Biography

Irwin Yablans has gained a reputation for distributing horror films, cult films and exploitation pictures. Becoming an independent producer in the mid 70s, he started distributing films that didn't become large hits and released them overseas. Among the films was John Carpenter's 1976 film "Assault on Precinct 13". Yablans released it overseas, through his small studio Turtle Releasing Corporation, where it did rather well. In 1977, Yablans joined Joseph Wolf to form Compass International Pictures, a small scale theatrical company. Again, Yablans worked with John Carpenter and released his 1978 film Halloween (1978). Yablans pre-sold it into Kansas City where Halloween premiered and became very popular, ranking it the top grossing independent motion picture of the 1970s.

Halloween seemed to boost Yablans' reputation, but only little success came when making low budget films for Compass International, including "Tourist Trap", "Nocturna" and the Linda Blair films Roller Boogie (1979) and Hell Night (1981). Due to the small scale flops of theatrical releases, Compass International Pictures collapsed, and Yablans and Joseph Wolf returned to release two more Halloween films, Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), for Universal Pictures. Yablans didn't form another company after the Halloween films, he joined Charles Band of Empire Pictures where he stayed for the next few years. Since then, Yablans has been associated with releasing direct to video films and has also since retired from the filmmaking industry.