Cult Films: A Dirty Carnival (2006)

By Paco McCullough

A Dirty Carnival is the third film by South Korean direction Ha Yu, following perhaps his most popular film, Once Upon A Time In High School (Youtube the end fight scene, it's great). Released in 2006, it tells the story of Byung-doo (In-Seong Jo), a young gangster trying to support his ill mother and high school age siblings. As financial pressures mount, he agrees to take out a pesky DA, setting off a chain of murder and betrayal. At the same time, Byung-doo also has an old friend hanging around, now a director who is trying to see how gangsters really act. Byung-doo is also attempting to romance an old flame from his youth.

Cult Films: The Usual Suspects (1995)

By Jason Haskins

Being a chipper kid who grew up watching all of the 90s gems, I couldn't wait to watch The Usual Suspects again. I was shocked to see how it hadn't really stood up very well. Why it's a cult film escapes me.

Cult Films: Raising Arizona (1987)

By Jason Haskins

Nicholas Cage plays a guy who loves loves loves to rob convenience stores in the heart of Arizona. After all of his stints going to the big house he ends up falling for one of the officers-a policewoman played by Holly Hunter. Both get married and she quits her job (while he quits his robbing campaign) and find out that their bodies aren't very fertile and they can't bear any children. This isn't so bad, though, because they've just discovered that a local rich businessman, Nathan Arizona, has just had a pack of kids so they jump at the chance to kidnap one of the babies (since there's enough of ‘em to go around in this guy's household) and raise it as their own. However, when some cons break out of jail, too, and come looking for a place to crash at their house as well as some other proverbial poopiness that's certainly in the cards to hit the fan...this couple's predicament goes from bad to worse. Aside from the law after them there's also a crazed bounty hunter, as well as their own convictions getting in the way...of raising little Arizona.

Cult Films: In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

By Jason Haskins

Why, oh, why do good horror movies get forgotten? In the Mouth of Madness was not one I grew up with, but after discovering it on VHS a series of years ago and loving it, I was flabbergasted at how many people did not know if its existence. You know John Carpenter, right? The guy responsible for The Thing and Halloween (among many other goodies). You know Sam Neill? The lead in Dead Calm and Jurassic Park? You like horror movies with intelligent plots, creepy interiors, and interesting concepts? This should be your cup of soup, horror brethren.

Cult Films: Event Horizon (1997)

By Jason Haskins

Event Horizon was a movie that has, more or less, been forgotten from public consciousness since its released back in 1997. Is it deserved? While most would write this off as another bad sci-fi movie from the nineties, it's surprising to note that it actually holds up fairly well and is quite entertaining for what it tries to do. It's not necessarily an original Event, per se, but it's familiarity is strangely comfortable.

Crapsterpieces: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) is a film about a gang of alien clowns that fly around in a circus tent UFO, shoot deadly popcorn from ray guns, and wrap their victims in cotton candy. They land in a small town and it’s up to a cop, a couple college students, and two brothers who sell ice cream to stop them. If this sounds like something you’d like, you probably will. Conversely, if this sounds like something you’d hate, you probably will.

Cult Films: Santa Sangre (1989)

Cult Films is a new feature that will appear every Tuesday. We will be discussing cult films, films that may not have been successful but have gathered a large following after their release.

By Jason Haskins

1989’s Santa Sangre teeters on the edge of pretentiousness and abrupt surrealism, yet is tied together by a tangible storyline. As one of the last directorial efforts of Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, El Topo) it captures the very essence of Latin America culture through a twisted lens that reminds one of Black Orpheus mixed with a Dario Argento film.

A young man cloistered away in a mental asylum recounts how he got there from his upbringing in the circus and escapes to act out revenge in his mother’s name amongst the chaos of a dirty city that’s lost its way. It plays out like a horror movie after the first half, but amidst the set ups of death there are elegant arrangements of spectacle and bizarre transitions that make it much different from anything you’ve ever seen before. Those of you familiar with his films will understand what I mean.

Jodorowsky thrives in this setting with the tone, shifting between camp towards ambiguous symbology, graphic depictions of violence, and sexuality. This film is actually quite entertaining, but also very rich in artistic merit. It’s not pretentious or experimental to the point that you don’t know what’s happening in the movie despite the confusing nature of some of the sequences because there’s an actual story that’s easy to follow.

Much of the film is bursting value that’s quite timeless, from the gothic sort of set designs to the costumes and demented organ carnival music that plays for a majority of the film. The music definitely makes the movie that much more stunning. Simon Boswell’s score is eerie and playful in the most inappropriate ways that match the film’s complete and utter zaniness just perfectly.

Recently released on DVD (also available on Netflix’s Instant Watch), this is a primetime Cult Classic you might’ve missed—and one that’s certainly deserving of your affection. Throughout the two-hour running time you’ll be constantly entertained by how unpredictable and fresh all of the scenes are as well as the enthusiastic and intriguing performances of the entire cast. Not only is it a great amount of fun to watch, but it’s also bursting with a sense of art and culture that’s not tailor-made for any one audience. Most will probably dislike it (though I don’t know why), but if you like incredibly flexible tattooed women, blood, little people, music, and other things that go bump in the night then you’ll definitely get a kick out of Santa Sangre.

(c) Jason Haskins, 2011