20 Most Outrageous Exploitation Movie Taglines

With the abolition of the Hays Production Code and the relaxation of social attitudes in the mid-60s, exploitation films flourished in America€™s Drive-Ins and Grindhouses until the advent of home video. Seeking an edge over 'prestigious' studio movies, these were cheaply made, independently released pictures whose subject matter and sensationalist advertising had one goal: putting rubes in seats. The philosophy of those who made them was that you didn€™t need big stars or technical knowledge, just business sense and a steady supply of gimmicks. In the words of producer David F. Friedman, they were selling the sizzle, not the steak. One of Friedman€™s biggest successes was 1963€™s Blood Feast, whose poster promised a sight filmgoers had never enjoyed before - the slaughter and mutilation of nubile young girls. To make sure viewers fully understood, the tagline read: €œNothing so appalling in the annals of horror!€ In the same year that Cleopatra lost a fortune for Twentieth Century Fox, Blood Feast earned $4 million on a production budget of $24,000, setting Friedman and director Herschell Gordon Lewis on a new course and incidentally birthing the splatter movie. It was a sign of what was to come. Over the next three decades, until the collapse of the exploitation circuit, other filmmakers would enjoy success and lengthy careers by appropriating Friedman€™s level of showmanship. Here€™s 20 of the most lurid examples.