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A list of movies that you should see or already have seen if you take yourself to be a real gloom-cookie.
Razor Blade Smile (1998)
There's kitschy. Then there's tacky. Then, 50 miles down the road and hidden behind an outhouse, there is the sheer perfection of Razor Blade Smile.
Seriously. I'm pretty sure that Camp Vamp is to the gothling community what Camp Drag is to the gay community. And Eileen Daly (playing the vampiress-assassin Lilith Silver) has been described as a British version of Elvira. So this movie takes the cake. A little sexy. A little gross. A lot ridiculous. And remember, kiddies: You know fuck-all about vampires. The Hunger (1983)
David Bowie. Starring in a movie where the opening credits roll over Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's Dead. And it's all about vampires and twisted love.
This movie is more goth than anything or anyone else in the world. Including Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman's impossible gay love child. Deneuve and Sarandon are amazing, of course. Also the only lesbian sex scene you were likely to see outside of porn at that point in time. So, bonus points for that. Honestly, if you haven't seen this movie (even if you didn't care for it), you can't really consider yourself gothic anything. Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
A dystopian world ruled over by a megacorporation controlled by a family of murderers and deviants. Actually, that could be Monsanto...
A dark future where an organ-killing plague has wracked the world, but your replacement organs can be repossessed for not paying your bill on time. A story of secrets, lies, betrayals, and revenge gone mad - all told to the tune of a gothic-industrial opera. Everybody, everybody! TESTIFY!! Let the Right One In (2008)
Fuck the American remake. Watch the Swedish original and learn to read subtitles, you philistines!
A story of youth, outcasts, friendship, trust, and loneliness, with a healthy helping of vicious gore and a vampire - it's strange how the director managed to create an innocent love in the midst of all the violence. One of my favorite movies of all time. Nosferatu (1922)
The first vampire film, a classic of silent film-making, directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the terrifying Count Orlok. A total rip-off of Bram Stoker's work, the names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent -- unfortunately, the film company folded when Stoker's widow successfully sued them anyway.
Do not confuse this classic with the 1979 remake starring Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani -- it didn't really do the original justice (remakes rarely ever do), despite the awesomeness of the starring actors. Clockwork Orange (1971)
Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel, it's the story of a young man whose primary interests are rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven. The subject matter is a little dated, but it deals with the topics of socialism-gone-mad, teen-violence-gone-overboard, and government-brainwashing-gone-... well... bureaucratic.
Fair warning: this movie is FULL of emotional and psychological triggers. Parts of it make even my stomach churn. But it's one of Malcolm McDowell's most amazing performances, and certainly one of Kubrick's best (and certainly most coherent) films. |
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001)
Remember what I said about Camp Vamp and goths? Yeah. So, this movie is equally as awfulsome (it's a word now) as Razor Blade Smile, but for a different set of reasons.
First, it's lower-budget, if you can imagine that. Second, it's irreverent in a very different way. Where RBS is a send-up of vampire movies, JCVH is a send up of modern Christianity that just happens to have vampires in it. Third, Mary Magnum - Cute Lesbian Body Guard for Jesus in a Red Vinyl Catsuit. There's nothing deviant about love! The Labyrinth (1986)
Another David Bowie movie. I'm beginning to sense a theme. This time with Jim Henson and Jennifer Connelly.
If you ever watched this and vaguely fantasized about Sarah running off with the Goblin King, then you've probably got some goth deviance in your blood. If you analyzed it as the tragic love story of the Id and the Ego, then... I don't know what you are. But I analyzed it that way, too. So maybe there's a survivor's group for that sort of thing. Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
If you consider yourself to be goth and have never seen RHPS, then... I don't know what to say to you. You have failed.
Tim Curry, Richard O'Brien, Susan Sarandon, and a whole mess of other awesome actors come together in this weird musical send-up of repression, sexuality, transgenderism, and science-fiction. It was cutting edge in its time - now it's just plain awesome. Do you dare to do the Time Warp again? It's just a jump to the left.... Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
Between David Lynch's surreal vision of small-town life and assorted strangeness and Angelo Badalamenti's intense musical choices, you aren't likely to find a TV series that leaves you more knotted up inside than Twin Peaks.
Evidence suggests that you will either love it or hate it. The characters are bizarre, the themes unreal. It inspired the X-Files (and even starred David Duchovney in drag). It begins with a murder and ends in madness. Sometimes, my arms bend back. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
If you like dark fairy-tales filled with muppets, but think Jim Henson's Labyrinth was too light-hearted, then this is the film for you. From the dark genius of Guillermo del Toro, the film's original name actually translates to "Labyrinth of the Faun" -- unfortunately, it appears that we English-speakers need some arbitrary pizzazz in our naming conventions, because the faun in the movie isn't Pan.
Elegant, dark, violent. This is perhaps del Toro's single finest work. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Guillermo del Toro describes this movie as sort of being part of a "set" with his other dark fantastic film Pan's Labyrinth. It makes sense, since both films are set during the Spanish Civil War.
But where the later film focuses on myth and fantasy, the Devil's Backbone is more like a gothic ghost story, making it perfect for inclusion here. It's kind of hard to get in the U.S., but I'll trust to you darklings to be creative enough to get a viewing of it. |
