Welcome to a new off shoot of our ongoing “LAMB Chops” feature as we now introduce “Cult Chops” a monthly feature where each month we will be looking at a different genre of cult cinema as well as key actors and directors who established their legacies directing films from these genres.
Why cult cinema?
Well while the LAMB is home to numerous great blogs about mainstream cinema and what’s currently being released, it’s also home to equally as many great blogs and certainly podcasts about cult and obscure cinema which really deserves to be highlighted.
At the same time there is so much great cinema which is dismissed on the grounds that it belongs to one of these obscure genres and as such can be considered instantly bad or disposable. Perhaps this is an attitude brought about by the peanut gallery antics of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” and so many snarky v-critics who’ve nailed their platform to bashing these movies, but this really isn’t the case.
So perhaps to restore the balance I decided to launch this new feature aswell as to celebrate some of the hidden and often forgotten gems hidden away such as the “Saturday Night Fever” beating “Thank God It’s Friday” or how about the giant monster movie “Pulgasari” whose directors where kidnapped by the former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il who planned to use the film as communist propaganda movie. Even Godzilla a legendry icon of cult cinema and whose films are frequently the target of much ribbing despite the fact that in Japan the honour of directing a Godzilla movie is comparable to a western director being asked to direct a Bond movie.
How “Cult Chops” works
Every month a different genre will be picked from Blaxploitation and Mexican Wrester Movies through to Cinema Du Look and Pre-Code Hollywood we will look at them all. To mix things up some months will also be dedicated to looking at the work of key directors like John Waters, George A. Romero and Doris Wishman aswell as actors like Pam Grier, Chow Yun Fat and Bruce Campbell who all made their careers with films which are now considered cult favourites.
How to get involved
All you have to do is submit any of the following
- Reviews
- Articles
- Podcast episodes
Really anything relating to the theme of the month can be submitted either via e-mail – [email protected] or on the LAMB forums with all submissions featured in a round at up at the end of each month. The hope being that LAMB’s already writing about these genres will get alittle more exposure while perhaps tempting others to wander away from the path of mainstream cinema and maybe check out some films they might not have otherwise watched.
Kicking thing off
So where do we start? Well the first genre pick I have gone for will be (drum roll please)……… Biker Movies
It’s a genre which gave an early leading role to a young Marlon Brandon with “The Wild One”, it embodied the rebellious spirit of the 60’s while at the same time films like “Easy Rider” introduced a new independent style of film making free from the restrictions of the studio system.
The genre also equally noteworthy for being home to some equally bizzare oddities like the Bikers in Vietnam “Nam Angels”, The insane 100 bike strong funeral procession of “Stone” aswell as the frog worshiping immortal bikers of “Psychomania” so hopefully this first genre selection will provide some fun discoveries.
Tags: Cult Chops