Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a particular subgenre are the best to find great nudity. This week let's cover Cult Movies.
Cults are having a moment right now with several true crime documentaries coming out to explore cults in every area of American life. Don't worry - there are plenty of films that also explore cults and a lot of those films include nudity. After all, there is a lot of sex that goes on in cults. It's only right for these movies to show that, too:
Midsommar
One of the most popular and critically acclaimed cult films of the past few years is the A24-produced film Midsommar. This 2019 film starred Florence Pugh as a traumatized young woman in a middling relationship who goes with him and his graduate school friends on a trip to study their Swedish peer's "community" back in rural Sweden. They learn, of course, that it is an intense cult.
One of the women in the cult, played by Isabelle Grill, seduces the boyfriend for her fertility ritual. She lures him into a shed where she lays beautifully naked on the floor, surrounded by the women in her community who are all also naked. They know how to set the mood!
Martha Marcy May Marlene
This indie drama is one of the finest takes on cults that I have ever seen. Elizabeth Olsen plays a young woman whose descent into a cult - and her eventual escape - we see played out. When she is out of the cult, she is very paranoid that they are following her...and she might be right. Elizabeth Olsen went very nude for the film, slipping off her top to show off her jumbo yum yums when she had sex in this well-lit room with other people around.
Charlie Says
There are so many takes on the Charlie Manson case, but I am partial to this one. This film focuses on the women who were under his spell. Celebrated director Mary Harron took on the story of the famous Manson Girls when they were young, lost, and inspired by this supposed guru.
Kayli Carter plays Squeaky, Marianne Rendon plays Susan Atkins, and our favorite babe from Game of Thrones Hannah Murray plays Leslie Van Houten. They all show their racks because, well, Charlie Says!
Society
This 1980s satirical humor takes a look at high society and, in the end, points to the elite as a cult of body-swapping aliens. It is a clever horror film about a young man who comes of age in an upper-crust town that requires him to take part in a coming-of-age ritual that he has no idea is going to end poorly.
This film has hot 1980s babes who fit into society nicely with their 80s-style hardbodies. We are talking about women like Devin DeVasquez who shows her breasts during a steamy sex scene. Her bikini body is also out of this world!
Suspiria
Let's end with a revised classic: Suspiria. The original bloody horror film by Dario Argento was a colorful feast for the eyes, but none of the gorgeous girls who played ballet students went nude. That all changed in the 2018 version in which several stars of the film went nude in a sexy ritual that was heavy on bloodshed. Before we saw a full-frontal Mia Goth with a bloody midsection, we got to watch these ladies dance nude:
