About Joel M. Reed

Joel Melvin Reed (1933-2020) was born on December 29, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a movie director, author, actor and expert fly fisherman– an incredible life! While Reed is well known for directing “Blood Sucking Freaks” in 1976, he also directed five other films — Career Bed (1968), Sex by Advertisement (1969), The G.I. Executioner (1971), Blood Bath (1976) and Night of the Zombies (1981), starring Jamie Gilis, later rebranded as “Zombie War Games” for a popular video game. In 1990, Reed penned a book on his friend Donald Trump called ‘Trump: the Man, the Myth, the Scandal.’ He also subsequently wrote the books ‘Zombie Wall’ and ‘Outrage: Hitler Didn’t Die,’ both currently in print. As an actor, Reed appeared in many independent films, such as “Dead Eye” and “Supernaturalz: Weird Creepy & Random.” Last year, right before the pandemic, Reed began working with collaborator / writer Kevin S. Michaels on rewriting and completing the screenplay of “Joel M. Reed’s School of Discipline, which Reed intended as a sequel to “Blood Sucking Freaks.” A 2021 documentary about Joel Reed’s compelling behind-the-scenes life, including the story of the search for Reed’s mentor Oral Brown, is being produced called Joel M. Reed: Rated R. It is directed by Kevin S. Michaels. You can watch the trailer, narrated by Carey Means (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)

The film “Joel M. Reed’s School of Discipline” as well as the new documentary Joel M. Reed: Rated R are currently in the works.

Sadly, Reed unexpectedly passed away on April 13, 2020, at the age of 86, after contracting COVID-19 in a New York nursing home. His work will continue on. If you are interested in licensing merchandise or arranging film screenings directly from the Estate of Joel Reed, please visit our contact page.

Thank you, The Official Joel M. Reed Website