Strange cinema
When movies take a turn for the weird.
A trip to the zoo (NSFW).
While a visit to a zoo may not strike you as the most exciting day out this zoo, which features in the saucy '70s drama Swedish Wildcats, offers its patrons an altogether more interesting alternative to the usual succession of bored looking animals in their enclosures, for this is a menagerie of body painted babes role playing animals. Now that's what I call a fun day out.
An odd execution (NSFW).
The Monty Python team certainly produced many fine examples of strange cinema (and television) in their day. To illustrate the point here is a clip from the 1983 film Monty Python's Meaning of Life in which a condemned prisoner has been allowed to chose the method of his own execution. I think that there can be little doubt that he has made a truly inspired choice.
Swanky samurai sword skills (NSFW).
Samurai chaps are very keen on honour. Offending a samurai's sense of honour can land someone in all sorts of trouble as a schoolgirl learns to her cost in this scene from Kekko Kamen Royale.
A perky petgirl put through her paces (NSFW).
Bereaved pet owners Philip and Mary hit upon an unusual way of coping with the loss of their furry friends which involves Mary (Andrea Edmondson) becoming Philip's petgirl in the 2005 film The Pet. In this scene the pair attend a gathering of pet owners and their respective petgirls and petboys whereupon Mary, now renamed GG (Good Girl), wins the hearts of all present who proclaim her Best in Show in what is, so far as I know, the only mainstream film to date which presents a sympathetic portrayal of consensual pet play and its adherents.
Saucy space babes on a rampage (NSFW).
Here is another clip from the 1960s, that golden age of strange cinema (and of consuming vast amounts of powerful mind altering substances, which is probably no coincidence). This one is taken from the 1969 film Zeta One which is all about a group of feminist space babes from the planet Angvia (no prizes for guessing that's an anagram of) who send their agents to planet Earth to recruit girls to join the battle for female emancipation. When one of their number is captured by the patriarchy the Angvians at once organise a rescue mission involving a crack squad of near naked female space warriors.
Inside a feminist collective (NSFW).
The 1995 film Burial of the Rats takes its title from a horror story by Bram Stoker but otherwise there is little to connect the two. The movie concerns itself with a 19th Century feminist collective who embark on a reign of rat based terror in an attempt to take down the patriarchy. Bram Stoker appears as a character who joins the feminists ostensibly to support their cause but is in reality enamoured with one of the collective's members. The idea that a self professed male feminist could be a surreptitious sex pest may seem a little far fetched but perhaps such characters really do exist. When not engaged in murder and mayhem these feminists like to be entertained by topless dancing girls and acts of gratuitous rat abuse such as we see here.
Super strangeness.
If, like me, you find the endless slew of Hollywood superhero movies unoriginal and predictable to the point of nausea then this clip from Super B, made in the Philippines, should provide a welcome change. It stars Rufa Mae Quinto as Bilma, a rather eccentric girl who comes into possession of a magic ring which allows her to transform into the superheroine of the title. Here she is battling the forces of evil in her own unique way.
Shades of truth.
Back in the 1980s the Illuminati and shape shifting alien lizards were still the stuff of fiction and, as such, made for some great entertainment such as John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi classic They Live. Nada, the hero of the piece (played by Roddy Piper), stumbles upon an alien conspiracy when he discovers some special sunglasses which lay bare the evil alien scheme. In this scene he tries on the shades of truth for the first time and the awful reality begins to dawn on him. I always saw the film more as a swipe at mass marketing techniques than an expose of alien manipulation but you are, of course, free to draw your own conclusions. Or are you?
School sports day for depressos.
You might think that self harm and sport don't really go together but as we can see in this clip from Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl depressos just need to find a sport that suits them. These two are definitely up for the challenge and they have drawn an enthusiastic crowd too.