After the failure to get his Dune project to the screen, and the minor blip that was Tusk in 1980, Alexandro Jodorowsky brought us Santa Sangre in 1989. Back to the form that viewers witnessed in the surreal classics El Topo (1970) and Holy Mountain (1973), the film has become a cult classic of surreal avant-garde horror cinema.

Santa Sangre (Holy Blood) was an Italian-Mexican production, co-written (other writers being Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni) and directed by Jodorowsky. A film that is crammed full of allegorical imagery, it's a wild ride through the mind of a young man trapped in a mental hospital. As we travel through flash-backs and flash-forwards, into a world of bizarre circus, and a fanatical religious cult known as Santa Sangre.

Along with his earlier works, the film is considered to be one of Jodorowsky's greatest works. A trippy hallucinatory nightmare through the mind of one of the greatest cult film directors of all time. A true piece of psychological horror, that mixes uncomfortable images, with dark humour, violence and sexuality.

The tag-line to Santa Sangre was "Forget Everything You Have Seen". And in many ways that line still holds true. As the film stands-up to this day, as a surreal masterpiece, unrivalled by films that have attempted to follow in its footsteps. It's such a shame that Jodorowsky never got to make his version of Dune. Which could well be one of the greatest movies never made. Despite the fact that much of the ideas and images from it have found there way into many sci-fi and horror films since.

Basket Case is a 1982 American horror comedy film written and directed by cult film-maker Frank Henenlotter. Henenlotter, who also made 2 sequels to Basket Case as well as the cult classics Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990), is quoted as saying,  "I never felt that I made ‘horror films’", he has said. "I always felt that I made exploitation films. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions. They’re a little ruder, a little raunchier, they deal with material people don’t usually touch on, whether it’s sex or drugs or rock and roll."


Basket Case is a classic piece of 80s schlock cinema, about Duane who arrives in New York City carrying a basket with him wherever he goes. The basket contains his deformed twin, who he was surgically separated from. Duane's twin Belial, wants to seek revenge on the surgeon who split them at an early age, against their will. Belial goes on an unstoppable murderous rampage, until Duane tries to stop his evil twin, for the murder and attempted rape of a nurse he befriends.

Basket Case was Henenlotter's first feature film, and was shot on grainy 16mm, for a budget of only $35,000. Creating a dark and disturbing atmosphere, that recreates the seedy side of 80s New York around Times Square and 42nd Street. The film became an instant cult classic, and spent a number of years on the midnight movie circuit. It didn't make the Video Nasty list on the UK, but was singled out among others as a film that many video stores refused to stock. 

In 1950 the genius independently filmed movie Destination Moon was released. It stood as the trail blazing sci-fi movie that genuinely tried to examine the dangers of man attempting to fly to the moon and return safely back to Earth. The movie was produced by the combined genius of producer George Pal and the prolific actor/director Irving Pichel. It was co-written by Robert A. Heinlein, based on his novel Rocket Ship Galileo.

To coincide with the movie a comic book was produced to tell the story, but also inject scientific facts about travel to the moon into the story. In addition Pal included the famous cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, as he was a friend of Woody creator Walter Lantz. Woody featured in a cartoon that was shown as a short alongside Destination Moon, as well as being cleverly inserted into the the movie itself. The itself comic book stands out as a classic and early movie tie-in.

Strange British sci-fi sex comedy, that featured a whole host a renowned comedy actors of the period, and plenty of semi-nudity. A cult classic of British sexploitation, it tells the story of a race of topless, large-breasted women from the planet Angvia (and anagram of vagina), in another dimension, come to earth to kidnap women to repopulate their planet. All lead by an interdimensional sex goddess called Zeta. 

The film is low-budget exploitation film-making at its so-bad-its-good best. A cut-rate Carry On type caper, with a blatant James Bond rip-off theme. (With a super-spy character called James Word.) The plot drags, and the one-shot director Michael Cort uses plenty of padding and scenes that seem utterly out of place. It's bright, gaudy and silly. And must have been an influence on Mike Myers when he was creating Austin Powers. The colours are in-your-face trippy 60s, spliced with a Mod aesthetic. Making it a great example of British psychedelic cinema. 

The film was a flop on its initial release. Zeta One was released in the United Kingdom in 1970, being described by one critic as,  "quite preposterous in illogicality and silliness". It was later released in America by Film Ventures International, briefly in 1973 as The Love Slaves and then wider in 1974 under the title The Love Factor. Despite its failure on initial release, Zeta One has gained a cult following in the subsequent decades.

How to make a bad b-movie creature feature in the 80s. Start making a movie, fall out over its production. Get someone else to make an entirely different movie, with a different cast. Then splice the two movies together, and tah dah... You have 1986's Spookies.

Spookies started life as a movie called Twisted Souls, back in 1984. Then in post-production the movie ground to a halt, due to disputes with the financial backers. In 1985 the financiers hired another directer to film the extra footage,  which was then edited into the famously confusing (badly edited) over-the-top creature feature.  The movie is chock full of costumed and animatronic creatures. Check out the trailer below, and you'll see what I mean. One favourite creature is the farting muckmen, that have more than a passing resemblance to Kevin Smith's Golgothan shit demon from Dogma (1999).

Spookies is a bit of a forgotten cult classic, of that particularly mid-80s horror style of gory horror spliced with goofy humour. 

Others of the period that spring to mind are the all time classics of the genre, Evil Dead 2 (1987), as well as the earlier Italian horror Demons from 1985, directed by Lamberto Bava. Others that I'd put into this category would be 1988's Night Of The Demons and Street Trash from 1987. But those are just a few, among the many horror movies of the period that were self-referential and aware of their own silliness at times. Which made them all the better.

Pioneering African-American movie, directed by actor and film-maker Spencer Williams in 1941. Williams was best known for playing Andy, in the  Amos 'n' Andy TV show. The Blood of Jesus was produced by Williams' own production company,  Amnegro, on a $5,000 budget using non-professional actors for his cast. It was his directorial début, and was a major commercial success, being screened in cinemas and in black churches. It's considered as being one of the most successful "race films" of the period. Time magazine has listed it as one of the top 25 Most Important Films on Race.

The film tells the story of a woman accidentally shot by her husband. As she lays dying, an angel visits her to take her spirit on a journey to the after-life. She is brought to the Crossroads between Heaven and Hell, and initially she is tempted by the slick Judas, an agent of Satan. Eventually the angel arrives to save Martha from Satan, and she witnessed the crucified Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ falls on her face, and she is transported back home, where her godless husband has found Jesus.

Williams filmed and produced The Blood Of Jesus in Texas, for Sack Amusement Enterprises. It's success meant he was able to make two other religious themed films, Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942) and Go Down Death (1944). For years, the film was considered a lost film until prints were discovered in the mid-1980s in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas. In 1991, The Blood of Jesus became the first race film to be added to the United States National Film Registry. 

Weird and obscure 1970s comedy horror, in which the main character is a corpse in a coffin. Arnold, the stiff, marries his girlfriend Karen, much to the dismay of his relatives. Thus the scene is set for Arnold's money grabbing relatives to gather around the newlyweds, in an attempt to get their hands on his money. Unfortunately someone has other ideas, and the relatives start dying in the most ludicrous and inventive ways.

Arnold was a production of the short lived Bing Crosby Productions, who managed to knock out some of the worst b-movies ever. Arnold in particular stands out as a bizarre little gem. A weird campy schlock dark comedy horror farce, a kind of pre-slasher murder movie with a dead protagonist. From the opening song to the dark ending, Arnold is a gobsmacking piece of cinema, that will leave you equally amused, bemused and confused. With a star studded cast of TV stars, and b-movie actors, that included Jamie Farr, Roddy McDowall and Stella Stevens.

Arnold is a movie that'll leave you confused as to what you just watched. Is it a so-bad-it's-good movie? One thing Arnold certainly is, it's a movie that'll leave you wondered what the hell did I just watch. And for that alone, it's well worth digging up, dusting off, and giving a go. Director Georg Fenady and his producer brother Andrew J. Fenady shot this film back-to-back with "Terror in the Wax Museum," with some of the same actors.

Part documentary, part early form of mockumentary, I Am Curious (Yellow) was part of the emerging new wave of Swedish cinema in the late 1960s. Originally conceived as a 3 and a half-hour epic, the film was split into two companion films named Yellow and Blue, after the colours of the Swedish flag.

The film tells the story of Lena, as she goes on a journey of self discovery, followed by a film crew. With the director Sjöman documenting himself, documenting Lena. Lena builds an archive of her life, and her discoveries, as the film explores social and political themes of the period. Blurring the lines between fact and the fictional life of Lena, through interviews with people on the streets, and even an interview with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while he was on a visit to Sweden. 

The film's frank portrayal  of Lena's sex life caused controversy on the film's release. With graphic nudity and simulated sexual intercourse and oral sex, the film came to the attention of the censors.  

Women are not film-makers you'd usually associate with the slasher movie genre. But The Slumber Party Massacre was written by Rita Mae Brown, and directed by Amy Holden Jones. The movie was originally written as and intended to be a parody of the rising popularity of the genre, in the late 70s and early 80s. However it was made as a straight genre piece, and as such straddles a black comedy line. With some of the original humour still shining through, as well as the unintended humour of clunky script and bad b-movie acting.

The movie (being an intended parody) follows the slasher genre formula. High school girls, played by 20-somethings, with plenty of shower scene nudity. (At only 8 minutes in!) An escaped serial killer with a love of power tools. Except, unlike most slasher movies, we know who the killer is and what he looks like in this movie. But you do get a series of set-piece deaths, that sway wildly between gore spectacles and over-the-top hilarity. It's cheap, it's tacky, and it has "massacre" in the title. Perfect slasher stuff!

Part from its infamy as one of the must see movies of the slasher genre of the period, for any die-hard fans, The Slumber Party Massacre has little more going for it. Coming out of Roger Corman's stable of New World Pictures, which gave many of Hollywood's top film-makers their first break. Amy Jones would go on to write the screenplays for Mystic Pizza (1988), and was a writer on the Beethoven series of movies. She is said to have given up an editing job of E.T. to direct The Slumber Party Massacre.

I was AFK all day yesterday, so no Cult Film Friday post. So instead it's a Cult Cinema Saturday, with the brilliant British-American sci-fi movie Phase IV, directed by the film-maker and famous graphic designer Saul Bass. Bass's only full length movie he directed. Bass is better known, for his graphic design work on some of the most iconic movie posters ever made.

The film, which was shot in both England and Africa, despite being set in Arizona, was a commercial failure on initial release. However it quickly gained a cult status through regular TV runs in the mid to late 70s and early 80s. 

Due to a cosmic event, known as a "phase", ants in a remote desert location develop an intelligent hive-mind and begin to attack the desert inhabitants and facilities of the scientists that are studying them. The movie became well regarded for its stunning cinematography, especially the close-up shots of ants, which were filmed by wildlife photographer Ken Middleham.

Bass originally filmed a spectacular, surreal montage lasting four minutes, showing what life would be like in the 'new' Earth, but this was cut by the distributor. The montage was supposed to suggest that the two surviving characters were altered by the ants creating the next step in evolution for humanity and insects. Shots from the original montage sequence appear in the theatrical trailer, which was likely prepared before cuts were made to the film.