{"id":2374,"date":"2009-01-11T11:58:42","date_gmt":"2009-01-11T16:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2018-11-18T22:49:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T03:49:51","slug":"exploitation-director-ray-dennis-steckler-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/11\/exploitation-director-ray-dennis-steckler-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploitation Director Ray Dennis Steckler Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"raydennissteckler\"<\/a>Ray Dennis Steckler, director of such low budget exploitation fare as The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Decided To Stop Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies<\/strong>, died this past Wedsnesday, January 7,in Las Vegas. He was 70.<\/p>\n

After a stint in the Army serving as a photographer\u00a0 and a year working at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, Steckler moved to Los Angeles. Taking a job as the assistant cameraman on the Timothy Carey film, The World’s Greatest Sinner<\/strong>, and was promoted to director of photography when the Carey fired the original one. Following shooting a few films at Universal, Steckler moved over to the low budget indie production house Fairway Picture. At Fairway, he quickly was assigneddirectorial duties starting with Wild Guitar<\/strong>. The film aslo was another first for Steckler as it marked the first time he would act in one of his own features under the name Cash Flagg.<\/p>\n

In 1963, Steckler added the title co-producer to his resume with The Incredibly Strange Creatures<\/strong>. Produced on a budget of $38,000, the film would provide t he first break for two cinematographers- Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. At first distributed by Fairway on the bottom half of a double bill, Steckler also toured the film himself under a variety of names for further profit. Steckler would also direct such movies as Goof On The Loose<\/strong> (1964), The Lemon Grove Kids Meet The Monsters<\/strong> (1965) and the Batman parody Rat Pfink A Boo Boo<\/strong> (1966).<\/p>\n

With the decline of demand for the type of cheapie drive-in fare that he was creating, Steckler moved into producing and directing campy, softcore porno films with titles like Sexoricist Devil <\/strong>and The Horny Vampire<\/strong> under a variety of pseudonyms in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Last year Steckler announced a sequel to The Incredibly Strange Creatures<\/strong> entitled One More Time<\/strong>. He reportedly finished the film shortly before his death. It is scheduled for a direct to DVD release in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Dennis Steckler, director of such low budget exploitation fare as The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Decided To Stop Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies, died this past Wedsnesday, January 7,in Las Vegas. He was 70. [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,133],"tags":[778,59,1236],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"category-obituary-news","8":"tag-cult-classics","9":"tag-obituary","10":"tag-ray-dennis-steckler"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t