Deathsport (1978)

Yet another in the million or so films from schlockmeister Roger Corman, Deathsport features David Carradine in a loincloth; it actually features other things as well, but mainly you’ll remember David Carradine in a loincloth and bikes blowing up frequently. It’s the future after the apocalypse and the world looks like the deserts outside of California thanks to a nuclear war and the fact that it was cheaper to shoot in the deserts outside of California. The nuclear war and the collapse of all civilization has led to people reverting to the norms of pre-medieval barbarian tribes, which it tends to in these movies, although you’d really think people would try to recreate their own lost society, as opposed to pretending they’re at the Renaissance Faire. Anyway, David Carradine plays Kaz Oshay, son of famed warrior Oshay, and wears a loincloth, which again is a critical point.

Carradine is out romping about in the California deserts when he gets captured by some dudes in white suits on hopped-up dirtbikes. The guys also capture Claudia Jennings, who plays Deneer, member of a nomadic tribe. In the process they also capture the rest of the tribe, but a brat along with them gets captured by some desert mutants, so that’s a subplot as well, although a very small subplot because Allan Arkush probably didn't want to deal with the difficulties of directing a kid.

Claudia Jennings

Anyway, Deenan, Kaz and his loincloth are taken to a walled city, which is ruled over by a dude who’s losing his marbles from radiation poisoning and his goon Ankar Moore, played by Richard Lynch, who is afflicted by the same laryngitis he has in every movie. Realizing that Kaz and Deenan are great warriors, the authorities torture them, using super high-tech devices that mainly involve flashing lights and strings of beads hanging from the ceiling and offer a handy excuse to show Claudia Jennings naked, not that I’m complaining.

When our heroes try to escape, they’re forced to fight in the “Deathsport”, a sort of gladiatorial joust on the “death bikes”, which are those retrofitted dirt bikes- retrofitted for death! Note: There will be no death refunds for anyone arriving after the designated starting death-time. Anyway, they defeat a bunch of death-guys on death-bikes and Lynch sets off the landmines that cause a whole bunch of shit to explode in fireballs, including a number of death-bikes. Corman likes blowing shit up in his movies and, as noted in the documentary Corman's World, he likes using a motorcycle until its trashed and then blowing it up- hard logic to argue with. Unfortunately, you're not gonna get a death refund that way.



Jennings kills the king during her naked torture using only her powers of nudity and Carradine escapes during the Deathsport and they both go on the lam. Lynch probably could take power now and forget about the two of them, but he’s a bit bonkers too and, besides, the movie would be pretty short otherwise.

After that, there are a lot of battles in which the dirt bikes blow up really easily. Clearly they're called "death bikes" (or "destructobikes", I forget) because they blow up really easily. One would imagine it was not a masterstroke of intelligence to send out an army in bikes that explode really easily though. There are some cool Raimi-cam shots taken from the front of the bikes and a battle with clear plexiglass swords that look pretty nifty. Actually, a lot of this movie seems to have been devised with the intention of looking super neat-o cool, which is nice if you're either below the age of 11 or really drunk.

Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

It's noteworthy how many of the classic monster movies have a thwarted love theme- King Kong, the Mummy, Frankenstein (in the sequel), Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon- they all had trouble getting the girl due to their relative monstrousness. Many writers have argued that the subtext to these films, in which a hideous creature carries away an unwilling female, is rape and the fear of adult sexuality in general. Luckily for us, Roger Corman doesn't do subtext, so from him we get Humanoids from the Deep, an updated version of the old creature on the beach flicks in which the ugly creatures are here to kill the men and rape the women.

You can see how this could be pretty offensive, and you know, it sort of is. However, the fact that the creatures are guys in rubber fishman suits with large rubber brains sort of mitigates against the offensiveness. To put it bluntly, a man raping a woman is pretty shocking (and something I've complained about with some of the other exploitation films I've talked about here) but a rubber fishman with a huge brain raping a woman is a bit more silly than offensive.

The fishmen are actually genetic mutants created by a corporate cannery that has injected the salmon in a small fishing town with chemicals in order to make them breed faster. There's local intrigue because the fishermen want the company in town with their fancy genetically-modified salmon, while the local Indian tribe wants them to stay away from the traditional lands, and doesn't trust the company in general, what with their crazy chemicals. These are all B-movie characters, so you have the classic conflict- Indians love the land and rednecks love beating up Indians. Well, of course, the Indians are right here because those genetically-modified fish are just raping and killing up a storm.

Our hero is Jim Hill (played by B-Movie stalwart Doug McClure, who you might remember from such films as...) who thinks there's something behind the recent string of dog-killings. His wife, Carol (Cindy Weintraub) agrees and gets some screen time as the damsel in distress, but is entirely too hot not to have screen time as the damsel in the shower. The local loudmouth bigot is Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow, a TV stalwart who was killed a few years later on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie), who starts a brawl at the annual Salmon Festival with the Indian hero, Johnny Eagle (Anthony Pena), who is pretty much like every movie Indian in that he has a deep relationship with the earth and gets beat up by rednecks. There's also a corrupt mayor and a hot lady scientist who created the fishmen with her crazy chemicals.

And, of course, there are also a good number of horny teenagers coming to the beach to have sex, but ultimately getting fish-fucked or fish-massacred, including a young man who actually seduces a sexy girl via ventriloquist dummy, a likely first in cinema, or reality. Finally, there's a victimized girl in the hospital impregnated with a fishbaby.

The chum hits the fan at the yearly Salmon Festival when the Humanoids decide to go a rampaging and even Miss Salmon gets her top ripped off. The massacre scenes are remarkably bloody and the Humanoid suits, by Rob Bottin, are fairly awesome. The film also works because it's outrageous without ever veering into intentional satire. Also, by this point, Roger Corman pretty much knew what his audience wanted: monsters, tits and gore.

Trailer:

Extra: Believe it or not, punk singer Jello Biafra wrote a song about Humanoids from the Deep: