Cult films? Which ones are cult?

[morris]

That's very good. Good ol' Bruce!

[MrSilly]

It leads to an interesting dilemma. By talking about cult films and bringing them to larger audiences, do they cease to be cult?

[fortunesfool]

That's kinda what I was saying earlier - The line gets blurred because studios realise that there's an audience for 'cult' movies.

It's great to be able to introduce new people to a movie they've never heard off but at the same time, you really want a 2 Disc special edition of it. At which point you realise that the studio is playing on its cult popularity and trying to cash in on it.

[Ancient One]

Nice to see in this months TF Keifer Sutherland saying that one of his favourite movies is Dark City. Now THAT is a cult movie and a brilliant one at that.

[Porkchopexpress]

I think horror tends to lend itself more readily to the term 'cult', likewise it's sub genres like J Horror, this is more likely due to horror films having quite devoted fanbases.

Anything by Rob Zombie is probably a cult film, rubbish films, but supported by a devoted fanbase.

I actually the fuilms of Paul Anderson, not the good one, the crap one. Event horizon and Death race were ace, as well as Mortal Kombat, he's an aquired taste.

One of my all time favourite non films is 'The Stuff' about a killer yoghurt taking over the world, I'm sure it has Paul Sorvino in it as the head of a guerilla rmy who may or may not fire machine guns into a tidal wave of killer yoghurt.

Deserves bonus points for having a Sammy Davis Junior impersonator play a character called Chocolate Chip Charlie.

Ah the 80's so racially inappropriate, Cannon Ball Run also classic for more Davis Jr defamation.

CRINGE MODE ON!

[FBSDeMorgan]

What exactly is a ‘cult movie’? I have never been 100% clear on this.

Wikipedia’s definition (and I know that Wiki shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all fountain of knowledge) sort of suggests it’s a movie that has a very dedicated fan-base and that usually (but not always) the film in question did not do very well on its original cinematic release, having found its fans at home. It also, rather strangely, seems to encompass both good and bad films.

So you end up with films that did well at the box office, did middling business and those that didn’t make their budget back as well as highly respected movies, the critically mauled and those deemed ‘so bad they’re good’. It seems to be a real mixed bag, much like the movies that usually end up on those lists.

Where do you stop with the definitions of it? I mean, the Twilight ("soap & water") series has a ludicrously dedicated fan-base so are they all cult films? What about Star Wars, surely there are no more dedicated fans than those with the Force?

Looking at several of the lists available, a lot of the movies seem to be endlessly quotable, so is that a real deciding factor in it all?

So what is it that you guys think actually determines ‘cult’ to you?

(Also, apologies if this has already been asked somewhere around here!)

[morris]

Originally Posted by FBSDeMorgan

Where do you stop with the definitions of it? I mean, the Twilight ("soap & water") series has a ludicrously dedicated fan-base so are they all cult films? What about Star Wars, surely there are no more dedicated fans than those with the Force?

No, absolutely not. Mainstream popularity does not equal cult. No matter how hard some people think it does. Those are big fandoms but they are not true cult films and never will be. Cult films are mostly movies which slipped under the mainstream radar somehow- at first; then were later discovered either at late night cinemas or on DVD - VHS before that, and became popular with a select group of fans despite their failure to attract popular attention at the time of their release.

Quotability increases a films props towards cult, but doesn't make a cult film, it's only one factor imo.

[dojj singh]

They Live is what "should" be classified as a Cult Film.

But you could also classify Battlefield Earth as a Cult Film.

I think the cult film phenomenon only really applies to films that flopped at the box office and are fairly unknown in the mainstream.

[Terencejames]

I always think of cult movies as those championed by a small but discerning audience. The key word for me is discerning . Shit movies shouldn't be cult.