13 Best Roger Corman Movies to Watch Right Now
There were two Roger Cormans, although they were ultimately inseparable: there was a B-movie master who produced (literally) hundreds of low- and no-budget films: Carnosaur , Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader , Attack of the Giant. Leeches , Smokey Bites the Dust , and (no joke) Hot Car Girl, to name a few. His 1990 memoir was very appropriately titled How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime . The producer and director were known to know how to squeeze every penny out of a film’s budget: borrowing sets, reworking footage, and putting the crew to work. performing tasks beyond what they were hired to do.
This last point brings us to another Roger Corman: he was an indispensable figure in American independent filmmaking, who promoted or launched the careers of an impossible number of film luminaries: Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Fonda, Peter Bogdanovich, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd and even William Shatner. As an international film distributor, he brought films from directors such as Fellini, Truffaut, Kurosawa and Bergman to America. He is sometimes overlooked, but he was also a capable director in the 1950s and 60s, creating several films that are considered classics.
Educated at Stanford and Oxford, Corman, who was active until the end of his life, died on May 9 at the age of 98. A statement released by his family said, in part:
When asked how he would like to be remembered, he replied: “I was a director, that’s all.”
Bucket of Blood (1959)
Arguably the most memorable of Corman’s early films, A Bucket of Blood sounds like it would play like a typical 1950s horror film, but instead it delivers a bit of California beatnik comedy. Brilliant character actor and longtime Corman accomplice Dick Miller ( Gremlins ) plays an incredibly rare leading role here, as a busboy at a hipster café who becomes a sensation when he accidentally stabs his owner’s cat while trying to help her escape from behind a wall. A true idiot, he tries to hide the body by covering it in plaster, resulting in an unintentional work of art. When more art is needed, there is only one thing to do – keep killing. But, you know, people.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, MGM+, Shudder, Crackle, Freevee.
House of Usher (1960)
Just five years into his career, Roger Corman has already made about two dozen films, all of them cheap (unsurprisingly) and most of them fairly forgettable. The House of Usher marked a major change for Corman and his parent company, American International Pictures. The market for the ultra-low-budget black-and-white cheap models that the company specialized in was drying up, so it was decided to try something bigger: something in color, with a big budget and a lucrative star. The film cost around $300,000 (compared to its typical budget, which was in the $50,000 range), a third of which went towards the salary of bleached blonde Vincent Price. If this had failed, it would likely have sunk the company. Instead, the film was a success, and it’s not hard to see why: at any price point, director Corman was a master of style and atmosphere. It’s not quite Poe, but like Mark Damon’s character Philip Winthrop, it feels like we’ve entered a frighteningly liminal land this side of ours. Co-star Damon, who also became a producer, died just days after Corman.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, Freevee (sometimes as The Fall of the House of Usher )
Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
The original horror-comedy, largely overshadowed by the musical it was adapted into, is delightfully brought to life—and damn, it should be, considering director Corman completed principal photography in two days and a night of shooting. Even with three days of pre-rehearsals and filming the second unit over a couple of weekends, start to finish is still just over a week. The result is a film that certainly looks cheap, but at the same time gives the impression that it doesn’t care, everyone is giving their all to feed its chaotic energy and stupidity. The “everyone” here includes a couple of celebrities: the great Dick Miller and the incredibly young Jack Nicholson.
Where to watch: Shudder, Tubi, Crackle
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The sixth film in the Corman-Poe film series has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poe except the title. Moreover, it is a very faithful adaptation of Lovecraft’s novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (probably one of the most faithful films based on Lovecraft). Again, the atmosphere is impressively creepy; we get a cinematic introduction to the cosmic beings Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth; and Price gives excellent double performance. Francis Ford Coppola, then working as Corman’s assistant, provided additional dialogue.
Where to watch: Tubi
X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963)
The great Ray Milland (with some help from Don Rickles) plays a scientist here who develops a cool new eye drop designed to increase the range of human vision. What could possibly go wrong? He tries the drops on himself and discovers that his vision goes far beyond what he ever imagined. So why stop there? Continued testing leads to more impressive results until he finds himself losing the ability to exist in the normal world and losing his sanity. There’s an almost Lovecraftian feel to the ending, with a hint that there are things in the universe that are better left unnoticed.
Where to watch: Pluto TV, Kanopy.
Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Roger Corman directs Vincent Price here in one of their Poe collaborations, one of remarkable scope and phantasmagoric beauty. The finished product looks much more like an art film than any of the producer/director’s other work, and that’s largely due to a few things: First, Corman was able to use leftover BAFTA Award-winning sets from the big project. -budget historical epic Beckett , instantly elevating the film’s look to a level approaching Powell and Pressburger levels of screen opulence. Secondly, there was the presence of cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, who would later go on to direct such classics as The Walk , Don’t Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth, who here was given the opportunity to start over after he faced David Lean. The result is a beautiful fever dream unlike anything else in the Corman canon.
Where to watch: Pluto TV.
Shooting (1966)
Corman financed and served as an uncredited executive producer and consultant on the film, directed by Monte Hellman ( Two Lanes ) from a script by Carole Eastman ( Five Easy Pieces ). The moody, brooding revisionist Western wasn’t even a flop because it didn’t even find a distributor initially, but in later years it became an arthouse classic, foreshadowing films like The Wild Bunch and Hellman’s later, more successful 2 Lane Highway. . Warren Oates was joined by Jack Nicholson, who also served as co-producer.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Max, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Freevee, Crackle, Shout Factory TV.
Wild Angels (1966)
Three full years before the groundbreaking film Easy Rider truly put biker culture on the world map, Corman was already there, and with Peter Fonda no less, in this (hugely successful in its own right) film about the group bikers setting out to wander through the squares and find a lost bike. Fonda is joined by a truly impressive cast, including Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Peter Bogdanovich was an uncredited co-writer of the script for the finished film.
Where to stream: ScreenPix or digital rental via Fandango at Home.
Ride (1966)
By this point, Corman, being a huge counterculture enthusiast, had decided that verisimilitude would be crucial if he wanted to film Jack Nicholson’s story of an LSD trip gone very well. Just before filming, Corman took several friends and crew members to Big Sur for a weekend of acid. The finished film brings a Corman feel to the largely plotless but stunningly thrilling journey starring Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper. The anti-drug message attached here seems strangely unconvincing. Another case where Corman found himself at the forefront of cultural trends in the 1960s without receiving the recognition he deserved.
Where to watch: Digital rental via Amazon or Apple TV.
Targets (1968)
The first film directed by up-and-coming auteur Peter Bogdanovich (with ably assisted by brilliant writer, producer and production designer Polly Platt, credited here only as co-writer) was also one of Boris Karloff’s very last, and that’s a lot of iconic talent for the film. which began life as a way for Karloff to work out a couple of days when he owned Corman. Bogdanovich was given the go-ahead to do almost anything he wanted, as long as he stayed within budget and included the role of an aging actor. Thus, Karloff plays a version of himself as Byron Orlock, a retiring film actor who is fed up with the business, feeling sentimental about his descent into camp roles. He is reluctantly persuaded to appear at a drive-in movie theater showing one of his old movies while a gun nut murders his entire family and plots a shootout. It’s a fascinating commentary on gun culture (even back then), as well as the contrast between horror films and real-life events then and now. It’s also a pleasant, if troubling, send-off for Karloff.
Where to watch: Criterion Channel.
Heat in the Cage (1974)
I won’t claim that Caged Heat is a masterpiece, but it is both watchable and important as the first film from Jonathan Demme, another legendary talent who began his career under Corman’s wing. The producer was looking for a film with all the sleazy appeal of a typical female prison film (i.e., violent fights and nudity), but relied on Demme to write a script that would have more weight. The result is a very good example of Corman’s penchant for exaggerating questionable material, with the shower scenes balanced by a real sense of common cause among the women as they stand up to their abusive warden. The film will also mark the first solo work of future legendary cinematographer Tak Fujimoto.
Where to watch: Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV.
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Vince Lombardi High School can’t keep its vice principals because the kids are too into rock ‘n’ roll. P.J. Soules leads the way here as Riff Randell, the leader of the school punks; she is determined to see the Ramones, her favorite band, and will literally burn the school down to do so. As in the 1960s, Corman was all about kids rebelling against anything and brought in The Ramones to make it work here. The film is completely anarchic, with no lesson other than “don’t get between punks and their music.” Corman disciple Joe Dante ( Gremlins ) co-wrote the story and directed portions of the film (uncredited) when director Allan Arkush fell ill, having taken a break from making Piranha the year before.
Where to watch: Peacock, Tubi, Freevee, Freevee, Crackle, Shout Factory TV
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Directed by animator Jimmy T. Murakami and written by multiple Oscar-nominated (but not for this) John Sayles ( Matewan , Eight Men ), Battle Beyond the Stars was supposed to be something like Seven Samurai in space.” James Horner composed the music, James Cameron worked on the special effects, and the main roles were played by Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn and John Saxon. That’s a lot of talent for a film that definitely does n’t feel like Kurosawa in space, but rather an incredibly entertaining, if a little sloppy, space opera. Cameron was initially hired by producer Corman to work on the models, but was eventually given responsibility for all special effects and production design. He credits the film as his big break, so in addition to being funny, there’s some movie history being made here—and not just about womb-shaped spaceships.
Where to watch: Peacock, Tubi, Freevee, Shout Factory TV.