4) John Dies At The End
Lifted from David Wong’s novel of the same name, John Dies At The End is as deliriously nutty and bizarre as its overt title suggests. The lead character in Don Coscarelli’s movie adaptation is named after the original writer himself. Sitting opposite a reporter in a diner (played by the dependably terrific Paul Giamatti), David dictates tales of supernaturalism and how he and his friend were once recruited to save a planet.
As David recalls the absurd and confused quest, we’re exposed to frame after frame of head-slapping insanity. This includes, and is not limited to, a monster made of frozen meat, a dog called Bark Lee, a drug called Soy Sauce, women bearing gold masks, a shitload of blood and a blood-curdling minion called “shitload.” Not even the reporter played by Giamatti is as ordinary as he first appears to be.
Created on a spectacularly low budget and raking in even less in initial income, John Dies At The End is the very definition of a low-budget cult horror-comedy. It’s guaranteed to give you the same kind of fuzzy, weird headache that sweaty, dirty techno clubs give to each of their guests as they stroll in through the entrance.
Some will understandably despise it; at a loss to explain how anyone could enjoy something so delirious, nonsensical and brash. Others, however, will find much enjoyment in the movie’s raging, foul absurdity, regarding their fuzzy heads as a symptom of an unrivalled, weird, fun experience.
3) The Day Of The Beast
A lesser-known gem of the horror-comedy genre given its Spanish origins, El Dia De La Bestia – or Day of the Beast in English – is a raucous descent into demonic territory that casts an absurd comic shadow. Alex de la Iglesia’s movie portrays a Priest named Father Ángel Berriartúa, a Roman Catholic who has deciphered that the Anti-Christ is due to be born in Madrid on Christmas Day. In order to get close to Satan, he goes about committing as many despicable and foul deeds as he possibly can, ranging from toppling over a random bystander stood aloft on a ladder all the way to bloody murder.
The Priest recruits the help of heavy metal aficionado Jose Maria and TV psychic Professor Cavan to help him track down the Devil before it’s too late, and together the three tear their way through the city in an attempt to stop the birth of the Anti-Christ that will surely take down the world.
It’s a mind-boggling movie that’s actually a sneaky piece of Spanish social satire at its core, with enough digs in the ribs to suggest that the Devil is in fact the city of Madrid itself. But what’s so good about Day of the Beast is how you can enjoy it on a purely aesethic level too – from Father Berriartua tottering his way through a thrashing metal nightclub to the trio falling into a crazy acid trip. It’s incredibly dark from start to finish, but the whole thing is so maniacally absurd that you can’t help but find yourself sniggering as it proceeds to get unabashedly weirder with every passing frame.