Your guilty pleasure movie(s)?
The Night Porter. Not that I feel especially guilty about it, but it's not something I want to watch around just anyone.
Most of my favourite films are cult films, and my all time favourite is the cult film. Hence, I'm going to go with Shock Treatment. After Rocky Horror, it's easily the best and deserves far more recognition. And yes, I think that it is, in certain ways, the superior film.
A disappointing film from your favorite director?
I honestly love every Ken Russell movie I've ever seen, though I had to re-watch Lair of the White Worm before I could say that. (I still think Catherine Oxenberg sleepwalks through it, though.)
Alternatively, I can say that I've been deeply disappointed by many of Dario Argento's films, particularly his later work. (Do You Like Hitchcock?, Jenifer, and his version of Phantom of the Opera were complete shit and made me want to retch!) But I think I have to go with Four Flies on Grey Velvet. Most of his early work is at least well made, if not brilliant. This one, though, was just stupid. It was boring, difficult to follow, lacked the eerie, colourful style he's famous for, and relied on the usual clichés, broken up only by some completely nonsensical twists, instead of plot or character development. The only thing I liked about it was the chronically unlucky private detective, who just happened to be gay. He was likable and refreshingly unstereotypical. Too bad he was on screen for what? Ten minutes at most? All the other characters were mind-numbing in how boring and thickheaded they were. Even the biggest idiots from 80s slasher films had more personality than the rest of this cast of characters.
