Robert Anthony Rodriguez is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 action film El Mariachi, which was a commercial success after grossing $2.6 million against a budget of $7,000. The film spawned two sequels known collectively as the Mexico Trilogy: Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Danny Trejo is an American actor. He has appeared in films including Desperado, Heat, and the From Dusk till Dawn film series. With frequent collaborator and his second cousin Robert Rodriguez, he portrayed the character of Isador "Machete" Cortez, which was originally developed for the Spy Kids series and was later expanded into its own franchise of the same name.
Grindhouse is a 2007 American film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Presented as a double feature, it combines Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. The former stars Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Josh Brolin, and Marley Shelton; the latter stars Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell. Grindhouse pays homage to exploitation films of the 1970s, with its title deriving from the now-defunct theaters that would show such films. As part of its theatrical presentation, Grindhouse also features fictitious exploitation trailers directed by Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, and Jason Eisener.
Career Opportunities is a 1991 American romantic comedy film starring Frank Whaley in his first lead role and co-starring Jennifer Connelly. It was written and co-produced by John Hughes and directed by Bryan Gordon. In the film, Whaley plays Jim Dodge, a persuasive but irresponsible young man who lands a job as an overnight janitor at a local Target store. One evening after hours, he finds himself alone with the affluent but mistreated Josie McClellan (Connelly).
Maitland McDonagh is an American film critic, writer-editor and podcaster. She is the author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1991) and other books and articles on horror and exploitation films, as well as about erotic fiction and erotic cinema. In 2022, McDonagh was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame. She is the founder of the small press 120 Days Books, which became an imprint of Riverdale Avenue Books.
Alone in the Dark II is a 2008 horror film directed by Peter Scheerer and Michael Roesch and starring Rick Yune, Rachel Specter and Lance Henriksen. It is a standalone sequel to Uwe Boll's 2005 film Alone in the Dark, featuring an entirely new cast and a story that is unrelated to the original film.
Machete is a 2010 American exploitation action film directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis. The film is an expansion of a fake trailer of the same name published as a part of the promotion of Rodriguez's and Quentin Tarantino's 2007 Grindhouse double-feature. Machete continues the B movie and exploitation style of Grindhouse, and includes some of the footage from the original.
Who Can Kill a Child?, released theatrically as Island of the Damned and Children of the Corn Tortilla in the US, and Would You Kill A Child?, Death Is Child's Play and Island of Death in the UK, is a 1976 Spanish horror film directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador. The film follows an English couple who find an island inhabited by maniacal children.
Bad Teacher is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by the writing team of Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, John Michael Higgins and Jason Segel, the film tells the story of a middle school teacher who hates her job, her students, and her co-workers but returns to teaching after her wealthy fiancé breaks up with her.
Bad Ass is a 2012 American action film written and directed by Craig Moss. The film stars Danny Trejo, Charles S. Dutton, and Ron Perlman. It is loosely based on the 2010 AC Transit Bus fight viral video.
Machete Kills is a 2013 American action exploitation film directed by Robert Rodriguez, with a screenplay by Kyle Ward, from a story by Robert and Marcel Rodriguez. Starring Danny Trejo, who returns in his role as the eponymous character, it is a sequel to Machete (2010), and is the third film based on a fake trailer in Grindhouse (2007). Michelle Rodriguez, Tom Savini, Electra and Elise Avellan, Felix Sabates, and Jessica Alba reprise their roles from the first film, and are joined by series newcomers Mel Gibson, Demián Bichir, Amber Heard, Sofía Vergara, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Hudgens, Alexa Vega, William Sadler, Marko Zaror, and Charlie Sheen. The film follows the titular ex-federal (Trejo) as he is recruited by the U.S. President (Sheen) to stop an arms dealer (Gibson) and a revolutionary (Bichir).
An American Hippie in Israel, also known as Ha-Trempist, is a 1972 Israeli metaphorical counter-culture film written and directed by Amos Sefer starring Asher Tzarfati. Many have cited this film as one of the worst films ever made. Once thought lost, it was rediscovered decades later by the cult film enthusiasts at Grindhouse Releasing who have digitally restored the film and presented it in Blu-ray and DVD.
Bullet is a 2014 action thriller film starring Danny Trejo as the title character and Jonathan Banks as the villain. The film was directed and co-written by Nick Lyon, with additional writing by Matthew Joynes, Ron Peer and Byron Lester, and was produced by Matthew Joynes and Robert Rodriguez. It follows an undercover police officer-turned-vigilante (Trejo) tracking down the crooks who kidnapped his grandson. Filming took place in Los Angeles, United States. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 25, 2014 in North America.
Dead in Tombstone is a 2013 American direct-to-video horror Western film produced by Universal 1440 Entertainment. It was directed by Roel Reiné and written by Shane Kuhn and Brendan Cowles. The film stars Danny Trejo as Guerrero, a gang leader who gets double-crossed by his fellow gang members. Striking a pact with the Devil after entering Hell, he resurfaces to the earthly world to avenge his own death by killing the men who murdered him. The film was released in home media on October 22, 2013, and was followed by a sequel, Dead Again in Tombstone (2017).
Danny Trejo is an American actor. His filmography consists of about 250 film and television roles. His prominence in the B movie scene has resulted in disparate media sources referring to Trejo as an "iconic actor" and a "film legend", among other titles.
Supremacy is a 2014 American drama thriller film directed by Deon Taylor, written by Eric J. Adams, and starring Joe Anderson, Dawn Olivieri and Danny Glover. The film chronicles the real life events of March 29–30, 1995, perpetrated by Aryan Brotherhood members Robert Walter Scully Jr. and Brenda Kay Moore. After fatally shooting a police officer, neo-Nazi Garrett Tully, along with his companion, Doreen Lesser, breaks into a house and takes an African-American family hostage.
Wish Man is a 2019 American biographical drama film written and directed by Theo Davies and starring Andrew Steel, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Tom Sizemore, Frank Whaley, Bruce Davison, Robert Pine, Fay Masterson, Dale Dickey and Danny Trejo. El Ride productions helped bring the film to fruition with late funding which made the final edit possible.
Out of Death is a 2021 American action thriller film directed by Mike Burns and starring Bruce Willis and Jaime King.
Wrong Place is a 2022 American action film directed by Mike Burns, from a script from Bill Lawrence, and produced by Randall Emmett and George Furla. It stars Ashley Greene Khoury and Bruce Willis.
The Night They Came Home is a 2024 American Western thriller film, directed by Paul G. Volk and written by John A. Russo and James O'Brien. It stars Brian Austin Green, Robert Carradine, Charlie Townsend, Tim Abell, Kelsey Reinhardt, and Danny Trejo.
