Trailer of the Day: El Topo

YEAH! Now this is what I'm talkin' about! I flipping love this film! Although The Holy Mountain is considered by many to be Jodorowsky's best film, I happen to be partial to this one. After all, El Topo is one of the greatest horror cowboys ever (tomorrow I bring a list of the top 10 horror cowboys, I know you've all been waiting for it).
Now I know that, much like The Holy Mountain, El Topo  is not quite horror, but it's complete strangeness makes up for it's lack of outright horror elements (although it does have it's fair share of horrific moments...).

If you doubt the awesomeness of El Topo, just watch the trailer again and listen to the first line. "Be prepared to  live the most wonderfull experience of your life.". HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT?!?

Trailer of the Day: The Holy Mountain

Now I know that this isn't quite horror, but The Holy Mountain  is quite possibly the most bizarre movie you'll ever see. It is without a doubt Jodorowsky's masterpiece but, in my opinion not his best film (that honor belongs to El Topo). I wasn't joking yesterday when I referred to this as Symbolism: The Movie. Make no mistake, this movie is pretty much all insanity and symbolism. Not that that's entirely a bad thing, I'm sure a lot of people have gotten a lot of different things from this movie, sometimes though it does come off as a bit heavy-handed.

I will give it this though, it's inspired a lot of musicians from Beck to System of a Down to write trippy songs referencing a trippy movie. Go back and watch the trailer around the 1:53 mark, then watch the video below around the 1:36 mark.


I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!

Finally I'd like to note that I love how the trailer proclaims "The Holy Mountain  is a movie outside the tradition of cynicism or review". Riiiiiiiiiiight. Well, 70's announcer guy, I'm reviewing it (sort of), HOW YA LIKE THAT!

Trailer of the Day: Santa Sangre

I was really surprised with how sane this movie was, which, also surprisingly, left me feeling a tad disappointed. Not that it's not weird as hell, mind you, it's just the other two Jodorowsky films that I've seen make David Lynch look like Michal Bay. I did appreciate that it had a fairly traditional structure to it, and it wasn't just Symbolism: The Movie (much like Jodorowsky's other works).

That said, let me reiterate that Santa Sangre, despite resembling a normal movie, is totally bizarre. Prepare for amputees, elephant funerals, and children being tattooed. Bizarre.

Trailer of the Day: Mother's Day

Okay, a little late I know, but enjoy a belated Mother's Day with the trailer for a terrible and overrated movie which shares the name of the holiday!

Trailer of the Day: Evil Dead 2

Let me finish off the trifecta of movies I watched repeatedly as a child with Evil Dead 2. If there was any movie my dad rented more then House, it was...well it was probably Last Action Hero, but Evil Dead 2 was still pretty close.

There's not much to say about EV2 that hasn't been said a million times before, but I would like to know that unlike other "classics", this one is always fun to watch. What a groundbreaking observation, right?

Trailer of the Day: House

Much like yesterday's entry, when I was a child I found this movie to be both horrifying and totally strange. Unlike yesterday's entry this one is still pretty freaky.
There's actually an odd parallel between this and The Gate in my childhood. When I lived with my mother I  watched The Gate  a lot, but it was mostly just because it was on T.V. a lot. Later, when I moved in with my father, I watched House a lot. This was mostly due to my father's odd preference in movies. My dad is the toughest movie critic I've ever met, but when he finds something he likes he will watch it over and over again, which is why we watched  House a lot. Lucky for me this is actually a pretty awesome movie!

The trailer does a decent job conveying the weirdness in this flick. It doesn't really give any indication that it's pretty funny too, which something I didn't appreciate till I watched it as an adult (young me just wanted monsters).
On another note, something else I didn't realize till later in life, is that the score was done by Harry Manfredi of Friday the 13th fame. I've only recently watched my way through Friday the 13th series and since all of Harry Manfredi's scores sound the same, I kept feeling like I was watching House. Every time Jason jumped out of nowhere to murder someone I just felt relived that it was only Jason and not some horrible lovecraftian monstrosity.

Trailer of the Day: The Gate

I applaud this trailer for making The Gate look almost as bizarre and terrifying as it was when I was 10. If I remember correctly they played this movie on channel 5 about 600 times a week during the summer, which is odd considering how grotesque this movie is.

I would also like to proudly proclaim that I now own this movie on DVD. Unfortunately, now that I am an adult, it's not nearly as scary as it was when I was a child (or scary at all for that matter). It is, however, still very bizarre. I'll admit it's little rough around the edges, but I think in an odd way being able to tell how fake some of the effects are adds something to its unique brand of weirdness. With a bigger budget and maybe some better writing this might have ended up as more than just a cult classic amongst children of the 80's. If any movie ever needed a remake, it's this one!

Trailer of the Day: Shining

I had always heard this movie was scary, but I found it to be quite heart-warming!