Cult Film School (2025)

07/01/2025

CFS is on Break!

What To Do in the Meantime:
1. Catch Up on Episodes You Missed (OR Want to Listen to Again)
2. Spread the Word
3. Review us on Apple Podcasts
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You can listen to Cult Film School on our website, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts >>> find these links in our bio

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Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

Thanks for the Support! See You Next Semester!

31/12/2024

Lady Terminator may be one of the best genre films ever made. It is the perfect exploitation film. A “mockbuster” remake of Terminator (1984), with a dash of Lifeforce (1985), the film plants its feet in the Indonesian folklore of the Queen of the South Sea, a s*xually ravenous Queen who seeks revenge on the descendant of the man who bested her. But once the revenge begins, folklore is replaced by riffs on Terminator, also liberally borrowing from the 1980s Hollywood action film. It is here that the film truly shines: in its attempts to so closely mirror Hollywood, the film exposes the sheer bravado and ideological insanity of that foundation, and by playing it all straight makes it all so much funnier than the source ever intended. Guns never need to reload, so many men shot dead in the crotch by automatic weapons, the “Americans” the most caricatured of figures as they go even more over-the-top in their firefights with the titular antagonist: in so many ways it inspires awe, tears, and laughter. In so many ways it’s the best Hollywood action film not made by Hollywood, and by squarely aiming at those most exploitative of instincts, it raises the whole. If it isn’t the most inspired film, it is one of the most entertaining, regardless if you are a “lady” or an “anthropologist.”

Listen to the full discussion of Lady Terminator in “Indonesian Cult Classics” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Lady Terminator
🎬DIRECTED BY: H. Tjut Djalil
🗓️RELEASE: 1989
⌛RUNTIME: 82 Minutes
⭐RATING: 4.0 / 5.0

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Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

26/12/2024

Mystics in Bali is a hidden gem, a phantasmagoric experience as if sprung into existence from some alternate reality. A true “East meet West” hybrid has the Balinese folkloric monster the Leyak (née Leák), a floating head with entrails feeding on human blood, and its associated black magic be the centrepiece of a horror film with deep roots in the Western approach to the genre. The result is a series of scenarios and images that seer into the brain, hard to be forgotten. The eccentricities, oddities, and insanities of the supernatural are made all the more weird (if that were possible) by the near expressionless English dubbing and “matter-of-fact” presentation through the direction: if this was the most horrific or sensationalistic display, you wouldn’t know it here, making the entire thing that much more off-putting. While made with more audacity and ambition than talent, it’s that imagination, above all, which deserves to be experienced, and once seen can’t be forgotten, even if you lose your head… with entrails.

Listen to the full discussion of Mystics in Bali in “Indonesian Cult Classics” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Mystics in Bali
🎬DIRECTED BY: H. Tjut Djalil
🗓️RELEASE: 1981
⌛RUNTIME: 86 Minutes
⭐RATING: 3.5 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

20/12/2024

As Semester 3 comes to a close, CFS takes listeners on a field trip of Indonesian Cult Cinema.

Check these 2 movies out to avoid spoilers in next week's episode!
📽️ Mystics in Bali → H. Tjut Djalil, 1981.
📽️ Lady Terminator → H. Tjut Djalil, 1989.

Don't miss an episode! Turn on notifications & follow us on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X & Letterboxd!

📧 [email protected]

16/12/2024

Black Christmas (2019) is an interesting case study that proves the saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” A female written and directed slasher film made in the wake of Blumhouse backlash over its attitude toward female horror filmmakers, the film knows what it wants, but not how to get it: a slasher “message-movie” about female empowerment rising up against the horrors of toxic masculinity. Except it’s not really a slasher film, or a “remake” of Black Christmas (1974) in most conceivable definitions, and it buckles under the weight of its own message. While the talent of all involved shouldn’t need to be mentioned here, seek out Takal’s Always Shine (2016), it’s all the more puzzling how a film like Black Christmas (2019) could have been rushed into existence.

Black Christmas (2019) has the subtlety of an after school special, with its story about the women supporting each other against the oppression of toxic masculinity. But its portrayal of the group of female friends is itself problematic - if they’re not sufficiently sketched as unique characters they’re also not quite nice or supporting either. (Imogen Poots notwithstanding.) Male characters are themselves caricatures, whether “Alpha male” or “Beta male.” But above anything, the film cannot support the weight of its ideological message. The film makes some baffling decisions in its narrative that almost undercut the film’s explicit message, and raise its subtext of s*xual politics to the height of comedy by the film’s conclusion. In all, for a film so intent on its message, it is either tragic or comic how ham-fisted the film attempts this, to the point of subverting it. On second thought, better to stuff your head in a snowbank.

Listen to the full discussion of Black Christmas (2019) in “The Blackest of Christmases” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Black Christmas
🎬DIRECTED BY: Sophia Takal
🗓️RELEASE: 2019
⌛RUNTIME: 92 Minutes
⭐RATING: 1.5 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

🎄

13/12/2024

While remakes of beloved classics will always fight an uphill battle, forever seen in the great shadow of the film come before, Black Christmas (2006) is a profound misstep in that its instincts (specifically for what constitutes “horror”) feel so at odds with the source material it constantly reminds the viewer of. This dichotomy, what at times feels like two films, is obviously laid at the feet of the Weinstein producers who forced many of the more graphic and grotesque elements onto reluctant writer-director Glen Morgan. But Morgan cannot escape blame here, when the script makes a cardinal mistake in treating the mysterious backstory of the original and presenting it as an explicit part of the narrative: a move we’ve seen - and seen work about as effectively - in Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007). And if the easiest way to kill (or disarm) the monster is to shine a light on it, the backstory of Billy and Agnes tells the viewer all the sordid details of the story no one asked for, and removes any iota of mystery, ambiguity, or intrigue those whispered characters had in the obscene phone calls from Bob Clark’s 1974 film.

Still, as much as can be said about the way the film bungles its approach to suspense, and even narrative, it very much has a vision, and that is clear through its many excessively brutal and graphic murder set pieces, let alone its portrayal of the sleazy family dynamics of Billy and Agnes. Not only do the murders and depravity feel more cruel and over-the-top, but even the very film world itself is against the heroines: poor Andrea Martin (returning here as this film’s version of sorority house mother, Mrs Mac). As distasteful and provocative as is clearly intended, there is something of a “Christmas-Grand-Guignol” to the proceedings, which, whatever one thinks of it, is clearly a choice that the film sticks.

The Review Continues on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/CultFilmSchool/

Listen to the full discussion of Black Christmas (2006) in “The Blackest of Christmases” at Cult Film School podcast

🎥FILM: Black Christmas
🎬DIRECTED BY:Glen Morgan
🗓️RELEASE: 2006
⌛RUNTIME: 90 Minutes
⭐RATING: 2.0 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

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05/12/2024

This Holiday Movie Watching Season, CFS discusses 2 films that are likely not on your watchlist.

Check out these remakes of Black Christmas (1974) to avoid spoilers in next week's episode!
📽️ Black Christmas → Glen Morgan, 2006.
📽️ Black Christmas → Sophia Takal, 2019.

Don't miss an episode! Turn on notifications & follow us on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X & Letterboxd!

📧 [email protected]

🎄

03/12/2024

Earth Girls Are Easy is largely known now for its “before-they-were-stars” look at comedians Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans, alongside couple Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, in their third pairing. Somewhere between a “Valley Girl Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and Dr. Suess and a musical s*x comedy you’ll find these brightly coloured aliens, new to earth but not to s*xual pursuits, crossing paths with Val, a manicurist at a personal crossroads: stay with her awful boyfriend Dr. Ted, or look for someone new to treat her right (brightly coloured fur optional). The film’s musical inspirations (from the music of Julie Brown) are still there but it feels like the changing nature of Brown’s involvement, and with that the cast, shaped the film into a full blown character comedy, propelled by the childlike energy of the alien trio.

The film offers a nice balance with these multiple genre markers, and nicely inverts the 1950’s alien invasion narrative into a s*x comedy about aliens getting laid. Its visual design is breathtaking, and the character-comedy work does a lot to try and meet the excesses of the film’s visual style. And despite all that excesses in the presentation, visually and with character and narrative, it still manages its heart on its sleeve in the romance between Val (Davis) and alien Mac (Goldblum). Above all, in part due to its PG rating and inherent playfulness, any s*x comedy you can watch with your grandmother is not a bad one, on whatever planet you call home.

Listen to the full discussion of Earth Girls Are Easy in “Musical Aliens” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Earth Girls Are Easy
🎬DIRECTED BY: Julien Temple
🗓️RELEASE: 1988
⌛RUNTIME: 100 Minutes
⭐RATING: 3.0 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

👽🛸

28/11/2024

For all the camp chaos that is Voyage of the Rock Aliens, it’s kind of surprising that anything works at all: so much is thrown at the screen, and so much of it genre parody that relies of the flimsiest of caricatures, that it’s shocking that anything has resonance at all. But somewhere between “When the Rain Begins to Fall” and… “When the Rain Begins to Fall” (the same musical number that oddly starts and ends the film) a curious thing happens: the music really works, and it elevates the whole. The film’s intergalactic battle of the bands brings rockabilly (by Jimmy & The Mustangs) into an extraterrestrial conflict with New Wave synth-pop (via Rhema), and this music brings something to what might otherwise by a forgettable musical comedy. The music is helped at times by Pia Zadora (as Dee Dee), whose charisma is itself surprising.

The film, though, barely exists beyond being a series of music videos (often shot and edited as music videos, and equally as often having nothing to do with the narrative). That the music videos could be used to market the musicians and the film itself is probably part of the point, but it really isolates both the best and worst thing about the film: that the music carries resonance, and even tone, which adds substance to the laundry-list of genre insanity that it dumps and calls “narrative” or “character,” but also outside of that music the film buckles under the strain. The music does all of the heavy lifting here. While genre parody and camp can provide a lot of mileage, there’s only so much they can do themselves when things like “character” are absent. Whatever the film’s shortcomings, though, it is clear that with all its silliness and excesses it still manages to leave the viewer with a “Little Bit of Heaven,” and that kind of alien invasion is most welcome.

Listen to the full discussion of Voyage of the Rock Aliens in “Musical Aliens” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Voyage of the Rock Aliesn
🎬DIRECTED BY:James Fargo
🗓️RELEASE: 1984
⌛RUNTIME: 96 Minutes
⭐RATING: 2.5 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

👽🛸

21/11/2024

Get ready for some 'out of this world' fun @ CFS! If that sounds cheesy... it is🧀

Check these 2 movies out to avoid spoilers in next week's episode!
📽️ Voyage of the Rock Aliens → James Fargo, 1984.
📽️ Earth Girls Are Easy → Julien Temple, 1988.

Don't miss an episode! Turn on notifications & follow us on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X & Letterboxd!

📧 [email protected]

👽🛸

19/11/2024

Have you ever wondered how Norman Bates became the murderous figure of Hitchcock’s Psycho? No? Because you got that from the 1960 backstory peppered through that film? Well tough. Here’s Psycho IV: The Beginning.

This made-for-tv film shows its limitations from its setting (radio studio & suburban home serve as claustrophobic sets) to its structure (a series of narrated flashbacks like a tv series clip show episode) to its characterizations (the empathy with Norman Bates from earlier films is long gone, and his Mother is done no favours). These present a film experience where nothing feels vital or interesting, either because we’ve seen this story before or just in the plodding way it is told here.

If monsters have an allure, it’s in part in their inherent mystery. By attempting to strip away all mystery it leaves at best a series of clichés, except now exposed they lose whatever power they once had. It’s possible to tell a version of this story that we didn’t know, and in an inventive or interesting way, but that’s not this. Norman Bates learned that ‘you can’t go home again,’ or at least that four times is one time too many.

Listen to the full discussion of Psycho IV: The Beginning in “Bates, Norman Bates” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Psycho IV: The Beginning
🎬DIRECTED BY: Mick Garris
🗓️RELEASE: 1990
⌛RUNTIME: 96 Minutes
⭐RATING: 1.0 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

16/11/2024

In many ways, watching Psycho III is like seeing Psycho distorted through a funhouse mirror. (Its approach is so exaggerated and stylized, were it not for Norman Bates and the motel it’d be easy to mistake this for something far removed from Psycho.) That said, the hysteria bubbling within the character of Norman Bates feels like it inhabits the entire world of Psycho III, a sun and sweat-soaked sleazy world of misfits on the periphery of society. It is over the top in just about every way, from character to mise-en-scene to lighting, and there is a sordid charm here: Jeff Fahey does some heavy lifting in the sleazy dirtbag department. But that same excess that grants it its distinctive flavour also robs it of a measure of grace, nuance, or even subtlety. (If Psycho II lovingly nods to the first Psycho, Psycho III, by contrast, slams its screaming head at every turn to remind you.)

This is the junk food of the Psycho film series: a lot - too much? not enough?- of everything with style to spare but at the same time all rather empty. In its attempt at a full-blooded slasher, there’s fun to be had here, even in its garish beauty.

Listen to the full discussion of Psycho III in “Bates, Norman Bates” at Cult Film School podcast.

🎥FILM: Psycho III
🎬DIRECTED BY: Anthony Perkins
🗓️RELEASE: 1986
⌛RUNTIME: 93 Minutes
⭐RATING: 3.0 / 5.0

Find these links in our bio
Spotify > https://open.spotify.com/show/1c9XoWNzbOmH9JgErDazWH
Apple Podcasts > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-film-school/id1697351574
Website > https://cultfilmschool.libsyn.com/

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