(Note: This piece follows “The Films of Russ Doughten, Part 1: 1961–1968.”)
When Donald W. Thompson was a nine year old boy in Hamburg New York, his father took him to see the Humphrey Bogart film They Drive By Night (1940). This experience sparked Thompson’s lifelong interest in filmmaking, and as a boy he made a number of 8mm short films. In high school his obsession with motion pictures resulted in his becoming an apprentice projectionist at a local theater. His parents and teachers helped Thompson learn about filmmaking and he made four 16mm silent movies in high school. Thompson…
Russ Doughten’s first screen credit was on a film that few could have guessed would go on to cinematic immortality: The Blob (1958). Doughten was credited as an associate producer on that film, a b-horror production that would grow in influence and esteem to the point that it would receive a deluxe home video release from the Criterion Collection decades after its theatrical run. Jack H. Harris, executive producer of The Blob, had a long career producing genre films including Equinox (1970), John Landis’s Schlock (1973), John Carpenter’s Dark Star (1974), and Fred Olen Ray’s Star Slammer (1986) in addition…
Surrender Cinema’s first major competitor in the genre softcore home video space made its debut in 2000 by going back to a style that 1990s softcore had almost entirely neglected: the parody. Seduction Cinema released The Erotic Witch Project in February of 2000, less than a year after the wide theatrical release of The Blair Witch Project in July of 1999. The Erotic Witch Project 2: Book of Seduction was released in May 2000, and by the end of 2001 the company produced and/or distributed over a dozen genre softcore features and shorts on home video including a third “Erotic…
This is the list of films I compiled as reference while writing the piece “A Brief History of Sci-Fi Sex Cinema, Part 3: 2000–2016.” Films are listed in alphabetical order by year of release according to either the copyright on the film itself or as listed on IMDB depending on which was available. * denotes adult/hardcore feature. Note some of the credit links on images may lead to pages that are NSFW.
2000
Booby Trap* (dir. Veronica Hart)
Computerized Sex Cravings* (dir. Kovi)
Cyborgasm* (dir. Dillion Day)
Diva X: Kaoru* (Interactive video)
Double Midgetation* (dir. Jerome Tanner)
Dreamquest* (dir. Brad Armstrong)
Internet film writers have declared the box office “failure” of BLAIR WITCH the death of horror. Is it?
No.
The 1990s Softcore Explosion
The erotic thriller became hugely popular on home video and cable in the late 1980s and into the 1990s thanks to both big-studio hits like Fatal Attraction (1987) and independent productions like Night Eyes (1990). The voracious demand for new titles to fill video store shelves led to a boom in production of erotic thrillers. Night Eyes director Jag Mundhra directed several other direct to home video films throughout the 1990s including Last Call (1991) starring Shannon Tweed, The Other Woman (1992), and Sexual Malice (1994). Tweed became synonymous with the erotic thriller throughout the decade with her appearances in…
This is the list of films I compiled as reference while writing the piece “A Brief History of Sci-Fi Sex Cinema, Part 2: 1990–1999.” Films are listed in alphabetical order by year of release according to either the copyright on the film itself or as listed on IMDB depending on which was available. * denotes adult/hardcore feature. Note some of the credit links on images may lead to pages that are NSFW.
1990
Bad Girls from Mars (dir. Fred Olen Ray)
Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (dir. Howard Ziehm)
The New Barbarians* (dir. Henri Pachard)
Nightdreams 2* (dir. Stephen Sayadian)
This is the list of films I compiled as reference while writing the piece “A Brief History of Sci-Fi Sex Cinema, Part 1: 1961–1989.” Films are listed in alphabetical order by year of release according to either the copyright on the film itself or as listed on IMDB depending on which was available. * denotes adult/hardcore feature. Note some of the credit links on images may lead to pages that are NSFW.
1961
Nude on the Moon (dir. Doris Wishman)
1963
50,000 B.C. (Before Clothing) (dir. William Rose)
In their book Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of “Adults Only” Cinema, Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris describe the moment that the floodgates opened allowing nudist films to legally screen in New York City theaters:
On July 3rd, 1957, Judge Charles Desmond issued a landmark ruling, stating that nudity, per se, was not indecent. …
Every film production has its own unique challenges and quirks, and from all accounts the production of After Last Season was no different. As strange as the final product is, and aside from the inherent difficulties of a low-budget film shoot, it does sound like Mark Region had an established way of working that he used during his short film “Medium Waves” that he carried over into the production of After Last Season. The following is a collection of accounts from actors who worked on the films regarding their experiences, as well as from Mark Region himself. Unless otherwise noted…
Jason Coffman
Unrepentant cinephile. Former contributor to Daily Grindhouse & Film Monthly. letterboxd.com/rabbitroom/
