These are the somewhat obscure “cult classics” Anisa, Diane and I were talking about over the weekend. All these movies I enjoy watching, and actually I’ve seem them all many times.
Repo Man:
Slacker / punk rock voice of our generation. Highly quotable and anarchic… It’s a very meta movie, with the flimsy plot simultaneously developing and getting more irrelevant as the movie continues… by the end it’s completely insane, but the main character (Otto, played by Emilio Estevez) sort of transcends everything.
The Wicker Man:
1960’s crime/horror movie about an upright, anal-retentive Christian cop investigating a kidnap/murder case way out in the skerries of Scotland. The twist is, the village is entirely pagan/wiccan and is steadily making him lose his mind.
Phantom of the Paradise:
“Faust” crossed with “Phantom of the Opera” done as a 1970’s rock opera. Nerdy loser Winslow Leach sells and then loses his music to luciferian rock star Swan, and then exacts ghastly revenge by terrorizing the production company. Awesome!
Rock and Rule:
Extremely odd 1980’s cartoon about an aging rock star (sort of patterned after David Bowie) who is attempting to steal the voice of a younger rock star, and also summon a demon by sacrificing an entire crowd of concertgoers. Blondie and Lou Reed perform the music. This movie was too weird for audiences; it sunk the production company.
Bugsy Malone:
A gangster movie, with children playing all the parts and shooting each other with “splurge guns,” which are Thompson machine guns that shoot wads of whipped topping. Oh and it’s also a musical. Scott Baio and a pre-Taxi Driver Jodie Foster star. Watch to appreciate its insanity and wonder to yourself “who thought this was a good idea?!”
Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill! :
Russ Meyers’ greatest movie, it is definitive of his genre: black and white, tall, powerful, large-bosomed ANGRY women beating up on men. I recommend self-medication while watching this movie, it’s one of the more “challenging” of the movies I’m listing here.
Zardoz:
perhaps the MOST “challenging” film I’m listing here… it’s the future and the elites live in a bubble where they are impervious to aging or death. Outside the bubble, the rabble are constantly terrorized by horse-riding gladiators (one of whom is Sean Connery), who worship ZARDOZ, a flying stone head the size of a castle, who regularly vomits his gifts of guns onto them. Everything I described happens in the first ten minutes, and it gets crazier from there. You’ll be saying “what the FUCK!?” a lot during this movie, but on repeated viewings it makes more sense.
Kung Fu movies:
some people aren’t into kung-fu movies. But I am!
Master of the Flying Guillotine:
The movie the “Street Fighter” games were based on. There’s a martial arts competition, and warriors from different countries all show up, exhibiting their particular styles. The Indian guy can stretch his arms. The Japanese samurai is a badass, never smiles, and of course cheats. And the villain: the Master of the Flying Guillotine, a blind monk who is actually an assassin come to kill the protagonist. His weapon is a beanie on a chain that yanks the victim’s head off. Stolen soundtrack by Neu!
The Bride With White Hair:
1980’s kung-fu magic realism. In a fantastic setting, clans of kung-fu masters (representing “order” here) defend against blood-drinking barbarian hordes (representing “chaos”), led by a hermaphroditic warlock tyrant. The main character is a maverick disciple of the clans, who falls in love with the “wolf girl,” the unbeatable hatchetman for the blood cults. It’s like Romeo and Juliet with flying, Jedi-level kung fu, potions, and demon magic.