
Shaun Costello
Directing
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.
Known For

While holding a horror film festival, a group of film students find themselves stalked by a madman who may have a sinister connection to a cult leader.
Popcorn

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.
Enrapture

Images of moral panic, cult followings and the edges of madness from sex and death.
Hymns from the Abyss

A documentary by Shaun Costello about Time Magazine
Writing for Time

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.
The Love Bus

While browsing, a small antique shop, a large mirror catches Pandora's attention, seemingly casting a spell of sensuality over her.
Pandora's Mirror

A crazed Vietnam vet hunts down and kills women.
Forced Entry

A gang of terrorists attack the American embassy in Labania and kidnap the ambassador, his wife and his secretary.
Cheryl's Surrender

A man is kidnapped by a group of women and subjected to unspeakable tortures. However, he comes to enjoy them.
The Untamed Vixens

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!
Teenage Nurses

Vanessa's psychologist husband recounts the kinky case history of an insatiable patient.
Joy of Humiliation

A domestic tragicomedy which follows a slutty housewife through her kinky extra marital affairs.
The Fury in Alice

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.
The Porn Brokers
No description available.
Selling It

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.
Venture Into the Bizzare

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.
The Two Lives of Jennifer

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.
The Summer of Suzanne

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.
Sexual Customs in Scandinavia

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.
Feel

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.