Tagarchief: Cult Movies

Bride of the Monster

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Edward D. Wood Jr.
Written by: Edward D. Wood Jr., Alex Gordon
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King

Year / Country: 1955, USA
Running Time: 68 mins.

Bride of the Monster is perhaps the greatest display of director Ed Wood’s ‘talents’. It might also be his best film and the only one that was financially successful upon release. A true salute to incompetence.

In this homage to classic monster movies like Frankenstein, the uncanny scientist Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) lives in a mysterious house in the swamps, performing experiments in terror. He is aided by the huge butler Lobo (wrestler Tor Johnson) and a gigantic octopus.

When a number of people disappear, the police, the press and a Van Helsing type of monster expert start an investigation around Vornoff. They find out he has been tempering with God’s creations, resulting in the beginning of an ‘atomic super race’.

There are quite a few hilarious scenes and dialogues in this movie. The highlight by far is the octopus monster. Wood inserted real footage for the underwater scenes and an incredibly fake rubber octopus for the surface ones. The mismatch between the two is spectacularly funny. Whenever a victim is struggling with the dead tentacles you can only think ‘this can’t be serious’. Still, Wood’s passion for the medium is undeniable.

The movie ends with an atomic explosion as a warning for the use of nuclear power. This was one of the demands of the film’s financier. Believe it or not, it is very fitting in the context of this film. Conclusion: if you watch one Ed Wood movie, watch Bride of the Monster. Oh yeah, it’s that bad.

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Biography: Edward D. Wood Jr. (1924, New York – 1978, Hollywood) is widely considered as the world’s worst filmmaker. His low-budget movies, usually mergers of science-fiction and horror, are mostly complete disasters in terms of production values and continuity. In 1994, Edward D. Wood Jr. became the subject of an amazing biopic directed by Tim Burton called Ed Wood.

Filmography: The Sun Was Setting (1951, TV short), Trick Shooting with Kenne Duncan (1953, short), Glen or Glenda (1953), Crossroad Avenger: The Adventures of the Tuscon Kid (1953, TV short), Boots (1953, short), Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), The Night the Banshee Cried (1957, short), Final Curtain (1957, short), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), Night of the Ghouls (1959), The Sinister Urge (1960), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Young Marrieds (1971), Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love (1971)

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Six Chicks in search of a Cluck! …and so hilariously funny!

Director: Russ Meyer
Written by: Russ Meyer, Roger Ebert
Cast: Kitten Natividad, Ken Kerr, Uschi Digard, Ann Marie

Year / Country: 1979, USA
Running Time: 93 mins.

Although Russ Meyer’s final feature film is not a masterpiece, it is one hell of a funny movie. The paper thin story involves simple mind Lamar Shedd and his steamy Vixen wife Lola Langusta (Lavonia – hotter than a Mexican’s lunch).

Stuart Lancaster gives us the lowdown on Small Town USA, a redneck township where simple guys and girls have simple needs. In the daytime they work as mechanics and door-to-door salesmen and at night… well, guess you know what they do at night. Of course this is a Meyer movie in which the girls have all the power.

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens takes on sexual conventions and the sexy main chick kicks the anal loving redneck in the groin. But this is part of the central love story between Lamar and Lavonia. He can only get satisfaction through the backdoor and she is just a little too enthusiastic. Typical content for Meyer who wrote the script with no one less than film critic Roger Ebert!

If you want to have a really great time, watch Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens. It got more bush than Texas politics and roundings greater than the Himalayas. And as a story of women’s liberation is supposed to be like, the women are always on top of things.

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Biography: Russ Meyer (1922, California – 2004, California) is known primarily for making a large number of sexploitation flicks, such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Vixen! He did almost everything – directing, writing, editing – himself. He even did the distribution of his own movies. In the cult / exploitation circuit his films did very well and made him more than enough money to continue his film career. In the late seventies, Meyer retired as a wealthy man. Many of his films are nowadays considered as cult classics.

Filmography: The French Peep Show (1950, short doc), The Immortal Mr. Teas (1959), The Naked Cinema (1961, short), Eve and the Handyman (1961), Erotica (1961), Wild Gals of the Naked West (1962), Skyscrapers and Brassieres (1963, short), Europe in the Raw (1963, doc), Heavenly Bodies (1963), Lorna (1964), Fanny Hill (1964), Mudhoney (1965), Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), Motor Psycho (1965), Mondo Topless (1966), Common Law Cabin (1967), Good Morning… and Goodbye! (1967), Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968), Vixen! (1968), Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1970), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), The Seven Minutes (1971), Black Snake (1973), Supervixens (1975), Up! (1976), Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979), Pandora Peaks (2001, short)

Cult Radar: Part 6

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

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (USA, 1993 TV)

Directed by: Christopher Guest
Written by: Mark Hanna, Joseph Dougherty
Cast: Daryl Hannah, Daniel Baldwin, William Windom

‘She is a female colossus, her mountainous torso, skyscraper limbs, giant desires.’ Daryl Hannah plays Nancy in this remake of the original Attack of the 50 Foot Woman from 1953. Nancy is the girl who always eats shit from everybody. During a lonely drive in the desert, she is laser beamed by an alien spaceship. Initially there are no effects, but after her cheating husband (Daniel Baldwin) and her bastard father piss her off for the millionth time, she grows 50 feet tall and goes apeshit. This is a movie with obviously a lot of cult potential, but the story takes too long to take off. The revenge mayhem does not start until the final 20 minutes! When it does take off it is pretty cool. Not in the least bit because of the amusing special effects.

The Big Bird Cage (Philippines / USA, 1972)

Directed by: Jack Hill
Written by: Jack Hill
Cast: Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Candice Roman, Teda Bracci

Terry Rich (Anitra Ford) is sent to a women’s prison camp, because she slept around with too many men (?). The camp is a nightmare. Hundreds of woman are forced to work a sugar cane mill under supervision of gay guards. Off course there are loads of catfights, scenes of torture and some sexual content. It ends in a cliché: a massive escape. This exploitation film is an addition to the ‘woman in prison’ subgenre. Writer/director Jack Hill has certainly done better, for example on this film’s predecessor The Big Doll House. This is boring and the atmosphere is just plain unpleasant. Pam Grier brings two great features into the mix though, so let’s not write it off as complete failure.

Awakening of the Beast (Brazil, 1970)
OT: O Despertar da Besta

Directed by: José Mojica Marins
Written by: Rubens F. Lucchetti. José Mojica Marins
Cast: José Mojica Marins, ngelo Assunção, Ronaldo Beibe

Weird and incomprehensible exploitation film by the Brazilian Argento Coffin Joe. It’s an attempt at social commentary, but completely fails to deliver a message of any significance. All we see is a bunch of people degrading themselves, resulting in a very unpleasant viewing. What makes it worse is that it attempts to be artsy, while it’s plain trash of the worst kind. It will be a while before I watch another Coffin Joe flick, because this one sucks monkey balls.

Gonin 2 (Japan, 1996)

Directed by: Takashi Ishii
Written by: Takashi Ishii
Cast: Ken Ogata, Shinobu Ootake, Kimiko Yo, Maj Kitajima

Also known as Five Woman, this is the sequel to Takashi’s Ishii’s extremely violent Gonin. The plot is kind of similar. The wife of an old man is raped by the Yakuza because he is late paying of his debt. After she has committed harakiri because of the shame, he forges a sword and starts slaying the responsible Yakuza men. At the same time five women, who have never met before, take off with the proceeds of a Yakuza heist. These developments lead to gore, lot’s of gore in this stylish and surrealistic gangster film.

Alien Nation (USA, 1988)

Directed by: Graham Baker
Written by: Rockne S. O’Bannon
Cast: James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp

A police movie with a sci-fi twist. It’s about an alien race, similar to humans, who have landed on earth. Like immigrants, they have to fit in with the rest of the population. This creates racial tension, as some humans are prejudiced against the newcomers. James Caan plays one of these prejudiced people. He is a cop, who teams up with one of the aliens after his partner is killed. Initially they are trying to solve this case, but they soon stumble upon a bigger threat to society. This is about as entertaining as it sounds. The aliens look like they have come right out of Star Trek, the deeper layer of the film is very subtle (not) and the jokes are pretty lame. Altogether, it is still a reasonably entertaining cop movie. But unfortunately nothing more.

Crimewave

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Sam Raimi
Cast: Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Paul L. Smith, Brion James

Year / Country: 1985, USA
Running Time: 79 mins.

Victor Ajax, an electric repairman, is scheduled to be executed in the electric chair for a series of murders he didn’t commit. With five minutes to midnight, the hapless Ajax flashes back to the events that brought him to this precarious situation. Thanks to his former boss’s murderous schemes, he finds himself tangled up with a pair of maniacal exterminators, but also crosses paths with the woman of his dreams.

Raimi’s second feature film explores faith, fate, electricity, and the extermination business. Not only did Raimi direct Crimewave, but he co-wrote the screenplay with the Coen brothers. With that kind of talent involved, I was expecting something spectacular. In that sense, it was a letdown. But on re-watch, I found plenty to appreciate.

At this point in their careers, both Raimi and the Coens were still discovering their voices. Crimewave showcases Raimi’s trademark razzle-dazzle camerawork, while the Coens supply a parade of idiotic characters, absurd jokes, and bizarre scenarios. Still, it lacks the razor-sharp precision they would later master. Fans, however, will have a blast spotting the references, quirks, and trademarks that foreshadow their later work.

The budget here was clearly bigger than Raimi’s debut, The Evil Dead, and it shows in several standout set pieces. The sequence where Paul L. Smith stalks Louise Lasser through a corridor lined with doors is a highlight, and the film climaxes with a long, spectacular car chase reminiscent of a scene later perfected in Raising Arizona.

The casting is another strength. Paul L. Smith and Brion James are especially memorable in their feral performances as rat exterminators, while Bruce Campbell is very funny as a smooth skirt chaser. The Coen brothers themselves also briefly appear as journalists.

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Biography: Sam Raimi (1959, Royal Oak, Michigan) started making 8mm films when he was around ten years old. In his teenage years he first collaborated with his good friend Bruce Campbell, who would later appear in almost all of his films. The style of Raimi is influenced by the Three Stooges, of whom he is a huge fan. By making the short movie Within the Woods he managed to raise the required funds to make his first feature; the outrageous horror flick The Evil Dead. After that he made similar films with varying commercial success. In his films Raimi displays a great talent for creating inventive visuals. Most of his movies also feature slapstick and comic book elements. In 2002 Raimi made Spiderman, his biggest film to date. It was an enormous box-office success and Raimi would go on to make two sequels. Throughout his career Raimi has also produced many films and TV-series, mostly in the horror/fantasy genre. He remains a director with a huge fan base and many exciting future prospects.

Filmography (a selection): It’s Murder! (1977, short), Within the Woods (1978, short), Clockwork (1978, short), The Evil Dead (1981), Crimewave (1985), Evil Dead II (1987),  Darkman (1990), Army of Darkness (1992), The Quick and the Dead (1995), A Simple Plan (1998), For Love of the Game (1999), The Gift (2000), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Drag Me to Hell (2009)