Best Cult Movies...since we need another movie thread | The Boneyard

Best Cult Movies...since we need another movie thread

intlzncster

intlzncster

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I'm not talking some much of movies like Animal House, Monty Python, Clockwork Orange, Blazing Saddles or Bloodsport. Even though they're called a Cult Classics, they are actually so mainstream, they're simply a Classics.

I don't know if anyone's seen them, but I'm thinking of stuff like:

Withnail and I (british film)
Football Factory (Danny Dyer - way better than green street)
Battle Royale

More known, but also:


Sideways
Primer
The Warriors
Moon
Lost Boys (maybe qualifies?)
 
I'm not some huge fan of it or anything but Donnie Darko definitely fits the bill. Boondock Saints, Requiem for a Dream, anything by David Lynch, or Cronenberg, early Guy Ritchie, early Tarantino... all of them are pretty solid films. My favorite though, and it's probably too popular to truly be a cult film but it still feels cultish in its reverence, would be The Matrix.


Others:
Fight Club
the Evil Deads
Crappy zombie flicks that horror fans go nuts for
Se7en
Rocky Horror
Lebowski
Little Shop of Horrors

Edit: I realize now I didn't really stick with the spirit of your post. Sorry.
 
Mano said:
I'm not some huge fan of it or anything but Donnie Darko definitely fits the bill. Boondock Saints, Requiem for a Dream, anything by David Lynch, or Cronenberg, early Guy Ritchie, early Tarantino... all of them are pretty solid films. My favorite though, and it's probably too popular to truly be a cult film but it still feels cultish in its reverence, would be The Matrix.


Others:
Fight Club
the Evil Deads
Crappy zombie flicks that horror fans go nuts for
Se7en
Rocky Horror
Lebowski
Little Shop of Horrors

Edit: I realize now I didn't really stick with the spirit of your post. Sorry.
Expand ...

All good Manito. At least somebody replied. hahaha

Requiem is in the The Lost Boys vein. Include. Forgot about DD too.
 
intlzncster said:
I'm not talking some much of movies like Animal House, Monty Python, Clockwork Orange, Blazing Saddles or Bloodsport. Even though they're called a Cult Classics, they are actually so mainstream, they're simply a Classics.

I don't know if anyone's seen them, but I'm thinking of stuff like:

Withnail and I (british film)
Football Factory (Danny Dyer - way better than green street)
Battle Royale

More known, but also:


Sideways
Primer
The Warriors
Moon
Lost Boys (maybe qualifies?)
Expand ...

Your second group kinda goes against your own rules, so I'm tossing them, too.

I'm not sure Sideways was a cult movie. Nor Moon - that was just a great little movie that no one has seen. It's missing the cult.

The Big Lebowski, Clerks and Office Space come to mind. Reservoir Dogs, The Princess Bride, Easy Rider. Slackers, Swingers.
 
Also Empire Records, Blood Simple, Candyman (Tony Todd UConn) and the greatest cult classic of all Dazed and Confused.
 
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Fishy said:
Your second group kinda goes against your own rules, so I'm tossing them, too.

I'm not sure Sideways was a cult movie. Nor Moon - that was just a great little movie that no one has seen. It's missing the cult.

The Big Lebowski, Clerks and Office Space come to mind. Reservoir Dogs, The Princess Bride, Easy Rider. Slackers, Swingers.
Expand ...
All of your suggestions seem too mainstream, or is that the irony of being too good.

Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead.
Raising Arizona. even though not a Goodman fan
Bladerunner

The Pink Panther movies also seem overlooked.
 
Hudson Hawk!
Admittedly, it's a small cult, but we firmly believe the general populace will eventually get the joke.

Idiocracy
Pretty much anything by Robert Rodriguez
Most food-centric movies (there's a subgenre of cultish food movies), particularly Big Night, Chef, The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover, Jiro Dreams of Sushi...
Harold and Maude
Thinking Grosse Pointe Blank also qualifies.
 
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intlzncster said:
I'm not talking some much of movies like Animal House, Monty Python, Clockwork Orange, Blazing Saddles or Bloodsport. Even though they're called a Cult Classics, they are actually so mainstream, they're simply a Classics.

I don't know if anyone's seen them, but I'm thinking of stuff like:

Withnail and I (british film)
Football Factory (Danny Dyer - way better than green street)
Battle Royale

More known, but also:


Sideways
Primer
The Warriors
Moon
Lost Boys (maybe qualifies?)
Expand ...

Warriors is the perfect definition of a cult movie. There is something unusual going on in cult movies which keeps (repels?) them away from mass audiences, and Warriors has it. As mentioned before, Sideways is terrific, but I never gave a thought to it being all that cultish. Not all science fiction is cult either, I would agree about the previous comment of Moon not being all that cultish.

The horror genre and its spin offs lend very well for cult status, as do black comedies. The previously mentioned Rocky Horror Picture Show is the poster child for cult movie status, having had more midnight showings than anyone would care to count. However, the granddaddy of cult horror movies has yet to be mentioned. That would be Freaks (1932), the Tod Browning directed circus centered classic.
 
I'll return when time permits but right off the top of my head:

The Brother From Another Planet ('84)
How about Grindhouse and Death Proof (both '07) by Tarantino?
 
.-.
Jackie Brown
I'm Gonna Get You Sucker
Lebowski
anything Godzilla
 
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Warriors
My Body Guard
The Education of Sonny Carson
Goodbye Uncle Tom
The Pledge
Black Dynamite
The Mack
Wild Style
Beloved
Blacula
Five Deadly Venoms
Urgh a Music War
Up in Smoke
 
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dbmill said:
Warriors is the perfect definition of a cult movie. There is something unusual going on in cult movies which keeps (repels?) them away from mass audiences, and Warriors has it. As mentioned before, Sideways is terrific, but I never gave a thought to it being all that cultish. Not all science fiction is cult either, I would agree about the previous comment of Moon not being all that cultish.

The horror genre and its spin offs lend very well for cult status, as do black comedies. The previously mentioned Rocky Horror Picture Show is the poster child for cult movie status, having had more midnight showings than anyone would care to count. However, the granddaddy of cult horror movies has yet to be mentioned. That would be Freaks (1932), the Tod Browning directed circus centered classic.
Expand ...

It just occurred to me that the oft imitated "Gooble Gobble, You are One of Us" song from Freaks is perfect for the yin and yang of cult movies. Yes, theses movies try to welcoming to others who are currently on the outside, but at the same time, repellent to some of those they wish to accept (the mass audience).

 
Dove said:
I'll return when time permits but right off the top of my head:

The Brother From Another Planet ('84)
How about Grindhouse and Death Proof (both '07) by Tarantino?
Expand ...

I haven't seen Brother From Another Planet in years. Very good and unusual stuff from director John Sayles, and I suspect a film that many people in the mass audience have not seen. It qualifies very well for this thread.
 
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The definition of a cult movie to me means one that is s bit subversive - to me the two David Lynch movies Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive are perfect examples. Also springing to mind is Momento. Eraserhead & Repo Man too - though I don't think I ever saw either.
 
Sorta contradicting myself, but alot of the Coen bros movies are cult classics too - Raising Arizona, Lebowski, Fargo, Millers Crossing, maybe even O Brother where art Thou.
 
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storrsroars said:
Invoking Nelson's "Paul Newman Rule" here. If it's a Coen Bros. movie, it is assumed to be good. It is only surprising when it's bad (Barton Fink, I'm looking at you.)
Expand ...

Fair enough, but this one was so offbeat that I figured it might be some sort of exception. An allegory and modern take on The Odyssey is ambitious to say the least.
 
storrsroars said:
Invoking Nelson's "Paul Newman Rule" here. If it's a Coen Bros. movie, it is assumed to be good. It is only surprising when it's bad (Barton Fink, I'm looking at you.)
Expand ...

intlzncster said:
Fair enough, but this one was so offbeat that I figured it might be some sort of exception. An allegory and modern take on The Odyssey is ambitious to say the least.
Expand ...

Something to remember. There is usually a distinction between movies made for a mainstream audience, and those films with art house/independent origins. Also important to remember that just because a movie has art/house or independent origins, it is not necessarily a cult movie or one with a cult following. The Coen Brothers are an interesting case, as they have tended to straddle the cult line, especially in their earlier days. No question that The Big Lebowski deserves its cult status. However, I disagree about the idea of "Oh Brother" being a cult movie. I will say that it is probably my favorite Coen Brothers production. Anyway, "Oh Brother is odd without being really all that weird, at least for the Coen Brothers. Remember, it also stars George Clooney at a time where he was close to the height of his popularity, which makes it a hard sell for me as far as giving it cult status. This movie also greatly raised the profile of bluegrass/Americana music, something you don't expect cult movies to do. As far as it being an allegory for The Odyssey, that shows more of its art house roots than anything cultish.
 
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dbmill said:
Something
to remember. There is usually a distinction between movies made for a mainstream audience, and those films with art house/independent origins. Also important to remember that just because a movie has art/house or independent origins, it is not necessarily a cult movie or one with a cult following. The Coen Brothers are an interesting case, as they have tended to straddle the cult line, especially in their earlier days. No question that The Big Lebowski deserves its cult status. However, I disagree about the idea of "Oh Brother" being a cult movie. I will say that it is probably my favorite Coen Brothers production. Anyway, "Oh Brother is odd without being really all that weird, at least for the Coen Brothers. Remember, it also stars George Clooney at a time where he was close to the height of his popularity, which makes it a hard sell for me as far as giving it cult status. This movie also greatly raised the profile of bluegrass/Americana music, something you don't expect cult movies to do. As far as it being an allegory for The Odyssey, that shows more of its art house roots than anything cultish.
Expand ...

These are good points, but how does one determine whether something has a cult following? I mean, it's obvious with movies like The Big Lebowski, Clockwork Orange, et al. But where's the cutoff?
 
intlzncster said:
These are good points, but how does one determine whether something has a cult following? I mean, it's obvious with movies like The Big Lebowski, Clockwork Orange, et al. But where's the cutoff?
Expand ...

Well, in another thread there was the argument about which movies qualify as chick flicks. In some cases it is obvious, in other cases not so much. We're each going to come up with our own answers, and sometimes our arguments and discussions are going to persuade others.
 
Just recently saw The Boondock Saints for the first time which seems kind of cult like.
 
One criteria for a cult classic is if a film did not do so hot at the box office, but gets aired weekly on a superstation (e.g. TNT, USA, IFC).

Another is if that movie has periodic dedicated conventions, such as Lebowskifest.

Of course there are always exceptions. Star Trek is celebrated like no other franchise. However, it was a TV show before it was a movie, and the movie franchise kills it at the Box Office. Otherwise they wouldn't have made so many or had a modern day reboot.
 
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