... with the deepdiscountdvd sale on and my growing love of many films that have been recommended by luminaries here (I'm thinking specifically of LADY TERMINATOR and THE STABILIZER), I thought I might solicit you fine folks for your most heartfelt, ten flicks that you would show to anybody relatively new to the "genre" ...

First two that leap to my mind if you haven't already experienced them are MYSTICS IN BALI and THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL (If you're edging into EuroCult as well).

But those are just the first two...

Over the past several years, I've done a lot of introducing newbies to cult movies they never even imagined existed. THE STABILIZER never fails to earn gasps and laughter, nor do:

SAMURAI COP
STARCRASH
THE BEACH GIRLS
MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS
FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY
KILL SQUAD
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA
ENTER THE NINJA/REVENGE OF THE NINJA/NINJA III: THE DOMINATION


Those are just a few off the top of my head that absolutely kill "inexperienced" audiences I've shown them too. I realize some of those titles are easier to find than others, but you definitely can't go wrong with any of them.

Seconded! This is a must because it comes on a double feature disc with the Richard Harrison/Bruce Le vehicle CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER. That film is an absolute must (slo-mo topless tennis anyone?).

I would also recommend:

-THE DEVIL'S SWORD (Mondo Macabro)
-NIGHTBEAST (Don Dohler classic)
-HOLLYWOOD COP (available on cheap-o DVD releases)

And I would also recommend RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS, one of the wildest movies that isn't available on DVD yet.

Some faves:

ALUCARDA
REVENGE OF THE CHEERLEADERS
DARKTOWN STRUTTERS
RICA
FORBIDDEN ZONE

A few off the top of my head:

PRIVATE PARTS (1972)
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
GIRLS TOWN (1959)
FASTER PUSSYCAT...KILL, KILL!
THE YOUNG GRADUATES
SWITCHBLADE SISTERS
THE LOST EMPIRE
WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?
THE GLASS CAGE
ANGELS FLIGHT

I second the suggestions of MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS, and especially second the suggestion of DARKTOWN STRUTTERS.

My top 10:

VIXEN
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
SUPERVIXENS
VICE SQUAD
THE CANDY SNATCHERS
MAD FOXES (LOS VIOLADORES)
STREET TRASH
DOUBLE AGENT 73 (well, maybe not a good place to start, but essential nonetheless)
TO BE TWENTY
THE TOY BOX/TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN (the best Something Weird double feature I've ever seen)

I think a great way to introduce the uninitiated would be to play them the 42nd STREET FOREVER disc from Synapse Films, a two hours+ collection of prime exploitation trailers from (mostly) the '70s. I've become hopelessly addicted to these trailer compilations. The previews are usually better than the films they promote. Btw, what's the hold up with GRINDHOUSE UNIVERSE? It's scheduled for release next week but it's already been pushed back more than once.

thanks for all the suggestions - keep them coming! I've actually got FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY/CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER (again on rec from Marty, I think - certainly from Mobius), and I've seen the previews for THE DEVIL'S SWORD on the VIRGINS FROM HELL DVD.

A few others I'm fond of: BOA VS. PYTHON, THE LOVE BUTCHER, FANTASY MISSION FORCE, BURIAL GROUND, R.O.T.O.R., and in the not inept but otherwise jawdropping category, SINGAPORE SLING, SEX AND FURY, and FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE.

(I survived DOUBLE AGENT 73. Barely.)

I can't believe there's actually a movie called SAMURAI COP and I've never heard of it before.

SAMURAI COP is definitely a classic. It has a great Joe Bob Briggs commentary on it. The director also made the film I mentioned before called HOLLYWOOD COP. So if you like one of them...

Here is a tease of SAMURAI COP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX9y0iNuCcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6gk04xzN3U

Oh. My. God.

Turned off the first clip halfway through due to boredom. But that second clip... mesmerizing. I'd probably laugh really hard at it if I saw it with a group of people, but just sitting here at my computer alone, I just gaped. The first comparison that came to mind was an accidental Harold Pinter play. I also thought of the "dramatic readings" of movie scenes by stagehands that David Letterman used to do.

Not sure I could sit through the feature length version, as someone without too much patience for the "so bad it's good" stuff. Might be an experiment worth trying, though.

The joy of the first clip is watching the Fabio-wannabe's hair change from shot to shot. Sometimes it's his own hair, sometimes it's an obvious wig (of a slightly different color even).

I could name many other great cult/exploitation movies, but I only named a few that I thought would go over well with a group of newbies. Surprisingly, VICE SQUAD didn't affect my friends very much, and I suspect something like FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE and MAD FOXES are probably too sleazy for the initiated, particularly if women are part of your audience.

SAMURAI COP kills every time.

Samurai Cop to Samuel L. Jackson-wannabe partner who slides under a chain-link fence while Samurai Cop climbs over: "Why'd you go underneath?"
Sam Jackson wannabe: "'Cause I'm an undercover cop."

Maybe not all cult films but what about:

Tarkan vs the Vikings
Sex & Zen
Mr. Vampire
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Shack Out on 101
The Gore Gore Girls
Ichi the Killer
Gabriel Over the White House
Troll 2
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain
Can the Dialectic Break Bricks
Ultraman

Some wonderful suggestions here.

You can go all the way back to the 30s for MANIAC and MARIJUANA (WEED WITH ROOTS IN HELL), which is a delerious romp that includes 30s nudity, kidnaping, baby-selling, multiple drug addictions and all sorts of fun!

Wynorski's THE LOST EMPIRE is so overdue for a DVD releases, it's ridiculous. The only place to find it that I know of is a long-OOP VHS fullscreen release.

I'm also a fan of Ted V. Mikels' films, esp. ASTRO-ZOMBIES and THE DOLL SQUAD; the latter plays like an (eternally) extended 70s TV episode, if that's your cuppa tea.

I would also recommend John Ashley's Filipino flicks, esp. MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, though all of'em that star John are worth watching.

And there's the lesser knowns of Ed Wood's output -- I really like THE SINISTER URGE and ORGY OF THE DEAD (technically not an Ed-directed film, but it sure looks like one!).

I showed BRIDES OF BLOOD to some friends once, but it turned out to be one of my few misfires--they found it dull and slow-moving (which it kind of is). I meant to try again with MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND--I think the Blood Island movies get better as they go along--but I never did.

Miike's DEAD Or ALIVE (first one), just how it starts off hardboiled and extreme, and then just turns into a shlochy joke

Marty, objectively I guess that's true, but my wife & I just find the spectacle of John Ashley playing a steely-eyed tough guy endlessly fascinating.

MAD DOCTOR is the best of the 3 (I don't count the one he isn't in), but it has that annoying zoom-in-and-out camera work every time the movie starts to get interesting -- they should have called it nauseavision.

We're also fond of TWILIGHT PEOPLE, John's Filipino mishmash of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, which also features Pam Grier in a leading non-role as the Panther Woman!

Ha ha, yeah, I can go along with that.

Genuinely a surprise (it was played as a last minute replacement for a missing 35mm print of Japanese Ring 2 at a London Film Festival a several years back) was Freeway II: Confessions Of A Trick Baby. A delirious fun ride all the way!
Also:
Pink Flamingoes (licking the furniture, et al!)
Thundercrack (these cucumbers smell really old!)
Race With The Devil (those stars!)
The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (do the Kangaroo Hop!)

so many more...

To the most excellent suggestions of THUNDERCRACK!, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL I would add:

SIN IN THE SUBURBS
FEMALE PRISONER # 701 - SCORPION
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI
NAKED KILLER
THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP
MONDO KEYHOLE
THE BOXER'S OMEN
ALICE SWEET ALICE
AUDITION
FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN
BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL
AWAKENING OF THE BEAST
BATTLE ROYALE

Boy, I could waste the rest of my day mulling over additions to this post and thread!

To the most excellent suggestions of FEMALE PRISONER # 701 - SCORPION, NAKED KILLER, and BATTLE ROYALE I would add:

LIQUID SKY - sex, drugs, post-punk 80's fashion, gender-bending, and aliens.

SAVE THE GREEN PLANET - SOUTH PARK style satire mixed with Takashi Miike graphic violence.

THE MIRACLE FIGHTERS - that sorcerer’s contest with the talking fish and giant chair that does kung fu is totally whacked.

ONE BY ONE - HK remake of THE DEFIANT ONES. The chained pair have absolutely outrageous fights with one another in almost every frame of the film.

A LIFE OF NINJA - female ninjas use their naked breasts to “relax” their foe.

CRIPPLED KUNG-FU BOXER - the final fight is insane with Lo Lieh doing some incredible stuff including spinning on his hunchback break dance style. THEN his retarded brother shows up for one last wickedly crazy fight.

GOKE: BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL - a hijacker (wearing more eye make-up than Boy George) AND a UFO ship converge on a planeful of Japanese passengers. Climbs to new heights in the “over-the-top” world.

Ooooooo, yeah, I just saw this one. Behind the opening titles, female ninjas "train" by mud-wrestling each other in bikinis. There's also a 300-pound wrestling ninja. A woman is killed in her shower by getting stabbed in the back with an icicle. It's a very strange, very entertaining movie.

Sort of along those same lines, but not really, is THE MAN FROM HONG KONG, which teams Jimmy Wang Yu (MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE) against 007 George Lazenby in a wild action kung-fu thriller set in Australia. One highlight is a massive chase/fight between Jimmy and Grant Page, the crazy stuntman who went on to topline director Brian Trenchard Smith's amazing STUNT ROCK (come to think of it, I'd add STUNT ROCK to this list too, if it were easy to find). Another is a fight between Sammo Hung and another guy on Ayers Rock. Jigsaw performs its hit, "Sky High," over the titles. Lazenby sets himself on fire during his final battle with Yu. I think it's only available on a widescreen R3 DVD.

The Boxer's Omen
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Danger: Diabolik!
The Brainiac
Mystics in Bali

(The list goes on and on but those are some of my very favorites.)

I second (or third) the vote for Challenge of the Tiger, it's just pure bonkers entertainment.
I would also advocate Sex and Fury...naked swordfights in the snow, gunfights, trains full of nuns and Christina Lingberg make this a supremley entertaining piece of trash. I picked up on it from a Mobius recommendation and I believe that the original poster suggested that it was the greatest film that they had ever seen for about ten minutes, which I think neatly sums it up.

Seek it out if you can.

These are my top 10...I always force any new acquaintances to watch these films at various points in our friendship;

(in no particular order)
Death Game aka The Seducers
Bone aka Housewife
The Baby
Female Trouble
Basket Case
The Pit
Chained Heat
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974
Grey Gardens
Black Christmas 1974

Is this the one where a social worker investigates a wacko family with a grown son that is still in diapers and acts like an infant? I found it dull as dirt, not deliriously entertaining...

MYSTICS IN BALI tops my list. The dialogue scenes seem interminable, BUT the sheer audacity of the film once things get going had me on the floor laughing hysterically.
RUSLAN & LUDMILA is another fave. A little long at times, but still the most joyously giddy and visually imaginative of the Ptushko fairy tale films which I've seen.
FEMALE CONVICT 701: SCORPION - JAILHOUSE #41 really pushed me into the realm of Japanese exploitation cinema. I love all three Scorpion films directed by Shunya Ito and Meiko Kaji is wonderful. It's a shame that this has gone OOP on dvd, but hopefully someone like Tokyo Shock will pick it up since they've issued Kaji's other Scorpion films.
Need I mention Alejandro Jodorowsky? I'd say SANTA SANGRE is probably his most accessible.