Cult film

A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of obsessive fanss or one that has remained popular over successive years amongst a small group of followers. Often the film failed to achieve mainstream success on its original release, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different to what was intended by the film-makers, although usually a film that becomes "cult" started-out with unusual elements or subject matter.

A film reaches cult status due to an audience's relationship to the film. This makes the designation of cult status to a film difficult, however continued success amongst a subset of moviegoers many years after the film's original release is a key defining factor.

Many cult films are from such genres as horror, science fiction and world cinema. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which combines the elements of science fiction, horror—not to mention transvestitism, incest and homosexuality—and, amazingly, is a musical, is considered by many the first true and seminal cult film.

The construction of meaning within the cult film text, the nature and epistemology of cult film and its audiences is now studied academically.

An instance of how cults differ between societies include the elevation of the British comedy film actor Norman Wisdom into a cult icon in Albania during the years of Communism under Enver Hoxha, at a time when his family-friendly style almost certainly ensured that 'cult' would be the last term on earth to be applied to him in the West. Curiously he and his films are now acquiring nostalgic cult status in Britain.

See also: cult television, cult radio

Table of contents

1 Selected List of Cult Films 2 Selected List of Cult Film Directors 3 Selected List of Schools guided by Cult Film Directors

Selected List of Cult Films

• 2001 - A Space Odyssey
• Abba - The Movie
• The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension
• Apocalypse Now
• Army of Darkness
• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
• Bad Taste
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
• Blade Runner
• The Blues Brothers
• Boxing Helena
• Braindead
• Brazil
• The Breakfast Club
• Clue
• The Day The Earth Stood Still
• Dark Star
• Dazed And Confused
• The Draughtsman's Contract
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Drowning by Numbers
• Donnie Darko
• Eraserhead
• Evil Dead
• Fight Club
• The Graduate
• Grand Illusion
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Harold and Maude
• Heathers
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Henry--Portrait of a Serial Killer
• If
• Incubus
• The Italian Job
• It's a Wonderful Life
• James Bond series
• Koyaanisqatsi
• Little Shop of Horrors
• The Man Who Fell To Earth
• Mars Attacks
• The Matrix
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Monty Python's Life of Brian
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Motel Hell
• Meet The Feebles
• Paris, Texas
• Pink Floyd's The Wall
• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
• The Princess Bride
• The Producers
• Pulp Fiction
• Raising Arizona
• Reefer Madness aka Tell Your Children
• Repo Man
• Reservoir Dogs
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Silent Running
• Solaris
• The Sound of Music
• St. Elmo's Fire
• Santa Sangre
• Star Wars series
• They Live
• This Is Spinal Tap
• This Island Earth
• Tommy (the Who rock opera)
• Tremors (and its sequels)
• TRON
• The Wicker Man
• Withnail and I
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• The Wizard of Speed and Time
• Yellow Submarine

Selected List of Cult Film Directors

• David Lynch
• John Waters
• Agnès Varda
• Claire Denis
• Chantal Akerman

Selected List of Schools guided by Cult Film Directors

• European Graduate School