Death Race 2000 (1975 / 1985RR) German A0 Poster #New

Based on Ib Melchior's short story The Racer - he also wrote and directed the cult Angry Red Planet (1959) and The Time Travellers (1964) - Death Race 2000 was Paul Bartel's finest work for producer Roger Corman. This dsytopian black comedy features a road race where anything goes, including murdering innocent bystanders for bonus points, (although Euthanasia Day at Mercy Hospital doesn't go according to plan...) David Carradine stars as 'Frankenstein' the scarred and masked driver whose previous wins have made him a national hero. His navigator is secretly a member of the resistance, committed to destroying the race - so deaths on and off the track are guaranteed.

Corman was always against the comedic elements - Bartel, in retrospect, agreed that the removal of much of the humour made the film more successful. But Rollerball, released the same year, told a similar story without any self-awareness or sense of fun - time has proven Death Race 2000 to be the superior entry.

Artist: K. Dia

Condition: VERY FINE

Cast: David Carradine, Simone Griffeth - Swamp Girl (1971), Sylvester Stallone, cult star Mary Woronov - from Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966) to proto-slasher Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), Seizure (1974), Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), Eating Raoul (1982), Warlock (1989) to The Devil's Rejects (2005), Roberta Collins - Caged Heat (1974), Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive (1976), Martin Kove - the bad buy in the Karate Kid series, Louisa Moritz, Don Steele, Joyce Jameson