Cult Films About Cults. Here at The Playlist, where we pray to our benign Leader every time we hit publish, abstain from all sexual activity, grow our own vegetables and pause in our tasks thrice daily to face due East and chant our mantra Kurosawa, Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Ommm, wed obviously know better than to get ourselves caught up in any sort of cult. But the lure that can be exerted over weaker souls than our own perfected ones has led to some fascinating, often chilling films, whether set within the confines of the sect or dealing with the process of deprogramming and reinsertion into ordinary society. The latter is the background for this months release of Faults, from debut feature director Riley Stearns review here and which stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a cult member whose parents hire a has been expert played by Leland Orser to un brainwash her during a week in a bland hotel room. Faults has many different tones and textures and is overall perhaps best described as black comedydrama hybrid, but the subject matter has lent itself to many genres over the years, from melodrama to coming of age tale to thriller to psychodrama to most frequently horror. A lot of name brand auteurs have gotten in on the game, but seeing as weve written about those examples a great deal already Eyes Wide Shut, Rosemarys Baby, The Master, The Village, The Ninth Gate and so on we thought wed dedicate this feature to a few more obscure picks. So take the phone off the hook, sever all ties with your families who dont really love you anyway, not like we do and abandon yourself to our selection of 1. Suspiria 1. 97. While he can have hardly known it at the time, with Suspiria Dario Argento made probably the artistic apex of the giallo movement he pioneered along with fellow Italians Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. Retrospectively and despite coming a little after the giallo explosion of the early 7. Goblin who made it onto our list of Best Horror Scores of all time for this and Argentos Tenebre. The film concerns an American ballerina Jessica Harper who transfers to a sinister German Dance Academy covertly run by a satanic coven of witches, including Dark Shadows star Joan Bennett. The mish mash of languages and accents from the English, American, German and Italian cast didnt matter much as the whole thing was post dubbed anyway, which adds to the films uncanny cronkiness today. But once you become attuned to the garish unsubtlety of Argentos work, Suspiria is undeniably creepy and evocative, tuning in to burgeoning female sexuailty as a metaphor for a quasi mystical transformation process that is unknowable but also oddly beautiful without ever trying to transcend its exploitation b movie basis. That was a job for subsequent admirers and imitators, such as Darren Aronofsky, whose Oscar winning Black Swan owes Suspiria a heavy debt. Sound Of My Voice 2. One of the most striking and original low budget American directorial debuts of the last few years, Sound Of My Voice is a puzzle box of a movie that never got the audience it deserved in theaters, but appropriately gains more and more followers with each passing year since release. A journalist witnesses a brutal murder in a neighboring apartment, but the police do not believe that the crime took place. With the help of a private detective, she. USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/01/18//1390097629000-AP-FILM-REVIEW-THE-NUT-JOB-61073284.JPG' alt='Cult Horror Movies The Nut Job ' title='Cult Horror Movies The Nut Job ' />The first feature from director Zal Batmanglij, who co wrote with star Brit Marling, sees a young couple Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius attempting to infiltrate a mysterious group led by Maggie Marling, a charismatic women who claims to be from a post apocalyptic 2. The films a true genre bender, flitting between thriller, sci fi, Lynchian mindbender and a genuinely incisive examination into the cult of personality Denhams Peter begins as a skeptic, but we see his own identity subtly erased as he falls increasingly under Maggies spell and you can see why Marling is extraordinary, slightly and deliberately off kilter with the rest of the film around her. It doesnt entirely satisfy as a whole at less than ninety minutes, its too lean to substantively dig into everything that it has on its mind. In fact, the film was meant to be the first of a trilogy, marking it one of the first Sundance films to fall victim to franchise syndrome. But its still a hypnotic, beautifully executed piece of world building, and were very excited to see what Marling and Batmanglij come up with for their new Netflix series next year. Race with the Devil 1. When You Race With The Devil, You Better Be Faster Than Hell screamed the tagline for Jack Starretts oddball chase moviehorror mashup that became a modest hit before disappearing forever, except for the makers of 2. Drive Angry with Nic Cage, who repurposed a great deal of its plot. Muhammad: The Last Prophet Movie Divx. Its a film destined for further reevaluation for its cherishable mid 7. Split Image, Peter Fonda portrays a man on the run from a cult here Race was pretty much an attempt to replicate the surprise success of the previous years Fonda in a stock car chase film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. On vacation, he and his friend played by Warren Oates stumble across a satanic ritual sacrifice and flee the pursuing cult across the Texas backwoods with their hysterical liabilities of wives played by Lara Parker and M. A. S. Hs Loretta Swit. Its all pretty loosely cobbled together the smaller characters like the monumentally unhelpful sheriffs department and the gurning, twangy voiced locals are all straight out of central casting, and each scene plays like a rip off of something else rather than part of a cohesive whole, but even with stereotypes and cliches abounding, its a blast. Fonda gets to ride a motorbike again, plus the couples RV proves remarkably resilient during the many excellent Duel like chase sequences, building to a batshit highway finale thats actually a terrific smash em up of vehicular mayhem before an abrupt and perfectly divisive ending. Martha Marcy May Marlene 2. Doing a better job than maybe any other film here with respect to putting the viewer inside the crumbling mind of a cult escapee struggling to come to grips with the formlessness and chaos of the world outside the group, this startlingly austere paranoia drama was not solely the breakout vehicle for director Sean Durkin and for Elizabeth Olsen. It also showed an entirely new side to the brilliant John Hawkes, who spins his usual characterful casting as a sad sack loser entirely on its head to become one of the most memorably chilling yet believably charismatic cult leaders of the many on this list. Dealing in itchy unease, tonal ambiguity and hopping around in time in a deliberately disorienting manner, the real crux of the film is identity confusion, evoked brilliantly by the willfully confusing title, and rarely has the push pull attraction repulsion of resigning all responsibility for yourself to the point of complete self erasure been so empathetically summoned. Also featuring less showy but tremendously solid performances from Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy as Marthas sister and brother in law who become increasingly disturbed by the troubled, secretive Marthas behavior, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a brilliantly evocative, insightful and economical story told with the kind of confidence and adeptness with ambiguity that belies the directors neophyte status it feels nothing like a first film. For all this and more it earned its spot on our 5. Best Films of the Decade list. The Devils 1. Cults are often a touchy subject just ask anyone whos been tweeting about Scientology documentary Going Clear, but only The Devils can lay claim of the films on this list to genuinely being one of the most controversial films ever made, thanks to its mix of explicit sex and violence and religious imagery. Directed by the ever provocative Ken Russell based loosely on Aldous Huxleys The Devils Of Loudon, itself based on real events, as an opening legend reminds us, its a period piece set in France in the 1. Another collection of 26 horror shorts. A is for Amateur starts off with a strong ironic note about a bad assassin. Badger is a funny one about nature. Yahoo Lifestyle is your source for style, beauty, and wellness, including health, inspiring stories, and the latest fashion trends. Ever since BLACK SABBATH opened their selftitled debut album with the spinechilling sounds of pouring rain, growling thunder and eerie chimes back in 1969, the. These animated movies are just the worst at least according to the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Badmovies. org B Movie Reviews. September 2. 00. 8 The rating system changed from a maximum of five slimes to a maximum of four slimes. All of the reviews were adjusted. Remember to be a well rounded bad movie viewer it is necessary to see the one or two slime movies even a skull now and then. The Surgeon General would probably recommend that you not watch more than one skull movie per sitting. This recommendation is based on extensive research by myself. A friend of mine, by the name of Steve, developed a nervous tick from one such binge and the mention of Johnny Mnemonic sends him into convulsions. It is bad. I do not know about that bad, but maybe it just broke the horses back.