Shaun Costello
Also Known As: Russ Carlson, Lars Tobin, Eclair von Ott, Otto Von Lickit, Harry Gordon, Jack Hammer, Helmuth Richler, Kenneth Schwartz, John Stover, Oscar Tripe, Nicholas Berland, Amanda Barton, Warren Evans, Arlo Benson, Martin Jones, Arthur van Deuvel, Joel Devlin, Stephen Steinberg, Jerry Conti, Howard Steinman, Howard Stein, Rick Livermoore
Biography: Shaun Costello began directing for "loops" (10-minute scenes shown in coin-operated viewers in adult theaters) in NYC in the early 1970s, and soon was directing (and acting in) full porn movies and other grindhouse "roughies" shown in Times Square's 42nd Street adult theaters. Costello took work where he could get it, often working for the Mob, who owned many adult theaters and distribution, and working under different aliases for different theaters so that no one (at the time) knew that he was his own competition. Eventually moving on to a mainstream documentary career, Costello written and directed grindhouse movies - rough and violent and reflecting of their times - have seen a resurgence as the 2010's have seen these movies be remastered and re-released and often seen for the first time in decades. Anyone interested in the history of American porn or grindhouse/exploitation theater of the late 1960s and 1970s will likely have encountered Shaun Costello's work, often unknowingly due to his prolific use of aliases.
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Adult: No
Deathday: July 05, 2023
Popularity:
Known For:
The Love Bus
Overview: Dr. Scheisekopf (Jamie Gillis) advises patient Jennifer Jordan (aka Sarah Nicholson) to get away for the weekend. When the bus she travels on crashes, passengers take refuge at crazy Sonny Landham’s country house where all manner of lewd hook-ups occur.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-11-01
Popularity:
Pandora's Mirror
Overview: While out for lunch with a friend, Pandora feels an unexplained compulsion to visit a small antique shop. While browsing, a large mirror catches her attention, seemingly casting a spell over her. Despite warnings by the shop keeper to be wary of its enveloping powers of sensuality, Pandora cannot overcome her strange desire to gaze into it, visiting the store again and again. Each time learning a bit more about the mirror’s debauched past and corrupting powers – a sensation Pandora is soon a slave to…
Genres: Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-12-28
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Forced Entry
Overview: A crazed Vietnam vet hunts down and kills women.
Genres: Horror Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-03-16
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The Untamed Vixens
Overview: A man is kidnapped by a group of women and subjected to unspeakable tortures. However, he comes to enjoy them.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
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Cheryl's Surrender
Overview: A gang of terrorists attack the American embassy in Labania and kidnap the ambassador, his wife and his secretary.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-12-26
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Teenage Nurses
Overview: When Dr. Canute is appointed Director of Veterans Hospital, he decides that what the boys that came back from Vietnam need is not Bob Hope to entertain them, but they need girls..nurses…Teenage Nurses!
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-05-14
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Joy Of Humiliation
Overview: Vanessa's psychologist husband recounts the kinky case history of an insatiable patient.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-06-16
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The Fury in Alice
Overview: A domestic tragicomedy which follows a slutty housewife through her kinky extra marital affairs.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-06-01
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The Porn Brokers
Overview: Quasi-documentary that looks at the sex industry in Europe. Features interviews with people who make or take part in pornographic films, publish sex magazines, or supply erotic stills, in Britain, the Scandinavian countries and Germany. Also shows two blue movies being made.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-03-16
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Selling It
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-06
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Venture Into the Bizzare
Overview: Two young girls in New York's Greenwich Village own a plaster-casting shop. One day a well-known Hollywood actor walks into their shop and asks if they can make a plaster replica of his penis. When he later brings a friend of his, also a well-known actor, in to get his 'member' replicated, the girls hatch an ingenious plan to make a lot of money by making replicas of stars' penises, then blackmailing them. However, things don't turn out exactly the way they planned.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
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The Two Lives of Jennifer
Overview: A writer finds out that his wife is leading a double life, which includes a second husband who lives on the other side of town. He presents this story to his editor, who is so intrigued by it that she takes her male secretary along and sets out to find out whether the writer's wife is actually doing what he says she is.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-01-01
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The Summer of Suzanne
Overview: When her parents leave for a trip to New York, a young Chicago girl decides to lose her virginity as soon as possible, and enlists the help of her wild older sister to achieve her goal.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
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Sexual Customs in Scandinavia
Overview: A doctor outlines several cases involving sexual problems suffered by citizens of Scandinavia, and the cases are re-enacted for the education of the audience.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-02-11
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Feel
Overview: A "whitecoater" released long after the industry had dropped such requirements, nonetheless a requirement for Tina Russell fans and those interested in early examples of the golden age.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-09-23
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Cherry Hustlers
Overview: An accountant embezzles $80,000 from his company, in cahoots with a beautiful company executive. However, he starts worrying about getting caught and lets his partner know that he wants to stop. She, however, doesn't want to dry up her cash cow, so she finds some "persuasive" ways to convince her partner to keep up his end of the deal.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-05-01
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Private Practice
Overview: A sex therapist treats a pain addicted tramp who needs leather hooded brutes to bind and beat her to get off.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-01-01
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Schoolgirl's Reunion
Overview: Two former classmates reunite at their school's athletic stadium to reminisce about their youth, but the discussion, and ensuing flashbacks, soon take them back to shocking and perverse memories.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-03-01
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Sweet Sexteen
Overview: It's Debbie's birthday, and her friends have hired a stud to deflower the young stud. The stud in questions frets ahead of time over whether he'll be asked to do anything kinky.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-01
Popularity:
Two Senoritas
Overview: A husband and wife are very upset when they learn their Friday night orgy venue has been sublet to two women from South America. They decide that the best course of action is to just go over, walk in, and get it on, hoping that the new residents will think it’s just an old American custom.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-02-03
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Hymns from the Abyss
Overview: Images of moral panic, cult followings and the edges of madness from sex and death.
Genres: Horror Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2021-08-02
Popularity:
Sensuous Vixens
Overview: Tina Russell (X Rated Critics Organization Hall of Fame Member) leads us through the tumultuously sexy New York City searching for modeling opportunities. After a series of long days and no results, she takes an offer to model in some "artistic photographs." When she arrives, she quickly learns what art means in the shady underworld of Manhattan. Tina quickly moves from tame, softcore photography to hardcore fuck films, embracing her pornographic urges while feeding her lust for the camera. Sensuous Vixens is the classic tale of a good girl releasing the nympho beast inside while exploring her own sexual urges.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-08-20
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Enrapture
Overview: In this erotic thriller an out of work actor is forced to take a job as a limousine driver. He drives for a beautiful woman and her husband who has ties to the mob. When the girl turns up dead, he is accused of her murder.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-03-30
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China Doll
Overview: Private investigator Mickey Finn searches for a missing china doll filled with $25,000 of Dilithium crystals. Notable as Vanessa del Rio's first movie.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-10-06
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Midnight Desires
Overview: Four friends on a weekend getaway to Long Island are siting around a fireplace and each relates a sexual fantasy that he or she has had for a long time but kept secret.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-03-09
Popularity:
Water Power
Overview: A mentally troubled man becomes a serial rapist and torturer due to the strong shock he suffers after witnessing the performance of an enema in a brothel.
Genres: Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-09-01
Popularity:
Double Pleasure
Overview: When these Hollywood superstars double their pleasure, they’ll also double yours, because watching this unusual fetish on your home screen can be incredibly erotic. All the greats are into it!
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-04-23
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The Magical Ring
Overview: A beggar gives a woman a ring in appreciation for an act of kindness. The woman discovers that the ring is actually a magic amulet that can bring all her sexual fantasies to life.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-09-24
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Come Fly with Us
Overview: A hard and penetrating look into the lives of gorgeous stewardesses.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-07-16
Popularity:
Slave of Pleasure
Overview: Private detective, Dan McCord has been hired by Richard Anselm to find his beautiful wife, Eileen. As he digs into the case, he discovers that she might have been kidnapped by white slavers.
Genres: Mystery Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-08-30
Popularity:
Guess Who's Coming
Overview: A man and his wife invite a Royal couple over for dinner in the hopes of advancing the husband s career...going as far as having their friends Tom and Bonnie pose as butler and maid! Ms. Spelvin pulls off a hilarious British accent and gets everyone off.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-05-31
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A Taste Of Bette
Overview: When the leader of a sadistic sex cult is killed, its members have to choose a new person to lead them.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-01-01
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Betrayed Teens
Overview: After her daughter is kidnapped by a gang of bikers, Helen hires a private detective to find her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-03-09
Popularity:
Daughters of Discipline
Overview: A young woman gets involved in a sex-and-death cult, and finds out that she is slated to be the cult's next victim.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-01-01
Popularity:
Mistress Electra
Overview: While watching porn loops at a stag party given by his friend Harry, a husband is shocked to see his wife performing hardcore sex in one of them. He hires a private detective to find out what's going on.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-01-08
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Sensuous Fly Girls
Overview: When astronauts are flying to Jupiter, they are to get sexual relief from girls who accompany them to the planet.
Genres: Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-03-19
Popularity:
Pen Pals
Overview: A group of pen-pals from across the country, who have never met before, gather in New York City for a weekend of fun and sex.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-03-08
Popularity:
Gladys and Her All Girl Band
Overview: Two porno actors on the run audition in drag for a rock band and actually get the gig. They are pursued by a police sergeant for their lewd film exploits.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-05-26
Popularity:
The Tycoon's Daughter
Overview: Three friends kidnap the daughter of a millionaire and plan to ask for a big ransom. They hide out on the farm of a family in the backwoods, and find that they're in for more than they bargained for.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-10-31
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She's No Angel
Overview: In order to cheat her out of her inheritance, a young girl's parents have her locked up in a mental institution.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
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Honeymoon Suite
Overview: Three swinging young couples decide to marry one other and spend an erotic honeymoon at a fancy hotel.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-12
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Tortured Woman
Overview: Two young women come across secret papers having do with with foreign diplomats.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-10-01
Popularity:
The Travails of June
Overview: A reporter interviews June, a prostitute who has just been arrested, and she relates her tale of being kidnapped by a criminal gang, drugged and forced to have sex with powerful politicians in order to set them up for blackmail.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
Popularity:
The School for Sexual Arts
Overview: Female students at a "higher-learning" institution called The School for the Sexual Arts spend their time closely studying the male body and learning how best to use their own bodies to bring the male form to life.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-01-01
Popularity:
The Dark Side of Danielle
Overview: Young Danielle finds her parents' kinky sex diary, and as she reads it she starts imagining what it must have been like to do the kinds of things her parents were doing
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-10-10
Popularity:
Sin of Lust
Overview: Carlotta and her husband are sex surrogates helping frustrated couples get off.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-01-01
Popularity:
Love in the Rain
Overview: A rainy day forces four women to stay indoors. Bored, they decide to liven up the day by calling up some male friends to have sex with them.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-11-01
Popularity:
That Lady from Rio
Overview: Vanessa is the leader of an international organization of white slave traders who supply women to brothels all over the world. Her mob is expanding and her number one henchman has plans for taking over the whole operation. She has to duck the law as well as her enemies to stay on top of things, one of her favorite things is Jamie Gillis. Vanessa and Jamie light up the screen with their lovemaking. Will Vanessa keep her empire of lust? Or, will she be swallowed up by the mob with the cops not too far behind?
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-08-02
Popularity:
Teachers and Cream
Overview: "To Whom It May Concern, Good Bye!!! Yours Truly, Anonymous," reads the suicide note English teacher Mr. Boynton writes and tapes to his chest. Dejected because he’s going to lose his job for moonlighting in porno flicks, he also wears Groucho Marx glasses (you know, with the big nose and fake moustache) which, somehow, is necessary apparel for someone about to jump off a New York City bridge. But before he leaps, he is rescued by a student of his named Nancy and Miss Crabtree, the Phys. Ed. teacher. As thanks for saving him, the gals go with him to "an editing room" and double-team him.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-08-01
Popularity:
The Story of Eloise
Overview: Zarryl Danuck, the head of Universal American Pictures, is in danger of being ousted from his position. Can his niece Eloise, newly-arrived in New York City, reverse his studio's failing fortunes as their new "All-American Girl" movie star?
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-03-31
Popularity:
Sexual Freedom in the Ozarks
Overview: A foursome is stranded in the woods of Arkansas after a plane crash so they split up to look for help.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-06
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Go Fly a Kite
Overview: A sexually frustrated housewife gets satisfied when she meets up with a group of swinging kite enthusiasts.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-23
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Lisa Meets Mr. Big
Overview: Young Lisa brings her fiancé home to meet her parents, who don't know he's black. They are shocked and servants appalled, but he helps her mom feel better, and Lisa satisfies her dad.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-04-11
Popularity:
Kathy's Graduation Present
Overview: Young Kathy is an honors student who graduates from high school with straight A's. However, at her graduation party her friends--who know that she is a virgin--decide to give her the kind of "final exam" that she wasn't counting on.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-11-01
Popularity:
Girl Scout Cookies
Overview: When the mayor's campaign to drive prostitutes out of the city threatens to put a crimp in two hookers' livelihoods, one of them gets the bright idea of dressing up like a Girl Scout and selling her "cookies" door to door.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-05-01
Popularity:
Joe Rock Superstar
Overview: Marc Stevens plays Joe Cock, a Jim Morrison by way of David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust vocalist whose claim to fame is his uncanny ability to get it up on stage.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-06-12
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The Fire in Francesca
Overview: A private detective is hired by a Hollywood agent to find out who killed a beautiful young movie star.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-12-01
Popularity:
Tina Makes a Deal
Overview: When a customs search turns up a vial of coke hidden away in an outlaw pussy, Tina Makes a Deal. Well... actually, Linda makes the deal. We haven’t the slightest idea who Tina might be. Linda works for hippie guru Timothy Bleary, whose drug smuggling operation relies on bribing law enforcement with sex. It works extremely well.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-06-29
Popularity:
Lip Service
Overview: Sidney Spelvin, a sexually frustrated fireman, complains to Dr. Cousins, a female psychiatrist, that his wife will only have sex in the missionary position. That doesn’t please Sidney because he’s learned (from various gurus) about 197 other ways to bring a woman to orgasm. Interested in those 197 other ways, Dr. Cousins quickly cajoles Sidney into demonstrating those techniques on her, for "clinical purposes" only, right there in her office. Oh, those wacky porno shrinks!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-02-01
Popularity:
Dirty Susan
Overview: A private detective is hired to find a mysterious girl named Susan. He soon realizes that "Susan" is the girl he spent the previous night with, and with whom he had the best sex of his life. His investigation leads him into a variety of sexual situations.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-01-01
Popularity:
More Than Sisters
Overview: A young woman has been experiencing terrifying nightmares set in an asylum. Her husband, powerless to help her, enlists the aid of a detective to investigate her past, hoping for a clue to her present visions, but what he uncovers is more shocking than anyone could imagine.
Genres: Mystery Horror Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-07-05
Popularity:
Baby Oil
Overview: American and Russian agents each vie to gain their respective nation control of the oil wells of Sexalvania. However, the wells only produce baby oil.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-09-01
Popularity:
Come And Be Purified
Overview: Charlatan priest Father Sexus encourages devoutly religious folks to shed their inhibitions and happily participate in assorted wild carnal activities of licentious delight.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-08-16
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Hotel Hooker
Overview: Pete supplies hotel guests with prostitutes to make their trips a bit more enjoyable.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-01-01
Popularity:
Lady on the Couch
Overview: It was shocking and unbelievable experience for Henry Totler. The girl up there in the stag film was his wife, and all his friends were watching her in a shameless sex act with another man and another woman! Henry hired a hard driving detective to find out all about his wife, Maggie.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-03-19
Popularity:
The Passions of Carol
Overview: Carol Scrooge, the curmudgeonly owner of a sleazy skin publication, insists that her employees work on Christmas. However, on Christmas eve, Miss Scrooge is visited by three ghosts, each of whom shows her a different vision of Christmas, from Carol's lurid past of sexually manipulating her childhood friends to the meager Christmas celebrations of her present-day employee, Bob Hatchet and his wife, to a terrifying and sleazy vision of Christmas yet to come; each visit is infused with a barrel of laughs and a valuable lesson about the importance of giving and holiday spirit.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-03-24
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New York Construction Co.
Overview: A foreman is called back to his construction site on a Saturday morning. He goes into the bowels of the building to a repair a power failure — and explore some other bowels as well.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-04-01
Popularity:
The Hardy Girls
Overview: An episodic journey into the sexual fantasies of Hardy Harrison.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-11-03
Popularity: