Arkoff is also credited with starting a few genres, such as the "Beach Party" and outlaw biker movies, and his company played a substantial part in bringing the horror film genre to a novel level with successes such as "Blacula", "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "The Thing with Two Heads". American International Pictures movies starred many established actors in principal or cameo roles, such as Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester and Vincent Price, as well as others who later became household names, including Don Johnson, Nick Nolte, Diane Ladd, and most notably Jack Nicholson. A number of actors shunned or overlooked by most of Hollywood during the 1960s and 1970s, such as Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper, also found work in one or more of Arkoff's productions. Arkoff's most financially successful film was the 1979 adaptation of Jay Anson's book "The Amityville Horror".