20 Exploitation Films You Must See Before You Die

“Exploitation pictures are as old as film itself,” claims producer David F Friedman. “The essence of exploitation was any subject that was forbidden: miscegenation, abortion, unwed motherhood, venereal disease….all those subjects were fair game to the exploiter – as long as it was in bad taste.”

Perfected in the 1930s by huckster independents who sought an edge over “prestigious” studio pictures, exploitation filmmaking didn’t require professional actors or any technical knowledge, just business sense and a steady supply of gimmicks.

Such was the philosophy of Dwain Esper, one of the original “roadshowmen”, who spent much of the decade roaming America with beat-up prints of his latest cinematic travesty, peddling his wares in town after town with the aid of salacious promotional material. Proving the adage that nobody ever lost money underestimating the good taste of the American public, Esper became the king of turning a profit from trash; whether or not he cared for his cheaply-made productions is another matter.

Decades later, similarly amateurish filmmakers enjoyed success and reasonably lengthy careers as purveyors of Drive-in fodder by appropriating his DIY ethic and level of showmanship, churning out some of the most colourful garbage that ever met a projector bulb.

As inept and laughable as many of these time capsules of vintage pleasure are, they’re rarely boring and there’s a strange charm to their off-the-wall shenanigans. Anything can happen, and usually does. 

Ed Wood’s first collaboration with Bulgarian skinflick auteur “A.C. Stephen” (aka Steve Apostolof), Orgy Of The Dead began life as an eighteen-page script called Nudie Ghoulies to which Ed added The Mummy and The Wolf Man while Criswell, encoring from Plan 9 From Outer Space, was brought in as “Emperor of the Dead.” Once again, this incomparable MC introduces the proceedings as only he can, reading his demented dialogue (“It will please me very much to see the Slave Girl with her tortures”) from cue cards Ed was holding beneath the camera.

When the Emperor kidnaps an aspiring writer and his girlfriend, he forces them to watch ten striptease acts performed by such starlets as “Gold Girl” (who dances covered in gold paint), “Cat Girl” (who wears a crotchless catsuit) and “Slave Girl” (who dances naked with her hands bound).

Speaking of starlets, special mention must be made of Pat Barringer, whose dual role as the heroine and as Gold Girl allows her to give two amusingly bad performances. “Poor Pat Barringer,” muses John Andrews, who played The Wolf Man. “She thought she was going to be a big star. And she couldn’t even scream and make it convincing. She couldn’t do s**t. And those tits are plastic, by the way.”