Tagarchief: Cult Movies

Heavy Metal

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Gerald Potterton
Written by: Daniel Goldberg, Len Blum, Dan O’Bannon, ao.
Cast (Voices): Rodger Bumpass, Richard Romanus, John Candy, Harold Ramis

Year / Country: 1981, Canada
Running Time: 87 mins.

Heavy Metal opens with a sports car floating through space before landing on Earth. The astronaut driver returns home to his daughter, bringing with him a mysterious green orb he discovered. But the gift turns deadly when the orb reveals its true nature: it comes to life, kills the man, and traps his daughter, declaring itself the embodiment of all evil in the universe. Before attempting to destroy her, it recounts several stories illustrating its corrupting power across time and space.

Based on the groundbreaking magazine Métal Hurlant (launched in France in 1974 and later adapted into the American Heavy Metal in 1977), this Canadian production stitches together multiple short stories, all connected by the malevolent orb known as the Loc-Nar. With a budget close to 10 million dollars, the film captures the spirit of the magazine – a blend of science fiction, fantasy, dark humor, graphic violence, and unapologetic eroticism – elements that have cemented its status as a cult classic. Naturally it also has a Heavy Metal soundtrack with songs by Black Sabbath, Nazareth and Blue Oyster Cult among others.

The voice cast of Heavy Metal features a number of excellent Canadian comedians, including Harold Ramis, John Candy and Eugene Levy. Producer Ivan Reitman also attached a lot of animation and writing talent to the project, so the result has an impressive look and feel, as well as the dialogues and characters that are crisp and entertaining to watch. Another Heavy Metal feature film has been announced quite a few times (after a second movie adaptation in 2000), but this version offers plenty of bizarre aliens, beautiful dames, cynical heroes and power hungry warlords to keep you occupied until it arrives.

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Biography: Gerald Potterton (1931, London) is a British director, producer and animator. In 1955 he emigrated from the UK to Canada where he started his career in film and animator. In 1968 he worked on the Beatles’ movie Yellow Submarine. In 1981 he made his best-known directorial effort, the animated cult classic Heavy Metal.

Filmography: Hors-d’oeuvre (1960, short), Christmas Cracker (1962, short), My Financial Career (1962, short), The Ride (1963, short), The Railrodder (1965, short), The Quiet Racket (1966, short doc), Cool McCool (1966, TV episodes), Tiki Tiki (1971), The Rainbow Boys (1973), The Remarkable Rocket (1975, short), Canada Vignettes: Winter – Dressing Up (1979, short), Canada Vignettes: Winter – Starting the Car (1979, short), Heavy Metal (1981), The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones (1983, short), George and the Christmas Star (1985, TV movie), The Smoggies (1989, TV episodes), The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You (1992, short)

Stone

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Sandy Harbutt
Written by: Sandy Harbutt, Michael Robinson
Cast: Ken Shorter, Sandy Harbutt, Deryck Barnes, Hugh Keays-Byrne

Year / Country: 1974, Australia
Running Time: 99 mins.

Somebody is knocking off members of the Gravediggers motorcycle gang and they must find out why! This Ozesome cult movie by Australian actor/director Sandy Harbutt is the ultimate biker movie and it will have you on the edge of your seat!

Beers, brawls, bikes and boobs. That is STONE! It provides an insightful look into the rough and heavy biker culture. All the members of the club are ex-Vietnam or Korea veterans and they chose to live a renegade lifestyle. Each member is different, but they share the same biker values. Something an outsider couldn’t understand. But when you see the crew riding around on their motorcycles, such as the legendary Kawasaki, you get a sense of what it may feel like to be part of a renegade gang like this.

In the opening of the film, one of the members of the club witnesses a political assassination, but he is tripping so hard on acid, he forgets to tell his mates. Then his fellow members of the Gravediggers motorcycle gang start getting killed one by one. Many classic scenes follow; the motorcycle cliff dive, the funeral scene, the image of Dr. Death stepping out of a coffin and many more. The rest of the story revolves around a cop called Stone who manages to win the bikers’ trust and helps them track down the killers.

In the time this was made, it was quite a radical portrayal of an outlaw society. Not only is there drugs and nudity on display, the bikers also make their own laws in the film, and refuse to adapt to the laws of society. I read something about a remake of this flick, but you just can’t do it. This feels way too authentic. Stone is the real deal.

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Biography: Sandy Harbutt (1941, Australia) is the one shot director of biker movie and cult classic Stone. Despite the box office success of that movie in Harbutt’s homeland Australia, he never got government funding again to direct another feature. Harbutt is also an actor. Apart from playing one of the leading roles in Stone , he was in various Ozzy television shows such as The Long Arm, Matlock Police and The Evil Touch.

Filmography: Jesus Christ Superstar (1972, TV-doc), Stone (1974)

Cult Radar: Part 9

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon is glad to explore the video trenches to find that oddball treasure between the piles of crap out there. Of Course, a treasure in this context can also be a film that’s so shockingly bad it’s worth a look, or something so bizarre that cult fans just have to see it. Join us on our quest and learn what we learn. Hopefully we’ll uncover some well-hidden cult gems.

Researched by: Jeppe Kleijngeld

Tormented (UK, 2009)

Directed by: Jon Wright
Written by: Stephen Prentice
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, April Pearson, Dimitri Leonidas

Fat schoolboy Darren got bullied to the point where he committed suicide. Tormented opens at his funeral. Not only do Darren’s tormentors don’t have any regrets whatsoever, they even throw a party to celebrate his demise. That’s just too much… Soon after, each member of the group of bullies starts receiving text messages from the dead Darren. They first think that someone is playing a prank on them, but as soon as the first body drops, they know they’re totally screwed. Tormented is a very effective horror flick that is both funny and inventively satisfying. Whether you thought high school was fun or not, this will keep you entertained for an hour and a half easily. Reviewer Kim Newman, who runs a Dungeon over at Empire Magazine gave it four stars also. It’s a recommendation.

Nude Nuns with Big Guns (USA, 2010)

Directed by: Joseph Guzman
Written by: Joseph Guzman, Robert James Hayes II
Cast: Asun Ortega, David Castro, Perry D’Marco

Violence, drugs, guns, boobs and off course lesbian sex. Nude Nuns With Big Guns is an immoral cocktail delivered by Freak Show Entertainment, the team behind the similar Run Bitch Run!. An abused nun has a vision from God. She is told to slay all sinners that are somehow connected to an elaborate heroin network, led by a money hungry padre who uses naked nuns as personnel. Sister Sarah is not supposed to show any mercy and she doesn’t! Is this entertaining? It kind of is in the sense that it is well shot and cut. Your eventual appreciation of Nude Nuns With Big Guns will depend mostly on your tolerance for graphic sex and violence featuring nuns. If this is low, you can easily deduct a star from this rating.

Hobo with a Shotgun (Canada, 2011)

Directed by: Jason Eisener
Written by: John Davies, Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Gregory Smith, Brian Downey

The awesome film poster promises an exploitation film pur sang and delivers. Hobo With a Shotgun was originally a fake trailer that won a Grindhouse competition organized by Robert Rodriguez. The story is about a homeless guy (Rutger Hauer) that takes on psychopathic scum in a city riddled with crime and depravity. Since it was made on a modest budget and has no Hollywood stars in its cast, it is more convincing than Tarantino’s and Rodriquez’ own Grindhouse pictures Death Proof and Planet Terror. The cheap violence gives you the real sense of watching a cult flick from the seventies. However, the sadistic violence is so excessive and beastly that it is hard to care about the characters at all, even the protagonists. The build-up is also not entirely effective; Hauer changes into a bloodthirsty vigilante in minutes, taking away some of the pleasure when he settles the score. Still, the underlying message about the human condition is well delivered and the exploitation feel is sublime; you can almost hear the exciting screams in the grindhouse theater. This hobo is certainly worth spending some loose change on.

Orcs! (USA, 2011)

Directed by: Andrew Black, James MacPherson
Written by: Anne K. Black, Jason Faller, Kynan Griffin and Justin Partridge
Cast: Adam Johnson, Renny Grames, Maclain Nelson

‘It’s an orc! No, it’s not. There is no such thing.’ A movie in which orcs show up in modern times sounds pretty horrendous. While certainly no masterpiece, Orcs! manages to entertain during its first half, which is basically a comedy about two idiot park rangers. Some jokes and The Lord of the Rings references are pretty funny. The second half is one long and tiresome battle against the orcs. This is the boring part. The costumes and special effects are laughable. All in all, don’t watch Orcs!. Just don’t!

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (USA, 1988)

Directed by: Stephen Chiodo
Written by: Charles Chiodo, Edward Chiodo, Stephen Chiodo
Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson

From the special effects team behind Critters and Team America: World Police comes an original eighties classic. On a Friday night in Cove Crescent, a couple of youngsters witness a shooting star land nearby. At the place of impact, a circus tent appears, but what’s inside aint no funhouse… The acting in Killer Klowns From Outer Space may not be world class, but the production design is very well done and reason enough to check this out. It certainly beats cotton candy.

They Live

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they’re people just like you. You’re wrong. Dead wrong.’

Director: John Carpenter
Written by: Ray Nelson (story), John Carpenter
Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George ‘Buck’ Flower

Year / Country: 1988, USA
Running Time: 90 mins.

The concept for They Live is brilliant. A drifter (wrestler Roddy Piper) discovers an underground movement. When he puts on a pair of sunglasses – produced by this movement, he finds that the world is dominated by an evil alien race. Street signs and television programmes contain hidden messages, such as ‘obey’, ‘buy’ and ‘consume’ and normal people suddenly look like monsters. The whole world is enslaved by these aliens.

The drifter finds a few allies and cooks up a plan to disrupt the alien operations. If they can turn off the signal at the source, the world will have a serious wake-up call. But the aliens are everywhere and they have human accomplices to help them. These humans sold-out their own species in return for promotions and bigger bank accounts.

In this entertaining story, director Carpenter inserted a not-so-well hidden meaning himself. People are only focussed on wealth and making more money. Thus, they are vulnerable to becoming slaves to their own greed. The humans in They Live are sedated and therefore insensitive to their surroundings, only wanting to consume more. The poor have become the unwilling worker bees for the rich.

This message runs through the film, but luckily Carpenter does not take himself too seriously. They Live is above all a fun sci-fi/action thriller with lots of tongue-in-cheek humour. Highlights are Piper’s discovery of the alien conspiracy, a ridiculous wrestling match between Piper and Keith David in an alley and the final minutes in which both aliens and humans get a big surprise.

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Biography: John Carpenter (1948, New York) was born in Carthage, New York. He attended Western Kentucky University and then USC film school in Los Angeles. While there, he started work on his feature debut Dark Star (1974). Although Carpenter has directed films in numerous other genres (dark comedy, sci-fi, romance), he is known primarily for making horror films: Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982), et cetera. He is also known as the ‘Master of Horror’ or the ‘Prince of Darkness’ (after one of his films).

Filmography (a selection): Revenge of the Colossal Beast (1962, short), Gorgo Versus Godzilla (1969, short), Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Starman (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Village of the Damned (1995), Escape from L.A. (1996), Vampires (1998), Ghosts of Mars (2001)