But if you want an example of how much better Corman's trash was than the trash of today, take a look at the cynical, satirical, poverty-row, comic-book thrills of Death Race: 2000 and compare it to the costly, empty remake Death Race.
A Barnum & Bailey poster trumpeting automotive daredevils — "L'Auto Bolide Thrilling Dip of Death" — had been used by Jay when he was "writing a piece about crazy car acts for an automotive magazine".
As a top-tier business model, the thrill of near-death experience is not sustainable, as boxing has demonstrated.
Yet this sensitivity exposes a contradiction in contemporary culture, part of which also finds a voyeuristic thrill in images of death presented in a pop context.
Sweden's thrilling 3-3 "grofp of death" draw with Nigeria and the USA's 3-1 defeat of Australia were sufficiently engaging to suggest this is an event capable of drawing even the initially indifferent into its web.
And the manly-man shows, with their diligent filigree of being educational, offer the virtual thrill of consorting with death, of being this close to the taste and reek of danger.
"I'm thrilled to death," he said earlier of his success.
If you hire a driver you'll be asked if you want the trip com emoção (with emotion), and if you agree you'll be treated to thrills such as Wall of Death and Vertical Descent.
The daredevil, Nik Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas family of daredevils, told The Buffalo News, "I'm thrilled to death".
"We're thrilled to death that Bill Clinton is coming to South Carolina," said J. Sam Daniels, executive director of the state Republican Party.
