Cult movies 2 by Danny Peary

Cult movies 2 Reviews

• 
  Willy Boy

  All of Danny Peary's writing on film is excellent and I advise any film fan to read all his books. The three volumes of 'Cult Movies' are, obviously, pretty much of a piece. If I was to pick one as a personal favourite, it would be this volume. Like Vol. 3, only fifty films are covered (Vol. 1 featured one hundred), Peary's writing is more confident, and with a lot of the 'usual suspects' already covered, there is more scope for eccentric choices. But it only wins by a nose. Yes, film guides and critical writing on film by erudite and informed authors is still vital 'even in this age of IMDB' (argh)
• 
  Jill Hutchinson

  After I read Peary's first book of his trilogy on cult films, I couldn't resist the second. He dissects another 50 films that he (and most film buffs) consider "cult". Not all are considered bad films....they may be indies, little-known, real stinkers, or ones that you know which have had a devoted following arise around them. I did not like this book quite as well as the first since he touched on all my favorites in his first volume. But, it still makes for great reading and quite a few laughs.......a book that makes the cult film fan very happy!!
  
• 
  Professor

  
  Cult Movies 2 was an interesting time capsule. Danny Peary wrote the book back in the early 1980s, before VHS and, especially, the modern media environment completely changed the way we see movies, especially cult films. Peary is writing from a time when seeing most of these movies meant either scouring the late night TV listings or finding a theater showing of them....and it was definitely easier to do the later in a major city than in the suburbs or in rural areas. Certainly even in the early 1990s I was doing just that-watching TV and Cable listings, cleaning out my local video store and going to the local university's showings when I could-and I had it (relatively easy). In the time before the widespread availability of cable and VHS this would've been even harder..and even with those advantages I can remember how exciting it was when I moved to Cambridge and had access to several theaters showing older and cult films.
  
  This lack of access means Peary makes some mistakes (he says that Deathsport is about racing cars, for example) that would be easy to check on now. He also has seen a wider range of cult films than most modern viewers do, as it's much easier to genre specialize now than it would've been when you were more at the mercy of your local programmers. Still, what is probably the largest departure from most modern "cult film" fans and reviewers is that Peary takes everything much more seriously than your average internet based cult movie reviewer does today. It review contains a full synopsis and then a relatively long review, often containing Peary's concerns with the films position on things like class, gender and race relations. Peary is coming at the films from what seems now like an intensely leftist position, which is kind of shocking for a modern reader. Still, it's kind of refreshing to see an author actual concerned about the quality and message of the film, whereas I feel most reviews now concentrate on "did it deliver the genre goods". You will not always agree with Peary, but I found he always made me think, and it was nice to get some reviews of cult films he did not like with the ones he did.
• 
  S. Wilson

  Danny Peary's Cult Movies series helped my expand my teenage love of film beyond horror movies. While I was already aware of some of the films in this volume as a child beforehand - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Blood Feast - others I wouldn't have normally been exposed to were introduced to me for the first time, and piqued my curiosity about them and other films withing those genres. Films like The Wicker Man and Basket Case weren't bound to show up on HBO or Showtime in the 90s. If it weren't for the Cult Movies series, it would have probably been another decade or so before I was even aware of films like Vanishing Point and Quadrophenia. I can still credit Cult Films 2 as being the reason I even heard of Phantom of the Paradise, for which I am still thankful.
  
  Peary's selection of what he classifies as 'cult movies' in this volume covers a wide range of films, from cultural mainstays like The Bride of Frankenstein and Mommie Dearest, to art house favorites like Picnic at Hanging Rock and Breathless, to more obscure films outside of the mainstream like The Great Texas Dynamite Chase and A Boy and His Dog. This is probably one of the few film guides you will read that devotes equal time and attention to both Last Tango in Paris and Zardoz. Whether the films are known for their excellence (The Seventh Seal) or their lack thereof (Massacre at Central High), Peary examines not just the films themselves, but the making of them, and the attention they've garnered, good or bad.
  
  Spoiler Alert: Peary's essays on the films in this book are preceded by detailed synopses that basically reveal the entire film, including plot-twists and endings, and the majority of his essays are written under the presumption that the reader has already seen the film. Cult Movies is a great book for exposing you to new cinematic treasures, but tread lightly if you aren't a fan of knowing the story before you see it.
• 
  Aussiescribbler Aussiescribbler

  Danny Peary is one of my favourite film writers. This is the second of his three Cult Movies books. The first one contained reviews of 100 films. This one, like the one which would follow it, is limited to 50. It’s a broad selection of titles, ranging over period and genre. There are films you will see at film society screenings or in university film classes and at least one that is unquestionably trash. There are modern offbeat comedies, gruesome horror films and famous Hollywood classics. A bit of something for everybody.
  
  Peary has the ability to inspire interest in films even if he loathes them. And it isn’t just those which most people recognise as bad which he dislikes. He is a dissenting voice on some films which are widely hailed as masterpieces.
  
  He has a unique take on films as much written about as A Clockwork Orange, Some Like It Hot and Taxi Driver, and can introduce us to films we may otherwise have been unaware of, such as Blood Money and Salt of the Earth.
  
  He also makes his writing part of an ongoing debate by quoting key passages from other film writers.
  
  Peary’s Cult Movies books stand as an admirable celebration not just of films that people love obsessively, but of that obsession itself.
• 
  Matthew Krause

  In Danny Peary’s first volume of Cult Movies, he described the idea of a movie reaching “cult” status when it elicits ardent devotion from a core group of fans long after the film’s release. If Cult Movies 1 introduced us to the staples of “cult” film--your Rocky Horrors and El Topos--then Cult Movies 2 is the collection that taps into the zeitgeist of hipster cool. Many of the unusual suspects are here--Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Boy and His Dog, A Clockwork Orange, Barbarella--as well as classic titles like Night of the Demon, Some Like It Hot, and Sullivan’s Travels. Furthermore, the list is peppered with some of the more interesting films you may not have seen: Altered States, Phantom of the Paradise (a personal fave of mine with a great soundtrack), Basket Case, and Vanishing Point. Were it not for this book, I might have never discovered The Parallax View and Cutter’s Way, which have wormed their way into my all-time favorites list, and as with Volume I, Peary’s relaxed, conversational tone manages to open the reader/viewer up to multiple ways of looking at the movies. I called Volume I a must-read, but for the film fan, all three Cult Movies volumes are must-own.
• 
  TrumanCoyote

  Oh well--at least he had something good to say about Joe Bob Briggs. Plus he mentioned a Fredric Brown story. But he's sort of a commie--not to mention a prissy prig. Particularly ludicrous was the thing about dePalma being "cruel" to his characters; and how about eating Baby Ruths as a sign of immaturity? Then there was the review of Taxi Driver--which starts out saying people can identify too much with Travis Bickle--and ends up saying Scorsese is too cold toward his characters. A guy who writes about cult movies should be more understanding and tolerant of different times.
• 
  Roy

  Brilliant book covering another 50 cult movies , all interesting in one way or another . Still in large format .