My Favorite Cult Movies, Part 1
Last week on Ebert and Friends At The Movies, it
was an entire episode of Roger Ebert and that morbidly
obese Harry Knowles (of Ain't It Cool News site)
talking about their favorite cult movies. So I
thought I'd share mine...In no particular order...
* Tetsuo Iron Man!
PLOT: This is a black and white japanese movie from
1987. It's about this man who is cursed with turning
into a giant metal robot creature, and then he
subsequently fights another giant metal robot creature
who cursed him with turning him into the giant metal
robot creature in the first place.
WHY YOU MUST SEE IT: The scene where the guy
hallucinates that he's being painfully sodomized by
his girlfriend wearing a gigantic metal tentacle. Guy
having sex with his girlfriend with the gigantic,
rusty and twisted screw his penis has turned into (use
your imagination as to what happens next).
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Oh, I'm sure you could take out
something about the man turning into a machine being
indicative of the loss of soul in these industrial
times, but more likely you'll be wondering if the uzi
in the end was all that necessary.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: There's a sequel to it that's in
color and supposed to have a traditional "plot". I'll
rent it sometime, but there's no way it could be as
good as this.
*Meet The Feebles
PLOT: A New Zealand flick directed by Peter Jackson
from 1988 using only puppets as a cast, Meet The
Feebles centers on the sick inner workings of a
Muppets-like puppet variety show, and the kindly
rabbit Wobert's indoctrination into this world of drug
abuse, AIDS, pornography and snuff films as he falls
in love with a Miss Piggy-like character.
WHY YOU MUST SEE IT: Too much to recount. There's a
gigantic musical number called "Sodomy". One of the
characters has frequent flashbacks to 'Nam (complete
with puppet recreations). Lots and lots and lots of
drug use and hallucinations. There's a gigantic
massacre at the end. The porn director always pushes
nasal and inter-species sex.
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Look at the plot. Do you think
there's any social commentary or relevance to it?
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Just see this damned movie.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
PLOT: The murder of Theresa Banks and the last seven
days of Laura Palmer's life.
WHY YOU MUST SEE IT: Well, let's see...it's a David
Lynch movie. Should I bother going any further?
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Prom queens are schizo coke
addicts?
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: In my opinion, this is one of
Lynch's best works. It's so full of whacked-out
imagery , it takes mainstream movies as far as Twin
Peaks did with mainstream television. As much as I
adore "Blue Velvet", I think this is in many ways the
ultimate "quiet towns are not what they seem" movie.
Absolutely required viewing.
Santa Claus (1959)
PLOT: This is a Mexican Santa Claus movie from 1959
where...Santa Claus...fights...the devil...with the
help of the children of the world and Merlin.
Jaw-dropping.
WHY YOU MUST SEE IT: The "children of the world"
sequence might as well have been called "Stereotypes
On Parade", with the American kids wearing cowboy
gear, the Japanese wearing kimonos and the African
kids portrayed as savages with bones in their hair.
There's some great stuff where Pip, Satan's minion,
tempts the Requisite Poor Girl with a dolly, telling
her to steal it because she deserves it more than the
rich girl the doll will inevitably go to.
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Satan is the Prince of Lies and
Merlin will help you whenever you're in trouble.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I wish I could find a video copy
of it.
Last Man On Earth
PLOT: Vincent Price is, you guessed it, The Last Man
On Earth. I think this movie is from sometime between
1952 and 1962. I don't know much about who made it,
and hte only way we here at DFFQI have seen it is that
Dan and Nick stumbled across it on TV one night,
became obsessed by it, and Dan bought a very bad, nth
generation dub on eBay.
WHY YOU MUST SEE IT: Vincent Price nonchalantly
pouring himself a bourbon while zombies attack the
house. Vincent Price trying to act like a
heterosexual father to a cute little girl that
supposed to be his daughter. Vincent Price clearing
out piles of dead bodies, loading them up in his
sedan, and dumping them at the edge of town like only
Vincent Price can.
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: It's one of those cold war movies,
so of course there's social commentary about the
preciousness of life and shit like that.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Man, this shit is priceless. See
it if you ever get the chance.
---
Michael Keegan
2.1.2000
Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence