Roger Corman, the Godfather of Independent Horror Cinema, has passed away at the age of 98. He left behind an unmatchable legacy of production, advocacy, and inspiration to generations of filmmakers and fans. He produced 493 titles and directed 56 movies himself. Corman was the tastemaker who gave numerous important directors their early opportunities. Thank you, good sir, for all of your contributions to our community. Yours was a life well lived.
I missed my opportunity to meet the man when he was to arrive at the Portland Horror Film Festival a few years ago, presenting The Haunted Palace with Vincent Price’s daughter, Victoria. Corman, late into his nineties, was amazingly still active within the horror community and was still going strong, and he looked GREAT. I feared, though, that I wouldn’t get a better chance to meet him, and I was right. As a member of the small horror press, I am incredibly indebted to him, as much of our reputation is built upon the back of independent film reviews that show up on the festival circuit. He was the man who broke the mold when it came to independent film production and was its biggest advocate.
His family notified the world of his passing on Instagram.
I recognize and love that he was a proponent of both the high-brow (Poe) and low-brow (B-Movie exploitation films) within the horror genre. Nobody did exploitation films as well as he did, and he was critical in the development of both the Matinee Monster films of the 1950s, the Grindhouse films of the 1970s, and the Sword and Sandal Schlock from the 1980s. He took advantage of the Drive-in theater, the straight-to-VHS era, and the straight-to-streaming era to find ways to get his films in front of audiences for movies that the cinemas would not play.
American International Pictures
Corman was responsible for two of the most impactful production studios in horror history. He created AIP in 1954 with Sam Arkoff and Alex Gordon. They pitched their movies to the teenage Boomers, who were finding leisure time and newfound independence to go to the Matinee or the Drive-In. They did it cheaply, and they made their films as racy as they could under the pressure of the Hayes Code. Rubbery monsters and girls in tight sweaters (Hello, Beverly Garland!) were the order of the day, and the kids ate it up!
AIP used the “Peter Pan Syndrome” of movie formulas:
- A younger child will watch anything an older child will watch.
- An older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch
- A Girl will watch anything a boy will watch
- A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch
Therefore, To catch your greatest audience, you zero in on the 19-year-old male.
(Credit to Robin Bean and David Austin in USA Confidential)
Roger Corman Directed films from the 1950s included:
- The Beast With a Million Eyes
- It Conquered the World
- Attack of the Crab Monsters
- The Undead
- The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
- Not of this Earth
- She Gods of Shark Reef
- A Bucket of Blood
As AIP grew into the 1960s, Hammer films were having great success with their Gothic remakes of Universal Classic horror monsters. They used vibrant colors and big dramatic sets and costumes to great success. Corman turned his attention to the works of Edgar Alan Poe for inspiration for his own Gothic movie projects, switching to more adult fare than his previous work. He teamed up with Vincent Price and writers Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Ray Russell, R. Wright Campbell, and Robert Towne to re-create the Poe masterpieces. He convinced Arkoff to give these films bigger budgets to film widescreen, and appropriately lavish sets and costumes.
His first of these films, House of Usher was a bonafide hit, and it allowed Corman to finance and produce many of Poe’s greatest works.
- House of Usher (1960)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
- The Premature Burial (1962)
- Tales of Terror (1962)
- The Raven (1963)
- The Haunted Palace (1963) Actually, Lovecraft… not Poe! (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.)
- The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
- The Tomb of Ligea (1964)
New World Pictures (1970-1987)
Roger and his brother Gene left AIP in 1970 and created New World Pictures, where they would continue the legacy of independent filmmaking. Here they would concentrate on the sleazy exploitation films that the R-rating now allowed. Gone were the kiddie matinees, but the target audience? Still probably the 19-year-old male. However, an interesting turn was made when Roger Corman decided to take on distribution for acclaimed foreign films from the likes of Fellini, Bergman, Truffaut, Herzon, and Kurosawa. In Corman’s mind, this balanced out the New World portfolio so that it wasn’t strictly known as an exploitation film studio.
This also was a time when Corman was acting as a producer more than a director. He was a mentor for many legendary directors including:
- Francis Ford Coppola for Dementia 13
- Jonathan Demme for Caged Heat (1974)
- Ron Howard for Grand Theft Auto (1977)
- Joe Dante for Piranha (1978)
- Larry Cohen for God Told Me To (1975)
- Martin Scorcese for Boxcar Bertha (1972)
- Paul Bartel for Death Race 2000 (1975)
- Allan Arkush for Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
- Amy Holden Jones for The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
- John Sayles for Piranha (writer) (1978), Battle Beyond the Stars (writer) (1980)
Roger Corman’s Later Years
Not surprisingly, Roger Corman was able to latch onto whatever trend would get the best bang for the buck for his film productions. He partnered with the SyFy channel to create low-budget cheap CGI fan favorites like Sharktopus (2010) and Piranhaconda (2012). Schlock survives well into the 21st Century! Corman had a sixth sense as to how best to work a cheap budget and get maximum entertainment.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Roger with an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 for his efforts. The Library of Congress included House of Usher in the National Film Registry in 2006. It took them a while, but eventually Hollywood gave honor where it was due.
If you want to see a good documentary on Roger Corman, check out Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel.
Farewell, Roger! I am sure you are being transported to your next destination on a chopped down Harley Davidson.
