What is a cult movie? Well, I suppose there is much
to consider when answering that question. I will try, however, to give you my
best understanding of what a cult film means to me. Cult films are pictures
that lie firmly under the mainstream radar but that after many years of
generational rediscovering and word of mouth have become classic films in their
own right. They are “little”
movies with big followings. Movies pursued to every run down art theater,
drive-in, and horror film convention by cinema fans with an unrelenting passion
for all that makes a cult film a cult film in the first place.
You see cult movies aren't
big matinee headlining A-list starrers for a reason. The subject matter found
in cult movies is usually too risqué, controversial, or uncomfortable for the
general audience admission. They are most often times found within subgenres
like horror, science fiction, exploitation, sexploitation, and even comedy. The
budgets of these films tend to be relatively small and so the actors are
generally unknowns, the special effects are all practical makeup and kayro
syrup, the writers and directors would never be given financing by major
production companies to deliver the vision they wish to deliver, and the films
are made more a more specific kind of movie goer as opposed to a broad “anybody
who buys movie tickets" type of audience. Sometimes cult
movies find some kind of crossover success in the mainstream. Sometimes big
studio movies intended for mass-market appeal aren't
as commercially successful or profitable as intended and fade away into
obscurity. That is, until they are discovered by a newer more forgiving
audience who lauds the film and gives it the respect it wasn't
given upon its initial release.
Cult films are both the
stepping stone for newcomers and the safety net of actors and filmmakers who
always sought to make such films and of course, actors and filmmakers who never
intended to make such films but found some level of success or notoriety in
doing so. For instance, Johnny Depp got his start in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Brad Pitt starred in Cutting Class. Marisa Tomei was in The Toxic Avenger, Kevin Bacon Friday the 13th, Fisher
Stevens, Jason Alexander, and Holly Hunter The
Burning. In terms of directors, Oliver Stone directed Seizure, Martin Scorsese helmed Boxcar
Bertha, and Sam Raimi, of course, The
Evil Dead. Some actors like Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Bela Lugosi, Boris
Karloff, Jeffrey Combs, Tony Todd, Udo Kier, and Vincent Price are most well
known for their work in horror and exploitation. Directors, Lloyd Kaufman, Wes
Craven, Terrence Fisher, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Don Coscarelli, and John
Carpenter remained in horror and exploitation for most of their careers.
Cult films have at times
found critical appraise. Most usually they have been shredded to pieces in the
pages of every newspaper in the country. Very view critics have ever been able
to grasp cult films or find any merit in them. They often times spend their
entire review doting on technical limitations, the amount of nudity, or the
amount of blood rather than listening to the dialogue, truly taking in an actor’s
performance, or grading the film on its own merits against peers and imitators.
An example of critic who doesn't get it is the one who
says, “This movie is shit. The Godfather
walks all over this.” Another reviewer that one can
not rely upon for a true assessment of a cult picture is the reviewer offended
by nudity or who doesn't understand why a chainsaw must
be used to dismember someone in a film called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Some critics however, do get it. Roger
Ebert, Rex Reed, Harry Knowles, and Richard Roeper have often give fair if not
good reviews to cult films. They have always made known their disgust at
particular elements and they haven't exactly gone out of their way to praise every horror
or exploitation piece that has made its way to their local theater. However,
they have always fairly reviewed the films based on what they saw rather than
what they had preferred to have seen. Joe Bob Briggs, known as the world's
only drive-in critic, reviews cult films exclusively and has written about the
topic extensively. Halloween, Jaws,
Psycho, Peeping Tom, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Alien have, despite their detractors,
found levels of mainstream critical appraise. Joe Bob will tell you to also
check out Ator the Fighting Eagle, Puppet
Master, and Pray for Death.
Cult films do not demand
the attention of anyone. Cinemagoers demand the attention of the cult film.
These are films found, enjoyed, and reviewed on the terms of the viewer.
Viewers, after discovering a new treasure, will wonder why a movie like Bad Girls Go to Hell, Blood Feast, Blood on
Satan's Claw, Dr. Goldfoot and
the Bikini Machine, or I Was A
Teenage Frankenstein aren’t more well known.
Perhaps it was the lack of studio support or maybe it was the films' producer’s lack of funding for advertising that prevented these films from
gracing matinees across America before midnight. Perhaps it is just a matter of
society's tastes. We must, as cult film fans, understand that
the average movie going public would rather watch Transformers or Valentine's Day than X-tro or Nekromantik. Cult films are generally less accessible because one
just doesn't pack up the kids to go see Gas Pump Girls or Lair of the
White Worm. Everything that is so beautiful about the cult film is exactly
what damns it to the midnight double feature status it has attained. That's not necessarily a bad thing mind you. If more people were watching Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-O-Rama
and Anthropophagus, they wouldn’t
be cult movies anymore. These movies know exactly what they are and where their
audience lies and it's time we did too. There is something very exciting and
fulfilling about knowing that at any given time, in any restaurant, shopping
mall, or workplace you may be, you're probably the only
person that's ever seen Three
on A Meathook.
So,
cult film fans, I demand you do your part in keeping these classics alive. Pass
around your DVD or worn-out VHS copy to friends, go support special screenings
of these movies at mom and pop theaters, art houses, and drive-ins, and keep
perusing the internet and library for more titles you need to add to your
shopping list. I'll even help you out below.
Basket Case
Satan's Sadists
Pigs
City of the Dead
The Fifth Cord
Spider Baby
Reform School Girls
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
Please Don't Eat My Mother!
May
House of Whipcord
White Cannibal Queen
Bloodsucking Freaks
House on the Edge of the Park
Tentacles
Something Weird
Strip Nude for Your Killer
Psychomania
The Pit
The Gore, Gore Girls
Day of the Triffids
The Beastmaster
Silent Scream
Virgin Witch
Gorgo
SS Hellcamp
Alligator
Blood and Lace
House of Seven Corpses
Blood and Black Lace
Samurai Cop
Bloody Moon
Devil Doll
Popcorn
The Tingler
Killer's Delight
Axe
The Thing from Another World
The Whip and the Body
The Devil's Rain
The Teacher
The Leopard Man
And Soon the Darkness
Brotherhood of Satan
Empire of the Ants
Thrill Killers
Theater of Blood
Frankenhooker
It Came Without Warning
The Hitchhiker
Baba Yaga
Blood Diner
Deranged
The Brood
Night of the Demon (1957-Occult)
Motor Psycho
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Monster on Campus
Die Screaming Marianne
This Stuff'll Kill Ya!
Just Before Dawn
Rituals
Food of the Gods
Lisa and the Devil
Torso
Konga
Night of the Demon (1980- Sasquatch)
Don't Go in the House
Delirium
Honeymoon Killers
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS
I Walked with a Zombie
Madhouse
Motel Hell
Dr. Caligari (1989)
Chopping Mall
The Prowler
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Blind Beast
Sssssss!
Olga's House of Shame
Lifeforce
The Curious Dr. Humpp
Deadly Spawn
Scream and Scream Again
Chatterbox
Sinful Dwarf
It Came from Outer Space
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