The Awful Dr. Orloff. Nightmares Come at Night. A Virgin Among the Living Dead. Female Vampire. Golden Temple Amazons. The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus. Helga The She Wolf of Spilberg, Maniac Killer, The Man with the Severed Head. The films of Eurociné — more than a hundred movies — may not be considered as anything more than schlock, but this documentary by Christophe Bier attempts to change all of that.

Marius Lesoeur was a carnival man who used the same ballyhoo to make movies, which mostly were about wild animals and exotic dancing, which are both subjects that we can get behind, as well as violence, action and nudity, all of which made their way into the films of his new studio. This movie posits Lesoeur as the Roger Corman of France, yet perhaps a bit sillier and at an even lower budget. Then there’s the theory of just shooting movies and dubbing later, as well as using the same footage and costumes as many times as possible. Anything to make a movie!

What I loved most was seeing scenes from so many of these films — with the logo and artwork before each movie — and the breakdown of how it was made, why it was made and how audiences reacted, as well as stories about the filmmakers. This movie could have been nine hours long — it clocks in at a short 77 minutes — and I’d watch it more than twice.