Tag: roger corman

Deathstalker II (1987)

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Welcome to the final B-Movie Enema article for June!

So we spent a lot of time this month catching up with sequels to movies I’ve covered before. We started June with introducing ourselves to a series I’ve wanted to dive into for a while – Deathstalker. In the interest of keeping up with the whole point of this month, we’re going to round things out with Deathstalker II. If you think this is going to just be more of the same from the first film, well, you’ll be surprised to hear it isn’t. This is actually more of a comedy.

There could be multiple reasons why this sequel, that came four years after the original that was a success, decided to go this route. First of all, this was the final sword and sorcery film made in the Roger Corman-Argentinian deal. (To find out more about that, hit that link the paragraph above to read the review of that first film.) Honestly, the window had closed on these types of fantasy films by 1987. So why not try doing something a little different? Maybe wink and nod at the audience that these movies are kind of silly. Bringing Jim Wynorski in as director of this sequel certainly changes the mood. Wynorski’s pretty good at infusing a little bit of cheeky self-deprecation into his films. But then also the film was fairly low budget.

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Deathstalker (1983)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle3 Comments

Welcome to B-Movie Enema, my friends! This month, we’re kind of setting aside time to cover two things. The first will be sequels to other movies we’ve covered in the past. The second is to cover the first movie and subsequent sequel in a series that I’ve been looking forward to dealing with for some time. It’s the latter that we are dealing with this week and the final week of June.

Hot off the heels of two quite successful sword and sorcery films in 1982, Conan the Barbarian (grossing somewhere near $80 million on a $20 million budget) and The Sword and Sorcerer (grossing around $40 million on a much more economic $4 million budget), audiences were hot for these types of movies. It’s kind of funny that the early 80s saw the rise in three distinct genres: fantasy, which sword and sorcery falls right smack-dab in the middle of, science fiction, thanks to Star Wars, and ninja action films. I think it’s safe to say that the fantasy genre lost the battle relatively quickly. More on that in just a moment.

It was thanks to Conan the Barbarian and The Sword and the Sorcerer that this week’s movie, Deathstalker, was made and was a modest hit, bringing in nearly $12 million against a $457,000 budget. This was brought to screens by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. This was the first of ten international co-productions with Argentina. I’m not being facetious here, but I can’t name any other U.S.-Argentina co-productions. But this was definitely Roger Corman doing Roger Corman things. He quickly jumped on the fantasy trend and loaded this full of tits.

God, I love Roger Corman.

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Stacey (1973)

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Take a ride on the wild side with Stacey. She’s fast!

That’s what the poster of the 1973 film says, and… yeah, I’m up for that ride. Welcome to this almost kind of special B-Movie Enema article this week as we meet in the middle of two things we like a lot around here – Andy Sidaris and Roger Corman.

Sidaris was already a sports photography superstar. He was the director of the earliest seasons of ABC’s Monday Night Football in the early 70s. Earlier than that, he worked on other ABC productions as part of their Wild World of Sports series. He worked on the 1968 Summer Olympics. He directed a World Heavyweight Boxing Championship match between Muhammad Ali and Oscar Bonavena. The guy did all sorts of stuff.

While he did work on a TV series called The Magic Land of Allakazam, his first foray into features was a 1969 racing documentary. Stacey would become his first full length narrative feature film.

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Vampirella (1996)

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In 1969 (heh heh), Forrest J. Ackerman, creator of the publication Famous Monsters of Filmland, and artist Trina Robbins created a new superhero of sorts in the shapely form of female vampire from the planet Drakulon named Vampirella. Vampirella’s origin would later be updated to have her become the daughter of Lilith. For those like me who never grew up with religiosity, Lilith was a demonic figure from Biblical Hebrew. She was Adam’s first wife before Eve came along. She’s become quite an icon in Wiccan belief and modern Occultism.

But we’re not here to talk about Lilith. We’re here to talk about her sort of, later, maybe baby daughter Vampirella!

Vampirella’s book was published by Warren Publishing who also published horror mags Eerie and Creepy. While she would feature and headline the comic in her own adventure, the book was actually an anthology. She would host other horror short stories to fill out the rest of the book. She would get various appearances and published by companies over the years and is currently among some of the cult followed figures that get regular appearances in various Dynamite Entertainment books.

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The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

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Happy Halloween, Enemaniacs!

There are a handful of traditions on this website.  The first has always been the October theme month of horror or monster films.  That started with the very first five posts way back in 2014.  When the blog returned from a lengthy hiatus in 2016, I continued the idea for October, but started a new, second tradition – the Halloween special post.  However, to say that was started in 2016 isn’t exactly true either as October 31, 2014 was the original release date of my first Jess Franco review, the really bad Oasis of the Zombies.

Another tradition on this blog is to often mention the influence of the old Roku channel Bizarre TV.  I talk about it a lot.  It was, without a doubt, the primary influence for me to get off my duff after a somewhat crappy time in my life filled with loneliness and despair to get back to my one true love – writing this blog.  Not only that, but it led to one last tradition on this blog.  That last tradition was to celebrate the final six films that ran on Bizarre TV for months at a time before the channel finally going off the air forever.  We’ve reached the final entry of those final days of one of the finest channels on the history of Roku.  This year’s Halloween Special Post goes to The Slumber Party Massacre. Continue reading “The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)” →

Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader (2012)

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Yay!  Roger Corman!  If he can’t do it, nobody can!

So, yeah, at some point B-Movie Enema was going to come back around to a movie with direct production involvement from Roger Corman.  And with a title like Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader?  Oh you bet.  I’m on board.

This movie got premiered at none other than Comic Con International in 2012 about a month before showing to the masses on Epix (a lovely little-known cable network).  Yet another month later, it played at the 3D Film Festival.  Oh yeah…  This movie was originally made as a 3D feature.  If you want to know something utterly fascinating too, then know this:

Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader is the first 3D film ever produced by Roger Corman.

For real.  The guy who produced like 40 gabillion movies for the last 70 years never produced a 3D feature before this film.  All those drive-in movies he made.  All those creature features.  Not a single one beyond the second dimension. Continue reading “Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader (2012)” →

Caged Heat (1974)

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Oh baby do we have lots to talk about today, my dear Enemaniacs!

This week’s B-Movie Enema is Caged Heat.  It might, at first, come off as just a run of the mill, women-in-prison flick from the mid-70s.  It might even come off as some of that sleaze Roger Corman was trading in during the 70s as well.  To a very minor degree, I’d say you’re right about both things.

But… there’s a twist.  You see, Corman wasn’t happy with the women-in-prison flicks previously released by his New World Pictures.  He thought they were maybe missing something, something important, something fresh and new.  So he tapped a producer at the studio to see what life can be breathed into this subgenre of exploitation.  Enter Jonathan Demme.  He had produced a previous Corman women-in-prison release, The Hot Box.   This time, though, Demme wasn’t going to settle as a writer or producer.  He wanted to direct. Continue reading “Caged Heat (1974)” →

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

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Happy Valentine’s Day, ya jerks!

Sorry, I get surly around Valentine’s Day.  And there are many reasons for that.  I always get one year older (and one step closer to sweet, merciful peace that is death) around this time of year.  I tend not to like seeing all the stupid commercials that remind me that, yeah, I’m eating for one on VD with my cats.  It’s just a general reminder of a dark, lonely existence…

But not this year!

Nope!  This year, I decided to send all you Enemaniacs a Valentine in the form of a Roger Corman-produced, Candice Rialson-starring romp called Hollywood Boulevard!  The story of this movie, though, helps make this a little more fun. Continue reading “Hollywood Boulevard (1976)” →