Editorials
Punk Yeah: 15 Movies That Are Loud, Fast, and Offensive!
Punk can mean a wide variety of things. It depends on the person using the word and the context in which it is being used. It can be used when talking about a low-level goon or what I like to refer to as 80’s thugs. You know what I’m talking about. The type of disposable baddie that Robocop would take out without hesitation. Most commonly punk refers to the aggressive form of rock music that gained steam in the 70’s thanks to bands like the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. Punk rock ties directly into punk fashion and punk ideologies.
Punk is the voice of youth, the soundtrack to the revolution. It’s about challenging the status-quo and being anti-establishment. It’s the working class fighting for economic stability. Punk is about not doing what you’re told simply because it’s what you’re told. Punk is authentic.
Today I’m talking punk because this past Friday the brand new Blu-ray of D.O.A.: A Right of Passage hit shelves everywhere. This ground-breaking documentary on the origin of punk rock also marks the debut release from the MVD Rewind Collection. Needless to say, today is a pretty big day. The film, which you can order directly from MVD or from Amazon, is available on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and it comes loaded with special features.
To celebrate the release of this must-own punk origin story I’ve put together a list of 15 movies that fall under some of the punk umbrella that you should probably see. And when I say probably see I mean you should definitely see because failure to do so means you’re part of the establishment. And if you’re part of the establishment you’re part of the problem.
Death Race 2000 – 1975 – Dir. Paul Bartel
One could argue that everything Roger Corman has ever touched over the course of his illustrious career is punk in some way or another, which is kind of hilarious since Corman has always had the fashion style of the classic square. Death Race 2000 makes the cut for a number of reasons, the most obvious being that the fashion sense in the film’s dystopian future oozes punk aesthetic. The film also serves a bit of warning as to what happens if we don’t have that punk mindset to question those in charge. When those in power have absolute power they eventually pit us against one another for their own entertainment. In Death Race 2000 that’s a cross-county auto race where contestants are awarded points for running down pedestrians.
The Road Warrior – 1981 – Dir. George Miller
Post-apocalyptic movies are punk. I feel like that’s a pretty safe generalization to make and The Road Warrior is a shining example. Here we have a world that has come tumbling down because those with absolute power cannot be trusted. As a society, we always end up destroying ourselves and need punk to step in and save the day. Any Mad Max movie would fit on this list but I chose The Road Warrior because Vernon Wells’ Wez is as punk as they come.
Class of 1984 – 1982 – Dir. Mark L. Lester
Class of 1984 is the type of film that teaches us that we can learn a lot of from punk if we just pay attention. This is a film that utilizes the punk look to tell a story about violence in schools and this was released in 1982, long before school shootings were the norm. Mark L. Lester was presenting a social commentary on things to come based on the current state of the world back then and we failed to heed his warning. This film also features an insane performance from Roddy McDowall.
Liquid Sky – 1982 – Dir. Slava Tsukerman
Liquid Sky is a fascinating film for a number of reasons. It’s the story of a fashion model with dreams of making it big while overcoming abuse from her drug-addicted alter ego. There are also invisible aliens that kill people. This is one you have to see to understand but I can assure you that it’s a visual masterpiece of avant-garde filmmaking and it’s most definitely punk. The film has been a bit of a rarity and hard to see over the years which is sort of odd because it was quite successful for an indie film upon its initial release. Fortunately this past Black Friday the wonderful dudes over at Vinegar Syndrome release a Blu-ray of the film that by all accounts is gorgeous. Unfortunately, that release was limited has already sold out. Here’s to hoping they bring it back!
Suburbia – 1983 – Dir. Penelope Spheeris
Another Roger Corman production makes the list this time in the form of Suburbia, quite possibly the most punk movie of all to be included. This is a movie about a group of punks that don’t feel as if they belong in their suburban society. Treated as if they’re worthless, the band of misfits come together and create a family all their own. You can’t have a list of punk films without Suburbia.
Repo Man – 1984 – Dir. Alex Cox
Legendary television writer and noted McDonald’s critic Bill Oakley recently tweeted that Repo Man is his favorite movie of all time. If that is true, and I don’t know Oak to be a liar, that would make him punk AF because few movies are as punk as Repo Man. This directorial debut from Alex Cox is a punk/sci-fi hybrid that isn’t quite like anything else you’ve ever seen. It shows punks in a way rarely seen. The punks here are goofy and silly rather than all doom and gloom, despite the dark times in which they live.
Demons – 1985 – Dir. Lamberto Bava
Demons is one of my personal favorites and I consider it to be the all-time best party movie. Throw this on with a bunch of friends over and you’re guaranteed to have a great time. Lamberto Bava’s greatest achievement is a somewhat meta story about demons popping out of a movie screen to attack the unsuspecting audience members. It also features a trio of punks that get involved in the madness and has great new wave-punk soundtrack.
The Return of the Living Dead – 1985 – Dir. Dan O’Bannon
It’s easy to see why The Return of the Living Dead is punk — it’s a movie about a group of punks fighting zombies with an awesome 8o’s punk soundtrack. That’s merely what you find on the surface. Once you dig deeper you see a whole of punk sensibilities. There’s social commentary regarding the US government, a punk staple, and this is the movie that completely changed the way we view zombies. At this point, zombies had been well-established thanks to George Romero but O’Bannon decided to mix things up and introduce us to humorous zombies that literally call out for brains. The ROTD sequels would also fall under the punk category.
Dead End Drive-In – 1986 – Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith
Ozploitation is basically another work for punk. Those Aussies are all about taking on the establishment and my favorite film to do so is Dead End Drive-In. In this BTS classic, the youth of Australia are round up and forced to live within the confines of a drive-in movie theater. While watching movies and eating junk food 24/7 may sound great this is really all just a ploy to willingly get people to live inside an internment camp. The movie was a commentary on the state of Vietnamese immigrants in Australia at the time, but unfortunately, it still applies to various scenarios throughout the world today.
Punk Vacation – 1990 – Dir. Stanley Lewis
Punk Vacation is actually more punksploitation than anything else. The punks in this film are the villains and punk stereotypes are definitely played up. It definitely lacks a bit of the authenticity of some of the other films on this list. With that said, it’s a great deal of fun and worth your time. It’s a nice slice of late 80’s-early 90’s low budget action and it shows how big punk’s influence was back then.
Wild At Heart – 1990 – Dir. David Lynch
In the history of cinema has there ever been a more punk rock actor than Nicolas Cage? I think not — you’ll see him again on this list — and his one teaming with David Lynch might be his most punk rock movie ever. Wild at Heart is one of those movies that is really hard to explain and the only one to truly make sense of it is to watch it and watch it and watch and watch it. It’s a love story between Cage and Laura Dern that puts a Lynchian twist on The Wizard of Oz. Also Willem Dafoe and Crispin Glover get weird.
Shopping – 1994 – Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson
Before he got into the world of Resident Evil and big budget popcorn pictures, director Paul W.S. Anderson made his debut with a low budget crime thriller about reckless teens in England. The two leads, played by a young Jude Law and a young Sadie Frost, get their kicks by stealing cars and crashing them through storefront. Then then further trash the stores. This is known as “shopping.” Stealing from the man? Punk.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – 2011 – Dir. Neveldine/Taylor
Ok so the Neveldine/Taylor take on Ghost Rider is probably more metal than anything, but metal and punk go hand in hand, right? Personally, I couldn’t imagine making this list without including Spirit of Vengeance. Superhero movies weren’t quite what they are now back in 2011 but they were beginning to put a stranglehold on the box office and Marvel had already showcased they had a formula that works. Ghost Rider went completely against the grain in an effort to do something different. The results are decidedly mixed with not everything working to perfection but the movie is loads of fund and Cage is absolutely unleashed from the opening credits to the final scene.
Green Room – 2015 – Dir. Jeremy Saulnier
Green Room is literally about a punk rock band forced to fight for their lives after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi bar. This movie is tense, gripping and far too relevant. It all speaks directly to liberal Portland’s dark, racist past. The punks always resist.
Get Out – 2017 – Dir. Jordan Peele
Is Get Out punk? I think so. In fact, it’s not all that different than Green Room and I’d recommend watching the two films back-to-back to get a nice 3-hour look at the sad state of America. Get Out may not appear punk on the surface — at least not when it comes to how most people perceive punk — but it most certainly shares the same ideologies as punk and challenges the establishment head-on.
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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