Mike_Bracken's Top 10 Cult Movies..and then some
May 10 '01
The Bottom Line Cult movies are a way of life. You need to see this stuff.
Given the fact that I’m a somewhat compulsive list maker (sort of like the record shop guys in High Fidelity), I’d been consciously avoiding the new member advice section in the movies category—all those brand new subsections for best films by category was just too tempting.
However, I’ve finally succumbed to the siren song and put together my top 10 cult films list—and man, what a chore it’s been.
I suppose we should start off with some qualifying statements, particularly since the cult category is one that’s pretty wide open in terms of choices. What is a cult film, exactly (oh, wait, Epinions has a category for that too…I may tackle that someday). By my own definition, a cult film is a film that is usually relatively unknown to mainstream film fans (who spend the majority of their time watching whatever garbage Hollywood has shot out to the multiplexes this week). However, simply being unknown doesn’t guarantee you cult status—no, you must also inspire a rabid following amongst a small group of diverse individuals, a following who becomes obsessed with the film in question, who revere it despite (or even because) of its flaws and shortcomings. However, this is not to say that cult film must be of the ‘so bad it’s good’ variety. A cult film can be a great film (Cronenberg’s Crash and Dead Ringers spring immediately to mind as well made cult films) that simply didn’t find a wide audience, or it can be something as wonderfully inept as Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.
So, as you can probably see, defining the cult film is a difficult undertaking. Almost every film has the potential to become a cult film, and the loose definitions that mark this subgenre make deciding what is genuinely a cult film even more challenging. Even worse, because of these loose definitions, the sheer number of films to consider can become quite daunting. Cult films cover the gamut of cinematic genres and simply choosing 10 is well nigh impossible. Inevitably, you’ll leave at least 100 or so deserving films off the list. Oh yeah, and I’m leaving Rocky Horror off this list simply because I hate it.
That being said, what follows is my own personal list of favorite cult films. I make no claims that these are the greatest, nor does my not including certain titles here denigrate their worth. This is simply a list of films that I like that a lot of other people have never seen or heard of. Oh yeah, and it’s in no particular order.
10. H.G. Lewis’ Blood Feast: Director Herschell Gordon Lewis is revered worldwide as the father of the gore film, and Blood Feast is the one that started it all. It’s a wonderfully gruesome little film about a demented caterer who murders young girls in hopes of resurrecting an Egyptian goddess. The direction is decent, the budget non-existent, the performances absurd, and the gore looks dated, but you just can’t help but love this film. You simply aren’t a fan of cult horror cinema if you haven’t seen this film.
9. Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy: I’m cheating a bit here, but all three of these films are cult classics and deserve mention. Director Sam Raimi struck paydirt with his tale of young adults in a deserted forest cabin who unwittingly resurrect a horde of Kandarian demons. Bruce Campbell became a B movie legend based solely on his portrayal of demon-killing doofus Ash, an everyman horror hero that any guy can identify with. The original would inspire two follow-ups, the first a loose sequel/remake, and the second set back in the middle ages. All three are well worth seeing since they mix horror, gore, and slapstick comedy as effectively as any film ever made.
8. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie: MST3K was a cult television program that ran first on a small UHF channel, then moved to Comedy Central, and eventually finished its 10+ year run on the Sci-Fi Channel. However, in 1996, the series made the jump to the big screen, and the result was a film that became as much of a cult phenomenon as the show. Mike Nelson and his robot pals Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy are sequestered on the Satellite of Love, a large space vehicle orbiting the Earth. They’ve been placed there by the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester, who has a plan to conquer the world by finding the worst film ever made and showing it repeatedly until humanity loses its will to oppose him. Mike and the ‘Bots are his lab rats. Fortunately for us, they don’t simply sit passively watching these bad films—no, they make a steady stream of wisecracks that make the films far better than they’d ever be on their own. For this outing, they tackle the old sci-fi standard, This Island Earth and riff on everything from the deep-voiced protagonist, his wimpy sidekick, and the large craniums of the alien invaders. If you’ve never seen MST3K then this film is a good place to start. If you don’t laugh, you’re not human…
7. Takeshi Kitano’s Sonatine: This is another example of a really good movie that’s still something of a cult film. Sonatine did quite well on the arthouse circuit, yet, like many of Takeshi Kitano’s films, hasn’t received any kind of recognition from mainstream American audiences. Takeshi plays Murakawa, a high level Yakuza member sent to Okinawa to mediate a turf war between rival factions of the family. However, he smells a rat, and when his men are ambushed, he heads for a secluded beach house in order to lay low and plot his next move. While here, everything changes—the gangsters become kids, playing on the sandy beach, relaxing, and letting down their tough guy exteriors. If you don’t believe that action cinema and arthouse fare can go together, then you need to check out Sonatine--it deserves a wider audience.
6. Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace: No cult film list would be truly complete without at least one entry from Italy’s finest fantasy filmmaker, Mario Bava. I’ve chosen Blood and Black Lace for this list primarily because I think it’s a great film, but also because of the effect it had on Italian genre cinema. The tale is a simple one, concerning a masked and gloved murderer knocking off models in various violent and brutal ways. However, what makes it truly special is the direction of Bava, particularly his use of garish and lurid lighting throughout (which Dario Argento would emulate in his film Suspiria). Also, this was essentially the first giallo, a cinematic subgenre comparable to the American thriller that would come to dominate the Italian film scene for quite some time. So, not only do you get a great film, you also get a bit of a cinematic history lesson as well.
5. Dario Argento’s Suspiria: Suspiria makes the list because it’s one of the most incredible genre films of all time, yet hardly anyone has ever seen it. However, once you do see it, you’re not likely to be able to forget it. Argento is a master of the form, and this is perhaps his greatest film, a supernaturally-tinged fairy tale about witches inhabiting a German dance academy. The direction is beautiful, the gore impressive, the score by prog rockers Goblin one of the best ever made for a film. Simply put, Suspiria is a nightmare captured on celluloid—and like many nightmares, it’s often terrifying and beautiful in the same instances.
4. George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead: Arguably the greatest zombie film ever made. Romero’s savage vision of consumerism run amok is as poignant today as it was twenty-some years ago. The dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living, and the government has no idea how to stop them. Martial law has been declared in the major cities, and it looks like mankind is about to lose this war. The story follows four survivors who hop on a helicopter and look for greener pastures—which take the form of a deserted Pittsburgh shopping mall. A brief stop for supplies soon turns into a long stay as the four heroes clear out the zombies and barricade themselves in to what appears to be utopia. However, we all know that there’s no such thing as a true utopia, and soon our heroes find themselves under attack—from the walking dead, a gang of rogue bikers, and a general feeling of apathy and ennui. Romero brings powerful social commentary to a bleak, nihilistic, and gory zombie film—and the end result is a classic example of how powerful horror cinema can be when handled by adults and not marketed to teenagers.
3. Kenji Misumi’s Shogun Assassin: Truthfully, I should just include each individual episode of the Lone Wolf and Cub saga, but I decided to concentrate on this particular installment, which isn’t really an installment at all, but more of an Americanized remix of the first few episodes. Based on a popular Japanese Manga, Shogun Assassin tells the early chapters of the Ogami Itto story. Ogami was the Shogun's executioner, until he was set up by the Yagyu clan of ninjas and charged with treason. Angry, and determined to destroy the Yagyu, Ogami becomes a ronin (masterless samurai) and travels the countryside earning money by committing assassinations. Oh yeah, he travels the countryside with his young son Daigoru, who rides around in a customized baby cart equipped with enough weapons to defeat a small army. This time out, he kills numerous Yagyu assassins (slicing and dicing them with his trusty blade) and battles the three masters of death, the ultimate assassins. At any rate, the movie is wickedly cool, with the stoic Tomisaburo Wakayama playing the lead role, and literally gallons of spurting blood shooting out in geysers each and every time he takes one of the bad guys down. Catch this one if you can find it, then track down the individual episodes for the whole story—you won’t be disappointed.
2. Ngai Kai Lam’s Riki Oh--This is easily one of the greatest cult gore martial arts flicks ever made. Riki winds up in prison, where he must use his kung fu skills to survive and defeat the wicked warden. The gore is outrageous, with eyeballs popping out, a man who uses his disemboweled intestines in an attempt to strangle our hero, a crushing head blow (literally), and more. Words cannot accurately describe how classic this film is—don’t spend another second reading about it, go out and see it.
1. Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust: This is, quite simply, the crown jewel of the Italian cannibal film subgenre. Deodato’s faux documentary about a group of crass documentarians who meet their fate at the hands of a tribe of primitive cannibals predates The Blair Witch Project by more than twenty years, and outdoes it in terms of pure onscreen carnage (nothing’s left to your imagination here, folks). The film’s moral (concerning just who is the real monster—us or the savages) is presented in a heavy-handed way, but who cares? This is a classic chunkblower in every sense of the word. Classic gore (so real, in fact, that Deodato endured and lost an obscenity trial in Italy when he couldn’t convince the authorities that the footage was indeed special FX. This was later overturned), a high sleaze quotient (although not quite as high as Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox) and a weird, yet haunting score from Riz Ortolani make this one of the greatest cult films ever. Certainly not for the squeamish or easily offended.
Bonus Pick
Ok, I wound up with one extra film that I really wanted to mention, so here it is…
Don Edmonds’ Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS: Quite possibly the greatest Nazi-sexploitation film of all time, Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS is a bonafide cult classic. Dyanne Thorne plays the busty Ilsa, who has a penchant for castrating lovers who fail to satisfy here. Working to prove that women can endure more pain than men (and thus are more suited for battle), she inspires fear and lust in both her prisoners and superiors. The end result is a ludicrous but always entertaining romp filled with sex, violence, and lots of bad acting. Oh yeah, they filmed it on the leftover sets from Hogan’s Heroes
Honorable Mentions
These films didn’t quite make the cut, but deserve mentioning…
Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom: Pier Pasolini's adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's debut novel is both a condemnation of fascism and one of the most harrowing films ever made. No atrocity is lefy unexplored, no perversion undocumented. Challenging, but utlimately rewarding, viewing.
Caligula--Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and a ton of insert scenes of hardcore pornography. Those Romans sure knew how to party…
Emmanuelle in America: Joe D’Amato and Laura Gemser combine to make one of exploitation cinema’s finest films.
Last House on the Left: Craven’s first feature film is a harrowing viewing experience, both because of the violence and David Hess’ awful singing. Scarier still is that the final product is incredibly toned down in comparison to Craven’s original vision.
A Clockwork Orange--Kubrick’s meditation on violence in society
Last House on Dead End Street--one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen. Track it down for yourself if you think you’re up for it…
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Epinions.com ID:
Mike_Bracken
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Member: Mike Bracken
Location: Oakland, California
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