Early work and The Brain Leeches (1970s) After serving in the
United States Navy, Ray began working at a local television station in
Orlando, Florida. He first appeared in a small role in the 1975 film
Shock Waves, which starred
Peter Cushing and
John Carradine. Ray then began directing independent films during his free time using station equipment, starting with
The Brain Leeches (1978), produced on a budget of $298. Ray also co-wrote the screenplay with political essayist
Brad Linaweaver, and the two later collaborated on additional films.
1980s Ray's next film was shot on a budget of $15,000. Lessons learned from
The Brain Leeches allowed Ray to keep production cost to a minimum, while using the bulk of the budget to attract a recognized Hollywood name to the project.
Alien Dead was shot featuring an elderly
Buster Crabbe, cinema action hero of the 1930s and 1940s, and star of three
Flash Gordon serials from 1936 to 1940. With the success of that film, Ray decided to move to Hollywood to be close to the film industry. He was interested in working in make-up and special effects, "probably from all of those years of reading
Famous Monsters magazine", he later said. He found out "it soon became apparent that you would always be between jobs and I was looking for something that would actually earn me a living. I think I became a director because that was the fastest way to get a film made on the independent side of things." Ray succeeded in raising money for a low-budget horror film,
Scalps (1983), which featured cameos from
Carroll Borland and
Forrest J. Ackerman.
The Tomb (1986) stars
Cameron Mitchell and
John Carradine. Ray switched to action films with
Armed Response (1986), which stars
David Carradine and
Lee Van Cleef. Ray had affection for this movie because "it had a great cast and was one of the first times I had more than two nickels to rub together." Ray co-directed
Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991) with
Jim Wynorski, starring
Kelli Maroney, shot in one day. Ray moved into erotic thrillers with
Inner Sanctum (1991) starring
Tanya Roberts. It was a hit and Ray would make others in that genre, including
Inner Sanctum 2,
Mind Twister (1994) and
Possessed by the Night (1994).
Evil Toons (1992) is a comedy-horror, which was followed by another effort co-directed with Wynorski,
Dinosaur Island (1994).
Witch Academy (1994) was the last of his "scream queen" movies. He established a DVD company called Retromedia. Ray made a film called
Bikini Airways "on a lark and it did really well", said Ray. This led to a series of Bikini films. In 2007, he reflected on his career: Budgetary constraints notwithstanding, Ray has, on occasion, been able to attract
A-list actors to appear in his films. Two-time
Academy Award nominee
Peter Fonda played Marshal Kane in the 2010 Ray film
American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James, One reviewer described
American Bandits as perhaps "the most boring Jesse James film ever made". In 2019, he produced and released
Boggy Creek: The Series, with director
Henrique Couto at the helm. ==Books==