Media Resources/Film

• The Andromedia Strain: Upwarp Aesthetics, etc.
• The Animatrix: Esp. the segments "Matriculated", "Beyond", "Second Renaissance Part 2".
• Akira: Uncontrolled manifestations of god-like powers causes havoc in Neo-Tokyo.
• Barbarella:
• Being John Malkovich:
• Blade Runner: Keystone work about artificial humanoids with equally artificial memories.
• Blade and Blade 2: It's not just the fetish outfits or vampire rave scenes that put these films here, it's also the vampire lord playing the sanely mad scientist, and the elaborate (and self-consciously artificial) architectures in which these creatures live.
• Brazil:
• City of Lost Children: A wonderful 'steampunk' downwarpish setting, full of delightful freaks.
• A Clockwork Orange:
• Crash: if nothing but to explain the Ballard Memorial Highway
• Dark City: Atmospheric film, and especially poigniant the last few minutes.
• The Dark Crystal: Fantasy, yes, but the Skeksis sure feel like decadent Strange/Strangedown denizens. (Strangebottom?) (Who said fantasy has no place in sci-fi? My favourite series are sci-fantasy! --Trilogee)
• Dark Star: Very early John Carpenter film about the tensions aboard a deep space cruiser with an existentialistic bomb. Could be considered a forefather to the Red Dwarf TV series.
• Donnie Darko: Captures near perfectly the 'Strange' mindset.
• Edward Scissorhands:
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
• Existenz: If you want Strange weapons, this is the place.
• Ghost in the Shell: The techno-fetish has a lighter touch in the movies than in the comic books. The TV series Stand Alone Complex makes no compromises, layering the technology on thick, and has lots of cybernetic fun.
• Heavy Metal: Dimensional transport, transformation, rites and powers, zombies, drugs and sex make up the primary content of this series of vignettes. (There's a scene near the end of a woman dressing which is the best example I know of being erotic without being explicit. - Echo)
• Interstella 5555: The story of a band, told without words.
• Jubilee:
• Labyrinth: Interesting imagery, good for CharmStrange and ex-nightmares. Very expressive, very moody, characters have their own agendas and express them subtly. Jareth is a great inspiration for young Hemotopians.
  • Meet characters from Charm, Top, Down, StrangeTop, DownStrange... -- Echo
• Liquid Sky: Brutal, psychosexual sci-fi film set in the early 80's NYC glam scene. Contains elements of Strange, Down and Bottom, respectively.
• Logan's Run: Utopian society with strict laws governing mortality. Strong upwarp qualities.
• M: An old German film, about a serial killer, his crimes, how it affects the underground, and how he is brought to justice. There is no graphic violence in this movie. No deaths are depicted on-screen.
• The Man Who Fell to Earth:
• The Matrix: I know, I know. :) But the fetish-rave scenes alone make it all worthwhile.
• Memento: Story of man with no long-term memory, told in two alternating timelines, one of them backwards. Mentioned as inspiration for any 'mind-burned' PBX characters.
• Mind's Eye: Primitive computer-generated art films of general interest. 'Odyssey Into...' has an upwarp-themed chapter, Utopian Life.
• Motorama: Alternate-universe Americana, gas station bingo and a tattooed existentialist ten-year-old. What a Downwarp Zip might dream of.
• Naked Lunch: Surrealist work mixing philosophy, drugs, aliens, and deviant sex. Interzone was probably a critical Bottomwarp inspiration.
• Princess Mononoke: animism in conflict with industrialism; complex, non-dualistic morality
• Perfect Blue: besides the obvious reason, it's a really interesting study of insanity and deviations of perception. -- Blue
• Read or Die: Paper magic, clones of obscure historical figures with superpowers, people with antennae riding giant mutant insects, music used as a weapon... Should I go on?
• Repo Man: Surreality ensues due to the contents of a repossessed car's trunk...
• Rock and Rule: quintessentially 1980s film about a post-nuclear world populated by anthropomorphs, where rock-and-roll reigns supreme. Wonderful futuristic imagery and some nice tunes.
• Run Lola Run:
• Spectres of the Spectrum:
• Sleeper: Woody Allen film spoofing many 1960s visions of the future. Must be seen to hear lines like, "I wanted to have sex, but we didn't have enough people." "I know, let's use the Orgasmotron."
• Synthetic Pleasures:
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man:
• TRON: First film to really touch on digital reality and prospects of uploading - not too heaviily philosphical beyond that.
• Videodrome: Uncompromising Cronenburg Film - Disturbing synthesis of man into media. Strong hints of Strange-style musings and post-human context.
• Wax: The Discovery of Television Among the Bees: Very strange art film. Best watched several times before it sticks.
• [A Wrinkle in Time]: Based on the novel. None of us have seen it yet. But we all agree, it's liable to be a must-see.
• Yellow Submarine: Charm charm charm Charm charm ♥ Charm charm. All you need is Love!
  • Well, this puts Charm in a different light for me, and definitely suggests more inspirations for the amusement park I'm building. -- Echo
  • It's not just the Charming world of Pepperland, either:
    • gritty, photocopied-and-looped Liverpool (DownWarp by day?)
    • Sea of Monsters (Charmer's view of StrangeWarp?)
    • "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" painted rotoscopy (TopWarp? CharmTop?)
    • Sea of Holes (Reality-subjectivity, anyone?)
    • "Only a Northern Song" trippy shifting visuals
    • Nowhere Land, objects and designs appear and disappear for no reason but it seems right at the time (Museum-space before the Museum was built? I'm not just saying that because Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D., is my favourite character, nope nope nope.) --Dr Talib Litston

Directors and creators

• [Tim Burton]: The happiest variants of Strange ever.
• [Marc Caro]: co-screenwriter on City Of Lost Children and Delicatessen. Similar dystopian themes run through his work in comics. I'd looove to track down some of his short films...
• [Brothers Quay]: London-based filmmakers, highly influenced by Jan Švankmajer (q.v.) and almost as Strange.
• [Jan Švankmajer]: Czech stop-motion animator and artist, probably best known for his nightmarish adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. Grotesque surreal, and utterly Strange.