Bikini Drive-In (1995; Fred Olen Ray)

A well-remembered T&A favourite from the days of late night cable, Bikini Drive-In remains one of the most durable titles from the prolific Fred Olen Ray, whose low-budget exploitation films were plentiful on rental shelves and specialty channels during the heyday of the video age.  His movies are especially known for generous showcases of old and new favourite B-movie personalities. As per its namesake, Bikini Drive-In, features many veterans from ye olde drive-in, as well as scream queens and familiar Cinemax personalities of its time. 

Panic in the City (1968; Eddie Davis)

I've long been fascinated with the low-budget genre quickies produced in the late 1960s under the various umbrellas of United Pictures Corporation. These undemanding films (including Destination Inner Space, Cyborg 2087, Dimension 5, and The Destructors) mostly found distribution on television. As late as the 1990s, they were still filler on City TV's "Late Great Movies". (Our most important film education often came from whatever aired at 4:10 AM).

The Gatling Gun (1971; Robert Gordon)

Genre fans tend to dislike this low-budget western, but I have an irrational fondness for it... probably because it was purchased for the princely sum of one dollar. Early in the DVD revolution, when players and movies had become more wallet friendly for the average consumer, there also came the glut of "dollar DVDs", usually featuring public domain movies, cartoons or vintage TV shows. They often came in no-frills packaging, usually nothing more than a thin cardboard sleeve that was glued shut on one side, and one had to carefully pry them open so not to scratch the disk inside. And of course, the movies were in bare bones presentations: zero effort put into remastering, no extras, and sometimes they didn't even bother with chapter stops! Well? What did you expect for a buck? Criterion?

Fiend (1980; Don Dohler)

Don Dohler's Amazing Cinema magazine,
which often plugged his own films.

Before Don Dohler had ever picked up a movie camera and directed his own feature-length micro-budgeted science fiction-horror films, he was already a "do-it-yourself" legend. He had published underground comics in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he released his influential magazine, Cinemagic, which was a primer for aspiring filmmakers to create their own special effects.  His first feature, The Alien Factor (1978), shot for a paltry $6000, proved he was a trailblazer for another medium. This film with such a small budget had the good fortune in being sold to cable. Those who saw it were inspired, alerted to the possibility that "Hey, I can do this too".

Ghosts That Still Walk (James T. Flocker; 1977)

In the days when movies still aired late at night instead of infomercials, this unassuming film made an impression upon UHF-surfing night owls, if for at least one image.  After six decades of fantasy cinema featuring humans besieged by numerous ghouls and goblins, Ghosts That Still Walk offers the intriguing premise of an elderly RV-ing couple being pursued by boulders! This sequence is surely reason enough to warrant a watch. However, as in the case of most films released by Gold Key Entertainment, this movie is better to have seen than to sit through.