Cult Sci Fi Movies Sing For 1Now that every writer has turned in their personal lists, its time to determine the Slashfilm Top 15 of 2016. Drumroll, please. Greetings, my Westerosi window envelopes As you can probably guess, last weeks episode of Game of Thronesand its increasing dominance over the pop culture. Cult Films About Cults. Here at The Playlist, where we pray to our benign Leader every time we hit publish, abstain from all sexual activity, grow our own vegetables and pause in our tasks thrice daily to face due East and chant our mantra Kurosawa, Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Ommm, wed obviously know better than to get ourselves caught up in any sort of cult. But the lure that can be exerted over weaker souls than our own perfected ones has led to some fascinating, often chilling films, whether set within the confines of the sect or dealing with the process of deprogramming and reinsertion into ordinary society. The latter is the background for this months release of Faults, from debut feature director Riley Stearns review here and which stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a cult member whose parents hire a has been expert played by Leland Orser to un brainwash her during a week in a bland hotel room. Faults has many different tones and textures and is overall perhaps best described as black comedydrama hybrid, but the subject matter has lent itself to many genres over the years, from melodrama to coming of age tale to thriller to psychodrama to most frequently horror. A lot of name brand auteurs have gotten in on the game, but seeing as weve written about those examples a great deal already Eyes Wide Shut, Rosemarys Baby, The Master, The Village, The Ninth Gate and so on we thought wed dedicate this feature to a few more obscure picks. So take the phone off the hook, sever all ties with your families who dont really love you anyway, not like we do and abandon yourself to our selection of 1. Suspiria 1. 97. While he can have hardly known it at the time, with Suspiria Dario Argento made probably the artistic apex of the giallo movement he pioneered along with fellow Italians Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. Retrospectively and despite coming a little after the giallo explosion of the early 7. Goblin who made it onto our list of Best Horror Scores of all time for this and Argentos Tenebre. The film concerns an American ballerina Jessica Harper who transfers to a sinister German Dance Academy covertly run by a satanic coven of witches, including Dark Shadows star Joan Bennett. The mish mash of languages and accents from the English, American, German and Italian cast didnt matter much as the whole thing was post dubbed anyway, which adds to the films uncanny cronkiness today. But once you become attuned to the garish unsubtlety of Argentos work, Suspiria is undeniably creepy and evocative, tuning in to burgeoning female sexuailty as a metaphor for a quasi mystical transformation process that is unknowable but also oddly beautiful without ever trying to transcend its exploitation b movie basis. Cult Sci Fi Movies Sing ' title='Cult Sci Fi Movies Sing ' />That was a job for subsequent admirers and imitators, such as Darren Aronofsky, whose Oscar winning Black Swan owes Suspiria a heavy debt. Sound Of My Voice 2. One of the most striking and original low budget American directorial debuts of the last few years, Sound Of My Voice is a puzzle box of a movie that never got the audience it deserved in theaters, but appropriately gains more and more followers with each passing year since release. The first feature from director Zal Batmanglij, who co wrote with star Brit Marling, sees a young couple Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius attempting to infiltrate a mysterious group led by Maggie Marling, a charismatic women who claims to be from a post apocalyptic 2. The films a true genre bender, flitting between thriller, sci fi, Lynchian mindbender and a genuinely incisive examination into the cult of personality Denhams Peter begins as a skeptic, but we see his own identity subtly erased as he falls increasingly under Maggies spell and you can see why Marling is extraordinary, slightly and deliberately off kilter with the rest of the film around her. It doesnt entirely satisfy as a whole at less than ninety minutes, its too lean to substantively dig into everything that it has on its mind. In fact, the film was meant to be the first of a trilogy, marking it one of the first Sundance films to fall victim to franchise syndrome. But its still a hypnotic, beautifully executed piece of world building, and were very excited to see what Marling and Batmanglij come up with for their new Netflix series next year. Race with the Devil 1. When You Race With The Devil, You Better Be Faster Than Hell screamed the tagline for Jack Starretts oddball chase moviehorror mashup that became a modest hit before disappearing forever, except for the makers of 2. The Full Lego DC Comics Superheroes: Justice League - Gotham City Breakout Movie. Drive Angry with Nic Cage, who repurposed a great deal of its plot. Its a film destined for further reevaluation for its cherishable mid 7. Split Image, Peter Fonda portrays a man on the run from a cult here Race was pretty much an attempt to replicate the surprise success of the previous years Fonda in a stock car chase film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. On vacation, he and his friend played by Warren Oates stumble across a satanic ritual sacrifice and flee the pursuing cult across the Texas backwoods with their hysterical liabilities of wives played by Lara Parker and M. A. S. Hs Loretta Swit. Its all pretty loosely cobbled together the smaller characters like the monumentally unhelpful sheriffs department and the gurning, twangy voiced locals are all straight out of central casting, and each scene plays like a rip off of something else rather than part of a cohesive whole, but even with stereotypes and cliches abounding, its a blast. Fonda gets to ride a motorbike again, plus the couples RV proves remarkably resilient during the many excellent Duel like chase sequences, building to a batshit highway finale thats actually a terrific smash em up of vehicular mayhem before an abrupt and perfectly divisive ending. Martha Marcy May Marlene 2. Doing a better job than maybe any other film here with respect to putting the viewer inside the crumbling mind of a cult escapee struggling to come to grips with the formlessness and chaos of the world outside the group, this startlingly austere paranoia drama was not solely the breakout vehicle for director Sean Durkin and for Elizabeth Olsen. It also showed an entirely new side to the brilliant John Hawkes, who spins his usual characterful casting as a sad sack loser entirely on its head to become one of the most memorably chilling yet believably charismatic cult leaders of the many on this list. Dealing in itchy unease, tonal ambiguity and hopping around in time in a deliberately disorienting manner, the real crux of the film is identity confusion, evoked brilliantly by the willfully confusing title, and rarely has the push pull attraction repulsion of resigning all responsibility for yourself to the point of complete self erasure been so empathetically summoned. Also featuring less showy but tremendously solid performances from Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy as Marthas sister and brother in law who become increasingly disturbed by the troubled, secretive Marthas behavior, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a brilliantly evocative, insightful and economical story told with the kind of confidence and adeptness with ambiguity that belies the directors neophyte status it feels nothing like a first film. For all this and more it earned its spot on our 5. Best Films of the Decade list. The Devils 1. Cults are often a touchy subject just ask anyone whos been tweeting about Scientology documentary Going Clear, but only The Devils can lay claim of the films on this list to genuinely being one of the most controversial films ever made, thanks to its mix of explicit sex and violence and religious imagery. Directed by the ever provocative Ken Russell based loosely on Aldous Huxleys The Devils Of Loudon, itself based on real events, as an opening legend reminds us, its a period piece set in France in the 1. Mostly Game of Thrones Edition. Greetings, my Westerosi window envelopes As you can probably guess, last weeks episode of Game of Thronesand its increasing dominance over the pop culture landscapehas filled the ol postmans stolen mailbag to the brim. There are a few spoilers for last weeks episode, but more importantly, an answer to a question we should have been asking ourselves since the first episode Should we want Daenerys and Jon Snow to fuck Aunt, Man. Aaron W. So Ive been struggling with this question a lot Is it ok to ship JonDany On the con side, they are aunt and nephew, which is gross. On the pro side it would sidestep Dany needing Jon to bend the knee and is a solution that the northmen would probably accept it would be thematically consistent fireice and it would eliminate almost all of the tension for trying to root for two characters who are at odds with each other due to circumstances beyond their control and the expectations of their subjects. Given that, I still would come out on the con side, except that we already know that some degree of inbreeding e. Westeros and that the Targaryens in particular practiced an even more exclusive e. So the auntnephew dynamic is an absolute deal breaker to modern audiences, but maybe wouldnt be the worst thing in Westeros Lots of reasons it would be good, but one BIG reason it is unacceptable. Thoughts Shipping is shipping. Ive seen worse than aunt and nephew. Much worse. And the show is definitely presenting them as future romantic partnersfuckbuddies, which makes it as legitimate as these things get. Their familial relationship may freak you out, but thats sort of the point. GRRM wants to show a medieval, feudal type era with all the awfulness most fantasies skip over. The relentless sexism, the rape and torture, the horror that regular people could and did experience constantly as the result of what the nobility chose to doyou can absolutely complain about how omnipresent it is in his stories andor how its portrayed, but its not inaccurate to the source material of that reality. And one part of that reality is medieval and certainly ancient nobilitys tendency toward incest, especially between uncles and niecesto the point where its got its own name, avunculate marriage. As you said, the booksshow have already shown that Targaryens have been more than willing to marry within the family in order to keep their bloodline pure, so theres a precedent for Jon and Dany starting a relationship. And since were talking about an aunt and nephew here since Jon is the son of Danys deceased brother Rhaegar and not uncleniece, a JonDany hook up would kind of strike a blow for Westerosi gender equality, in a tiny, messed up way. At any rate, as a Targaryen, Daenerys is obviously going to be down with getting down with Jon Snow, as it would be kind of meaningless to sieze the Iron Throne without leaving a new Targaryen line to carry on ruling. I am far more skeptical that Jon would be cool with sleeping with his aunt, given the rest of Westeros isnt nearly as cool with incest hence Cersei and Jaimes hiding of their sexual relationshipwell, until Cersei took the throne and decided that yes, in fact, as queen she gets to have sex with anyone she wants, and everyone else has to deal with it. Or be tortured and killed. But Jons problem is easily solved by keeping his parentage from him until after Ice and Fire have fucked each other. In fact, I suspect Bran is keepingwill keep the truth of Jons parentage from everyone until after Daenerys gets pregnant for that very reason. The Three Eyed Raven knows this has to happen, so mums the word for now Or GRRMor the show, for that matter, since we know its diverging from GRRMs plan in major wayscould just throw a curveball and have Dany marry Gendry, the closest thing King Robert had to a legitimate heir, combining the Targaryen and Baratheon lines to create a progeny whose claim to the throne is unassailable throughout Westeros. Actually, thats a pretty good ideaJaime in the Water. Brett H. I see people talking everywhere about how Jaime could possibly be alive, but how Hes way at the bottom and in full armor. No way Bronn can hold his breath long enough to get down there, cut all the straps to all the pieces of the armor, pull them off, and then also pull him to safety before they both drown. Im not going to say its unrealistic, since Jaime was pushed into the water to avoid a dragon, but the point of Game of Thrones is that it has fantasy elements but its still realistic in the basic laws of physics. So isnt Jaime getting rescued impossible You bring up a good point about fantasy, in that the best fantasy has a set of rules, even if the audience doesnt know them, and doesnt break them. Someone suddenly having a hoist person out of lake spell to save Jaime would be dumb. Tyrion running down the hell and begging Dany to have Drogon fish the dude who was about to kill her out of the lake is more realistic for Go. T, but implausible in terms of Danys character and the time it would take for Tyrion to get down to Dany and ask for her to save his brother. So that leaves Bronn. Heres one thing we all need to make our peace with first, right now Game of Thrones the TV show has begun playing fast and loose with strict reality in favor of presenting the most exciting story possible. This is how armies and fleets are moving gargantuan distances in between and sometimes even during episodes. Its why Tyrion can pick out Jaime from half a mile away amid a battlefield full of smoke and destruction. Its why Cersei and her allies can suddenly kick ass or all of Highgardens gold can get into Kings Landing with a mutter and a handwave. There are only nine episodes left, total, as of the time this mailbag hits the nerdernet. The show doesnt have any time to waste. Yes, part of the reason the books are so good is because they were sprawling and complicated in the way life is, and yes, the show is 1. But the choices were to either have the story on fast forward so it actually ends next year or for Daenerys to have her first battle with Cerseis forces in the season eight finale. So with all that said Since Game of Thrones has forgone its sense of realism a bit, I can see it having Bronn manage to dive down to Jaime, cutting him out of his armor, and dragging him to the surface before he fatally drowns. I also, as I mentioned in my recap this week, think it doesnt make any narrative sense for Bronn to push Jaime out of the way of a giant cone of dragon breath into a lake, only to have him immediately drownif Weiss and Benioff are going to kill the character, having Jaime get turned into cinders by Drogon is a much, much cooler death. So I think the show will forgo realism I mean, how was that lake at the side of that road a full 3. Bronn will cut Jaime out of his armor and drag him to the surface because Jaime is the one whos going to give him a castle, after all, and the Lannister will probably live to fight another day. And I also think hell be the one to perform those book spoilers valonqar duties, and obviously, he cant do that if hes dead. Last time I looked, I didnt see any friendly priests of Rhllor nearby. Where to even begin The Spoils of War was the reason we watch Game of Thrones, one of thoseRead more Read. Gone But Not Forgotten. Michael V. Postman,After re watching GOT from the beginning a few times, I believe that Ser Barristan Selmy is one character whose presence would enhance Season 7 while not distracting from the current main plots of the show. Ser Barristan would have been the most solid member of Daenerys Queensguard due to military and combat experience, but his relationship to Rhaegar is most interesting. When Dany tells Jon that everyone loves doing what theyre best at, Jon disagrees.