One of the positive aspects of being laid up with my first (and hopefully last) bout of bronchitis this past week has been the chance to re-watch a lot of old videos and DVDs that I wouldn't have otherwise had the chance (or time) to. In particular, I was curiously drawn to my collection of Ray Dennis Steckler films.

While most fans of low-budget exploitation cinema know him best for his string of cult classic he helmed throughout the mid-1960s (among them the monster musical The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, the Batman pastiche Rat Pfink and Boo Boo and the crime melodrama The Thrill Killers), I found myself being lured to his lesser know, and more unappreciated, films which he made after his 'heyday'.

Here then is a little rundown of the Ray Dennis Steckler films that have kept me entertained over the past couple of days:

BODY FEVER (1969)

Steckler's homage to classic film noir sees the director/co-writer also starring in the lead role of Charlie Smith, a down on his heels private eye who's so broke he has to hitch hike his way around town! Smith becomes involved with sultry cat burglar Carrie Erskine (played by Steckler's statuesque, leggy ex-wife and frequent star Carolyn Brandt) who has ripped off $150,000 worth of heroin from a big time drug dealer.

A semi-serious and occasionally tough and gritty film, Body Fever would have to rate as one of my favourite Steckler films. Tragic actor/musician/author (and cult figure in his own right) Ron Haydock appears as a glamour photographer, and it's great to see old Hollywood character actor (and writer/director of The Beast of Yucca Flats) Coleman Francis turn up in a bit role.

(According to Steckler, he had finished filming Body Fever when he spotted the down and out Francis, drunk and lying in the gutter, and decided to give him a break by shooting a few new scenes around him. Steckler gave him some cash in advance and intended to shoot some scenes of Francis as an alcoholic bum, but was staggered when the actor showed up the next day sober, clean shaven and wearing a neat suit. Francis had used the advance Steckler gave him to get a haircut, a shave and a decent second-hand suit!).

THE MAD LOVE LIFE OF A HOT VAMPIRE (1971)

Directed under his Sven Christian alias, this XXX hardcore film is just as strange and surreal as any of Steckler's 'normal' films.  Filmed in Las Vegas, Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire stars Jim Parker (a real-life horror movie host on Vegas TV in the 60s) as Count Dracula, who urges his three female vampire slaves (one of whom can't stop giggling to herself at the ridiculousness of it all) to "Love each other" before sending them out into the night to collect blood. No prizes for guessing where these lovely female vamps bite their male victims and drain their blood from. Dracula's long-time nemesis Van Helsing (looking a lot more bulky around the middle than Peter Cushing ever did) turns up to drive the Count out into the daylight.

With appearances by Carolyn Brandt (who pops up to narrate the story and offer words of encouragement like "Run, Dracula, run!"), a demented Dwight Fry-like servant (who whacks off furiously while the vampire gals get it on) and a woman named Janet who has the most amazing, gigantic platinum blonde/silver hairdo (I can just imagine her serving cocktails in some low-rent Vegas bar), Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire is a prime slice of grotty, vintage hardcore smut. Steckler made a follow-up of sorts called The Horny Vampire (also filmed in Vegas).

BLOOD SHACK (1971)

An old shack in the middle of an isolated desert ranch is home to the 'Chooper', a legendary wraith who is said to appear whenever someone dares enter the dwelling, to punish and kill them (as the young blonde thrill seeker finds out near the beginning of the film, followed shortly by her husband who comes looking for her). Carolyn Brandt plays herself, an actress who has inherited the ranch from her deceased father and finds herself under pressure to sell from the neighbouring rancher (Ron Haydock).

Shot on what looks to be an extremely economical budget (even by Steckler's standards), the sparse, isolated locations help lend an eerie atmosphere to Blood Shack, and Steckler's two little daughters are very funny and cute to watch throughout the film. Haydock also performs the theme song The Chooperman.

THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979)

Pierre Agostini is the Hollywood Strangler, posing as a glamour photographer and seeking out his victims in the pages of the free press. A somewhat harder looking Carolyn Brandt is the Skid Row Slasher, working in a grimy second hand bookstore and picking off her drunken victims in the dark alleyways behind porno cinemas. They both seem to sense a strange attraction to each other, but their eventual attempt to come together only ends in an explosion of violence and bizarre double murder!

Shot entirely without dialogue (with wacky voice-over narration added by Steckler himself), The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher may not be the filmmaker's most enjoyable work, but it has a genuinely disturbing ambience and has some amazing location footage of Santa Monica Boulevard at it's sleaziest, making it an invaluable travelogue and time capsule of the seedy side of late-70s Hollywood. Directed by Steckler under his Wolfgang Schmidt alias.

Visit Ray Dennis Steckler's website at www.raydennissteckler.com, or his My Space page at www.myspace.com/raydennissteckler