Tag: cult
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10 Garbage TV Shows From The 1990s
The 1990s was a golden age for American culture and the last truly great decade this country has seen. Every week there was a new album, movie, or TV show to enjoy and both the quality and quantity of this media output would become the stuff of history. But with this largesse came a lot…
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Cult Classics: Fantastic Planet
Cult films seem to depict two worlds: a heightened, askew version of reality as we know it, and a bizarre reality that is barely recognizable. Of the former, previous entries like True Stories or personal favorite The Burbs seem to fall into that category, while the latter refers to otherworldly madness like David Lynch’s Eraserhead,…
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Cult Classics: Grindhouse
The lurid exploitation films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s gave cheap thrills to filmgoing audiences looking to make out in the back seats of the theater or their cars, see a few gross kill-shots and grungy effects, or else enjoy the well-tread tropes and hackneyed cinematography that these films promised. Their enjoyment by cinephiles…
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Great TV: Spaced
Your 20s is a weird decade in life: being out on your own for the first time, trying to get a career going, and navigating the pitfalls of adult relationships without having much experience can be both exciting and frustrating. A lot of the time, it’s being surprised that you’ve either outgrown many things you’ve…
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Cult Classics: Better Off Dead
Lane Meyer wishes he were dead. He tries over and over – self-immolation, carbon monoxide poisoning, jumping from a bridge, even hanging. But like most things in his life, it never quite goes his way. Did I mention this is a major plot point in an 80’s teen comedy? Better Off Dead isn’t just another…
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Cult Classics: UHF
Who doesn’t love Weird Al? I know I do: the first record I ever independently bought was In 3-D in 1988 from a flea market when I was 6. I’ve lost a lot of great vinyl albums over the years due to either lending them out or as break-up casualties, but there is no vinyl…
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The Greasy Strangler
I enjoy weird films. If it’s cult, obscure, transgressive, shocking, or just plain bizarre, I’ll seek it out and consume it like it’s garmonbozia. But why this sort of fare? I don’t have particularly bizarre habits, behaviors, or even interests (unless you think nerdy obsessions with rhetorical theory and critical discourse as weird, which OK…
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10 Wonderfully Complex Sci-Fi Movies
Perhaps in its very nature, the sci-fi genre is relatively complex: short stories, novels, TV series and films that make up speculative fiction kind of relies on detailed expository passages to build far-flung futures, reality-bending premises, and wild tales set in a galaxy far, far away. Whether the story is set on an alien world…
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10 Great Weird Cult Films To Watch
Weird, bizarre, or just plain odd: many films have been made in history that push the boundaries of normalcy and present an utterly unique vision to audiences seeking outre cinema. But for every acclaimed Eraserhead or El Topo, there are dozens of films that slip through the cracks and fall into the often difficult-to-find realm…
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Great TV: The Riches
Listen: not every show makes it full cycle. Some shows fizzle out: it’s just what happens in the high turnover business of television. One day you’re the critical darling among a crowded slate and the next you’re cancelled after 13 episodes. Low ratings, a faltering viewership, or just rotten luck can doom a series before…
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Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers
How do you make a sequel of a horror movie whose original hinged on keeping the identity of the killer a secret until the end, since once you reveal this, there would be no way to pull that trick off again? By making the deranged killer from the first movie your protagonist in the second…
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