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The Roger Corman Collection kicks off in April

11 February 2010

April 5th 2010 sees the release on DVD of five cult classics from the vaults of legendary film producer Roger Corman, representing the first half of The Roger Corman Collection, a ten-disc series of titles being released on Metrodome's budget DVD label, In2Film.

The first batch includes the creepy horror movie, The Unborn, starring Brooke Adams; the sci-fi shocker, Forbidden World (aka Mutant), the martial arts actioner Blackbelt, co-directed by Rick Jacobson (Bitch Slap) and starring Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, the women-in-chains exploitation flick, The Big Bird Cage, starring Pam Grier, and the infamous Big Bad Mama, starring Angie Dickinson, William Shatner and Tom Skerritt.

Directed by Steve Carver (Bulletproof; Lone Wolf McQuade; An Eye For An Eye), Big Bad Mama stars Angie Dickinson as Wilma, a gangster's moll who takes control of her boyfriend's bootlegging business following his death and becomes involved in a rollercoaster crime spree. Assisting her are two ne'er-do-wells in the form of bank robber Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt) and conman William J. Baxter (William Shatner), as well as her uncontrollable but comely daughters, Billy Jean (Susan Sennett) and Polly (Robbie Lee).

Written and directed by one of Quentin Tarantino's heroes, Jack Hill (Switchblade Sisters; Foxy Brown; Coffy), The Big Bird Cage is considered one of the definitive exploitation movies of the 1970s and stars Pam Grier as Blossom and Sid Haig as Django, a pair of revolutionaries whose heist on a tropical nightclub doesn't go quite according to plan. The ensuing confusion leads to the wrongful arrest of a scandalous social climber, Terry (Anitra Ford), who finds herself incarcerated in a notorious jungle prison populated by scantily clad inmates. Brutalized and subjected to numerous indignities, Terry and her fellow inmates' only hope for survival lies in a rescue plot hatched by Blossom and Django.

The fast-paced martial arts action movie, Blackbelt, sees beautiful rock star Shanna (Deirdre Imershein) seeking protection from a psychotic killer (Matthias Hues) with a mother fixation and a penchant for brutality, as well as from her own corrupt, mobster of a business manager. Reluctantly, she hires ex-cop and karate instructor Jack Dillon (Don 'The Dragon' Wilson), who finds himself stuck in the middle of a deadly, two-pronged assault from Shanna's tormentors.

Set on a far off desert planet in a distant future, Forbidden World combines horror and sci-fi in an effectively chilling and gory tale of a genetic experimentation that goes disastrously out of control. When Federation Commander Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is sent to investigate reports that a scientific research team's ambitious quest to create a brand new creature from human cells has gone horribly wrong, he makes a terrifying discovery. Now, there's a monster on the loose and it's threatening to wipe out all human life on the planet. Colby embarks on a desperate race against time to destroy the creature but unknown to him some people have a sinister interest in keeping the thing alive and completing the top secret project from which it was created.

Featuring the big screen debut of one Lisa Kudrow (Friends), the deeply unsettling horror exploitation movie The Unborn stars Brooke Adams and Jeff Hayenga as Virginia and Brad Marshall, a couple whose unsuccessful attempts at having a child see them turning to IVF specialist Dr. Richard Meyerling (James Karen) for help. Initially overjoyed when she is eventually confirmed to be pregnant, Virginia soon senses something is not quite right and finds her very worst fears confirmed when it becomes shockingly clear that her unborn foetus is very much in charge of the proceedings.

Big Bad Mama (cert. 18), The Big Bird Cage (cert. 18), Blackbelt (cert. 18), Forbidden World (cert. 15) and The Unborn (cert. 18) will be released on UK DVD by In2Film on 5th April 2010 at £5.99 each.