Cult sci-fi movies
quote:
Originally posted by mayaxiong:
1. Phantom of the Paradise..early DePalma movie shot here in Dallas, with Paul Williams and Gerrit Graham, and features the lovely Jessica whatsername from Suspiria..
Jessica Harper, she is. And don’t forget William Finley in the role of his lifetime as Winslow Leach/The Phantom. One of my favorite films of all time. Not sci-fi, so it doesn’t really belong here, but a good choice nonetheless. Interesting Sidenote #1: Author Bill Warren posted on another BB I frequent that he attended an early screening/party when it debuted, and a friend of his showed up dressed like The Phantom. He, later that month, went to a Paul Williams concert in the same outfit. Before the show started, security grabbed him and took him backstage. He thought he was about to be arrested or something, when Paul Williams walked up to him and said “Winslow, dear boy, I’ve been looking for you [i]everywhere[/i].”
Interesting sidenote #2: Jessica Harper is a tremendously friendly person who now writes children’s books and music. Got an email from her not too long ago (though it was just a warning about a computer virus that was replicating via her address book, the surprising thing was that she still had me in her address book).
quote[quote]3. From Beyond, with Jeffrey Combs,and Barbara Crampton. Hey anthing that Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna do is ok in my book..[/quote]
Mine too, though I’d list [i]Re-Animator[/i] for Gordon and [i]Society[/i] for Yuzna.
quote[quote]6. Kronos….early sci-fi from out of the blue, (not the vampire remake) killer sfx for it’s time, about an energy drainer from outer space..[/quote]
Guillermo del Toro’s [i]Chronos[/i] is not a remake of Kronos. It’s a whole other animal, though it has a similar name.
quote[quote]8. Dunwich Horror, with Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. (she’ll NEVER live down this movie) and Dean was a bad mamma-jamma, too.[/quote]
Odd little film. It’s not really *good* in any sense (though it is kind of groovy in that late-60s/early 70s way), and Dean Stockwell is just *wrong* as Wilbur Whately, but it’s entertaining in a goofy way. Requires lots of drugs, though.
quote[quote]9.Phantasm (1 only) Absolutely scared the living crap out of me, when I first saw it.[/quote]
Another odd one. Though I think this one works. It (along with [i]Nightmare on Elm Street[/i]) seems to capture the disorientation of a nightmare really well (especially in the kind of blanket acceptance that people give to insane things, like the girl/grandmother pair at the beginning). It doesn’t really make a lot of sense, and the revelation at the end is just outlandish, but it all fits together and works like a well-oiled machine. It seems to change genres every couple of minutes, and that’s a good thing. In retrospect, though, I’d say that the only really blood-curdling thing in the movie is when Jody and Reggie (wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt and a derby???) team up to sing a really frightening folk song.
quote[quote]10. Videodrome, (I think someone did actually mention this one) James Woods and Debra Harry were astounding in this early cypberpunk flick. And the subject matter must have been tough to do, for the times.[/quote]
I think that *every* David Cronenberg film must have been tough to do for the times. [i]Videodrome[/i] is, quite possibly, his crowning achievement in his genre films, but all of them are worthy of note. Especially [i]Scanners[/i] (avoid all sequels) and [i]The Brood[/i], two of my personal favorites. Outside of his genre work, [i]Dead Ringers[/i] is nearly perfect, and [i]Crash[/i] is brilliant. Cronenberg should have been given [i]Hannibal[/i]. He would have done wonderful things with that. He is just misanthropic enough to make it work (though I do like Ridley Scott’s version, up until we get to Mason Verger’s estate and the events immediately leading up to it, and I lament some of the lost elements — martinis made of children’s tears and Margo in particular).
–Aleck