Evil Angel

Background and beginnings

The company's rise to prominence was fueled by the industry switch from film to videotape. In the late 1970s, a feature-length porn film shot on photographic film—usually 35mm—might have cost as much as $350,000. In 1983, the VCR had been recently introduced, and producers were beginning to make pornographic films on videotape. A film using video could be made for as little as $5,000, compared to a minimum of $40,000 for a movie shot on film. Into the 1990s, by shooting its productions with video cameras, Evil Angel could still make films for $8,000. Stagliano initially had little knowledge of filmmaking, but he made his first movie for $8,000 in 1983: Bouncing Buns, starring Stacy Donovan. For the next six years, he shot films for other companies to manufacture and distribute.

In 1989, he started Evil Angel, to sell his own films. The origin of the company's name goes back to when Stagliano was working as a stripper: "There was another guy in one of my shows named John. So this MC started calling me Evil John to differentiate us. This was when I was doing Dracula and chains. At the same time I had a girlfriend who called herself Angel when she did strip shows. She was a very nasty girl and I suggested that she call herself Evil Angel. She didn't, but I loved the name and wound up using it for my company."

Buttman and Gonzo

The first Evil Angel film was Dance Fire, filmed in 1988 by Stagliano, starring himself, Trinity Loren, Brandy Alexandre and others. It would only be released on DVD 20 years later. Influenced by amateur pornography, in 1989, Stagliano hit on the idea of performing in a film while also operating the camera, so that the viewer experiences the film through the eyes of his character. The first-person perspective was influenced by the 1960s film Blowup. At the time this was in contrast to the majority of porn, which tended not to make viewers aware of the camera. This technique is today known as Point of view pornography. He formed his Buttman persona, and shot Adventures of Buttman. The early Buttman films were written, produced, directed, edited, shot and manufactured personally by Stagliano. The first two Buttman films had lengthy scripts, but the series soon evolved into an improvised, spontaneous format. In contrast to his earlier work and the standard porn of the time, Stagliano did not link each scene together to form a conventional narrative. At times, the camerawork was shaky. Partly due to his lack of funds, he did not use elaborate sets or locations. At the time, porn films had a traditional storyline, with sex scenes interspersed with dialogue by performers with little acting ability. Instead of that format, Stagliano chose to film "one sex scene which has a beginning, a middle and ends at a climax. Trying to make all that relate to a bigger story is very difficult and creates all sorts of problems that get in the way of making the best scene possible." The distinct style of the early Evil Angel films would be widely imitated, and would come to be known as Gonzo pornography.

Success

In the 1990s, Stagliano became one of the most successful figures in the American pornographic film industry. In 1990, Patrick Collins and Stagliano founded the Elegant Angel label as a subsidiary of Evil Angel. In 1991, Stagliano established a production subsidiary in São Paulo, Brazil. By 1993, the company was producing a new videotape every three weeks, and was grossing more than $1 million a year; in 1996, it sold approximately half a million videos. In the mid-90s, the company started using the phrase "The Evil Empire" on its box covers, in reference to its growing stable of directors. In 1996, Collins established Elegant Angel as a separate company, and in 1998, it ended all cooperation with Evil Angel. His departure from Evil Angel has been called "less than amicable", and he and Stagliano are apparently "ex-friend[s]". At the time Collins said that Stagliano "couldn't run a business, and would fail without him". According to Stagliano, "Patrick's a bully... he wasn't doing his job properly... I should have fired him years ago".

A 1997 U.S. News & World Report investigation identified Evil Angel as the most profitable pornographic studio. In 2007, the studio received 127 AVN Award nominations in 60 categories, making it the fourth year in a row in which it received more than 100 nominations. In 2008, EA won 18 AVN awards. Stagliano won the "Best Director - Video" award for Fashionistas Safado: Berlin.

In 2015, company vice president John Grayson reported that transsexual pornography was by far the company's most profitable category or genre, earning about 20% more on a per-movie basis than any other productions.

Legal issues

In August 2007, Evil Angel and Jules Jordan prevailed in a DVD piracy case against Kaytel Video Distribution and several other defendants, winning a total of over $17.5 million, which was the largest sum ever awarded in an adult piracy case. Evil Angel was awarded $11.2 million and Jordan $5.3 million. EA had originally filed the lawsuit in November 2005.

On April 8, 2008, Evil Angel and Stagliano were indicted on federal obscenity charges by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. Films named in the obscenity charges included Storm Squirters 2 by Joey Silvera, Milk Nymphos by Jay Sin and a trailer for Belladonna: Fetish Fanatic 5. Stagliano and Evil Angel were represented by Al Gelbard, who successfully defended JM Productions owner Jeff Steward in a 2007 obscenity case. The company released a compilation DVD entitled Defend Our Porn, with proceeds going towards its legal defense fund, and set up the DefendOurPorn.org website to provide information on the legal proceedings.