Independent-International Pictures

Independent-International Pictures was founded in 1969 by Al Adamson and Sam Sherman, with financial support from Dan Kennis. The company operated as an exploitation film enterprise built on a streamlined, demand-driven model. Adamson handled directing, while Sherman focused on sales. The pair developed a methodical approach to the drive-in market: Sherman would travel across the country, asking theater owners directly what audiences wanted—more karate, more nudity, more blood—and then Adamson or Sherman would write a script in a matter of weeks, with production starting quickly to capitalize on current trends.

The company’s filmography reflected a chaotic mix of genres typical of the drive-in era. Films like *Satan's Sadists* offered some of the most extreme entries in the biker genre, while *Dracula vs. Frankenstein* featured a fading Lon Chaney Jr. in a disjointed monster movie. Other titles, including *Horror of the Blood Monsters*, *Brain of Blood*, *Blood of Ghastly Horror*, and the softcore *The Naughty Stewardesses*, were characterized by lurid titles and low-budget, improvisational filmmaking. Adamson was known for a particular technique: incorporating new footage into old or unfinished material and reassembling the pieces into a new film under a fresh, attention-grabbing title.

Independent-International's success was as much about distribution as it was about production. Sherman's market research and aggressive retitling allowed the company to maximize the value of each film, rebooking the same negative under different names in various regions. This strategy kept the company active during the drive-in industry's final golden years for over a decade.

However, the decline of the drive-in circuit in the early 1980s spelled the end of Independent-International's active production phase, which effectively ceased around 1983. After that, Sherman managed the company's library as a catalog operation. The company's story took a dark turn years later when Adamson was murdered, and his body was hidden beneath the floor of his California home. Sherman lived for decades after his partner's death, maintaining a film catalog that remained as notorious as any in the industry.