There comes a point in every cinephile’s journey where a steady diet of mainstream blockbusters and broad crowd-pleasers won’t quite cut it anymore. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with rewatching “Terminator 2”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, or any rock-solid cinematic comfort food you know backwards and forwards for the gazillionth time instead of finally diving into that obscure cult film you found browsing the Criterion Channel and your friend won’t stop raving about. However, if, deep down, you think you’re ready to take the plunge and expose yourself to alt-viewing options that defy explanation and will turn your brain into mush, we’ve got you covered.
From gruesome martial arts splatterfests that crank the action up to 11 and Warhol-inspired counterculture slashers to completely off-the-wall sci-fi extravaganzas, today we’re rounding up a collection of puzzling cinematic oddities — films that were too wacky and weird to be embraced by mainstream audiences, but that later amassed devoted cult followings and continue to inspire deep obsession today. Listed in chronological order, the following oddball gems might be outside the norm and not for everyone, but give them a fair shot and you won’t be disappointed.
1. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
If you’re in the mood for a sumptuously shot, sexually charged gothic folk tale about a young innocent woman being viciously preyed upon by vampires in medieval Europe, you could watch last year’s “Nosferatu”, I guess. Or you could be cool and check out this adaptation of Vítezslav Nezval’s 1935 novel instead.
The loss of innocence and awkward sexual awakening of a thirteen-year-old girl (Jaroslava Schallerová) supplies the thematic bedrock of this landmark of the Czech New Wave directed by Jaromil Jireš, a defiantly anti-authoritarian film that offers less of a unified narrative than a string of dreamlike vignettes and striking imagery and that bleed into each other and furiously dig into your consciousness.
The movie’s underlying exploration of repressed desire, guilt, and domestic abuse through the distorted lens of a girl transitioning into womanhood in a religiously oppressive milieu is straightforward and relatively easy to grasp even if the most fantastical and metaphorical elements might throw you for a loop every now and then. Think “Alice in Wonderland” meets “Wizard of Oz”, only this time Alice/Dorothy is a horny teen and instead of talking cats, ruby slippers, and flying monkeys, she encounters magic earrings, parasitic grandmothers, and bloodsucking priests. Definitely not one for the kids.
2. Eraserhead (1977)
Complete with post-industrial urban hellscapes, screeching mutant babies, fizzling light bulbs, bleeding man-made chickens, and a deformed singing lady who lives in a radiator, David Lynch’s years-in-the-making debut came out of left field in 1977, wormed its way into our subconscious, and became an overnight sensation as the defining midnight movie staple of its era.
The main thing you need to know about “Eraserhead” is that Lynch conceived it back when he was a newly married man, expecting father, and up-and-coming film school grad living in Philadelphia. He took some odd jobs, secured funding from the American Film Institute, brought in a handful of his pals, and channeled his own fears and anxieties of unintended parenthood into Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a meek print worker whose life is turned upside down after her one-time fling (Charlotte Stewart) gives birth to a hideously deformed creature.
What you’re left with is an odd film that is deeply unnerving and morbidly funny in nearly equal measure, and perhaps the first full-blown surreal movie to fully break into the American mainstream. Half a century later, “Eraserhead” remains a subject of fervid obsession, with many a dedicated movie buff still racking their brains to unravel its ambiguous mysteries — what’s the deal with the man pulling the levers, how does Henry end up taking his own life, and most importantly, how the heck did they manage to come up with such a convincingly hideous baby puppet on a $100,000 budget? Your guess is as good as mine.
3. House (1977)
Sure, many films by Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi dabble in the surreal, but how many feature floating heads, evil spirits, bleeding clocks, possessed watermelons, dancing skeletons, a demonic cat, and a carnivorous piano? After all, there’s a reason why this absolute bonkers, near-indescribable haunted house acid trip — about a teenage schoolgirl and six of her classmates heading to the country to visit her aunt’s secluded country farmhouse — is one of the most frequently named titles when you ask film buffs to suggest movies that will mess with your head.
An 88-minute-long full-on assault to the senses inspired by the childhood nightmares of Obayashi’s 10-year-old daughter, “House” is light on plot but so unabashedly silly over-the-top that you might find yourself unsure whether to laugh, scream, or cry in despair at every given turn. A good rule of thumb for the movies on this list is not to fret too much about plot details and simply enjoy the rollercoaster ride. If this one’s right up your alley and you’re not faint of heart, be sure to follow it up with Takashi Miike’s horror-tinged musical extravaganza “The Happiness of the Katakuris”.
4. Liquid Sky (1982)
“Strange Aliens having bizarre orgasms!” The film’s official tagline says it all, really, but frankly it doesn’t even begin to cover the reasons why this offbeat time capsule of early-1980s punk subculture by Soviet exile Slava Tsukerman continues to be a seminal rite of passage among diehard sci-fi aficionados and gets screened in New York revival houses every once in a while.
Shot with a shoestring $500,000 budget with a Soviet crew and a bunch of unknown actors, “Liquid Sky” plunges you right smack into the downtown New Wave scene and into the shoes of androgynous fashion model and heroine junkie Margaret (Anne Carlisle). It just so happens that an alien creature that feeds off a human endorphin produced during climax suddenly lands on her apartment roof, with Margaret striking a deal to lure unsuspecting partners to her apartment before it kills them off on the spot right as they’re about to reach orgasm. Sure, it may not be the ideal way to kick off a first date, but that wild plot description alone should at least make you think about tracking it down.
Come to watch a bunch of Manhattan oddballs being ruthlessly vaporized by invisible aliens Repo Man-style, stay for the neon-soaked visuals, eye-popping production design, and synthy ’80s score.
5. The Boxer’s Omen (1983)
Prolific Hong Kong studio Shaw Brothers churned out such an absurd number of martial arts movies in their heyday that you’d need a full year just to get through their 1980s catalog. Endless praise has been lumped upon the likes of “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” and “The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter”, and rightly so — both hold a firm place in action cinema history as bona fide classics in their own right and are solid entry points for newcomers.
Though rarely mentioned in the same breath as these two, very few genre films in cinema history come close to the batshit energy and gross-out, visceral thrills of this lesser-known gem directed by Kuei Chih-Hung, about a Thai boxer avenging his crippled brother and breaking an ancient Buddhist curse that’s been tormenting his family.
Reincarnated monks regurgitating food, chopping limbs off, fighting demonic bats, flying heads, and using crocodile skeletons as vessels for supernatural mummies… Even if you’ve already skimmed the plot synopsis and think you have a sense of what to expect, rest assured, nothing can prepare you for the gloriously unhinged mayhem that is “The Boxer’s Omen”. Like a bizarre cross between “Rocky” and “Temple of Doom”, this Eighties cult item is so chaotic and demented that watching it feels like stumbling upon a cursed artifact from another dimension that somehow slithered into our own.
6. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
The age-old saying that ‘they just don’t make ‘em like they used to’ gets tossed around gratuitously these days, and, for the most part, it is completely unfounded (seriously, anyone who believes sequels, reboots and studio cash-grabs weren’t a thing of the past ought to take a closer look at the top-grossing films from thirty years ago). But take our word for it: The only way this overstuffed 1980s pulp sci-fi extravaganza could have possibly been greenlit was during a time where every studio exec was on copious amounts of cocaine and LSD.
Trying to break down the plot is a fool’s errand, but here are a few pointers for the uninitiated: Buckaroo Banzai — brilliant neurosurgeon, pilot, scientist, rock star and all-around genius — is testing his latest invention, the oscillation overthruster, a device which allows him to drive through solid matter. As it turns out, inter-dimensional aliens known as the Red Lectroids have secretly infiltrated Earth and want to steal the device to travel back home, while the madman Dr. Emilio Lizardo (a deliciously hammy John Lithgow) has his own sinister plans for it.
The film crams about 3-4 TV seasons’ worth of exposition into 103 minutes, and some of the performances are so straightfaced it’s not entirely clear whether the cast was in on the joke or not. Peter Wells gets to save the day, ace guitar solos, and drop iconic lines like “No matter where you go, there you are” without an ounce of irony, the aliens inexplicably speak with Jamaican accents, and a perpetually bewildered Jeff Goldblum shows up wearing a full-on cowboy outfit. What more could one ask for? We’re still mad that “Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League” never happened.
7. Gandahar (1987)
Science fiction fans had plenty to feast on in 1987 — this was the year that gave us “RoboCop”, “Predator”, “Spaceballs”, “The Running Man”, “Bad Taste”, and “The Hidden”. But there’s a good chance that they forget to mention the most surreal, cerebral, and imaginative movie of the bunch in this criminally overlooked gem by French animator René Laloux.
If you’ve seen his 1973 breakout hit, “Fantastic Planet” you might think you know what to expect — utopian alien civilizations, surreal landscapes and creatures, inscrutable narratives, groovy soundtracks, and social commentary that touches on colonialism and totalitarianism. “Gandahar” largely follows that blueprint.
This animated mindwarp instantly immerses you in its titular world, Gandahar, now under siege by time-travelling invaders from the future known as the Men of Metal who fire lasers from their fingers and instantly turn their victims into stone. The protagonist, Sylvian, embarks on a journey to uncover the mastermind behind the attack, encountering a group of mutant outcasts known as the Deformed, as well as a massive, brain-shaped entity called Metamorphosis. Pro tip: Sit back, go with the flow and enjoy the trippy visuals, don’t try too hard to wrap your head around the time-travel paradoxes.
8. Santa Sangre (1989)
Many Alejandro Jodorowsky movies were considered for this list (Shout out to “El Topo”, and “Endless Poetry”, among others). If you haven’t dipped your toes into his work and want to get a sense of his irreverent style and trademark obsessions, the 1973 cult hit “The Holy Mountain” still makes for the most accessible entry point into the avant-garde director’s catalog. But once that film gives you a taste of what you’re in for, you might want to try this 1989 classic — like a Fellini and Buñuel mash-up by way of Italian Giallo — that clears all others in sheer shock value and WTF-is-happening insanity.
An Oedipal fever dream that makes the likes of “Psycho” and “Oldboy” look like Lifetime movies, “Santa Sangre” stars Jodorowsky’s own son as Fenix, a mentally unstable and emotionally crippled son of circus performers who spent most of his childhood in a mental institution after a traumatic incident involving his parents. Early into the film, he escapes from the asylum to reunite with his domineering mother, who forces him to do her bidding—courting “blasphemous” women and brutally murdering them once they let their guard down. Just so you don’t say we didn’t warn you, you also get a heavy dose of mutilation, grotesque deaths, unhinged cult rituals, and even a bizarre elephant funeral thrown in for good measure, so proceed with caution.
9. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)
The iron grip that Marvel Studios has held on pop culture for the past 15 years or so seems to have finally loosened a bit. But if the recent superhero craze has left you feeling burnt out indefinitely, we don’t blame you. If you’ve started to lose faith in the comic-book genre altogether and are willing to venture slightly off the beaten path, though, feel encouraged to fire up this completely off-the-wall, R-rated manga adaptation by Lam Nai-Choi whenever you get the chance.
Let me tell you — None of your big budget blockbusters could ever feel half as rad as a single minute of “Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky”. If, like us, you’re a person of simple pleasures who gets a real kick out of watching a tough-as-nails, beefed-up prison inmate punch through walls, tear limbs and poke eyeballs out with his bare hands, chew on razor blades (!), and beat a bunch of baddies to a pulp — all while defying the laws of physics and human endurance — “Riki-Oh” is the right film for you.
The plot is thin, the villains are comically sadistic, and the acting is so campy it verges on parody — especially if you’re watching the English dub, which somehow adds an extra layer of uncanniness. But the fight scenes are so preposterous and cartoonishly over-the-top — think live-action Mortal Kombat fatalities — that you almost can’t help but stay glued to the screen from start to finish. And whoever came up with the scene where a guy tries to strangle Ricky with his own intestines? They deserve an honorary Oscar.
10. Dogtooth (2009)
Contrary to what his new status as a critical darling and perennial Oscar contender might suggest, Yorgos Lanthimos is truly one of the most transgressive and singular voices in world cinema. Sure, the neatly packaged, crowd-pleasing “Poor Things” may have softened his rougher edges for the mainstream, but many of us saw in “Kinds of Kindness” a return to roots by the button-pushing rabble rouser behind “Dogtooth”.
Stick to the latter if you want to get the full Yorgos experience and see the Greek-born provocateur at his most challenging, absurdist, and unorthodox. In the word-of-mouth Cannes sleeper hit that put Lanthimos on everyone’s radar right before Hollywood came knocking on his doorstep, three adult children who’ve never set foot outside their country house are constantly brainwashed and fed lies by their manipulative parents in a thinly veiled metaphor to Greece’s isolationist politics. The startling finale grabbed all the headlines and cemented the film as an instant classic in the feel-bad cinema canon, but it’s the creeping sense of dread and absurdist humor that Lanthimos manages to sustain that gets under your skin.
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