Exploitation films

Bamboo House of Dolls

Shaw Brothers takes on the WIP film. As strange a combination as it sounds.

The Twilight People

The cheapest Island of Doctor Moreau ever committed to film, and one of the most watchable.

Alvin Purple

The sex comedy that funded the entire boom. Historically important, hard going.

Penitentiary

Prison-boxing blaxploitation that out-grossed every indie of its year and got forgotten anyway.

Petey Wheatstraw

Rudy Ray Moore makes a deal with the Devil to come back from the dead. Deranged and delightful.

Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter

Meiko Kaji before Toei, leading a girl gang through Nikkatsu's coolest delinquent picture.

Stunt Rock

No plot. A stuntman and a prog band. Exists purely so Grant Page can work.

Tarkan Versus the Vikings

A Turkish barbarian, his wolf, and the most beloved rubber octopus in world cinema.

TNT Jackson

Cirio Santiago's Manila blaxploitation at full tilt, remembered for one fight staged in the dark.

Werewolves on Wheels

Exactly what it says, at half the pace you want.

Assault! Jack the Ripper

A couple who find that killing is the only thing that works, followed all the way down.

Macon County Line

One of the most profitable independents ever made. Nastier than its reputation.

Snapshot

A young model is stalked after a nude shoot. A slow-burn Australian thriller with a real sense of dread.

Willie Dynamite

A flamboyant pimp fights to stay on top as everything closes in. Sharper and sadder than most.

Cops vs. Thugs

Fukasaku again, arguing the two categories in the title are the same.

Crippled Avengers

Four men maimed by a tyrant learn to fight through their disabilities. Chang Cheh at his most inventive.

Detroit 9000

A biracial cop pairing hunts jewel thieves in Detroit. Tarantino re-released it for a reason.

Ecstasy of the Angels

Wakamatsu wires the pink film to a detonator and steps back.

Free Hand for a Tough Cop

Tomas Milian debuts Er Monnezza, the filthiest man in Italian crime cinema, and steals his own movie.

Horror Rises from the Tomb

A decapitated warlock's head, still working. Naschy wrote it himself.

House of Whipcord

Pete Walker builds a secret prison to punish the censors who wanted one. Sheila Keith is the nightmare.

Psychomania

Zombie bikers, toad worship and George Sanders' last film. As English as horror gets.

Rituals

The Canadian Deliverance, and grimmer than the nickname promises.

Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters

Every monster at once, all of them on a budget of nothing. Delightful.

Street Mobster

Bunta Sugawara as pure appetite. The jitsuroku style arriving fully formed.

The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist

Late-cycle Castellari. Everyone is exhausted and it shows productively.

They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong

The girls-with-guns spy picture Tarantino keeps name-checking, and rightly.

Three the Hard Way

Brown, Williamson and Kelly against a plot to poison the water supply.

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs

Toei's red-coated killer cop, and the blueprint for every lone avenging woman after her.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

Ito's second, and the most formally daring film in the whole category.

Girl Boss Guerilla

Norifumi Suzuki at full speed. Reiko Ike is the whole show.

Island of Death

Mykonos has never looked prettier or hosted anything uglier. Mastorakis dared himself to be banned and won.

Sugar Hill

Revenge via Haitian zombies. The best of the blaxploitation horror crossovers.

The Lickerish Quartet

The most elegant film ever filed under sexploitation, and the reason Metzger belongs in the canon.

The Loreley's Grasp

A Rhine myth relocated to Spain, with a monster that only works in long shot.

The Mack

Half drama, half documentary of 1970s Oakland. The real players are in it.