How John Waters categorises his own filmography
While the New Hollywood era was underway, with filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Brain De Palma making innovative movies that would become mainstream hits, John Waters was doing something rather different. Both Waters and his much more popular contemporaries were inspired by indie, arthouse and foreign cinema, but Waters leaned much closer to his B-movie and exploitation influences.
With the help of his regular cast, a group of his friends he labelled the ‘Dreamlanders’, the Baltimore-born filmmaker made movies that were shocking, repulsive, and transgressive – you name it. Waters wanted to challenge audiences with his films by presenting unique characters with penchants for violence, unusual sexual practices, and other bizarre taboos. He certainly scared many people with his work, but he also garnered a cult following. As a result, he remains a beloved figure in cinematic history, still impressing and confusing viewers to this day.
Waters once categorised all of his movies, telling Filmmaker Magazine, “Well, I usually think about what genre I want to satirise, because that’s what all of the films are in the end.” Each of his films are gloriously ridiculous, using comedy and satire to comment on wider issues and topics, whether that be race, class, filmmaking, crime or beauty.
Starting with Mondo Trasho, his first feature (albeit a silent one), Waters called it a “shockumentary”. The film follows some of the Dreamlanders as they engage in some strange acts. For example, Mary Vivian Pierce has her feet molested by a hippie, only to get run over by Divine, which leads to visions from the Virgin Mary, violence, sexual assault, theft, and other shocking scenes. The title was inspired by Russ Meyer’s fictional documentary, Mondo Topless.
Next up is Multiple Maniacs, which Waters labelled a “gore movie”. While Multiple Maniacs isn’t exactly a Herschell Gordon Lewis film, there are many explicit and grotesque scenes, like murder and cannibalism. The movie helped to put him on the map as an underground filmmaker – a title he solidified with Pink Flamingos, a “midnight movie”, according to Waters. It’s his best-known film, full of gross and taboo acts ranging from incest to coprophilia.
The popularity of Pink Flamingos as a midnight movie led to his next effort, Female Trouble. Divine features as Dawn Davenport, who leaves home and, after having sex with a random man, is left to bring up a child she resents. The movie descends into chaos and violence, with Waters calling it a “true crime” film; it’s even dedicated to Manson Family member Charles ‘Tex’ Watson. Waters also called Serial Mom a “true crime” film, with Kathleen Turner starring as a murderous mother who won’t stop killing anyone who gets in her family’s way.
Talking about Desperate Living, one of his more underrated movies – but equally as shocking – he called it a “fairytale,” while Polyester was a “gimmick movie”. The latter came with a scratch-and-sniff card and boasted Odorama technology, with audience members instructed to smell the scents that corresponded with the action on screen, which involved everything from pizza to skunk.
As Waters began making films that were more popular in the mainstream, he made a “dance movie”- Hairspray, and a “musical”, Cry-Baby. These remain some of his most well-known films, featuring big stars like Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop and Johnny Depp. Pecker, on the other hand, remains more underrated, but it’s a great love letter to Baltimore and making art. Waters, unsurprisingly then, called it an “art film”.
His last two films have received mixed reviews, generally being regarded highest by his die-hard fans. There’s Cecil B. Demented, a fun exploration of the limits of filmmaking, which Waters called a “terrorist movie,” and his lesser-seen sex comedy A Dirty Shame, a “sexploitation”. The latter is unashamedly filthy, perfectly blending both his early films and his more mainstream movies into one ridiculous tale.
