Synopsis:
A Corman threesome! ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES: Roger Corman executive produced this flick about men in octapus-like "Leech" costumes terrorizing residents of a swamp. When irradiated leeches grow...
A Corman threesome! ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES: Roger Corman executive produced this flick about men in octapus-like "Leech" costumes terrorizing residents of a swamp. When irradiated leeches grow huge in a Southern bayou, a local storekeeper sees his chance to be rid of his trashy, two-timing wife--feed her to the leeches! WASP WOMAN: This fun, intelligent cheapie from King of the B's Roger Corman ranks as the first feminist horror film. Susan Cabot stars as aging cosmetics mogul Janice Starlin, who injects herself with an experimental wasp enzyme in order to restore her fading youth and save her company from going broke. Eccentric scientist Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark) first tries the serum on cats, but when they later sprout wings and stingers, he realizes the formula might not be market ready. Unfortunately, he winds up in a coma before he's able to warn Starlin of the ghastly side effects, and before long she's buzzing around the building at night, attacking and devouring her enemies. What's admirably feminist about the film is how Starlin is portrayed as intelligent, powerful, and sympathetic while her male underlings are condescending buffoons who first dismiss her serum as mere wishful vanity and later find themselves smitten by her newly restored beauty (and later bitten by her wasp alter ego). Barboura Morris plays Starlin's worried secretary, and Bruno Ve Sota is an unlucky night watchman. Cabot is splendid in the title role, reverse-aging beautifully. Carolyn Hughes and Lynn Cartwright add comic relief as a pair of gossipy receptionists. BUCKET OF BLOOD: Bumbling busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) works at a beatnik coffeehouse populated by artists, poets, and dope addicts. He longs to belong and, inspired by the poetry around him, tries his hand at sculpting. When he accidentally kills a cat and covers it with clay, it becomes a celebrated work of art. Soon Walter has moved on to killing people and is the hit of the local art scene. Roger Corman regulars Barboura Morris and Anthony Carbone are the couple running the coffeehouse who are first exalted by Walter's success and then rather worried. Director Corman shot this little gem of black comedy in an amazing five days for $50,000. It's since become a true cult classic, practically inventing its own genre and perfectly satirizing the self-righteousness of the then-emerging beatnik movement, not to mention the whole world of contemporary art. Miller lends pathos as Walter, and the rest of the cast is just hilarious, particularly Julian Burton as the pretentious and portly poet whose recitation on the "artist" (accompanied by jazz sax solo) opens the film. Corman reused the same general tone and story for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS the following year.
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