Wink wink, nudge nudge, fucking do it.
You and your damn peer pressure. Seriously though, what a great year. A tremendous year. Frankly, one of the best of the decade, that I can tell you. Amazing too that it was the start of the decade, one that I still consider to be the last truly brilliant decade for film. Anyway, autism:
1.
Wild at Heart (David Lynch) – Leave it to Lynch to make a film with a straightforward narrative and still have it wind up being one of his most divisive. Described by Lynch as about “finding love in Hell”, it's a loud, obnoxious, in your face, at times jarringly violent and mean-spirited movie filled with deranged characters, yet it's also hysterically funny and ultimately, incredibly sweet. More than anything though, the film is earnest with the fiercely dedicated performances from Cage and Dern who make the long lovers against the world motif entirely believable and endearing. Like Sailor's snakeskin jacket, the film is a perfect representative of Lynch's individuality. The ultimate road movie.
2.
Singapore Sling (Nikos Nikolaidis) – Picture Otto Preminger's noir classic
Laura (1944) directed by a young John Waters with an immaculate sense of style from a script by the Marquis de Sade. A thoroughly unhinged piece of work, when viewed alongside Nikolaidis' other films it makes a lot more sense thematically but without the context of his other films (which, given how little-seen Nikolaidis' other films are outside of Greece is how most people see it) the more bizarre it seems. A surefire inclusion on many a “disturbing” movie list, the film is often sold short as an empty “shock” film yet underneath all the incestuous mummy fucking, golden showers, vomit and disembowelments lies a comedy of blackest variety. Despite the cliched nature of the expression, Nikolaidis really was a true original who throughout the course of 8 theatrical features created his own cineuniverse.
3.
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven) – Like all of Verhoeven's American films this works on a multitude of levels. Viewed on a purely surface level, it works as an action/sci-fi blockbuster for the obvious reasons , checking all the necessary boxes with amazing, gratuitously violent action set pieces and groundbreaking effects, most of which still hold up today and some incredible and at times grotesque make-up work. A closer look however reveals a deeply intricate film open to a plethora of interpretations and “what if” scenarios lingering in the mind long after the film has ended. And of course, Arnold in one of his finest roles. Brilliant stuff, and really the product of a very different time when compared to what Hollywood throws money at these days.
4.
Hardware (Richard Stanley) – Despite the best efforts of studio fuckery and the MPAA, Richard Stanley's debut feature thankfully managed to find its deserving cult. Released with posters declaring it “The Terminator of the 90's”, a more accurate descriptor would be Demon Seed crossed with a story out of Heavy Metal. A prime example of wearing your influences on your sleeve while still retaining your own singular identity, Stanley conjures a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk wasteland that's equally inspired by spaghetti westerns and Italian horror with highly stylized lighting in the vein of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Awe-inspiring production design, killer soundtrack, cameo from Lemmy and one of the most badass sci-fi heroines in the form of Stacy Travis. Unfortunately all the nonsense surrounding the rights have prevented Stanley from franchising, but the film remains a visionary cyberpunk masterpiece and one of the most metal movies ever.
5.
The Guardian (William Friedkin) – An often maligned title, this film seemed to have everything against from the beginning. Being Freidkin's first “pure” horror film since
The Exorcist (1973) immediately put expectations on it that it was never going to meet. Friedkin could have made any type of film within the genre, be it slasher, ghost story, ect... no matter what he did it was always going to be compared unfavorably with The Exorcist. So what does he do? Comes out with a film about an druid nanny with coyote minions sacrificing infants to an evil tree. And plays it totally straight. A bizarre yet unquestionably original horror film, it's amazing it actually exists and much like Total Recall, it's representative of an era when a studio would fund a movie that was not only unique but had balls. Love it or hate it, there's really nothing else remotely like it.
6.
Deadly Manor (José Ramón Larraz) – The last horror film from the Spanish genre master, this one is another one that tends to get unfairly dismissed on the grounds of supposedly being too derivative of too many American slashers. Granted, the set-up is hardly the most original premise. A group of road tripping dumbasses seek shelter from a storm in a seemingly abandoned mansion only to be picked off one-by-one later in the night. Its what happens after the group of said dumbasses arrive at the mansion that sets the film apart from other films of its type, with Larraz peppering the film with odd personal touches and smoldering the film with atmosphere and lots of style all at a rather languid pace, quite dreamy at times even, thus giving the film much more in common with Larraz's earlier films than a generic slasher the plot might lead one to believe. AKA
Savage Lust.
7.
Red Blooded American Girl (David Blyth) – Despite the title and the emphasis of the American flag on various home video releases, this was actually shot in Canada by a Kiwi, the brilliant New Zealand troublemaker David Blyth. An interesting, Cronenbergian take on vampires with the affliction treated like a virus with symptoms similar to opiate withdraw (five years before Abel Ferrara's masterful vampire as junkie allegory
The Addiction (1995). A good chunk of the film takes place inside a lab populated by vampires, giving it a cold, hermetically sealed off type of vibe ala early Cronenberg while at other times the film has the look and feel of an erotic thriller. Very low-key film, but one of the more unique tweaks on the vampire mythos out there.
8.
Der Todesking (Jörg Buttgereit) – Sandwiched in-between the two
Nekromantik films, this is Buttgereit's most experimental and ambitious work. An anthology centered around seven suicides or violent deaths taking place over the course of a week with death represented as a chain letter. While the morbid humor of Buttgereit's more famous “loving dead” duo is noticeably missing, Buttgereit instead favoring a much more morose atmosphere, a wise choice given the suicide theme, the film retains the grungy, underground 16mm aesthetic of the first
Nekromantik film while also seeing Buttgereit take more chances with his techniques making this the perfect bridge between
Nekromantik and its 1991 sequel, Buttgereit's most polished film.
9.
King of New York (Abel Ferrara) – The dictionary definition “cool”. Abel and co. turn the gangster movie on its head with the perfect antihero in Frank White, a community minded killer who's particular brand of ethics will have viewers constantly questioning their own moral compass and who the real bad guys are. Incredibly slick and moody with a vibe that could be described at times as urban gothic while still retaining a sense of grime with Walken and Fishburne at their most iconic and quotable. A crucial title in Ferrara's filmography.
10.
The Tease (John Leslie) – Because no list would be complete without at least one porno, though in this case its inclusion is entirely warranted. An adult minded (in every sense of the term) exploration of sexual tension, voyeurism and exhibitionism, it's a fascinating watch for a variety of reasons, chief among them Leslie's rather ambiguous attitude outwards the leading man, legendary stud Randy West who's tasked with ghost writing the sexual memories of the insufferably hot Lauren Hall, the caveat being he can't touch her until the book is complete. The limited setting of Hall's house give the film a claustrophobic feeling making everything feel even weirder and more prurient and West's frustration smolder even more. One of the more straightforward efforts from Leslie from around this timeframe, but a refreshingly serious take on some of the hardcore medium's central obsessions.
HM:
American Tiger
A Cat in the Brain
Body Chemistry
Street Asylum
Baby Blood
Cry-Baby
Jacob's Ladder
The Reflecting Skin
Spontaneous Combustion 
