40 More Cult Movies offered up by film scholar Jon Towlson

 

Review by Doug Gibson

A while back I reviewed on Plan9Crunch blog Jon Towlson's 40 Cult Movies. It was an informative 21st Century version of the fascinating cult movies books Danny Peary produced in the 1980s. You can read the review here. Mr. Towlson is a Britiah academic who has many genre books published. He has written screenplays, worked on films, including directing and acting. His Amazon page is here.

Our YouTube page, Plan9Crunch, has interviewed Towlson. The most recent interview was right around the time a sequel, 40 More Cult Movies, was published. Perhaps tongue in cheek, Towlson told me with a smile that he embarked on the second cult movies book in part because I had suggested it in the 40 Cult Movies review.

Whatever his inspiration, 40 More Cult Movies is another interesting provocative read in which Towlson recounts unique films worthy of a cult. One film I want to highlight is a too-overlooked horror film that would be ideal for an October rental or buy. It's Frankenstein (2015) directed by Bernard Rose, who includes the 1992 cult horror film, Candyman, in his resume.

Set in 2015 and shot in the Los Angeles area, I agree with Towlson that this Frankenstein is the finest film adaptation of the original novel. Scientists create an attractive young man and provide him an infant's brain. DNA starts to corrupt and the creation (Adam) becomes grotesque. Overcoming an attempt by his creators to euthanize him, he traverses the rural and urban wastelands of Los Angeles seeking love, which he associates with a female scientist who helped create him.

There are nods to the Universal classic. One includes Adam befriending a young girl and then rescuing her after tossing her in a lake. Police regard him as a criminal and shoot a dog he befriended. Eventually caught, Adam calls the woman scientist "mother" and the police notify her. But she denies knowing him.

Adam has super-human strength and cannot be kept in captivity. In a poignant scene he tells police his name is "Monster" because that's what people call him. Later Adam encounters a friend, a blind street person played by Tony Todd, of Candyman. Adam is a vulnerable creation, seeking acceptance from his creators and those whom he enclunters. They are invariably repulsed by him, fear him, and ironically help prompt Adam to becoming a "monster" who kills.

Towlson has a strength of drawing societal mores and perceptions to film. In his review of Frankenstein (2015) he writes this:

"While Boris Karloff's 1931 creature stood in for war veterans, unemployed homeless men and homosexuals increasingly persecuted as a result of the 'sex crimes' panics which swept through the United States during the Depression, Rose's Monster is representative of the urban poor in modern America. His allegorical function is emphasized by his seeming indestructibility: he repeatedly returns to life after attempts are made to kill him, seeking redress from a society that demonises him and others who are similarly disenfranchised."

Besides providing interesting analysis, Frankenstein (2015) is simply a damn good 89-minute film that merits a cult following. It can be viewed streamed on Amazon Prime and Xumo.

There are 39 other films in 40 More Cult Movies. Tthe lineup will keep cult film fans reading through the early-morning hours. They include: Basket Case; The Black Cat (1934); The Crazies (1973); Curse of the Cat People; Dawn of the Dead (1978); Deathdream; Last House on the Left (1972); I Was a Teenage Wolfman; Rosemary's Baby; The Sorcerers; Targets; Tourist Trap; Witchfinder General. ...

You want to know the rest of the movies featured? Get the book.

Here is Jon Towlson's most recent interview on Plan9Crunch YouTube page.

Here is our first Jon Towlson interview on Plan9Crunch YouTube page.