After completing the previous blog entry on my favorite movies, I went home and realized that there are at least thirteen more or so I should've mentioned but didn't think of right away.  This coupled with my previous list is my definitive favorite movies of all time and why... 

DUNE (1984) directed by David Lynch is my favorite sci-fi movie of all time. Really. Most fans of David Lynch, however, would site ERASERHEAD or BLUE VELVET as his best, but I disagree. Before seeing this movie (on my 14th birthday no less) I read all of Frank Herbert's Dune series and I saw this movie as a mere introduction to the series. I hate, absolutely hate, the Dune television series produced for the Sci-Fi Channel because it didn't have the mysterious, alien and regal atmosphere of a feudalistic future that Lynch created. This film will forever remain in my memory as the true look of the future mythos of Dune. Also, consequently, Kyle Mclaughlin will forever be my vision of Paul Atreides. Seeing him co-star on Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives just does my head in. I wish that Lynch's DUNE wouldn't have been the box office bomb it was in 1984, then perhaps it would've been the first in a series of DUNE movies. I think the reason why it didn't do so well when it was first released was because Lynch wasn't able to put his personal touch into it like he did his other films. David Lynch films paintings that move -- and paintings do not always fall neatly into linear storylines so you have to watch it as if you are walking through a gallery of images made to provoke a feeling, not necessarily made to tell a story. Lynch's DUNE is as true to the original story as possible, but dressed up in Lynchian mystery, it literally becomes more of an experience... at least for me.

QUEEN MARGOT (1994) is a bloody, passionate depiction of the behind-the-scenes tragedies experienced by Catholic Queen Margot and her Protestant husband Henri around the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. Margot is forced to marry the Hugenot King Henri of Navarre, a Protestant, and at first she hates him, but then grows to care for him and his subjects after the massacre. During this time she falls in love with La Môle, also a Protestant, whom she meets quite by accident and later saves him from getting slaughtered during the massacre. Later, La Môle becomes the scapegoat for the poisoning of her brother, King Charles IX, and subsequently assassinated for the trumped up charge. This is a very sad movie, but so beautifully shot with such daringly sexy costumes, that it has forever captured my fascination and remains a treat for those who love historical drama.

Upon first viewing this film, you fall in love with Isbelle Adjani -- my favorite French actress -- her wide blue eyes and expressive mouth and that blue black hair make her seem divine in a way.  Be sure to catch her in these other films (also favorites of mine):  Camille Claudel (story about the ill fated love affair between scuptors Claudel and Rodin) and Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979 German remake of the silent film).

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD, LAND OF THE DEAD (otherwise known as the Romero Dead Quadrilogy) -- what can I say that hasn't already been said about this series of films? George A. Romero is my hero. He single-handedly made zombies fun and revitalized the horror genre for generations! What I really love about these films is that metaphorically the zombies represent society -- you can watch them as entertainment, but you can also look at them from a more socio-political view. In 1968, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was clearly about racism and how it divides people during times when death is literally hounding them. Ten years later with DAWN OF THE DEAD, the film parodies consumerism -- both the victims of the zombie infestation and the zombies themselves are stuck inside a monument to consumerism; the mall. With DAY OF THE DEAD in 1985, things are made even worse by an inept military system -- the scientists, doomsday analysts, and soldiers are stuck in a claustrophobic underground base. Secreted away from any other survivors, these military types viciously fight each other and are unable to work together. Sound like the real world you know? In LAND OF THE DEAD (2005) the zombies have seemed to find a utopia out of the choas, working together and helping each other under the benevolent, if not creepy, guidance of "Big Daddy" a zombie who seems to be more intelligent than all the rest. In all of these movies, even in the remakes that followed them in 1990 and 2004, the zombies are the real stars.  I've heard rumors from good sources that they are going to remake DAY OF THE DEAD sometime soon...  If it's as good as the 2004 remake of DAWN, I'm sure it'll reach an even wider audience.  However, with each re-watching of these films, I long to see a television series based on the characters and events in Romero's Living Dead, something that could be produced by HBO or even Sci-Fi Channel, following the struggles of survivors. Perhaps even starring the characters of the most recently produced film, LAND OF THE DEAD, driving around in the military vechile, Dead Reckoning, exploring the abandoned cities and towns ravaged by the undead plague... who knows. It could happen!

LIQUID SKY (1982) is a very deep slice of cheesecake, a total cult film with a following by weird people such as I am, all of us being the teenagers of the early 80's. Incredibly tiny aliens who only exist in some kind of plasmatic form are on the hunt for a rare form of heroin, but they can only get it out of people in mid-orgasm. The aliens land on an apartment building roof where a loud-mouthed drug dealer who likes to do strange spoken word music and her androgynous, bisexual nymphomaniac fashion model lover live. Already twisted up in a terrible love affair, the fashion model tries to escape her loneliness and chase away her addiction to snorting heroin by putting herself through a series of sexual escapades ending with each of her partners getting killed or completely absorbed by the aliens. Meanwhile, across the street, a woman and a German scientist who has been tracking the aliens, look on in such voyeuristic fashion that you wonder who is the bigger pervert; the aliens (whom we never really get to see) or the model sexing everyone to death! This is not a film for prudes or for those who are easily offended by special effects done with neon lights and primitive computer graphics, however it is darkly funny and bizarre. The reason why I like it is because it fully captures the New Wave metrosexual nightmare after the rage of New Romanticism that was 1982 as I remember it.

ORGAZMO is a giggle-fest-o-rama for me. How can this story be resisted? Joe Young, a young mormon is seduced into the dark side of porno-making by MaXXX Orbison, a porn director who assaulted the poor guy when he accidentally interupts the filming of a scene in his latest opus; Orgazmo. Orgazmo is about a sex super hero who fights crime with his Orgazmorator -- a weapon that instantaneously causes people to orgasm, ensuring that criminals are brought to their knees long before they can even try to beat Orgazmo and his fetish-toy-collecting sidekick, Chodaboy. When the actor who was originally hired to play Orgazmo fails to be tough enough to play the crime fighter, he's sent packing after the mormon missionary kicks the ass of Orbison's henchmen. Lured by the money he'll make for starring in the porno, Joe takes the job to fund his wedding and prays that no one will ever know he's in it. But, as fate would have it, the movie becomes an amazing hit. Things get even worse for Joe when he finds out that the actor who plays ChodaBoy has created a real Orgazmorator. The plot thickens even more when Joe really does become Orgazmo. Brilliantly written and paced, Orgazmo was produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone whom you may know as the creators of South Park. Don't miss this one. If you've never heard of it, shame on you, now go to your local video store and watch it! You'll thank me later.

THE WICKER MAN the original masterpiece that was made in the Scottish isles in 1973 is a cult classic for good reason, and should never have been so poorly remade in the U.S. last year! This occult thriller remains one of my favorites because of its overt creepiness, hooky folk music soundtrack, sexy overtones, and hints at the real reason why human sacrifices ever took place in the first place in ancient societies. Sgt. Neil Howie, an innocent, virginal, upstanding Christian police officier is lured to a remote island called Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. When he arrives, he finds the residents there unwilling to help him and, when he is told that the girl is dead, he becomes fueled with holy righteousness to discover the real truth. He soon finds he is in for more surprises and gets in over his head when confronted with the fact that the island is peopled with pagans who perform all sorts of rites that disturb his prudish sensibilities. Summerisle is famous for their annual crop of apples and is a place of usually fertile land, but the year's previous crop failed and they must find a way to replinish the land by offering a mighty sacrifice to their sun god. Howie, the hunter for justice, soon becomes hunted himself as the tables are turned on him and finds he cannot escape! No matter what your religious preference, you can't help but NOT feel sorry for Howie. He's an idiot, a snob, and has a constant stiff upper lip -- you just know he's doomed, the poor sod. Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle so well, it's reminescent of his roles as Dracula in the Hammer films. Produced with a low budget, it doesn't need special effects, it's got the right kind of atmosphere that I often find lacking in today's pictures.

THE EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN, ARMY OF DARKNESS -- another set of movies that star my favorite actor of all time: BRUCE CAMPBELL!  All I can say about these films is that they fuel my imagination and provide me with laughter.  I've watched them so often to the point of too much where I can quote the dialogue to the point where anyone who is caught watching these movies with me will start to smack me up-side my head.

CAT PEOPLE is by far the sexiest, darkest, most primally goofy movie I've seen. Both Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell are HOT. Oh, and the black panthers in the action sequences are also lovely to see. Based on the 1942 classic film, Paul Schrader's take is anything but tame and over the top with a thick slice of sleaze and kitschy gore. Schrader was in love with Nastassja Kinski at the time, so there's a lot of nude and semi-nude scenes with her in them, and you can't help but wonder if the character, Paul (Malcolm McDowell) was something of a dirty old man representation of Schrader. In any case, the soundtrack and theme song by David Bowie really throughly captures the tempo of the film. Even the transformations that take place are spooky. The story is about the last surviving members of a tribe known as the Cat People who were originally cats themselves but started to give birth to human-like versions of themselves after humans sacrificed their women to them. The Cat People mated with these women to produce a shapeshifting tribe -- but they could only transform into leopards when they get horny. In order to shift back into a human form, they must kill their human lovers. Irena and Paul are the last brother and sister born to this forgotten tribe of people and the only way they can revitalize their tribe is to mate with each other, something Irena refuses to do. However, after she falls in love with a human man, Irena's sexual awakening is a nightmare when she discovers that her sexual urges force her to transform into a black leopard. Instead of killing her lovers like her brother does, Irena decides to remain in leopard form. This film, albeit a sleazy take on the original, is brilliantly filmed and some of the images from it are still vivid in my mind today.

CANDYMAN has made Tony Todd yet another favorite actor of mine. He has a voice that is so smooth and haunting, he lays that drama on so thick you want to start begging to be his victim.

It's not just his voice that beckons you to your doom, it's his look as Candyman that makes him rival such horror icons as Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers.  However, Candyman is more than just a personified boogeyman, he is truly a supernatural presence cursed to everlasting life as a murderous ghost.  Like WICKER MAN, a young naive woman is lured into danger for becoming too curious about the Candyman urban legend.  When she finds out that he really does exist and is the cause for many murders in the area, a sort of love play happens between her and Candyman that is indescribably sweet. 

BLADERUNNER will always have a special place in my heart.  Even today it remains the definitive cyberpunk film that can never be replaced or redone.  The closest replica to this film is FIFTH ELEMENT, but it is pale in comparison to the atomsphere of this 1982 cult hit.  Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a Bladerunner who is basically a policeman licensed to kill replicants -- human clones originally created to serve humanity as slaves, yet like the humans they are cloned from, they have emotions that prove to be extremely volatile.  Replicants who revolt against humanity are considered very dangerous and so action has been taken to make their lifespans fixed.  In the year 2019, Deckard returns to Los Angeles to retire, but he is forced back into the game of murder when four renegade replicants risk coming to earth to track down their creator and ask for more life. 

Lushly filled with a total hedonistic neon atmosphere, I can't help but get lost in the world of Bladerunner.  I like both the original theatrical version and the Director's cut.  I recommend watching both if you can... 

PITCH BLACK is the one film that proved to me the hotness of Vin Disel.  The character he plays is not the kind of evil that's all spooky and screamingly over-the-top, Riddick is a master murderer akin to a human animal.  He just can't be tamed.  The perfect anti-hero.  He may or may not help you out.  When in danger, just try to keep up with him is all you gotta do.  I love how rough and dusty this film is.  This is the kind of edgy, low-budget sci-fi cinema that I like. 

Think of the tv show SURVIVOR but on a hostile alien desert world where a hob-nob group of space travellers are stranded after their ship crashes.  Not only do they have to worry about how the hell they're going to get off that planet, they also have to find ways to get food and water.  Add to their problems an on-coming major planetary eclipse that's going to immerse them into complete darkness leaving them prey to big black evil beasties and the escape of the dangerous animalistic convict they had on board and they're all in for a very bumpy ride indeed.  Vin Disel clearly shines as Riddick, but so do the other characters whom I all wanted to survive, but knew, true to the horror genre form, that just about each one will get eaten by the beasties that await them in the shadows...

THE HUNGER is also my kind of atmospheric film.  You can't beat David Bowie as a vampire; he is both vulnerable and vicious.  Catherine Deneuve is pure seduction, sadism, and all alabaster beauty that rivals even the best characters in an Anne Rice novel.  The film starts out rather slow, but soon sinks into you like the token ankh blade these vampires use to extract blood. 

Long before Anne Rice delved into the Egyptian mythos for the origin of her vampires, the book which was the basis for this film The Hunger by Whitley Strieber, the character Miriam Blaylock is a highly evolved Egyptian vampire who takes human lovers and transforms them into vampire/human hybrids. The ghouls she creates never really die, but soon age terribly after she tires of them. Unlike other vampire films in the horror genre, these vampires don't have fangs and it is suggested that the vampires are a distinct species that bear only a physical resemblance to humans; they aren't truly immortal, but do not age after reaching physical maturity and are extremely strong and difficult to kill. Miriam discovers that some vampire traits, such as prolonged youth, can be transmitted to humans by performing a blood transfusion, but this transfusion only lasts for a few hundred years or so. Unable to kill her lovers, and unwilling to let them take her blood for fear that they will destroy her, she keeps these ghoulish hybrids in an attic where they simply whither.  When Miriam begins to notice that her current beau, John (Bowie) is getting old for her, she turns her attention toward Dr. Sarah Richards (Susan Sarandon) who might be able to help restore John's health.  Unfortunately, Dr. Richards doesn't believe John's story, and by the time she notices that he is literally whithering away in a matter of hours, she is seduced by Miriam who gives her a transfusion.  When Sarah returns to her boyfriend, she starts to exhibit strange habits and has weird visions; she is soon becoming a vampire hybrid and she does everything in her power to resist seductive Miriam.  The film has a twist ending that leaves the field open to a lot of questions; did Sarah truly kill Miriam and revive the other hybrids, or has Miriam taken Sarah's body over?

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, both the book and the film, is the last favorite I'll list here but certainly not the least favorite. David Bowie plays a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to find a way to ferry his people to Earth where water is plentiful. On his home planet, there is a severe drought. He leaves behind a wife and two children who patiently wait for him to return, but he has trouble getting back to them. Taking the name Thomas Jerome Newton, the alien poses as an eccentric English businessman/inventor who uses his billions to fund a trip back out into space. While making the ship that will take him back home, Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), a simple Kentucky woman, falls in love with him and a ruthless rival company threatens to take over the conglomerate Newton created to fund the ferry that will bring his people to Earth. His secret identity as an alien is discovered by his business partner, Nathan Bryce, who evnentually learns to accept Newton as he is and keeps his secrets after Newton reveals Earth will soon succumb to an enormous war when, in the upcoming presidential elections, the Republican Party will take power and transform the USA into a militaristic war-machine within ten years. However, unbeknownst to Newton, the CIA has been tracking him ever since he appeared and, after recording conversations he's had with Bryce, Newton is tricked out of his trip into space, arrested, and subjected to tests. Mary Lou's obsessive love hounds Newton just as badly as the government, but even she abandons him after an X-ray test binds Newton's contacts to his alien eyes. Meanwhile, somewhere on his home planet, Newton's people are surely meeting their end. After fifty years, Newton is re-released into human society with his captors' confident that no one would ever believe he is an alien. In a last desparate attempt to contact his home planet and invite survivors to Earth, he makes a recording of alien messages, which he hopes will be broadcast via radio and will eventually reach out to his home planet. But since his capture, a planetary realignment has occured and he may never get even just a message across.

After reviewing my favorite films, I have to say that I love atmosphere in my movies of choice.  My main genres are horror, historic drama, and retro sci-fi glam.  I wonder what that says about me?