Danny Peary - Cult Sci-Fi Movies: Discover the 10 Best Intergalactic, Astonishing, Far-Out, and Epic Cinema Classics

Danny Peary pretty much coined the term cult movies.
Edgar Wright, director

Delightfully readable, perceptive, and offbeatand so much fun, the Cult Movie books are a great escape into Danny Pearys wonderland of weird taste.
Los Angeles Times

Virtually impossible to put down, crammed with all sorts of obscure information, offbeat interpretations and criticism. Peary not only makes us want to catch and enjoy obscure, underrated gems... but also offers new insight into old favorites... a book for both the fan and the serious student.
Publishers Weekly

Wild bunches of film freaks would brave the badlands of a forbidden planet for a compendium like this.... Heres a performance that will help you trash a hard days night or two.
Playboy

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Danny Peary

Workman Publishing New York

Cult movies were once considered to be only those obscure pictures that were admired by a small, sad coterie of film experts and other social outcasts. But I choose to define cult movies quite broadly. I consider them those special films that elicit a fiery passion in moviegoers long after their initial releases; that have been taken to heart as if they were abandoned orphans in a hostile world, cherished, protected, and enthusiastically championed by segments of the movie audience; that are integral parts of peoples lives. Cultists dont merely enjoy their favorite films; they worship them, seek them out wherever they are playing, see them repeatedly, and are intent on persuading anyone who will listen that they should be appreciated regardless of what reviewers thought. They will brave blizzards, skip their weddings, ignore their most solemn religious holidays, and even date their least-appealing cousins to see a film for what may be their tenth, twentieth, or one hundredth time.

When you speak of cult movies, you speak in extremes. Hard-core cultists, ranging from polite to lunatic, insist that their favorite films are the most intriguing, unusual, outrageous, mysterious, absurd, daring, entertaining, erotic, exotic, and/or best films of all time. Also they point out that cult films differ radically from standard Hollywood films in that they characteristically feature atypical heroes and heroines; offbeat dialogue; surprising plot resolutions; highly original story lines; brave themes, often of a sexual or political nature; definitive performances by stars who have cult status; the novel handling of popular but stale genres. Outstanding special effects, spectacular camerawork, and a willingness by the filmmakers to experiment distinguish many cult films, but adoration for some, like Plan 9 from Outer Space, has absolutely nothing to do with admiration for the filmmakers skillsits often to the contrary.

The typical Hollywood product has little potential for becoming a cult favorite because it is perceived by everyone in basically the same way. Almost everyone agrees on the quality of these films, on what the directors are trying to say, and on the correct way to interpret the films messages. On the other hand, the great majority of cult films are born and live in controversy, in arguments over quality, themes, talent, and other matters. Cultists believe they are among the blessed few who have discovered something in particular films that the average moviegoer and critic have missedthe something that makes the pictures extraordinary. They grasp the elusive points of their favorite films, the filmmakers most personal visions, the cult stars real selves coming through; and they find glory in the belief that they are among the few on the same wavelength as the people involved in making these films. While word of mouth certainly plays a large part in the growth of cults for individual films, what is fascinating is that in the beginning pockets of people will embrace a film they have heard nothing about while clear across the country others independently will react identically to the same picture. There is nothing more exciting than discovering you are not the only person obsessed with a picture critics hate, the public stays away from en masse, and film texts ignore.

In this book on Science Fiction, I have included prime examples of various types of cult films. You will find pictures that reviewers attacked and, almost as a reflex action, film enthusiasts rallied around; pictures hated by the average moviegoer as much as by the press that have been saved from oblivion by a cult of out-of-the-mainstream critics and film scholars; pictures underrated or neglected by everyone at the time of their releases that recently have been rediscovered and reevaluated; pictures that have gained popularity because they star performers who have become cult stars or were made by filmmakers who likewise have become cult figures; pictures for which we have nostalgic feelings because they had great impact on us when we were kids; pictures that are so out of the ordinary that attending them has become a communal event. You see that what really differentiates cult movies is that they can be discussed not only in terms of their genres but also in terms of their fans.

1968 France-Italy Paramount

Director: Roger Vadim

Producer: Dino De Laurentiis

Screenplay: Terry Southern, Brian Degas, Claude Brule, Jean-Claude Forest, Roger Vadim, Clement Wood, Tudor Gates, Vittorio Bonicelli

Based on the book by Jean-Claude Forest

Adapted from the comic strip by Jean-Claude Forest

Cinematography: Claude Renoir

Music: Bob Crewe and Charles Fox

Editor: Victoria Mercanton

Running time: 98 minutes

Color

Cast: Jane Fonda (Barbarella), John Phillip Law (Pygar), Anita Pallenberg (The Black Queen), Milo OShea (the concierge), David Hemmings (Dildano), Marcel Marceau (Professor Ping), Ugo Tognazzi (Mark Hand), Claude Dauphin (President of Earth)

Synopsis: It is 4000 A.D. Beautiful astronaut Barbarella is sent by the President of Earth on a mission to find Durand-Durand, an evil scientist who disappeared years before carrying the secret of the ultimate weaponthe Positronic Ray.

Barbarellas spacecraft is thrown out of orbit and crashes on the planet Lytheon. She is taken captive by a group of strange children who set their sharp-toothed killer dolls on her. Just in time, Barbarella is rescued by Mark Hand, a bearded catch man responsible for rounding up these wild children. She asks how she can repay him, and he requests that she make love to him. She would like to make use of the exultation transfer machine in their lovemaking, but goes along with his wishes to make love in a bed instead of just touching hands. She has never loved this way before and finds it an exhilarating experience.

Her ship fixed by her lover, Barbarella resumes her flight, only to crash into the ground and end up far below in Labyrinth. Here she meets the handsome, blond Pygar, whose white wings make her believe he is an angel. In reality he is the last of the ornithanthropes. The Black Queen, the great tyrant of Sogo, has destroyed his sight and his will to fly. Barbarella also meets the elderly Professor Ping, who promises to fix her ship. He tells her to seek out Durand-Durand in Sogo. But of all those exiled to Labyrinth by the Black Queen, only Pygar has the ability to take her thereand he refuses to fly.