(Photo by Mark Mainz /Getty Images)
The Roger Corman way: Fast, wild, economical, and, most importantly, profitable. Variety has a thorough tribute to Corman’s career as an eminent influential and iconoclastic producer outside the Hollywood system, but suffice to say, Corman helped bring horror, sci-fi, and action into the mainstream with his productions from mid-century on. Naming a few of them: House of Usher, the original Little Shop of Horrors, The Trip (we paid tribute to this counterculture curiosity in our book Rotten Movies We Love), and Death Race 2000. And through his independent production companies — training ground and incubators for young filmmakers — Corman paved the way for the career launches of Martin Scorsese (Boxcar Bertha), Francis Ford Coppola (Dementia 13), Peter Bogdanovich (Targets), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Joe Dante (Piranha), Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat), and James Cameron (he worked on miniatures for Corman, and would go on to direct the second Piranha movie, before The Terminator). Even today, Little Shop of Horrors is a musical anchor of Broadway, and Corman’s 1954 The Fast and the Furious was title-repurposed for the modern franchise.
Below, we’re highlighting every Roger Corman production with a Tomatometer score, just the beginning to his vast filmography of nearly 400 productions and 60 of his own directorial works.
#1
Adjusted Score: 90252%
Critics Consensus: Scary, strange, and maybe a little silly, House of Usher represents an early high mark for Vincent Price and a career triumph for director Roger Corman.
#2
Adjusted Score: 91229%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#3
Adjusted Score: 95275%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#4
Adjusted Score: 91359%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#5
Adjusted Score: 92935%
Critics Consensus: A startling directorial debut by Peter Bogdanovich mixes an homage to Boris Karloff horror films with a timely sniper story to create a thriller with modern baggage and old school shock and awe.
#6
Adjusted Score: 89176%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#7
Adjusted Score: 90446%
Critics Consensus: A chilling visual treat, Pit and the Pendulum unites genre masters Roger Corman and Vincent Price with delightfully dark results.
#8
Adjusted Score: 90630%
Critics Consensus: By turns lurid and disturbing, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a compelling piece of sci-fi pulp and one of Roger Corman’s most effective movies.
#9
Adjusted Score: 76822%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#10
Adjusted Score: 35160%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#11
Adjusted Score: 84514%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#12
Adjusted Score: 85867%
Critics Consensus: Death Race 2000 is a fun, campy classic, drawing genuine thrills from its mindless ultra-violence.
#13
Adjusted Score: 83046%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#14
Adjusted Score: 66833%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#15
Adjusted Score: 77169%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#16
Adjusted Score: 73994%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#17
Adjusted Score: 74478%
Critics Consensus: Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite.
#18
Adjusted Score: 73031%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#19
Adjusted Score: 71778%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#20
Adjusted Score: 71107%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#21
Adjusted Score: 69421%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#22
Adjusted Score: 72051%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#23
Adjusted Score: 64739%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#24
Adjusted Score: 47469%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#25
Adjusted Score: 33876%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#26
Adjusted Score: 56197%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#27
Adjusted Score: 56173%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#28
Adjusted Score: 55284%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#29
Adjusted Score: 56715%
Critics Consensus: Too derivative of other Roger Corman crime pictures to stand out, Boxcar Bertha feels more like a training exercise for a fledgling Martin Scorsese than a fully formed picture in its own right.
#30
Adjusted Score: 50679%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#31
Adjusted Score: 50400%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#32
Adjusted Score: 13372%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#33
Adjusted Score: 45562%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#34
Adjusted Score: 42676%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#35
Adjusted Score: 47012%
Critics Consensus: Mindless, violent, and lightning-paced, Death Race is little more than an empty action romp.
#36
Adjusted Score: 23653%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#37
Adjusted Score: 40999%
Critics Consensus: The Trip‘s groovy effects and compelling message can’t overcome the rough acting, long meandering stretches, and pedestrian plot.
#38
Adjusted Score: 9925%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#39
Adjusted Score: 29521%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#40
Adjusted Score: 29185%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#41
Adjusted Score: 27774%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#42
Adjusted Score: 24429%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#43
Adjusted Score: 9392%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#44
Adjusted Score: 18171%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#45
Adjusted Score: 14066%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#46
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#47
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#48
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#49
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.