Catalog Search Results
1) Blade Runner
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
More than just a box office flop that resurrected itself in the midnight movie circuit, Blade Runner (1982) achieved extraordinary cult status through video, laserdisc, and a five-disc DVD collector's set. Blade Runner has become a network of variant texts and fan speculationsa franchise created around just one film. Some have dubbed the movie "classroom cult" for its participation in academic debates, while others have termed it "meta-cult,"...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In 1974, The Wall Street Journal called this movie "grotesque, sadistic, irrational, obscene, incompetent," while New York Magazine declared it "a catastrophe." Upon its initial release, Sam Peckinpah´s notorious work took a critical and commercial nosedive, but in later years, the work was heralded as a demented masterpiece& mdash;a violent, hallucinatory autobiography and a brilliant example of "pure Peckinpah." This study revisits the making of...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) has been celebrated as a rollercoaster ride of terror and a classic horror hit, a defining example of the tongue-in-cheek, excessively gory horror films of the 1980s. It is also the film that introduced the now-iconic character of Ash (played by Bruce Campbell). This study considers the factors that have contributed to the film's evolving cult reputation. It recounts its grueling production, its journey from Cannes...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) is an enigma. A box-office failure when initially released on the grindhouse circuit, it has since been embraced by art-house audiences, and referenced in countless films, television series, and songs. A riot of styles and story clichés lifted from biker, juvenile delinquency, and beach party movies, it has the coherence of a dream, and the improvisatory daring of a jazz solo. John Waters has called...
6) Quadrophenia
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
1964: Mods clash with Rockers in Brighton, creating a moral panic. 1973: ex-Mod band The Who release Quadrophenia, a concept album following young Mod Jimmy Cooper to the Brighton riots and beyond. 1979: Franc Roddam directs Quadrophenia, a film based on Pete Townshend's album narrative; its cult status is immediate. 2013: almost fifty years on from Brighton, this first academic study explores the lasting appeal of 'England's Rebel Without a Cause'....
7) Frankenstein
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) spawned a phenomenon that has been rooted in world culture for decades. This cinematic Prometheus has generated countless sequels, remakes, rip-offs, and parodies in every media, and this granddaddy of cult movies constantly renews its followers in each generation. Along with an in-depth critical reading of the original 1931 film, this book tracks Frankenstein the monster's heavy cultural tread from Mary Shelley's...
8) Deep Red
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The release of Italian director Dario Argento's Deep Red in 1975 saw both a return to form for the director and the crystallization of tropes of the giallo genre. While the film's immense popularity in Italy spawned a wave of copy-cat formula thrillers, this enthusiastic reception was not replicated by English-speaking audiences on its theatrical release. With its loosely woven narrative and hyper-stylized violent set pieces, Deep Red was critically...
9) Serenity
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Joss Whedon's Serenity (2005) is at once a symbol of failure and a triumphant success of fan activism. The cult television icon's feature directorial debut functions as an extension of his canceled Fox series Firefly. Mourning their loss, fans of the show fought for more, making Serenity not just a cult film but a monument to cultdom. A minor box-office success upon first release, Serenity continues to be a sci-fi favorite, attracting fans, cosplayers,...
10) Danger: Diabolik
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Danger: Diabolik (1968) was adapted from a comic that has been a social phenomenon in Italy for over fifty years, featuring a masked master criminal-part Fantômas, part James Bond-and his elegant companion Eva Kant. The film partially reinvents the character as a countercultural prankster, subverting public officials and the national economy, and places him in a luxurious and futuristic underground hideout and Eva in a series of unforgettable outfits....
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Banned soon after its first midnight screenings, the prints seized and the organizers arrested, Jack Smith's incendiary Flaming Creatures (1963) quickly became a cause célèbre of the New York underground. Championed and defended by Jonas Mekas and Susan Sontag, among others, the film wildly and gleefully transgresses nearly every norm of Hollywood morality and aesthetics. In a surreal and visually dense series of episodes, the titular 'creatures'...
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Suggest a purchase. Submit Request