When I think of cult, the “I don’t care if you’re offended, I’m being me” attitude comes to mind. When that comes to mind, the very first film director I could imagine is Rob Zombie. Rob Zombie holds some of the most intensely weird films you could think of. When I began watching cult films, I was reminded of Zombie and the way he has no shame in putting things out there that many would disapprove of. Most cult films are made for people who like weird things, not for those who enjoy the Hollywood mainstream and “happy thoughts”. Not only does Rob Zombie have all of these features, but he is damn good at putting them together to create excellently painful films to watch. Many of the films we view are full of rape, violence, blood, and hate. Rob Zombie is known for combining all of those to form a thrilling horror story you wouldn’t ever be able to think of yourself. Based on his “cult like” attributes of violence, positioning himself on the opposite of mainstream, and having religious-like fans and followers, I believe Rob Zombie should qualify to be a cult auteur.
Another form of cult auteur that we learned about was the “great auteurs”, which hold the theory of having a consistent style or theme. I believe that Zombie has a very set idea when it comes to his films, and he always knows what to do based on a previous film. For instance, other than the fact that House of 1000 Corpses and Devil’s Rejects follow each other, they also show strong comparison with his other films. Zombie has had a long time period and stretch between different films, yet every one has that same “grimy” theme. Even when Zombie was remaking all of the Halloween films, he was still sticking to his script of style as he did with even one of his latest films...
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..., and loved by many), and was successfully able to transform his talent into directing films that draw all different types of audiences in. Rob Zombie’s latest film had been anticipated by so many of his fans, and they surely were not dissapointed with his work in Lords of Salem. Most importantly, Zombie is able to take “classic” ideas, and turn them into bizzare yet extremely interesting ones...and that, is what cult cinema is all about. Wrapping things up, I believe that Rob Zombie is truly an inspiring film director, and does indeed fall into the cult auteur category.
Works Cited
Rothman, Solomon. "Cult Classic Rob Zombie Horror Movies: House of 1000 Corpses & The Devils Rejects." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo! Voices, 18 Sept. 2005. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
Mathijs, Ernest, and Jamie Sexton. "Chapter 6." Cult Cinema. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. N. pag. Print.
Both White Zombie and “Dead Men Walking in the Cane Fields” represent the early zombie and both of them embody Cohen’s first thesis “The Monster is a Cultural Body” Both the story and the film have zombies and both of these works make their zombies appear scary with dead like characteristics, however the real reason why they are scary is that, at the time, they tried to change society and that scared people. The people that liked society the way it was didn’t want another group to gain power or righ...
In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.
Max Brooks explains in his article ‘’The Movies That Rose From The Grave’’ [2006], that zombies and the supernatural forces have impacted and have become popular in the world today. The first main idea that Brooks points out is the way society has changed the meaning and glimpse for the supernatural creatures like zombies causing them to become increasingly popular. To support this zombie movies have changed from darkness and mystery to violent and bloodier scenes therefore making them more prevailing. The second main idea that is discussed by Brooks is how the media has helped to increase the popularity of zombies, vampires, ghosts. Highlighted by the author particularity both ‘’resident evil,
James Parker essay “Our Zombies, Ourselves,” informs readers that the zombie has almost outranked the vampire, and why they’re so popular. This undead monster originated from a Caribbean folk nightmare and was adapted over time by, the Halperin brothers, William Seabrook and George Romero and numerous others. Much like the vampire, zombies owe their fame to the progressiveness of technology, allowing them to consistently invade various media forms. The zombie has infested countless tv shows, movies, video games, and books, throughout the 21st century. Zombies themselves are soulless corpses who were regurgitated back into the world of the living. This making them rejects from the underworld, this presents the zombie as rejected yet inexpungable. What makes the zombie so popular, however, is that symbolizes everything that is rejected by humanity. “Much can be made of him, because he makes so little of himself. He comes back, He comes back, feebly but unstoppably” (Parker). The zombie represents humanity itself as well as what is rejected by humanity. Much like individuals today, the zombie is burdened by life’s demands, converting to nothing but a rotting, groaning human shell that stumbles through life without a purpose. The zombie is symbolizer of the real world, and all things irrepressible, whereas the vampire is a symbol of an alternate world and all things
“Do you like scary movies?” purred a sinister voice over the telephone, and immediately Scream had marked itself out as something new in a tired genre. When it was released in 1996, the classic slasher franchises had all pretty much ran out of steam. Scream was different, it was a breath of fresh air: smart and self-referential, it reminded horror fans what they loved about the genre in the first place, and scared them silly at the same time.
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
Night of the Living Dead is an all-time classic horror film that took place in 1968, starring Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea. This movie jump started the “zombie apocalypse” hype which led to more and more zombie inspired horror films, but also many different genres of horror films. Night of the Living Dead would not be a horror film if it were not for, obviously the theme, but also the sound effects, special effects, lighting effects, the camera angles and shots, as well as the actor’s ability to strike certain emotions in their audience through the character’s emotions. This film was directed by George A. Romero who also wrote the screenplay, with the help of John A. Russo. From the beginning to end, this film captures its audience leaving
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
The first stage of the genre cycle is called the primitive stage. During this stage of the cycle, the genre of horror is very new. Filmmakers are trying to decide what makes a horror film a horror film, while audience are figuring out what they should expect every time they see this kind of film. For example, Todd Browning’s Dracula is the basic, stripped down blueprint for many monster-horror films today. It features the “bad guy” accompanied by the “good guy”. After several horrifying events, Van Helsing kills the vampire, Dracula, and good prevails, again. Thus, establishing that in horror films no matter how grue...
Mathijs, Ernest, and Jamie Sexton. Cult Cinema: An Introduction. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
"Horror Movies 2013." movieweb.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec 2013. .Noton, Adriana. "A Brief History Of Horror Movies." Ezine Articles. Spark Net, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. .
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
We crave horror movies simply for “the fun of it” in agreeing with Stephen King Why We Crave Horror movies. King gave multiple examples in his story as to why we crave horror movies and I can agree with just about each and every one of them. After watching a few horror movies for yourself, you will understand why it is easy to agree with King. If you have watched movies such as the 2004 movie Dawn of the Dead, The Purge, or The Conjuring you will also be able to relate to Chuck Klosterman My Zombie, Myself “Zombies are just so easy to kill.” Klostermans theory of zombies are extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult yet exciting problem of zombies in the real world. Klosterman’s argument that the repetition of modern life is
despite him being my favorite director and I just watched it few weeks ago. By watching that film you can see his unique style and the technique he used to shot that film which is amazing.
Lyden, J. (2003). Film as religion: myths, morals, and rituals. New York, USA: NYU Press.