All Hail Frankenstein!

We are fans of Roger Corman here on the site. While I will certainly find things to criticize about his films (the cheapness of some productions, the terrible acting from his non-union performers, the unending reuse of footage to a comedic degree), the fact is that Corman produced a whole hell of a lot of films, many of which might have been cheap and silly and at times stupid but also fun. Corman had this knack for taking stupid films and making them fun. Sure, they were frequently terrible, but that only added to the amusing aura surrounding the films.

Such is the case with Death Race 2000. Released in 1975, the film was written by Robert Thom and Charles B. Griffith and directed by Paul Bartel, based on a short story, “The Racer”, by Ib Melchior. The film has all the qualities of a Corman production that you could love, from the cheesy acting given by performers clearly in on the joke, to shoddy sets, bad special effects, and cheap materials all around. And yet, at the same time, it works. It has a go-for-broke attitude that suits the subject matter, and it absolutely doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anything except having a good time. It’s a darkly comedic action film that just works.

And work it did, bringing in $14 Mil against its (Corman-standard) tiny budget of $530k. As with so many Corman works, it was made for what would be just the craft services budget on a normal film. It was not only a success at the time, it then went on to become a cult hit in the years since. It remained popular enough to not only get a sequel four decades later, Death Race 2050, but also a remake series of films under the name Death Race as well. There’s something fun about watching cars locked in vehicular violence, scoring points by killing people, and it clearly continues to resonate with fans.

After the World Crash of ‘79, a totalitarian dictatorship rose, up, taking control of the civilized world, with the charismatic Mr. President (Sandy McCallum). To keep the denizens of the world happy and docile, a new sport was introduced: the Transcontinental Road Race, aka the Death Race. Twenty years later, five racing teams met up for the 20th annual race. These teams included Joe "Machine Gun" Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone) and his navigator, Myra (Louisa Moritz); "Calamity Jane" Kelly (Mary Woronov) and her navigator, Pete (William Shephard); Matilda "The Hun" (Roberta Collins) and her navigator, Herman "The German" Spok (Fred Grandy); Ray "Nero The Hero" Lonagan (Martin Kove) and his navigator, Cleopatra (Leslie McRay). But most famous of all is the multiple-wreck survivor "Frankenstein" (David Carradine), teamed with his new navigator Annie Smith (Simone Griffeth), who many expect to win this year’s Death Race as well.

Winning won’t be easy, though. Not only are all the drivers contending with each other for position in the race, often violently fighting back and forth, but they also have to score points by running over people. And beyond all that, there’s a revolutionary group, led by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), that wants to stop the Death Race, its drivers, and the new government, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Getting from one coast to the other has never been so difficult, but the reward at the end could be oh so sweet.

One of Corman’s best skills was seeing what was popular at the time and then making something just good enough to leech off the popularity to score quick and dirty money. When Jaws gained massive Box Office and acclaim, Corman put out Piranha. When Lucas put out Star Wars, Corman got Battle Beyond the Stars into production. Death Race 2000 was no different. There were a few racing films that came out before Corman’s production, such as Le Mans and Grand Prix, which meant Corman had to find a way to do that, but cheaper. That, combined with the concept of the “Cannonball Run”, an attempt to drive across the whole country as fast as possible back in the 1960s, led to Corman’s film.

Amusingly, the success of Death Race 2000 at least indirectly inspired even more works of the genre, from two The Cannonball Run films, to Speed Zone! and The Gumball Rally. So Corman managed to leave his mark in both directions with this one.

Despite its high concept, Death Race 2000 is as Corman as they come. We open with a shot of the drivers pulling up to the line. The cars are clearly shittily made, with plastic bodies formed over cheap street racing buggies. The sci-fi background of the shot is a cheap matte painting. The performances are high camp and very silly. But that doesn’t detract from the production. If anything, it accents it. You know right from the get-go that this isn’t a serious production; it’s meant to be campy and fun. And it absolutely is.

Once the race gets going, things get more amusing. That’s when the concept of scoring points by running people over comes into play. Yes, there’s a fair bit of violence and a lot of cheap red paint used in place of gore. But there’s also a lot of sardonic humor as well. Who gets run over, who doesn’t, what and why for. All of that comes into play while the announcers cheer on the deaths, award prizes to the widows, and generally make this seem like just another normal day in the life of this regime.

That’s one of the big strengths of this film: despite the fact it’s a Corman film packed with violence and nudity (there’s always more nudity in the film than I ever remember each time I watch it), it also has a very wry sense of its own story. The in-movie event is intended to glorify violence, but the film is slyly against all of it. It doesn’t stop us from reveling in it, and enjoying the spectacle, but it also tells us a story about fighting against tyranny and battling totalitarianism. Honestly, in the world we’re living in now, it makes Death Race 2000 feel even more prescient than before (and that’s even before we get to sequel Death Race 2050 with its overt Trump parodying).

Frankly, Death Race 2000 has just the right mix of silliness and seriousness. Even as a Nazi driver tries to get ahead in the race (worry not, she doesn’t come out ahead) the film is also mocking her. The overt tough guy, Machine Gun Joe, is mocked and ridiculed at every turn, especially by himself. The whole of the event is meant to glorify the regime, but everyone we meet and learn about and come to enjoy seems to hate everything about it. The movie wants us to both enjoy the stupidity and think about what we’re watching, making it one of the few truly smart and interesting Roger Corman productions.

I think that’s really the reason why this film continues to live on with cult status while so many of his other productions (and there are thousands) frequently faded away as soon as they were done making the rounds in theaters and home video. Death Race 2000 is a perfect blend of comedy, violence, and shitty production, all to make a film better than it has any right to be. Is it a shitty Roger Corman film? Yes. Is it also watchable, fun, and dare I say it, even good? Also yes. It’s the rare Corman winner you can go back to again and again. It’s that much fun.