About the Book
Some films should never have been made. They are too unsettling, too dangerous, too challenging, too outrageous and even too badly made to be let loose on unsuspecting audiences.
Yet these films, from the shocking Cannibal Holocaust to the apocalyptic Donnie Darko, from the destructive Tetsuo to the awfully bad The Room, from the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap to the campy Showgirls, from the asylum of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari to the circus of Freaks, from the gangs of The Warriors to the gangsters of In Bruges and from the flamboyant Rocky Horror Picture Show to the ultimate cool of The Big Lebowski, have all garnered passionate fan followings.
Cult cinema has made tragic misfits, monsters and cyborgs, such as Edward Scissorhands or Blade Runner's replicants, heroes of our times. 100 Cult Films explains why these figures continue to inspire fans around the globe. Cult film experts Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik round up the most cultish of giallo, blaxploitation, anime, sexploitation, zombie, vampire and werewolf films, exploring both the cults that live hidden inside the underground (Nekromantik, Café Flesh) and the cult side of the mainstream (Dirty Dancing, The Lord of the Rings, and even The Sound of Music).
100 Cult Films is a true trip around the world, providing a lively and illuminating guide to films from more than a dozen countries, across nine decades, representing a wide range of genres and key cult directors such as David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch.
Drawing on exclusive interviews with some of the world's most iconic cult creators and performers, including Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Alex Cox, Ruggero Deodato, Jesús Franco, Lloyd Kaufman, Harry Kümel, H. G. Lewis, Christina Lindberg, Takashi Miike, Franco Nero, George A. Romero and Brian Yuzna, and featuring a foreword by cult director Joe Dante, 100 Cult Films is your ultimate ticket to the midnight movie show.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments.- Foreword, Joe Dante.- Introduction.- 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, 1968.- Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988.- Angel of Vengeance, Abel Ferrara, 1981.- Bad Taste, Peter Jackson, 1987.- Baise-moi, Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000.- Begotten, E. Elias Merhige, 1991.- Behind the Green Door, Artie Mitchell, Jim Mitchell, 1972.- La belle et la bête, Jean Cocteau, 1946.- Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer, 1970.- The Big Lebowski, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 1998.- Blade Runner, Ridley Scott, 1982.- Blue Sunshine, Jeff Lieberman, 1978.- Brazil, Terry Gilliam, 1985.- Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale, 1935.- The Brood, David Cronenberg, 1979.- Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920.- Café Flesh, Stephen Sayadian, 1982.- Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato, 1979.- Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942.- Un chien andalou, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí,1928.- Coffy, Jack Hill, 1973.- Daughters of Darkness, Harry Kümel, 1971.- Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero, 1978.- Deadly Weapons, Doris Wishman, 1974.- Debbie Does Dallas, Jim Clark, 1978.- Deep Red, Dario Argento, 1975.- Dirty Dancing, Emile Ardolino, 1987.- Django, Sergio Corbucci, 1966.- Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly, 2001.- Don't Torture a Duckling, Lucio Fulci, 1972.- Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton, 1990.- Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Aristide Massaccesi, 1977.- Emmanuelle, Just Jaeckin, 1974.- Enter the Dragon, Robert Clouse, 1973.- Eraserhead, David Lynch, 1977.- The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi, 1981.- Fight Club, David Fincher, 1999.- Flaming Creatures, Jack Smith, 1963.- Freak Orlando, Ulrike Ottinger, 1981.- Freaks, Tod Browning, 1932.- Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, 2000.- The Gods Must Be Crazy, Jamie Uys, 1981.- Godzilla, Ishirô Honda, 1954.- The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell, 1972.- Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby, 1971.- Häxan, Benjamin Christensen, 1922.- Hellraiser, Clive Barker, 1987.- The Holy Mountain, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973.- The House with the Laughing Windows, Pupi Avati, 1976.- I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, 1943.- Ichi the Killer, Takashi Miike, 2001.- In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, 2008.- Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956.- Invocation of My Demon Brother, Kenneth Anger, 1969.- It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, 1946.- The Killer, John Woo, 1989.- Lady Terminator, H. Tjut Djalil, 1988.- The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, 2001–3.- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, George Miller, 1981.- Man Bites Dog, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, 1992.- Manos, the Hands of Fate, Harold P. Warren, 1966.- The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman, 1964.- Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, 1975.- Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987.- Nekromantik, Jörg Buttgereit, 1987.- Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero, 1968.- Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972.- Piranha, Joe Dante, 1978.- Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood, Jr, 1959.- Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon, 1985.- Reefer Madness, Louis Gasnier, 1936.- Repo Man, Alex Cox, 1984.- Ringu, Hideo Nakata, 1998.- The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Sharman, 1975.- Rome Armed to the Teeth, Umberto Lenzi, 1976.- The Room, Tommy Wiseau, 2003.- Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975.- She Killed in Ecstasy, Jesús Franco, 1971.- Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995.- Soul Vengeance, Jamaa Fanaka, 1975.- The Sound of Music, Robert Wise, 1965.- Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977–2005.- Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Todd Haynes, 1988.- Suspiria, Dario Argento, 1977.- Tank Girl, Rachel Talalay, 1995.- Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989.- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, 1974.- This Is Sp?n¨al Tap, Rob Reiner, 1984.- Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974.- Thundercrack!, Curt McDowell, 1975.- El Topo, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970.- The Toxic Avenger, Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman, 1984.- Two-Lane Blacktop, Monte Hellman, 1971.- Tw
About the Author :
ERNEST MATHIJS is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of The Cinema of David Cronenberg: From Baron of Blood to Cultural Hero (2008), co-author of Cult Cinema (with Jamie Sexton, 2011) and co-editor of The Cult Film Reader (with Xavier Mendik, 2008).
XAVIER MENDIK is Director of the Cine-Excess International Film Festival and DVD label at Brunel University, UK. He is the editor of Shocking Cinema of the Seventies (2002) and the co-editor of Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945 (with Ernest Mathijs, 2004), Underground USA: Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon (with Steven Jay Schneider, 2002) and The Cult Film Reader.
