Obituary: David F. Friedman dies at 87; exploitation filmmaker pioneered graphic horror movies - latimes.com

"David F. Friedman, the godfather of B-movie gore who produced 1963's "Blood Feast," which paved a bloody path that led to increasingly graphic horror movies, has died. He was 87."

"Friedman died Monday of heart failure at a nursing home in Anniston, Ala., said Bridget Everett, his niece."

"It's hard to think of anybody who was more important to exploitation films," said Eric Schaefer, an expert on the exploitation genre and a professor of visual and media arts at Boston's Emerson College. "He was a link to the old road-show days of exploitation that begin in the 1920s and obviously was a crucial producer." via www.latimes.com