Tom Atkins is an American actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is known for his work in the horror and thriller film genres, having worked with writers and directors such as Shane Black, William Peter Blatty, John Carpenter, Fred Dekker, Richard Donner, Stephen King, and George A. Romero. He is also a familiar face to mainstream viewers, often playing police officers and tough authority figures and is perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Alex Diel in The Rockford Files (1974–1977).
The Asylum is an American independent film production and distribution company based in Burbank, California. The company is known for producing low-budget, direct-to-video films, in particular mockbusters, which capitalize on the popularity of major studio films with similar titles and premises. The Asylum's business model revolves around producing as many low-budget films as quickly as possible, which earn around $150,000 to $250,000 in profit. Since the company produces dozens of films every year, this model generates millions of dollars, and the company claims to have never lost money on a film. The Asylum spends around 4-6 months making a film, and since the company is not affiliated with any industry guilds other than SAG-AFTRA, this means their employees will sometimes work upwards of 22 hours a day.
Transmorphers is a 2007 American science fiction alien invasion film released direct-to-DVD on June 26, 2007. It was written and directed by Leigh Scott and produced by David Michael Latt and The Asylum, "a studio whose work gets slightly more respect than the Girls Gone Wild series, and slightly less than backyard-wrestling DVDs", according to Keith Phipps of AVClub. Transmorphers was developed as a mockbuster, intending to capitalize on both Transformers (2007) and Terminator 3 (2003).
A mockbuster is a film created to exploit the publicity of another major motion picture with a similar title or subject. Mockbusters are often made with a low budget and quick production to maximize profits. "Mockbuster" is a portmanteau of the words "mock" and "blockbuster".
Zachary Michael Cregger is an American comedian, actor, writer, director and producer. He first came to prominence as one of the three founding members, alongside Trevor Moore and Sam Brown, of the New York City-based comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know. He later starred in the sitcoms Friends with Benefits, Guys with Kids, and Wrecked. He also starred in the film Miss March, which he co-directed and co-wrote with Moore. In 2022, Cregger wrote and directed the horror film Barbarian, which was a commercial success and opened to positive critical reviews.
Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill is a 2004 zombie-western slasher film released by The Asylum. Unlike many of the later efforts by The Asylum, this movie is not a mockbuster. The film follows a group of people trying to survive while stranded in Sunset Valley, a desert ghost town inhabited by the murderous spirit of Confederate war criminal, William T. Anderson and his horde of zombies.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is an American horror media franchise consisting of three slasher films and one television series based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan. The first installment was written by Kevin Williamson, directed by Jim Gillespie, and released in 1997.
Crawl is a 2019 American natural horror film directed by Alexandre Aja, written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, and produced by Sam Raimi. It stars Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper as a daughter and father who, along with their dog, find themselves trapped in the crawl space of their home and preyed upon by alligators during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida.
Dustin Ferguson is an American underground filmmaker from Lincoln, Nebraska. He has directed numerous music videos and more than 100 horror films since 2007, including The Amityville Legacy. He writes, directs and edits his own films and is known for his prolific output, releasing several feature films each year as well as for making mockbusters and sequels.
Critters Attack! is a 2019 horror comedy film. It is a reboot of the 1986 film Critters, and the fifth entry in the Critters franchise. Although returning actress Dee Wallace was assumed to be portraying a new heroine distinct from her Helen Brown character, Wallace herself confirmed that she was reprising the original role, with a name change to "Aunt Dee" due to potential legal issues.
Monster Island is a 2019 television science-fiction monster film produced by The Asylum. Keeping with The Asylum's mainstay theme of mockbusters, it was released in the same year as the 2019 monster film Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Willy's Wonderland is a 2021 American action comedy horror film directed by Kevin Lewis from a screenplay written by G. O. Parsons. The film stars Nicolas Cage, who also served as producer, along with Emily Tosta, Ric Reitz, David Sheftell and Beth Grant. It follows a quiet drifter who is tricked into cleaning up an abandoned family entertainment center inhabited by eight murderous animatronic characters who are possessed with the souls of a cannibalistic killer and his seven psychotic colleagues.
Sharksploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film that involves sharks or shark attacks. The genre emerged in the wake of the 1975 film Jaws and its sequels, but fell in popularity soon after. The 1999 film Deep Blue Sea brought it back to public prominence. Other examples of sharksploitation films include Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus (2009), Dinoshark, Sharktopus, Snow Shark (2012), Ghost Shark (2013), Avalanche Sharks (2014), and the Sharknado film series (2013–2018).
Evil Dead: The Game is a 2022 asymmetric survival horror game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Boss Team Games. It is part of the Evil Dead franchise. It features Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, along with most of the original cast reprising their roles.
Cocaine Bear is a 2023 American comedy horror film directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden. It is loosely inspired by the true story of the "Cocaine Bear", an American black bear that ingested several kilograms of a bag containing about 75 lb (34 kg) of lost cocaine. The film stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ray Liotta. It is dedicated to Liotta, who died in May 2022.
The Mean One is a 2022 American Christmas horror film directed by Steven LaMorte from a screenplay written by Flip and Finn Kobler. It is a horror retelling of Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and stars Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, and Amy Schumacher, with David Howard Thornton as the eponymous character. It follows a young woman as she attempts to defend her childhood town from a green-skinned creature who goes on a murderous rampage during the holiday season.
Cocaine Shark is a 2023 horror film directed by Mark Polonia. Originally released in Japan under the title Kanizame Shakurabu, it was renamed in order to profit from the release of Cocaine Bear.
