Fred Olen Ray: Biography

The remarkable thing about those who work the B-quickie end of the movie business is how much they love films, how much they love to work, and how much they're willing to give up to create their ribbons of dreams. Director/screenwriter/makeup artist Fred Olen Ray hocked virtually everything he owned to make The Alien Dead (1978). Never mind that, as a graduate of the Brown University School of Engineering, Ray could have named his own salary in practically any job in his field: Celluloid was in his blood, and there it would remain from 1978 to the present. Often shooting four or more films per year, Ray occasionally turns up something that transcends the exploitation film genre and his miserly budgets; if you look at them objectively, films like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988) and Beverly Hills Vamp (1989) are heaps better than most of the dreck clogging up the video stores' R-rated shelves. If nothing else, few other bottom-barrel filmmakers outside of Fred Olen Ray can boast an acting talent pool that has included the likes of Lawrence Tierney, Buster Crabbe, John Philip Law, Jan Michael Vincent, P.J. Soles, Britt Ekland, Martine Beswick, Julie Newmar, David Carradine, and Martin Landau. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide