News

Van Smith, who worked on all of John Waters’ films for more than 30 years, is headed to the Costume Designers Guild’s Edith Piaf Hall of Fame. Smith will be inducted posthumously by his longtime director at the CDG Awards ceremony on February 6 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.

Considered one of the “Dreamlanders,” Waters’ ensemble of regular cast and crew members, Smith first worked with the quirky filmmaker on Pink Flamingos (1972), including the famous and often copied look of the film’s star Divine. Their legacy includes the extreme outfits of the flamboyant criminals and hairdressers in Female Trouble (1974) and the grotesque Mortvillians in Desperate Living (1977) Smith to Polyester (1982) and Hairspray (1988) to more mainstream films such as Cry-Baby (1990) and Serial Mom (1994).

Pink Flamingos and Hairspray were inducted into the National Film Registry in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Related: 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Banel & Adama (Ramata-Toulaye Sy)

A directorial debut programmed into the main Cannes competition is typically viewed with suspicion, if not overlooked altogether. Very rare is that lightning-in-a-bottle moment like the arrival of Son of Saul some years back. Typically, the only conversation these debuts generate is the critical debate as to why they’ve been elevated to the top of the pile when there are far more striking debuts buried deeper within the festival. This often means that accomplished films are overlooked and underappreciated by those on the ground, who may be subconsciously comparing a striking feature to the work of more established names it’s competing against for the Palme d’Or, approaching each debut with a “show me” attitude it...

“My films were never mainstream, but they always had an audience.”

From Pink Flamingos and Hairspray to Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, and beyond, John Waters has been shocking viewers with his signature brand of satirical camp that toes the line between arthouse and exploitation for more than half a century.

On November 21, Waters was presented with the 2024 Coolidge Award from Brookline, Massachusetts’ historic Coolidge Corner Theatre, an honor previously bestowed upon the likes of Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore, and Werner Herzog.

Launched in 2004, the Coolidge Award recognizes a film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema; an acknowledgment certainly befitting of Waters. The award’s 20th anniversary also marks the first presentation in the Coolidge’s recently expanded space, which opened last spring.

Following a tribute reel highlighting Waters’ work, Emmy award-winning GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen took the stage to lead a 45-minute...

Legendary filmmaker John Waters will be honored with The Coolidge Award at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Ma this Thursday, November 21.

Waters will discuss his life and career with Emmy award-winning GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen. The conversation will include a tribute clip reel and will be followed by the award presentation.

Earlier in the day, the Pope of Trash will introduce and participate in a Q&a following a 35mm screening of Cecil B. Demented, his 2000 black comedy starring Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff.

Launched in 2004, The Coolidge Award recognizes a film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema. Past recipients include Meryl Streep, Jonathan Demme, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore, and Werner Herzog, among others.

The Coolidge’s John Waters celebration continues with screenings of 1974’s Female Trouble on November 22, 1977’s Desperate Living on November 29, 2004’s A Dirty Shame on December 2, and 1998’s...

Now that they’ve set the year’s best film for a December 10 debut, the Criterion Channel have unveiled the rest of next month’s selection. John Waters’ films are inseparable from John Waters’ presence, making fitting Criterion’s decision to pair an eight-film retrospective (Multiple Maniacs to Cecil B. Demented) with his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” wherein the director extols virtues of Bergman, Chabrol, Barbara Loden, and Samuel Fuller. His own Polyester will have a Criterion Edition alongside the Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back, an iconic film in its own right and, I think, fitting companion to The Unknown with Lon Chaney, also streaming on Criterion. No Country for Old Men and Election receive likewise treatment; the latter appears in “MTV Productions,” a series featuring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Original Kings of Comedy, and (coming close to Freddy Got Fingered for least-expected 2024 addition) Jackass: the Movie.

The Chucky Season 3 finale introduces Wendell Wilkins, the creator of Good Guy dolls, with an unexpected twist involving the Terror Trio. John Waters, known for cult films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray, was an inspired casting choice for the campy character of Wilkins. Waters' history in campy and queer art aligns perfectly with the tone of Chucky and adds depth to the show's already great season finale.

Syfy and USA Network's Chucky has been a true gift for fans of the Child's Play franchise. From complex characters to hilarious moments to bonkers (in a fun way!) plot lines to some of the franchise's most brutal and creative kills, every episode has been full of the unexpected. However, the Season 3 finale ramped up the unexpected treats by finally introducing an integral character: Wendell Wilkins, the creator of the Good Guy dolls.

It wasn't just the introduction of the character that was special.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

The latest installment of my secret-screening series Amnesiascope is tonight. Details here and tickets here. If you attend I’ll tell you a personal secret as thanks.

Film Forum

As Le Samouraï and the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques continue playing in new 4K restorations, an Alain Delon retrospective begins; His Girl Friday screens this Sunday.

Roxy Cinema

Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, and Julie Klausner present a print of I Love You to Death; the James Dean-led Giant shows on 35mm this Saturday; a 16mm puppet program plays this Sunday.

Bam

“Queering the Canon” brings My Own Private Idaho, Set It Off, and Summer Vacation 1999 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively.

Paris Theater

A 1984 retrospective includes Freddie Kruger, the Muppets, Tom Hanks, and Eddie Murphy; King Kong plays on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

“Essential Cinema...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Anthology Film Archives

“Essential Cinema” brings films by Mekas’ Walden and Journey to Lithuania, Man Ray, Duchamp, René Clair and more; a Quebec cinema retrospective is underway.

Museum of the Moving Image

Hal Hartley’s masterpiece Henry Fool plays on 35mm this Sunday; a Jim Henson program shows on Saturday and Sunday; a Warner Bros. cartoon collection screens Friday and Sunday.

Metrograph

A complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong has begun.

Film Forum

Le Samouraï and the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques continue playing in new 4K restorations; It Came from Outer Space plays in 3D this Sunday.

Paris Theater

A dual retrospective of Steven Zaillian and Patricia Highsmith brings films by Hitchcock, Fincher, Scorsese, Haynes, Wenders, and more.

IFC Center

The End of Evangelion continues its run, while Paprika, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Repo! The Genetic Opera show late.

The...

Tom Holland's 1988 film "Child's Play" was about a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) who was fatally wounded by a cop (Chris Sarandon) during a shootout in a toy warehouse. As he lay dying, Charles, a.k.a. Chucky, used voodoo magic to shunt his consciousness into a nearby Good Guy doll, a talking plastic child about a foot tall. In the body of the doll, Chucky continues his reign of terror. "Child's Play" was clearly a spoof of the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon a few years previous, positing that the year's difficult-to-obtain ultra-hot Christmas toy could possibly contain the soul of a murderer. 

To date, there have been six sequels to "Child's Play," a remake, and a spinoff series called "Chucky," which concluded part one of its third season in October of 2023. The series became increasingly wild as it went on, tilting heavily into camp and comedy.

John Waters was delighted that he’s “closer to the gutter than ever” as his name was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday.

In his acceptance speech, Waters said that the Walk of Fame was the first landmark he saw when he got to Los Angeles.

“After driving across the country with David Locke, I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine, darted across the street and got a jaywalking ticket,” he recalled. “The first one — and I never looked back.”

Waters’ star is located outside of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Blvd. and N. Cherokee Ave. Waters said bookstore, which specializes in literature about film and showbiz history, is his favorite spot on the famous street.

The Walk of Fame event, which was sponsored by Outfest, came alongside the newly opened Academy Museum exhibit “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” which looks back...

When John Waters touched down in Hollywood decades ago, he immediately had a run-in with authorities. “I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine and darted across the street and got a jaywalking ticket, the first one, and I never looked back,” recalled the filmmaker while standing at the podium Monday to receive a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Waters, surrounded by throngs of fans and well-wishers, found himself not far from that famous intersection, but on the other side of a Hollywood career that has produced such films as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented and others. And he couldn’t be happier with the gritty Hollywood setting. “God, here I am, closer to the gutter than ever,” quipped the 77-year-old, who has long been referred to as a maestro of “trash” films or the “king of filth.

John Waters is no longer a cult filmmaker. The filmmaker, author, artist, actor, and spoken-word performer has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1990 (David Lynch was his sponsor). He’s screened “Hairspray” in the museum’s theater (with a Q&a moderated by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins). The Academy Film Archive preserved his PSA, “John Waters Doesn’t Want You to Smoke.” He’s even getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As Waters likes to note, he’s so respectable he could puke.

At this point, everyone loves John Waters. John Waters should be hosting the Oscars, an idea so commonly held that if you ask the upbeat and unerringly polite Academy CEO Bill Kramer the odds of making that happen, you can hear him doing his best not to roll his eyes. “If I had a dime for every time that question’s been asked,...

John Waters looks positive giddy as he perches on the edge of his chair at the Provincetown Film Festival, chuckling as he recalls the bad reviews Variety gave him back in the day.

I recall one from the 1974 write-up for “Female Trouble” — “‘Camp’ is too elegant a word to describe it all” — and he rolls his eyes at the word “camp.” “No one says that word anymore,” he laughs. “To me, ‘camp’ is like two older gay gentlemen talking about Tiffany lampshades in an antique shop. We were never that. We used ‘trash’ or ‘filth,’ which was more punk, to describe our style.”

Trade reviews offered a strange sort of validation for the budding “smut-eur,” who would take the put-downs and twist them to his advantage back in the early ’70s, turning bad blurbs into good publicity for his gonzo stunts. When Fine Line rereleased Waters’ most notorious film, 1972’s “Pink Flamingos,...

John Waters is a different kind of cinematic icon, a misfit auteur whose putrefying punk aesthetic has shocked audiences for more than half a century. Waters has somehow bridged the extreme bottom of low culture (his first short was titled Hag in a Black Leather Jacket) with the critically lauded highs (several of his films are in The Criterion Collection). Ever since his early features, the filmmaker has pushed the boundaries of acceptability and discovered true artistry on the margins.

In yet another instance of his anomalistic position among important directors, Waters is extremely in touch with his audience, and goes out of his way to be with people and communicate with film fans. He's an eloquent yet grounded public speaker, loquaciously witty and immensely clever, and he's bringing the whole Waters package to his fans once again with a suitably quirky upcoming event — The John Waters Filthy Film Festival.

The magic of John Waters' 1972 cult classic "Pink Flamingos" is that even after decades, it still possesses the power to disgust and repel audiences. Bearing an Nc-17 rating — it deserves nothing less — "Pink Flamingos" features copious nudity, cannibalism, assault, vomiting, unsimulated sex, torture, real animal death, and real coprophagy. The characters constantly scream about how much they hate the world, and how wallowing in filth is the only thing that brings them true happiness. Indeed, breaking rules, destroying property, shoplifting, public sexual exposure, and eating poop are acts of blissful, pointedly perverted defiance against a world that demands normality. "Pink Flamingos" is a big queer, naked, punk rock middle finger to the pearl-clutching bourgeoisie.

Waters' movies from the 1970s — "Mondo Trasho," "Multiple Maniacs," "Pink Flamingos," "Female Trouble," and "Desperate Living" — are all essentially supervillain movies. Waters once said in an interview with yours truly (an interview that is sadly now...

John Waters mixed do-it-yourself moviemaking with don’t-try-this-at-home mayhem to produce the ultimate and most fiercely independent film. Made for $12,000, Pink Flamingos premiered at the Baltimore Film Festival 50 years ago. The cult masterwork replaced Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo as the midnight movie in residence at Elgin Theater in Manhattan and set high and low standards for no-budget motion picture filmmaking.

While the extremely low-budget Plan 9 from Outer Space is renowned as the worst film ever made, Pink Flamingos has a street rep as the raunchiest. Ed Wood’s sci-fi horror mashup cost $60,000 to make, which by 1956 standards is still five times the budget Waters spent. And this from an NYU film school reject who stole textbooks and sold them back to the college bookstore, and went to sleazy exploitation movies more often than going to class.

“I went to New York University, very briefly,” Waters is quoted on Dreamlandnews.

Tw: This article contains references to fictional depictions of sexual assault and animal cruelty that some readers may find disturbing.

Social commentary in motion pictures implies high art. Pink Flamingos, which premiered on a single screen in a rented theater in Baltimore 50 years ago, is an antisocial commentary. It goes in the other direction. Written, directed, produced, shot, edited, and narrated by counterculture icon John Waters, the film features singing assholes, chicken-crushing sexcapades, and dog-doo finger foods. It changed movies forever.

Pink Flamingos was the first of Waters’ “Trash Trilogy,” which would go on to include Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977). It led beat poet legend William S. Burroughs to declare Waters the “Pope of Trash,” and was even trashier than Andy Warhol’s Trash. Written and directed by Paul Morrissey, about a heroin addict looking to score and screw, that 1970 film made an impact on Waters, and Andy Warhol paid it forward,...

Abel Ferrara on his selections for Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village: “Desperate Living by John Waters, one of my favorite directors. Then we got a couple of films by the guys that I worked with. My editor and my Dp Sean Williams, Stephen Gurewitz, Michael Bilandic. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village starts on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:30pm with a free screening of The Projectionist on Nicolas Nicolaou, followed by a Q&a with Abel. Tommaso; Pasolini; Siberia (Dafoe); Ms. 45; 4:44 Last Day On Earth, and Driller Killer will have $5 screenings.

John Waters’ Desperate Living; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist; Stephen Gurewitz’s Honky Kong; Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show are among the films selected by Ferrara to be screening during his celebration of the reopening...

Team Experience has been celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday.

By Ben Miller

I like to think John Waters had enough of what people have been expecting from him. Following a slightly more conventionally commercial run of films with Hairspray onward, Waters returned to his sex-addled farcical roots with 2004’s A Dirty Shame. I love the idea of a fan of Cry-Baby showing up to this film expecting something along the same lines, only to be presented with something much closer to Desperate Living.

A Dirty Shame follows the residents of Hartford Road as either "neuters", a group of puritanical sex haters, or "perverts", a group of sex addicts with unique fetishes brought on by accidental concussions...

Team Experience is celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday this week

by Camila Henriques

The final chapter of John Waters's so called "Trash Trilogy" has everything you would expect from the filmmaker. Except for one pivotal thing: it doesn't have Divine, the iconic star that made the two previous excerpts from the trilogy - "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble" - true camp classics. But even if her magnetic screen presence is always a sight in Waters's filmography, you needn't worry about Desperate Living, as the 1977 film represents the raunchy brand of comedy camp that makes the director one of our most fascinating auteurs...

Colombian director Cirro Guerra (Birds Of Passage) has been appointed head of jury for Critics’ Week, which runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival and is dedicated to first and second films. The jury is rounded out by actress Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name), Danish producer Marianne Slot (The House That Jack Built), Congolese critic Djia Mambu and Italian director Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra). Guerra’s critically acclaimed 2015 black-and-white pic The Embrace of the Serpent won the top prize at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar in 2016. His most recent film Birds Of Passage also world premiered at Directors’ Fortnight. Critics’ Week, headed by Charles Tesson, has previously helped launch the careers of Jacques Audiard, Alejandro González Iñarritu, Ken Loach, François Ozon, Wong Kar-waï and Jeff Nichols.

John Waters is to receive the Locarno Film Festival‘s highest honorary distinction, the Pardo d’Onore Manor,...

Previous recipients include Ken Loach, Werner Herzog and Agnès Varda.

Us filmmaker John Waters will receive the honorary Pardo d’onore Manor lifetime achievement award at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival this year (August 7-17).

Waters will accept the award in a special ceremony in Locarno’s Piazza Grande on August 16.

The Baltimore native has been a director for more than fifty years, making his first short film Hag In A Black Leather Jacket in 1964 and his first feature Mondo Trasho in 1969. He is renowned for embracing an irreverent style in films such as Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977).

Waters’ 2000 feature Cecil B.

There’s an odd sense of deja vu to Bruce Labruce’s latest provocation, recalling not just some of his own prior joints (notably 2004’s “The Raspberry Reich”) but tongue-in-cheek fantasies of much earlier films featuring the overthrow of patriarchy — the nearly half-century-old likes of John Waters’ “Desperate Living” and the Warhol-Morrissey “Women in Revolt,” in particular. The absurdist tale of “The Misandrists,” about a lesbian separatist army cell threatened by the arrival of a lone male strains “The Beguiled” through a funnel of camp comedy, variably explicit sex and Godardian radical-politic sloganeering.

Like every Labruce film before it, this German-produced, English-language enterprise doesn’t boast a plot so much as a concept, one whose steam runs out well before the (laboriously prolonged) end titles. Still, that happens later than usual this time, and “The Misandrists” further benefits from technical and design contributions more polished than are its auteur’s wont.

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. John Waters' Serial Mom (1994) is showing from March 11 - April 10, 2018 in many countries around the world.When kidnapping victim and unwilling media sensation Patty Hearst first met director John Waters, it was at the Cannes Film Festival where he reportedly walked up to her, introduced himself, and casually mentioned “I went to your trial!” Years later, Hearst recalled her astonishment, both at Waters’ nonchalance and the idea that anybody would willingly attend another person’s trial, let alone her own. But in the era before Judge Judy, before the 24-hour news cycle, and before social media, there was in fact a thriving counterculture of serial killer groupies who traveled the countryside attending the trials of the most despicable and loathsome murderers in American history. They would camp out in front of courthouses for seats in the gallery like...

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! While you’re off enjoying some much-needed downtime with friends and family, we’ve gone ahead and put together a recap of this week’s horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases that are coming our way on May 30th.

For those of you cult film aficionados out there, get those wallets ready, because there’s a bunch of great titles arriving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, including Blackenstein, Evil Ed, The Blood of Fu Manchu / The Castle of Fu Manchu double feature, The Hearse, The Undertaker, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Hide and Go Shriek.

As far as new genre films go, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (one of my personal favorites of 2017) and Rupture are making their way to Blu-ray and DVD, with the Shock-o-Rama box set also coming out on DVD.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)

Beautiful and haunted Joan (Emma Roberts) makes...

"It's even weirder now than it ever was," John Waters says, reflecting on his newly restored, resplendently profane Multiple Maniacs. "When I was watching it again recently, I was thinking, 'No wonder my parents were uptight.' But I'm proud of it."

The Pope of Trash's 1970 feature stars his greatest muse, the raunchy drag queen Divine, as the ringleader of a homicidal sideshow called the Cavalcade of Perversion that sets up camp in — of course — Baltimore. Vulgarity ensues. The poster for the theatrical re-release, restored from film the director had kept in his closet,...

John Waters has made 16 films over the course of his nearly 50-year career, one of which has remained elusive for years: 1970’s “Multiple Maniacs.” Janus Films recently restored the cult icon’s second feature, and Waters spoke to us about the film’s re-release, the filmmakers of today he most admires and why he hasn’t directed in more than 10 years.

There’s a funny coincidence because our TV team is at the TCAs. NBC is promoting “Hairspray Live” as part of their upfronts. It’s like Must See TV for the Whole Family. Meanwhile, your “Multiple Maniacs” restoration is going to promote rosary jobs for a whole new generation. Is this your idea of a balanced life?

It is, because I felt the same thing. I did in June a thing with the Baltimore Symphony, where they do “Hairspray,” and I’m sort of like Victor Borge and I...

Howdy folks it's Jason from Mnpp here wishing everybody a candy-colored start to a candy-colored week - that's right, today marks the first day of International Clown Week, held every year right at the start of August, aka the best time to make that make-up run right off your face and give you the time honored "Creepy Clown Effect." But while (in a weird but total coincidence) I may have just started re-reading Stephen King's It this week I'm not going to make you think about Scary Clowns today - oh I know for some of you there is no other kind, but I'm going to try to temper that with Auterism because...

... hey remember that scene in Robert Altman's 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts where Claire (Anne Archer), a professional clown, and her husband Stuart (Fred Ward) get blasted at dinner with new friends Marion (Julianne Moore) and Ralph (Matthew Modine...

Jason from Mnpp here, saying howdy from a steamy-as-Hell Monday in New York. The heat reminds me that the Film Experience is celebrating 1977 this month -- 1977 in NYC was the "Summer of Sam," with heatwaves and black-outs and serial killing, oh my. We don't have it that bad, thank goodness. Anyway I just recently celebrated the Year of '77 on my own site with a Top 5 but there was one movie I hated leaving off, so let's take advantage of the opportunity with this week's "Beauty vs Beast."

John Waters' Desperate Living was released on May 27th 1977 - sandwiched as it is between Female Trouble (his masterpiece, says me) and Hairspray (his big mainstream hit) Desperate Living often gets overlooked, but it's High Trash Heaven thanks to its two leading ladies, John's manic & marvelous muses of manure...

Previously Sharon Stone achieved near dominace (and she wouldn't want it any...

My Sinful Life (1983)

“School Girls By Day… Super Ladies Of The Night”

Ah, incest! One of the ultimate taboos. The world of porn has dealt with the subject a lot and continues to do so. Will Carlos Tobalina’s 1983 attempt stand up to the likes of Kirdy Stevon’s Taboo series? Judging by my experience with the work of Tobalina up to this point, I’m just going to say no…

Danielle (Lust Weekend) stars as Jill, a young girl who has recently moved in with her aunt after securing a place in college. Without real prompt or emotion, she recounts some of the truly horrific (yet, erotic) sexual acts put upon on her by the greasy mits of her adoptive parents Christine (Rita Ricardo, Girlfriends) and her husband Sebastian (Don Fernando, Oriental Madam). Even her brother Ron (Tom Byron, Tomboy) enjoyed some good old fashioned family fun! After rather...

Oh Them Silly Unicorns: Meyerhoff’s Coming of Age Debut Prizes Style Over Substance

Director Leah Meyerhoff most effectively conveys the nature of her debut film, I Believe In Unicorns, in its opening credits, which features a host of (mostly feminine) childhood fantasies revolving around celebratory effects, such as sparklies, cakes, and (yes) unicorns, all eventually melting down into smeared goo. Memories and dreams evaporate into the mess of reality, it seems to say, and we’re thrust into the late adolescence of a protagonist who, on the cusp of adulthood, seems to be getting her first taste of that. Skirting between vaguely morbid instances and sometimes carefree tempos, Meyerhoff’s narrative seems to lose focus, petering out into a gasp of profundity that would have felt much stronger had it been preceded by more remarkable characterization.

A sheltered, lonely young woman, Davina (Natalia Dyer) is forced to take care of her sickly mother.

Hey, man, everyone's gotta get laid sooner or later. Preferably sooner... From the makers of the stellar Wnuf Halloween Special comes Call Girl of Cthulhu and we have your first look right here.

The film boasts performances from David Phillip Carollo, Melissa O’Brien, Nicolette Le Faye, and George Stover (John Waters’s Desperate Living), with special effects by Jason M. Koch and Kaleigh Brown of Aftermath FX Studio (Return To Nuke ‘Em High).

Call Girl of Cthulhu is the sixth film from Baltimore-based Midnight Crew Studios.

The film will be released through Camp Motion Pictures later this year.

For more info visit "like" Call Girl of Cthulhu on Facebook, and follow Call Girl of Cthulhu on Twitter.

Synopsis

When a virginal artist falls in love with a call girl, she turns out to be the chosen bride of the alien god Cthulhu. To save her, he must stop a...

Digital Release Date: April 1, 2014; DVD Release Date: April 8, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95

Studio: Wolfe Video

Divine takes aim in John Waters' 1972 cult favorite Pink Flamingos.

Documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon) turns his camera on the plus-sized “cinematic terrorist” turned international icon of bad taste in the 2013 docu I Am Divine.

Harris Glenn Milstead, a.k.a. Divine, comes to life in this complex documentary that traces his humble beginnings as an overweight, teased Baltimore youth to internationally-recognized drag superstar and cult movie icon. The film includes interviews with many key figures from Divine’s life, including legendary filmmaker John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray), co-stars Ricki Lake (Hairspray), Tab Hunter (Polyester, Lust in the Dust) and Mink Stole (Female Trouble, Desperate Living), and his mother.

I Am Divine received numerous awards on the film festival circuit over the past year, including the...

Growing up in a small town in California in the 1980′s and into the 90′s with nothing to do, I existed on a steady diet of TV and books. Street Trash is one of those movies that would show up occasionally and piqued my interest because it seemed like something of the Troma variety. In fact, one could look at it as the best film that studio never made. I do recall the film looking rather grungy and beat up, so seeing it uncut and presented so beautifully was a bit of a shock. Who knew this little movie could look this fantastic? Let’s take a trip to the junk yard, shall we?

The biggest bum fest this side of John Waters’ Desperate Living, Street Trash tells the happy tale of a liquor store owner just trying to make a living and a group of local homeless people trying...

Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon star in the upcoming dramatic thriller Mud from Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols. Already a favorite on the festival circuit, this edgy adventure follows two teenage boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), who discover a fugitive from the law named Mud (McConaughey) hiding out on a small island in the Mississippi. Mud mesmerizes the youngsters with his fantastic yarn about the man he killed in Texas, and the bounty hunters that are now hot on his trail. The two boys soon learn that Mud plans to meet with his former lover, Juniper (Witherspoon), and escape into the sunset. While skeptical, Ellis and Neckbone decide to help the killer meet up with Juniper, only to find themselves trapped in a dangerous and deadly struggle for survival. In the end, its love that saves the day.

In theaters April 26, we've culled together 11 awesome movies that...

Today we are talking to the proud Pope Of Trash himself - the iconic writerdirector of such seminal cinematic entries as cult classics Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Hairspray, Cry Baby, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented, A Dirty Shame and many more - the one and only John Waters. Packing a characteristically caustic conversation into a relatively brief time slot was no trouble for Waters, for he and I cover a wide range of topics, from his favorite 2012 films to his all-time favorite movie musicals and much more. Most importantly, Waters discusses his process in adapting the hit Tony Award-winning stage property Hairspray into concert form and what we can expect from his newly-penned narration and role as narrator in the live Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presentation of Hairspray In Concert on January 24. Additionally, Waters expounds on his experiences creating the original Hairspray film and how it compares to both its musical sister,...

The 11th annual Lausanne Underground Film Festival is packed to the gills with outrageous cinema from all over the world, featuring several filmmaker retrospectives and movies screening in competition at several locations on Oct. 17-21.

The big guest of honor this year is the legendary John Waters, who will be attending the fest with several of his own classics, such as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living, as well as showing some of his favorite B-movie inspirations, such as William Girdler’s blaxploitation demonic possession flick Abby, Armando Bo’s Argentinian sexploitation Fuego, Robinson Devor’s controversial bestiality doc Zoo and more. Plus, Waters will perform his acclaimed “This Filthy World” one-man show.

Other Luff special guests include Christoph Schlingensief, the confrontational German filmmaker of 100 Years of Adolf Hitler, The German Chainsaw Massacre, The 120 Days of Bottrop and more; Richard Stanley, the South African genre filmmaker of the cult...

To celebrate their 13th anniversary this year, the Melbourne Underground Film Festival is going green!

No, they’re not out to save the kookaburra or anything. Instead, they’re hosting a special tribute to the New Irish Low Budget Cinema, featuring two films by acclaimed filmmaker Ivan Kavanagh, plus work by Colin Downey, Gary Kenneally and Gerard Lough.

Muff will host a repeat screening of Kavanagh’s celebrated thriller Tin Can Man — it previously screened at Muff in 2008 — as well as his latest film, The Fading Light. The three other Irish films screening all fall into the horror/thriller genres, from Downey’s The Looking Glass to Kenneally’s Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman and Lough’s trilogy-ending The Shaken 3. And, in addition, the entire fest kicks off with the opening night Irish thriller Charlie Casanova by Terry McMahon.

But don’t think Muff is all Irish all the time this year,...

Welcome to another installment of It Came From 1980X where I tackle the 80′s like a running clothes line fresh off the turnbuckle. Tonight we have a double feature for you straight from Continental Video. Don’t know Contintental Video? I’m not surprised, but I assure you by the end of this whole thing you most certainly will know them, fear them and maybe enjoy them a bit better. They’ve put out so much of what you love, but I don’t think they were marketed nearly as well as Midnight, Wizard, Canon or Media. For Christ’s sake somebody get me a T-shirt of this beautiful company. The double feature in question comes courtesy of Vhsps as is often the case. The Slayer and Scalps were released as a part of a special promotion as is stated on the cover of the VHS (or in this case handsome DVD rip).

2 Films.

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"Aubrie, no! I said blow out the candles!""

Thanks to John for this week's winning caption! And a special shoutout to Ferkel for his "How the hell are we supposed to put a caption to that picture and keep it PG-13?!" lament.

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). James McAvoy (above) is 33, George Takei is 75, Jessica Lange is 63, Andy Serkis is 48, Shemar Moore is 42, Joey Lawrence is 36, Patti Lupone is 63, John Cameron Mitchell is 49, Eric Mabius is 41, Robbie Amell is 24, Charlotte Rae is 86, Jack Nicholson is 75, and Luther Vandross would have been 61. What are your fave Luther songs? Here are mine: 5. "Dance With My Father." 4. "Any Love," 3. "Til My Baby Comes Home,...

This is from a few months ago, but is highly relevant: Laura Major of Colorlab wrote an article for Screen Slate about the restoration of the films of Jack Smith, work that began way back in 2010. I also want to note that Laura helped me identify the clips of Smith’s work found in this video put up by the Microscope Gallery. So, thank you Laura — and Colorlab!It’s been known for awhile that film distributor Canyon Cinema has been in critical condition, but their plight recently made the New York Times in a thorough article, which discusses their need to become a non-profit, an issue that has plagued the group since they founded in the 1960s.Donna k. launches her Women in Culture interview series with an informative chat with Nancy Gerstman, co-founder of the Zeitgeist Films distribution company.Robert Maier posted up two absolutely amazing photographs this week.

Up until "Hairspray," John Waters’ actors never signed releases or contracts, and no commercial entity permitted in writing its products or names to be used. I just recently read a piece by James Egan, author of "John Waters: Interviews," who first met John during "Female Trouble" after John had called his company to purchase a liability insurance policy. It was a shock to me. I had no idea John had insurance, and even though I was production manager for the next film, "Desperate Living," John never told me he had liability insurance...

With a title like Low Budget Hell: Making Movies With John Waters, this memoir by Robert Maier is going to appeal instantly to fans of the iconic cult movie director. However, Maier’s book also goes way beyond just working with Waters and is an absolute must read for anybody interested in the making of independent movies, from the makers themselves to the people who just love watching them.

Clearly, though, the main selling point is Maier’s unabashed recollections of making films with Waters, all the way from Female Trouble to Cry-Baby. For a long time, the two young filmmakers were very close friends. So, Maier is able to paint a portrait of Waters that fans of his always knew existed, but that he would never divulge himself.

Waters has always been extremely crafty in creating his public persona of the quirky, outsider oddball. However, one only has to...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 21, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $34.95

Studio: Kino Lorber

The colorful "No Wave" cinema movement is explored in Blank City.

The 2010 documentary Blank City chronicles the “No Wave” and “Cinema of Transgression” film movements that emerged in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a time of cheap rent, excessive drug use and unbridled ambition.

In the movie, first-time director Celine Danhier examines the rise of the D.I.Y. independent filmmaking trend and its roots in the punk music, avant-garde art and cult cinema of the era.

In addition to a slew of archival footage, the film features new and vintage interviews with such filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise), Nick Zedd (Geek Maggot Bingo), Lizzie Borden (Born in Flames), Amos Poe (Alphabet City) and John Waters (Desperate Living), performance artists Ann Magnusum and Lydia Lunch, actor Steve Buscemi (TV’s Boardwalk Empire...

After Divine, Edith Massey is the most beloved actor in John Waters‘ early Dreamland Studios ensemble. Whether she was playing the Egg Lady in Pink Flamingos, Aunt Ida in Female Trouble, Queen Carlotta in Desperate Living or Cuddles in Polyester, Massey always put in an unforgettable performance. Above, Robert Maier, who worked on most of those films and became good friends with Edie, shares his remembrances with this unique lady hanging out at her thrift store or making his 1972 documentary, Love Letter to Edie, which is available on eBay.

Recently, Maier has been cashing in on his experiences working on Waters’ trashy movies and we say: Thank God! As of this writing, Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film is only about a quarter through Maier’s memoir Low Budget Hell: Making Underground Movies With John Waters, but we can unequivocally say that this book is an absolute must read.

If you have a deep rooted love for b-movies and will be in or near Franklin, Indiana this September, there’s a film festival taking place that is just for you. With everything from b-movie classics to world premieres and several top names from the world of B-filmdom in attendance, think of the B Movie Celebration as the Cannes Film Festival for aficionados of fine schlock.

The annual center of all b-Movie fandom celebration is back again September 23rd-25th in Franklin, Indiana. This year, besides a Huge list of classic films being screened, there are also a few world premieres and screenings of some very eagerly anticipated films. There's the world premieres of Fred Olen Ray's "Dino Wolf" [aka "Dire-Wolf"], David A. Prior's "Night Claws", Jim Wynorski's "Camel Spiders", and screenings of other hotly anticipated titles such as "The Millennium Bug", "El Monstro Del Mar", "Rare Exports:...

The antics were X-rated – on screen and in the audience. Tony Paley remembers the sleazy heyday of London's Scala cinema

The Scala cinema is dead: long live the Scala. The last ticket stub at London's legendary picture house was torn 18 years ago, but like the zombies that often haunted its screen, its influence on movie culture refuses to die.

A seven-week celebration of the cinema, reliving its famous all-nighters and trash/horror/arthouse double and triple bills, begins later this month. The Scala Forever season will feature 111 films screened at 26 London venues, some of them selected and introduced by the film industry people who frequented what became known as the Sodom Odeon in the 80s and early 90s. (Highlights include Tilda Swinton introducing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which she first saw at the Scala.)

As well as celebrating the King's Cross venue, organisers hope to draw attention to some of the cinemas,...

Mink Stole, the memorable star of so many John Waters films (Desperate Living, Female Trouble, etc.) is raising funds via Kickstarter to release her first CD, Do Re Mink.

Mink says the album is “a kind of memoir of my life in songs written by other people.” The musicians backing her on the CD is the Baltimore incarnation of her Wonderful Band and includes Scott Wallace Brown, Walker Teret and underground filmmaker/curator/journalist Skizz Cyzyk.

Songs on the album will include “No Nose Nanuck,” “God, If Any,” “Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun” and — in homage to one of her best acting roles– “Female Trouble.”

The Kickstarter funds will go towards recording the album, paying the musicians and the pressings of the CD.

(On a personal note: Bad Lit absolutely loves that album name!)

Read More:Movie Trailer: I Am DivinePoll: What Is Divine’s Best Role?Book Tour:...

Here's last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"Cinemax presents: Smile Time After Dark."

Thanks to John for this week's winning caption.

This weekend is Barbra Streisand's 69th birthday. You know what that means ... time to name your top 5 Barbra songs! I'll start things off: 5. "Somewhere," 4. "The Way He Makes Me Feel," 3. "Woman in Love," 2. "No More Tears (Enough is Enough," and my all-time favorite Barbra song, which is also one of my all-time favorite songs, period - "Prisoner (Theme from The Eyes of Laura Mars)".

Oprah has taken to video to explain why she can't save All My Children and One Life To Live. Basically, soaps are dead, and she needs the Own timelsots for uplifting crap. Towleroad has the viral video of marines in Afghanistan dancing and lip-synching to Britney's "Hold it Against Me.

The post-Disney years have not been kind to Lilo & Stitch

Hey, all, Welcome to this week's Shameless recap. Ready, set, go!

Frank wakes up at what looks like the aftermath of a Hawaiian-themed frat party, but inexplicably does not have an apple in his mouth.

He gets word that he has some settlement money coming his way from one of the many scams he has cooking, and heads down to his lawyer's office, which also doubles as a daycare for kids ... and dogs (which is absolutely brilliant. I can see it now - rows of dishes filled with Mighty Dog and strained peas, and the floor littered with chew toys and Zweiback.)

The lawyer is played by Alex Borstein, who's best known for Family Guy and Mad TV, but I'll always remember her as the victim of deadly face cream in the classic Catwoman. She also wrote this, and a few other episodes of Shameless.