At the age of fifteen, Mike Stanley made a super 8 film called "Zombie".  Zombie appeared in the Producers Bulletin Board column in CINEMAGIC magazine, complete with a publicity photo from the film.  In Zombie, Skylab crashes to earth in a small town and the radiation from the crash causes the dead to come back to life.  The town holds a telethon to try to raise money for a cure as they battle the zombie attack.  

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In 1982, Stanley developed Filmlab Video Productions and created a public access television show show in Roseville, Michigan called TALES FROM BEYOND The Graves Midnight Marquee.  Tales was a horror anthology show complete with a host named Count Guignal, named after the Grand Guignol Theater in Paris, known for it's horror entertainment.  Tales From Beyond ran from 1982-1989 and gained a large cult following. Stanley  pushed the limits of his show as far as he could with nightmarish gore. 

 

After the success of Tales From Beyond, Stanley decided to make a full length movie.  It would be shot on video and marketed that way.  The film was COUNTRY MEADOWS.  It was based on a Tales From Beyond episode called "Hallows Eve".  Once the movie was complete, New York distributors didn't know what to do with it.  Direct to video movies were unheard of at this time in 1988.  Country Meadows didn't receive distribution.  Instead, it made it's television debut on Halloween night 1988 during a Tales From Beyond marathon.

 

​In the summer of 1990, production started on DEAD IS DEAD.  This full length feature was the second attempt at a direct to video distribution.  Dead was shot in Michigan and New York.  One year later in 1991, a work print of the film had it's premier to family and friends at Lipsticks nightclub in Clinton Township, Michigan where one of the scenes for the film was shot.  The buzz was electric.  In the months to follow, a distributor showed interest in the film. Stanley put guidelines on the film of what he wanted to do to it before distribution.  The distributor agreed, then went behind Stanley's back and pushed the work print of the film into the home video market.  "I never gave permission for this to be released", Stanley said. In 2008, Stanley re-shot new scenes for Dead is Dead, added new special effects, re-edited the entire film from the master tapes and added a new soundtrack.  Dead is Dead was now the way it was intended to be. Dead is Dead: The Directors Cut, is the ONLY authorized version of the film.

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John Russo (Night of the Living Dead), saw Dead is Dead and hired Stanley to film The Zombie Jamboree in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.  This was the 25th anniversary celebration of Night of the Living Dead.  The Zombie Jamboree was a direct to video release on vhs.

 

In the years to follow, Stanley's Filmlab Video Productions continued to make films.  When video disappeared from store shelves and was replaced by dvd's, Stanley changed his company name to Filmlab Showcase Pictures.

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Stanley's "Old School" style of filmmaking is his trademark.

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