← Back to Cinema Atlas
Discover great cinema and the connections that made it possible.
Flaming Creatures
UNITED STATES · 1963

Flaming Creatures

Jack Smith
gender fluidity experimental cinema surrealism performance art horror parody
Stream on Criterion → ▶ Trailer

Synopsis

Filmmaker and artist Jack Smith described his own film as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio.” Flaming Creatures begins humorously enough with several men and women, mostly of indeterminate gender, vamping it up in front of the camera and participating in a mock advertisement for an indelible, heart-shaped brand of lipstick. However, things take a dark, nightmarish turn when a transvestite ch

More from Jack Smith

United States
Lucky Landlordism of Lobster Lagoon
1981 • United States
View →
Hot Air Specialists
1980 • United States
View →
The Secret of Rented Island
1978 • United States
View →