A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitchhiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.
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Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
A rich housewife enlists her maid's help to murder her husband; they go on the lam and end up in Mortville, a homeless community built into a garbage dump.
A pair of whacked-out cartoon-like exterminator/hitmen kill the owner of a burglar-alarm company, and stalk the partner who hired them, his wife, and a nerd framed for the murder, who tells the story in flashback from the electric chair.
Three strippers seeking thrills encounter a young couple in the desert. After dispatching the boyfriend, they take the girl hostage and begin scheming on a crippled old man living with his ... See full summary »
A young man's mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.
Director:
Peter Jackson
Stars:
Timothy Balme,
Diana Peñalver,
Elizabeth Moody
A wealthy, fatherless British clan kidnaps bums and hippies and forces them to participate in an elaborate role-playing game in which they are the perfect family; those who refuse or attempt escape are ritualistically murdered.
Director:
Freddie Francis
Stars:
Michael Bryant,
Ursula Howells,
Pat Heywood
A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living.
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through ... See full summary »
A young man carrying a big basket that contains his deformed Siamese-twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.
Director:
Frank Henenlotter
Stars:
Kevin Van Hentenryck,
Terri Susan Smith,
Beverly Bonner
A crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.
Director:
Roger Corman
Stars:
Antony Carbone,
Betsy Jones-Moreland,
Robert Towne
The travelling sideshow 'Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions' is actually a front for a group of psychotic kidnappers, with Lady Divine herself the most vicious and depraved of all - but... See full summary »
The life and times of Dawn Davenport, showing her progress from loving schoolgirl to crazed mass murderer - all of which stems from her parents' refusal to buy her cha-cha heels for Christmas. She runs away from home, is raped, becomes a single mother, criminal and glamorous model before her inevitable rendezvous with the electric chair... Written by
Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
At the time that the electric chair scene was filmed, the death penalty had been banned in the State of Maryland. The day before John Waters had his "sneak world premiere" at a prison, Maryland reinstated the death penalty. See more »
Goofs
When Dawn returns home from hospital with the Dashers and unwraps the birdcage containing Aunt Ida, Donald instructs her to, 'Cut off the hand that threw the acid!' Dawn then chops off Ida's left hand. Ida, however, threw the acid with her right hand. See more »
Quotes
Taffy Davenport:
Daddy? Daddy? It's me Taffy!
Earl Peterson:
I don't know nobody named Taffy. I'm busy right now.
Taffy Davenport:
Oh, please let me in, Daddy! Open the door!
Earl Peterson:
Ah, fucking shut up! Alright already!
Taffy Davenport:
[jumping into his arms]
Daddy, it's me Taffy, your long, lost little girl!
Earl Peterson:
Hey, get off! I ain't your daddy! I ain't even married!
Taffy Davenport:
Oh, I know that, but you're my daddy alright. My mother told me. My mother is Dawn Davenport.
Earl Peterson:
Yeah, you can stay here awhile. Want a drink?
Taffy Davenport:
NO! You don't even believe me, do you?
Earl Peterson:
Yeah, yeah. I'll be your ...
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
For Charles Watson (the Manson Family member). Waters' prison visits to Watson inspired the "crime is beauty" theme of the film, and Waters used a toy wooden helicopter Watson made for him in the credits. See more »
"Wedding March"
Performed by The 101 Strings Orchestra (as 101 Strings Orchestra)
Courtesy of Madacy Entertainment
under license from Madacy Special Markets See more »
God bless John Waters. He's made some of the best, crudest feel-good movies, and this is one of his crowning achievements. It's amazing how his film, ugly-looking and full of lipstick-smeared freaks, can feel positive and upbeat; while he's mocking everything in sight, he doesn't stand back and protect himself with irony or winks -- he jumps right in there, and that involvement, that energy, is easy to see and feel. It's amazing that he can feature masturbation with needle-nose pliers, beating a child with a chair, a game of "car accident," and Divine literally screwing himself and not have it be off-putting.
The very idea that Waters uses a fat transvestite with a beehive hairdo to illustrate his scorn for school shows he's not so interested in subtlety. And Divine is awesome, as always, his prissy, gravely scream -- a freak you want on your side. This is one of Waters' best satirical attempts -- there are digs at hippies and Hare Krishnas, and two scenes in particular are very prophetic: the gay encouraging, and the killing for art. Waters even mocks his own shameless exhibitionism in the testimony of the Dashers. 9/10
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God bless John Waters. He's made some of the best, crudest feel-good movies, and this is one of his crowning achievements. It's amazing how his film, ugly-looking and full of lipstick-smeared freaks, can feel positive and upbeat; while he's mocking everything in sight, he doesn't stand back and protect himself with irony or winks -- he jumps right in there, and that involvement, that energy, is easy to see and feel. It's amazing that he can feature masturbation with needle-nose pliers, beating a child with a chair, a game of "car accident," and Divine literally screwing himself and not have it be off-putting.
The very idea that Waters uses a fat transvestite with a beehive hairdo to illustrate his scorn for school shows he's not so interested in subtlety. And Divine is awesome, as always, his prissy, gravely scream -- a freak you want on your side. This is one of Waters' best satirical attempts -- there are digs at hippies and Hare Krishnas, and two scenes in particular are very prophetic: the gay encouraging, and the killing for art. Waters even mocks his own shameless exhibitionism in the testimony of the Dashers. 9/10