Cult films? Which ones are cult?

[Buried At Sea]

pitch black is a bad man film!!!

[Boosh]

And Chroniles of Riddick is just a bad film.

[Mallrat]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a great cult flick. Talking of which, did anyone notice that during 'Over at the Frankenstein Place', during the zoom in shots of the castle, the Crystal Dome (from The Crystal Maze) sticking out of the top? Kudos to Richard O'Brien on that one!

There are some good books defining what makes films cult but I think it's mainly personal appreciation. I see True Romance as a major cult flick due to me being the only person I know to have seen it (I know many more have but still ...)!

Evil Dead could also sit very happily in the cult realm, as could most video (my god, VHS!) horror nasties.

[Jonesy]

Originally Posted by Mallrat

I see True Romance as a major cult flick due to me being the only person I know to have seen it (I know many more have but still ...)!

I don't think anything written by Tarantino can be considered cult, because he's such a popular film-maker (even though he deliberately tries to be 'cult'). At the same time, Tony Scott is a populist director. When True Romance was released, it made quite a bit of money. Cult films tend to be those that were mainly over-looked at the cinema, but gathered momentum and notoriety on VHS or DVD.

[bagginsboy]

Kevin Smith has made a career by his movies creaming it in on DVD sales despite performing poorly at the box office. Look up cult movie in the dictionary and he'll be mentioned somewhere.

[Mike 9.3 Miles From Leigh]

Stuff like The Big Lebowski, Spider Baby and Switchblade Sisters are ones that spring to mind.

[alanfry1138]

Movies that the production companies have real trouble marketing and slip out as a quick release to only a few cinemas must surely be "cult" films too. Willard comes to mind, one of the DVD extras is a whole feature about how the marketers had such a hard time trying to find a target audience.

[peterraul]

wow no-one i know has seen Willard :P (not until it was on film4)
films that come to mind are night of the living dead and reservoir dogs.

[lemonaise]

So many cult films have come out on DVD now, it kinda takes a lot of the cultness away. I suppose the term was more relevant in the days of independent cinemas and midnight movies, when you had to go to a screening of El Topo or Eraserhead to see the film.

Bubba Hotep? And, as series go, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace? That gaining a mass following on DVD after being far too passed over on TV almost seems like a deliberate part of the joke.