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HOLLYWOOD - When it came to making movies quickly and cheaply, it was hard to beat Roger Corman, who once joked he could make a film about the Roman Empire with two extras and a sagebrush. He directed 1960's "The Little Shop of Horrors" in two days.

Corman started directing films in 1955 and, during his peak, could turn out seven a year. A true auteur of "B" movies, his films featured offbeat characters, dark humor, social commentary and a savvy use of special effects and sets - he often would shoot another film on the same sets with the same actors.

With its low-budget, fast-paced parameters, it's no wonder Corman jumped at the chance to produce "Splatter," a three-part interactive horror Web series for Netflix that allows viewers to vote on which characters they want to see killed off in subsequent installments.

"Who doesn't love Roger Corman?" said Catherine Fisher, director of publicity for Netflix, the company that offers mail-order DVDs as well as live streaming of movies. "What we wanted to do with this project was to bring to life the fact that Netflix delivers movies two ways to your TV."

And you don't have to be a Netflix subscriber to catch "Splatter": It began streaming Thursday for free at

www.netflix.com/splatter.

Viewers will be able to cast their votes on the fate of two characters for the Nov. 6 episode. After that installment, they again can choose who meets his or her maker on the Nov. 13 finale.

"The audience becomes part of the screenwriting team," Corman says.

Shot in eight days on digital video at the evocative Hollywood Castle mansion, the series was directed by Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), who cut his teeth editing trailers and eventually directing movies ("Piranha") for Corman in the 1970s.

Another Corman/Dante veteran, Corey Feldman ("Gremlins," "The Lost Boys"), plays Johnny Splatter, a goth-rock star who kills himself in the opener. Over three eight- to 10-minute episodes, Splatter's five friends get more than they bargained for when they arrive at his mansion for a reading of the will. Only one will survive the night.

Corman, who produced the series with his wife, Julie, became involved for the challenge and fun of it.

"This is guerrilla filmmaking at its finest," Feldman says. "There are Web episodes and interactive stuff out there, but it's never been presented in this format before. Everybody involved is skilled. It has the signature Joe Dante stuff as far as the dark, twisted humor, and it's scary and gory, which is signature Roger stuff. It's like 'American Idol' for the Internet."

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