Cult

  • Perry Henzell – The Harder They Come [+Extras] (1972)

    1971-1980Caribbean CinemaCrimeCultJamaicaPerry Henzell

    Quote:
    Review (Popeye Pete, The Deuce: Grindhouse Cinema Database)
    Director/Producer Perry Henzell created one of the most popular films to come out of Jamaica. The Harder They Come was a triumph for the Jamaican culture and it gave an honest look at life within the ghettos of that part of the world. It also became a legendary cult film. Ivan (Jimmy Cliff) is a country boy looking for fame and fortune in the big city of Kingston, Jamaica. He has dreams of becoming a star in the new reggae scene. When Ivan gets to town, he finds out things wont be as easy as he expected. When Ivan visits his mother and she explains that even though he has good intentions hes headed for a rough road ahead.Read More »

  • Bob Kelljan – Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)

    1961-1970Bob KelljanCultHorrorUSA

    Synopsis:
    Sixties couples Michael and Donna and Paul and Erica become involved with the intense Count Yorga at a Los Angeles séance, the Count having latterly been involved with Donna’s just-dead mother. After taking the Count home, Paul and Erica are waylaid, and next day a listless Erica is diagnosed by their doctor as having lost a lot of blood. When she is later found feasting on the family cat the doctor becomes convinced vampirism is at work, and that its focus is Count Yorga and his large isolated house.Read More »

  • Andy Milligan – Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970)

    1961-1970Andy MilliganCultHorrorUSA

    Stomping back to merry olde England, Bloodthirsty Butchers is a claustrophobic mess. Sweeney Todd slaps around his mistress, wife, and…second mistress. Sweeney Todd maims his barbershop victims, then gives the bodies to the local bakery. Sweeney Todd deals out marriage advice. Badly. Filled with horribly tight compositions, goofy sex (shoulders only, thanks), infrequent energy, and tiresome bitching and yelling, Bloodthirsty Butchers is a hump in the road. All women are depicted as pawns of evil. Milligan’s sets (a couple of blank rooms) and budget hit the dirt, moreso than usual. Attempts at violence are limp. When a search for highpoints leads to a neon-tipped boob in a pie and a rare light-hearted ending, trouble is afoot. All hate. No heart.Read More »

  • William Peter Blatty – The Ninth Configuration (1980)

    1971-1980ArthouseCultUSAWilliam Peter Blatty

    Toronto International Film Festival writes:
    Exorcist author William Peter Blatty intended for his adaptation of his own novel Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane to be directed by William Friedkin; when studios rejected the script, Blatty put up half the budget himself, convinced the Pepsi-Cola conglomerate to provide the balance, and stepped behind the camera to make his directorial debut. Set near the end of the Vietnam War, The Ninth Configuration takes place in a spectacular castle that has been commandeered as a mental hospital for military veterans.Read More »

  • José Ramón Larraz – Whirlpool AKA Perversion Flash AKA She Died with Her Boots On (1970)

    1961-1970CultDenmarkExploitationJosé Ramón Larraz

    Synopsis:
    A blonde fashion model, Tulia is lured to an isolated country estate by a creepy older woman, Sara. There she meets Theo, orphan and homeless boy who has given a home by Sara. They call each other as aunt and nephew. He is photography-obsessed and even creepier than Sara. Tulia doesn’t seem too perturbed to learn that a previous female model, Rhonda that went there has disappeared without a trace, nor does she find it strange that her first night there they get her drunk and engage her in perverse game of strip poker. She almost has sex with the boy while the old woman secretly watches but he isn’t able to rise to the occasion. The next day he takes her into town and pays a friend to rip her clothes off and nearly rape her while he takes pictures. This doesn’t seem to bother her either because soon she’s involved in another bisexual three-way sex/photography session with them. There is also an allusion to the old Bluebeard story-the model has been forbidden to enter the boy’s mysterious darkroom.Read More »

  • René Cardona – La mujer murcielago AKA Batwoman (1968)

    1961-1970ActionCultMexicoRené Cardona

    Batwoman is called to investigate a whacked out scientist that is capturing wrestlers and using their spinal fluid to create a Gill Man.Read More »

  • Joseph Losey – Secret Ceremony (1968)

    Drama1961-1970CultJoseph LoseyUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    Beautifully dark movie which grants Mia Farrow the freedom to showcase the strange range of her gift. Elizabeth Taylor stays close with a deep and sensitive touch, flashing a legitimate side of herself, oft covered up. Robert Mitchum achieves repulsive perfection lurking in the garden, symbolic of the disgust and fear we share in our hide. The entire cast in breath and stone include every sense in totality, placing the actors and ourselves together to spy on each other from above, and within the ornamental mansion. Intense hallucinogenic 1968 camera shots intimately portray the family by chance’s horrific existence. Read More »

  • David Byrne – True Stories (1986)

    1981-1990ComedyCultDavid ByrneUSA

    Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make his sole foray into feature-film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. The Talking Heads front man plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.Read More »

  • Allan Moyle – Times Square (1980)

    1971-1980Allan MoyleCultDramaQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Two ill-matched teenage girls form a punk band and soon have New York City by its ears.Read More »

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