on its peculiar charms. Filmed in 12 days on a budget of $55,000, Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told (full title) is like watching The Addams Family shake the family tree and having incest,...

Director and documentarian Mark Hartley scores both a film history and comedy success with this ‘wild, untold’ account of the 1980s film studio that was both revered and despised by everyone who had contact with it. The ‘cast list’ of interviewees is encyclopedic, everybody has a strong opinion, and some of them don’t need four-letter words to describe their experience!

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

On a double bill with

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Blu-ray

Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region

2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99

Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jack Hill's Spider Baby (1967) will be showing January 24 - February 23 and Pit Stop (1967) will be showing January 25 - February 24, 2017 in the United States.Quentin Tarantino, unsurprisingly a gushing fan of Jack Hill, once famously compared the exploitation specialist to venerable Hollywood icon Howard Hawks, presumably on the basis of his distinctly personal preferences and his unassuming, across-the-board genre dabbling. Of course, those genres explored by Hawks—from westerns to screwball comedies—were considerably different than those in which Hill excels, but the point is well taken: within his respective niches, Hill does it as well as anyone, with skill and without pretense. This includes quintessential Blaxploitation classics like Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), and some of the finest women-in-prison films ever made—yes, there are some very fine women-in-prison films—namely The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage...

Orange Is the New Black returns June 17. The show has rightly earned praise for its nuanced, moving portrayals of female inmates of all stripes, and serves as a reminder of how far things have come in terms of images of incarcerated women on screen. In appreciation of series creator Jenji Kohan and the cast and crew's elevated take on the subject matter, we're looking back at the bleak and often exploitative history of the strange "women's prison drama" film genre. The portrayal of women in prison can be split - as most of Hollywood can - into two periods: Pre- and Post-Code.

Orange Is the New Black returns June 17. The show has rightly earned praise for its nuanced, moving portrayals of female inmates of all stripes, and serves as a reminder of how far things have come in terms of images of incarcerated women on screen. In appreciation of series creator Jenji Kohan and the cast and crew's elevated take on the subject matter, we're looking back at the bleak and often exploitative history of the strange "women's prison drama" film genre. The portrayal of women in prison can be split - as most of Hollywood can - into two periods: Pre- and Post-Code.

Can’t get enough looks at Independence Day: Resurgence before its release on June 24th? Four new behind-the-scenes videos have dropped, giving us a look at some pivotal scenes in the film as well as a profile of director Roland Emmerich. Also: a Ghoster concept trailer, details on three new Arrow Video Us releases, and info on the Dances with Films screening of Beacon Point.

Watch Four New Independence Day: Resurgence Videos: “We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.

Directed by Roland Emmerich,...

Coffy/Foxy Brown/Friday Foster

Coffy and Foxy Brown written and directed by Jack Hill

Friday Foster written by Orville H. Hampton, directed by Arthur Marks

USA, 1973/1974/1975

Olive Films recently released several Blaxploitation titles on Blu-ray for the first time, all on the same day. This included the Fred Williamson-starring Hammer, from 1972, as well as three Pam Grier films: Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Friday Foster (1975). Hammer isn’t a particular favorite, but these latter three were most welcome, especially Coffy, which is quite possibly the greatest of all Blaxploitation features, even better than the more popular Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972). As much as anything, these three releases are notable for showcasing Grier at her finest during a period of immensely enjoyable work and exceptional productivity—15 films from her minor debut in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) to Friday Foster. Around these films, she also starred in several other...

Wisconson-based regional filmmaker Bill Rebane’s no-budget wonder ($300k to be exact) The Giant Spider Invasion was a hilariously cheesy 1975 throwback to the giant-monster flicks of the 50s, a trend then enjoying a revival with films like Empire Of The Ants and Food Of The Gods. This outrageous mix of giant monster motifs and backwoods sleaze plays like a hybrid of Tarantula and The Blob with its mixture of giant spiders and falling meteors. I saw The Giant Spider Invasion at the long-shuttered Ellisville Cinema in West St. Louis County (on a double bill with the David Niven vampire comedy Old Dracula). I recall the poster in the lobby which featured a gargantuan spider bearing down on a group of terrified people. In the air above the mega-arachnid was three helicopters and lying crumpled at the spider’s legs were burning cars as spotlights filled the sky. One of the...

Screen Syndicate, a side project of Southern Illinois-based Americana band Stace England and the Salt Kings, explores the fascinating history of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and the exploitation films made by the company in the 1970s. The life of actress Roberta Collins — a Hollywood story of sadly unfulfilled promise — is the vehicle used to navigate the period. Collins lit up the screen in films like The Big Doll House, Women In Cages and Death Race 2000. But Collins was unable to break out of the B-movie grind, playing minor roles in increasingly poor productions before finally exiting the business. She died in obscurity in 2008. Screen Syndicate combines original songs, film clips, trailers, and other material into a unique live-music experience that pays tribute to Collins. The band has performed at numerous film festivals in the U.S. and Europe — appearing twice at Sliff — with shows about pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and Cairo,...

Do you think we can win an Academy Award for this?

-Carol Ohmart.

Glenn here trusting you had an enjoyably spooky Halloween weekend? On Saturday I went to a 12-hour horror marathon here in New York City, but on the night of All Hallows' Eve I attended a screening of Jack Hill’s lost laugh-out-loud horror classic Spider Baby at The Academy. Yes, the Academy. AMPAS have restored the 1967 black and white cannibal movie (with the assistance of Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino!) after being considered “abandoned property” due to rights issues. After years of being consigned to bad VHS-dub quality bootlegs, a print was discovered set for destruction (all too often, especially with public domain titles such as this) and now it has been restored in all of its beautiful, carnal, absurd glory in stunning 35mm. How was your Halloween?

The real treat was the Q&A afterwards.

Bruno watches over the three Merrye siblings in an isolated mansion, ensuring that the demented trio can do others no harm. But when visitors come to their door, it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose in Jack Hill’s cult classic, Spider Baby (1968). New York City residents who are fans of the film can celebrate Halloween in grand fashion tonight with a special screening of Spider Baby.

Beginning tonight at 7:30pm at New York City’s The Academy Theater at Lighthouse Guild, the restored 35mm screening of Spider Baby will be followed by a conversation between Jack Hill and fellow filmmaker William Lustig. For more information, visit:

http://www.oscars.org/events/real-indies-spider-baby

“Spider Baby

Friday, October 31 | 7:30 P.M.

Co-presented With New York University And The Orphan Film Symposium

New York Restoration Premiere, introduced by Jack Hill and hosted by indie-horror filmmaker William Lustig.

Caged Heat screens Saturday November 22nd at 8pm as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. There will also be a concert by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Roberta Collins, one of the film’s stars. The Venue is Kdhx (3524 Washington Boulevard‎ St Louis, Mo 63103)

I love Women’s prison films – Chained Heat, Hellhole, Ilsa She Wolf Of The SS, The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House, Reform School Girls, and The Concrete Jungle all sit proudly on my Wip (Women in Prison) DVD shelf. One of the very best of this beloved subgenre is Caged Heat (1974), a wonderful exploitation masterpiece and the directing debut of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, that has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, lesbian coupling, race wars, murder, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and shock therapy!

Wow! You’re probably...

Caged Heat screens Saturday November 22nd at 8pm as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. There will also be a concert by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Roberta Collins, one of the film’s stars. The Venue is Kdhx (3524 Washington Boulevard‎ St Louis, Mo 63103)

I love Women’s prison films – Chained Heat, Hellhole, Ilsa She Wolf Of The SS, The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House, Reform School Girls, and The Concrete Jungle all sit proudly on my Wip (Women in Prison) DVD shelf. One of the very best of this beloved subgenre is Caged Heat (1974), a wonderful exploitation masterpiece and the directing debut of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, that has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, lesbian coupling, race wars, murder, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and shock therapy!

Wow! You’re probably...

Interviewed by Michael Juvinall, More Horror.com

Most of today’s horror fans are very aware of Sid Haig and his role as the notorious Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil’s Rejects (2005). But what many fans aren’t aware of is that Sid Haig’s career dates back to 1960 with over 60 film and over 350 television appearances. He’s been in the business for over 50 years and has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Lon Chaney Jr., Omar Sharif, Sean Connery, George Lucas, and Quentin Tarantino. Haig started making a name for himself while working with director Jack Hill in his exploitation films such as Spider Baby (1968), Pit Stop (1969), The Big Doll House (1971), and The Big Bird Cage (1972). He continued working in Hollywood in a variety of villainous roles including Diamonds are Forever (1971), Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), Savage Sisters (1974), Jackie Brown (1997), and Kill Bill vol.

A 35-minute cut of The Giant Spider Invasion will be shown on Super-8 sound film at Super-8 Giant Monster Movie Madness next Tuesday, May 1st at The Way Out Club in St. Louis.

Wisconson-based regional filmmaker Bill Rebane’s no-budget wonder The Giant Spider Invasion was a hilariously cheesy 1975 throwback to the giant-monster flicks of the 50s, a trend then enjoying a revival with films like Empire Of The Ants and Food Of The Gods. This outrageous mix of giant monster motifs and backwoods sleaze plays like a hybrid of Tarantula and The Blob with its mixture of giant spiders and falling meteors. I saw The Giant Spider Invasion at the long-shuttered Ellisville Cinema in West St. Louis County (on a double bill with the David Niven vampire comedy Old Dracula). I recall the poster in the lobby which featured a gargantuan spider bearing down on a group of terrified people.

Our 5 most popular trailers. Find out what they are below!

The love for the Nsfw-quality of Tromeo and Juliet not withstanding, you guys are getting a little predictable. As with last week, three holdovers in the top five and two new ones enter. If you want to see something else, get over to our YouTube channel and start exploring.

Lloyd Kaufman on Tromeo and Juliet

The Bard gets Troma-tized. The story’s the same, but Troma adds all the toilet humor, explicit sex scenes and gratuitous gore that old Will thoughtlessly left out of his version.

Jack Hill on The Big Doll House

Jack Hill recalls the making of his mega-hit, the Roger Corman/Cirio Santiago jungle prison flick that started the avalanche of busty-broads-behind-bars pix that packed the drive-ins throughout the 70s.

John Landis on King Kong vs. Godzilla

Original Kong animator Willis O’Brien never got credit (nor...

Last week’s most viewed commentaries!

Three titles hold over from last week, two new enter the battle. So let’s just get right to it. Same rules as last week; new releases don’t count.

Jack Hill on The Big Doll House

Jack Hill recalls the making of his mega-hit, the Roger Corman/Cirio Santiago jungle prison flick that started the avalanche of busty-broads-behind-bars pix that packed the drive-ins throughout the 70s.

Lloyd Kaufman on Tromeo and Juliet

The Bard gets Troma-tized. The story’s the same, but Troma adds all the toilet humor, explicit sex scenes and gratuitous gore that old Will thoughtlessly left out of his version.

David DeCoteau on Inseminoid

Judy Geeson is a universe away from to Sir With Love as an astronaut abducted and inseminated by a yucky alien who causes her to start slaughtering and devouring her fellow crew members before giving birth to slimy muppet-like baby aliens.

Last week’s most viewed commentaries!

Let’s try this: every week, we’ll put together a list of fan-favorited videos from the last week, judging simply by what’s been the most popular (and excluding any of last week’s new releases, which tend to tip the scales unfairly). Over the years, we’ve accumulated a massive library of titles, so if nothing else, it should be fun to see what’s been jumping on and off people’s radars. So here they are, the top 5 most viewed Trailers From Hell commentaries for the week of March 18th.

Jack Hill on The Big Doll House

Jack Hill recalls the making of his mega-hit, the Roger Corman/Cirio Santiago jungle prison flick that started the avalanche of busty-broads-behind-bars pix that packed the drive-ins throughout the 70s.

John Landis on Fellini Satyricon

The maestro’s thumb-through of Petronius finds ancient Rome...

Better late than never with the shill…I mean the Wow Look At All These Great Things! (And, all joking aside, I do mean that sincerely.)

We’ve finally done it. We’ve reached the end of our biggest year ever here at Trailers From Hell, a year with a lot of growing pains and a lot of triumphs. So allow me to extend some seasonal greetings to you, readers, watchers, visitors and strangers who may have just now stumbled upon our humble little site. (If you’re of the latter group, really, what took you so long?) We can only hope to keep growing the site though (please tell your friends!), and our always-amazing, never-ceasing stable of gurus only increases the realm of greatness we hope to bring you.

In the spirit of the season — that spirit being crass consumerism, of course — we thought we might direct your attention...

Many independent directors have come and gone throughout the years, but the one who’s stood out the most over the years is Roger Corman. The “King of B’s” filmmaker has made a flurry of independent sci-fi, action, horror and drama movies throughout the years that include “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Intruder,” “The Wild Angels,” “Tales of Terror” and produced many films like “Death Race 2000,” “The Big Doll House,” “Piranha” and “Boxcar Bertha,” just to name a few. He’s always worked outside of the more traditional Hollywood system and has made many films that are more akin to his own tastes, creating a legacy of wonderful, entertaining films...

The DVD arrives in the Us…finally.

Machete Maidens Unleashed was just released yesterday on DVD and this bit of news excites us greatly. Finally, a chance to see Mark Hartley’s documentary about the history of Filipino exploitation films! It features a boatload of excellent interviews with filmmakers of the period and place, including many of our own gurus like John Landis, Jack Hill, Roger Corman and Our Fearless Leader.

If Hartley’s excellent Not Quite Hollywood is any indicator of Machete Maidens‘ quality, it’s going to be a fun, fast-paced little look into a weird and wild period of filmmaking, sure to upend my Netflix queue for weeks after viewing.

Fangoria has an exclusive look at the film here.

In the meantime, why not check out Jack Hill talking over the trailer for one of his own Phillipines-made bits of exploitation cinema? It’s The Big Doll House!

Roger Corman is an interesting character. He’s a provocateur, a goof, a “schlockmaster,” a great assembler of talent, an independent film legend, an international film buff, an under-appreciated master of concepts and execution. All of these sides are shown in Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, director Alex Stapleton‘s new documentary that attempts to reconcile all of these disparate character traits and titles into one cohesive piece. And, happily, he mostly succeeds.

The film is a combination of Hollywood luminaries relating to the audience what makes Corman so unique through talking head interviews mixed with a mostly-chronological telling of his story to inform us of what exactly we should be admiring about him. The crux of the story seems to be that he is under-appreciated not only amongst the film elite but also from an entire new generation of film fans that grew up without drive-thrus or grindhouses (alas,...

As the most telling quote of Machete Maidens Unleashed! exclaims, “The stories are 10 times better than the actual films”. The anecdotes and memories of those involved in the Filipino exploitation genre of cinema are an amazing account of a period never to be repeated. Screening at the New York Asian Film Festival, Mark Hartley’s documentary opens our eyes to what went on in order to make some of the infamous cult schlock from the 1970s. Starting with Hemisphere Pictures and continuing into Roger Corman’s shingle, New World Pictures, the Philippines are shown as the jungle haven chock full of cheap production and expendable stunt men it was. We become privy to tales of directors, producers, and actors involved as well as a bevy of clips from their films to understand how the three B’s—blood, breasts, and beasts—created a sensation at American drive-ins across the nation.

Run for your lives.again! It.s Trailers from Hell Volume 2! Trailers . you know, those fast-paced, two-to-four-minute theatrical promotional shorts that are jam-packed with swirling letters and screaming hyperbolic promises of: Thrills! Action! Mystery! Romance? On July 5, 2011, Shout! Factory will release Trailers from Hell Volume 2 on DVD, the second installment of the popular series. Confirmed attendees include: Director Jack Hill (Coffy, The Big Doll House), Writer Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Problem Child), Director Joe Dante (Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins), actor Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors), Writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence), actor Jonathan Haze (The Little Shop of Horrors), actress Jackie Joseph (The Little Shop of Horrors,...

Shout! Factory’s giving away one hell of a prize pack, but they aren’t the only ones!

Spoiler alert: Trailers From Hell Volume 2 (featuring Little Shop of Horrors) is coming to DVD on July 5th from the amazing joy barons (and baronesses) at Shout! Factory! (That first exclamation point is their’s, but the second one is ours.)

To celebrate, Shout! is giving away a very cool collectible package including:

Authentic Gremlins press packet signed by Director Joe Dante!Trailers From Hell!: Vol. 2 DVD signed by various accomplished genre “gurus” including Director Jack Hill (Coffy, The Big Doll House), Writer Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Problem Child), Director Joe Dante (Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins), actor Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors), Writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and actor Jonathan Haze (The Little Shop of Horrors)*. Trailers From Hell!: Vol. 1 DVD...

Sun City - What are you going to when it comes time to retire? Do you really have enough money saved up to last you for the rest of your life? Can you hold out till Willard Scott puts you on the Smuckers jar and wishes you a happy 100th? Will you really be enjoying the good life with round the clock sponge baths from young orderlies? Have you done the math to figure out how much it’ll cost for a day at a retirement community in 20 years? Can your 401K hold out?

Odds are the answer is a resounding, “Maybe?”

The golden years require platinum reserves. With talk that Medicare is about to be destroyed, your budget for health insurance is about to go completely out of control. When is the last time Blue Cross hyped individual policies for people hitting 90? Even the most frugal of senior citizens...

“Have no fear; Pam Grier is here…a chick with drive, who don’t take no jive.”

The trailer for Coffy (1973)

She’s wearing a short dress that barely covers her curvaceous brown body. Her hair is styled in an impressive afro. In the darkness of the bedroom she purrs in front of us – sexual and wanting. But as she turns we see she is no longer so willing. Her eyes become steel, we see a gun:

“This is the end of your rotten life you mother fucking dope pusher,” says Coffy and a squeeze of the trigger sprays the gangster’s head all over the wall.

Pam Grier had arrived.

1973s Coffy didn’t just make Grier a star; it turned her into an icon. Written and directed by Jack Hill, the film offered one of the blaxsploitation genre’s first female protagonists. Indeed here was a rare action hero,...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection"

Directed by Fernando Di Leo

Released by RaroVideo

Fans of badass '70s cinema and the stoic Henry Silva rejoice! Underappreciated Italian crime master director Fernando Di Leo finally comes to the U.S. via this set of four films -- "Caliber 9," "The Italian Connection," "The Boss," and "Rulers of the City" -- that shows what made him an influence of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.

"The Absent" (2011)

Directed by Sage Bannick

Released by Passion River

Twin brothers are bonded by the experience of having their parents try to kill them for insurance money, only to become killers themselves in this slasher film from Sage Bannick.

"Be My Teacher" (2011)

Directed by Lakisha R. Lemons

Released by Maverick Entertainment Group

A student's (Derek Lee Nixon) flirtations with his English teacher (Lateace Towns-Cuellar) has serious...

Hey Fiends! Happy Monday! Got another list of flicks on the format of your choice.

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature (Attack of the Crab Monsters / War of the Satellites / Not of This Earth)

Format: DVD

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Three Films Produced And Directed By Honorary Academy Award Recipient And King Of B-Movies, Roger Corman: With All New Film Transfers From The Negative!

In Attack Of The Crab Monsters, a group of scientists become marooned on an island while investigating the disappearance of researchers who were looking into atomic activity in the Pacific. They quickly fall prey to giant, mutant crustaceans that have the ability to absorb the minds of their prey. Starring Russell Johnson (Gilligans Island), Richard Garland and Mel Welles (Little Shop Of Horrors).

An alien comes to Earth, masquerading as a human, to scout our planet for a new blood source in Not Of This Earth. He needs...

Fantastic Fest Honors Roger And Julie Corman With

"Syfy Imagine Greater" Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award Will Be Presented Preceding the

World Premiere Gala Screening of “Sharktopus”

One check mark I had the honor of marking off of my bucket list earlier this summer was meeting the living legend Roger Corman at Fright night film Fest!

The 6th annual Fantastic Fest will honor Roger and Julie Corman with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Premiere of their new Syfy movie Sharktopus, starring Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, The Expendables) and Sara Malakul Lane (Belly of the Beast) on Friday, September 24, 2010 at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX. Sponsored exclusively by Syfy, the film will play as the second part of a double feature with the U.S. premiere of Machete Maidens Unleashed!, a documentary about Philippine exploitation films from the 70's and 80's directed by Mark Hartley...

This year’s Fantastic Fest will honor legendary filmmakers Roger and Julie Corman with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Following the award ceremony will be the world premiere of the Cormans’ new Syfy movie Sharktopus. For those who don’t know, the Cormans are the minds behind numerous cult classics including Death Race 2000, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, and The Little Shop of Horrors. The two also helped discover acting and directing luminaries including Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Charles Bronson, Robert De Niro, and Sylvester Stallone.

Sharktopus will play as the second-part of a double feature with the U.S. premiere of Mark Hartlety’s documentary about Philippine exploitation films of the 70s and 80s, Machete Maidens Unleashed! (check out the great trailer here). The presentation of the Lifetime Achievement award will take place between the two films. Tickets for...

The 6th annual Fantastic Fest will honor Roger and Julie Corman with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Premiere of their new Syfy movie Sharktopus, starring Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, The Expendables) and Sara Malakul Lane (Belly of the Beast) on Friday, September 24, 2010 at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX. Sponsored exclusively by Syfy, the film will play as the second part of a double feature with the U.S. premiere of Machete Maidens Unleashed!, a documentary about Philippine exploitation films from the 70’s and 80’s directed by Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood), which features Roger Corman prominently. The Lifetime Achievement award ceremony will take place between the two shows, each of which will include classic Corman trailers and surprises.

Roger Corman received an Honorary 2010 Oscar for his contributions to filmmaking, and is the legendary director and producer of numerous cult classics, among them It Conquered the World,...

Congratulations to the Missouri Black Expo for securing such an amazing line-up of movie celebrities for this year’s convention. Missouri Black Expo is an organization whose mission is to provide attendees with exposure to outstanding resources to promote youth development, health education and awareness and community development. This year is their 19th annual expo and will take place at the America’s Center in downtown St. Louis this weekend, August 26 – 29. The Missouri Black Expo always brings an impressive line-up of guests from the worlds of sports, literature, politics, and entertainment. This year they’re bringing in a trio of film legends that would make any movie geek drool.

First up is acting legend Lou Gossett Jr. who was the first African-American to win the Oscar for actor in a supporting role when he did so for his unforgettable part as the tough-as-nails Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 classic An Officer And A Gentleman.

Vol.3: Big Bad Mama

Stars: Angie Dickinson, Tom Skeritt, William Shatner, Susan Sennett, Robbie Lee | Written by William W. Norton & Frances Doel | Directed by Steve Carver | Produced by Roger Corman

Directed by Steve Carver (Lone Wolf McQuade, An Eye For An Eye), Big Bad Mama stars Angie Dickinson as Wilma, a gangster’s moll who takes control of her boyfriend’s bootlegging business following his death and becomes involved in a rollercoaster crime spree. Assisting her are two ne’er-do-wells in the form of bank robber Fred Diller (Skerritt) and conman William J. Baxter (Shatner), as well as her uncontrollable but comely daughters, Billy Jean (Sennett) and Polly (Lee).

A strange mix of exploitation movie and female empowerment flick, Big Bad Mama is a fast-paced action packed comedy that walks a fine line between over-the-top acting and plot, and a poignant tale of family love and loyalty. Mixing an abundance of nudity,...

(This film was sent to Bad Lit as a screener from the 2010 Boston Underground Film Festival, which runs March 25-April 1.)

After a bombastic opening credits sequence and an introduction that promises tons of gratuitous and sleazy sex, nudity and violence, the documentary American Grindhouse settles into something really hardcore: A hardcore history lesson.

Directed by Elijah Drenner, this chronicle of the seedy underbelly of film history does a damn fine job of showing how the notorious exploitation cinema racket is really the history of all cinema, that even from the days of Thomas Edison, all movies focused on the salacious and the bloodthirsty in order to draw in audiences. However, it is the grindhouse films that makes no bones about appealing to prurient interests while so-called mainstream films hide their licentious side under the cover of art.

One type of obscure, mostly-forgotten film covered in American Grindhouse are the ’50s...