The idea of the cult movie and the birth of the cult phenomenon is a tricky concept that can’t be answered in one shot. While Danny Wolf approaches film fans with a three part feature length look at some of the best and most controversial cult films of all time, there isn’t a lot of examination of the cult film. Despite a round table of people like host Joe Dante, and guests John Waters, Kevin Pollak, and Illeana Douglas, “Time Warp” is a lot more a celebration of cult and indie films. If you want something more cerebral that discusses the whole idea and anomaly of cult films then you may probably want to look elsewhere.
While the “Time Warp” series so far is a break neck quick and bright celebration of cult cinema from all walks of life, the content takes a peculiar turn content wise. Wolf seems instead to examine the more faux outrage cult films released in the last fifteen years, and doesn’t really seem to want to focus on better movies like, say, “RoboCop,” or “Toxic Avenger,” or “Salo,” Wolf goes for easier more predictable fare. In the pantheon of wonderful cult cinema, I just don’t think of “Devil’s Rejects” or “Human Centipede,” as I think of the former as just a fun pseudo-cult film, while the latter is just nonsense. But I assume that’s the whole point, exploring what we think of cult cinema, and what deserves to be celebrated at the end of the day.
Wolf is able to grab archival interviews with the late George Romero, while also sitting down with folks like Bruce Campbell (he tells a great story about initially using the iconic chainsaw, and how Stephen King helped boost the film’s reputation), Sid Haig, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Woronov, and Roger Corman, respectively. All things considered, Volume 2 does take some fun looks at gems like “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Evil Dead,” “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” “Death Race 2000” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Liquid Sky” and many more fantastic films. Danny Wolf’s “Time Warp” continues to be a documentary series that, while not offering anything particularly groundbreaking concerning the idea of cult cinema, is still a raucous and fun celebration of the idea and how gold can sometimes emerge from unlikely places.
On Demand and Digital May 19th.