The Films of Larry Buchanan: A Critical Examination

Films such as The Naked Witch, Zontar, The Thing From Venus and Mars Needs Women have gained large cult followings, and movies like A Bullet For Pretty Boy, Free, White and 21 and Goodbye, Norma Jean became box office hits. Still, no other independent filmmaker of the latter 20th century may elicit such a disparity of response from general movie audiences and cult film buffs alike as the late, legendary Larry Buchanan.

This study, the first serious examination of Buchanan's body of work, addresses consistent themes such as the end of suburbia, the rebel outsider, the oppressive establishment, the curse of fame, and "creatures of destruction". The highly political subtext found in virtually every one of the filmmaker's projects is also explored. Chapters are devoted to more than 20 of Buchanan's films; information on some of the unfinished, unreleased (and in at least one case), deliberately destroyed projects is offered, as well. Photographs illustrating nearly all the films are included.