Cult movies

[athenahollow]

OH OH! I almost forgot:
Tromeo and Juliet
Spiderbabe
Lord of the Strings

[jonny.illuminati]

I can't believe there is no love for Phantom of the Paradise in this thread.

Love, death, deals with the devil, drugs, retro greasers in the 70s, kinky costumes, and Beef!. What more could you ask for?

i actually just watched that a few weeks ago... yay! netflix on demand~

[Buster Friendly]

How old are you Buster? Do you remember "Drive-In Theater" on channel 5 on Saturdays? They always played this movie on there. I loved it too.

I'm actually a transplant from the rust belt so even though I'm probably the right age we didn't get that. I fit in so well here though. No one seems to notice.

[VoltaireBlue]

nearly forgot the Warriors

totally! you gotta love a movie with gang called the baseball furies.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

"Warriors....Come out and play-e-yay!"

[SiouxSinner]

The Killer Condom, filmed in New York but is suppose to be a German flick (spoken in German). Love it, the condoms have razor sharp teeth :P

[YoungSoulRebel]

What do you think is a must see movie or documentary.

The following Ken Russell films: Liszt-O-Mania (everybody needs to see Roger Daltry riding a 14' papier-mache peen), Valentino (Rudolph Nureyev was a man of many talents, making his Russian accent sound Italian was not one of them), and Tommy (everybody needs to see Pete Townshend's shame -- this film is NOT how he envisioned his "masterpiece")

Anything by Derek Jarman, who is a FUCKING genius (yes, in caps-lock like that), but the ones I usually suggest breaking people in on are Sebastiane (warning: acres of penis, Jarman later claimed it was cos they didn't have a budget for costumes), Caravaggio, and Jubilee (this is the film that sparked a mostly-incoherent and incredibly HOMOPHOBIC "open letter" from Vivienne Westwood and pissed a LOT of people off). I'm also in love with The Garden, but it hasn't been released on DVD yet, so may not be as accessible as the others.

My room-mate also highly recommends this experimental German flick called WAX: The Invention of Television Among Bees -- this is also still currently VHS-only, and could prove VERY hard to find. If you're in SE Michigan, go to Thomas Video in Clausen (near Troy, near-northern Detroit 'burbs) or Liberty Street Video in Ann Arbor; if you're in the Toronto, Ontario area, my friend Susie I think once said she spotted it at the Thomas Video in Guelph, but I may be mis-remembering -- I do know, though, that the Thomas in Guelph and Thomas in Clausen have a lot of the same stuff. WAX is really weird, it's mostly film collage and camera effects with a voice-over narration that sounds a lot like the conspiracy-laden rants of Francis E. Dec, Esq (google him) about bees and television and television & bees and beekeeping.

[YoungSoulRebel]

It is a funny movie. It has some good scenes and laughs but is it really a cult move?

A cult film, by definition, is any film with a very specific audience -- this audience is either in mind during the films production and pre-production (like most of the work of John Waters), or this audience just sort of happens due to a number of factors (incredibly low-budget effects rendering it otherwise unwatchable, a specific actor/ess, a bizarre plot or concept, etc). A cult film can include something like UHF that was hated by critics on its initial release but beloved near-instantly by a small but very loyal and very "infectious" fan-base who make their friends watch it, spreading the "cult" of the film largely by word-of-mouth -- or something like Mating Habits of the Earth-Bound Human that was initially well-received by critics, but which never really caught on with the audience because the concept/plot went over most people's heads, creating a "cult" of the film among a relatively small audience (again, mostly by word of mouth). Looser definitions include stuff like Wayne's World, which had pretty considerable mainstream success, but only really maintains its "staying power" among a relatively small portion of that audience. Most of the small (id est, locally owned) video rentals I've been to will also just lump anything low-budget and weird and doesn't really go anywhere else under "cult"; At Liberty Street Video in Ann Arbor, MI, for example, Amy Strangled A Small Child is lumped under "Cult", but the films of Werner Herzog and Jans Svankmeier go under "Foreign - German" and "Foreign - Scandanavia", respectively, and the films of Derek Jarman are placed either under "Foreign - UK & Ireland" or "GLBT Interest", depending on what it is. Anything sufficiently weird or goofy also typically gets lumped under "cult" -- Liberty Street stocks Better Off Dead under "cult", for example.

Again, the only weird criteria for a "cult" film is that it somehow only appeals to a rather specific and relatively small audience. Doesn't matter if it's objectively good, albeit surreal and quasi-philosophical (like Brazil), or low-budget, lacking an intelligent plot, and poorly acted (like Pink Flamingos), or just experimental and bizarre (The Garden or WAX). Anything with a small-enough and loyal-enough audience is, by definition, a "cult film".

cannibal! the musical

Another good one. I also suggest getting it on DVD and watching it with commentary.

I'm also going to add John Waters' Multiple Maniacs to my list. This is the one John Waters has alternately said was his favourite out of his work, and that "it's a fifteen minute film that [he] dragged out into just over an hour".

[FireBrand]

Mine are pretty end of the world themed..with a couple of horrors..joyful soul that I am :P

Quiet Earth
Threads
One Night Stand
Testement
When The Wind Blows
Lair of The White Worm
Dead Mans Shoes

[YoungSoulRebel]

Hardware is another good one, if you like apocalypse-themed stuff. It features the voice of Iggy Pop as a radio DJ, Lemmy as a cab driver, and Carl McCoy (Fields of the Nephilim) as "The Prophet".

[FireBrand]

Yes Hardware is a good picture YoungSoul and I think a rare example of us Brits ripping off an American film style and actuley pulling it off.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Hardware is another good one, if you like apocalypse-themed stuff. It features the voice of Iggy Pop as a radio DJ, Lemmy as a cab driver, and Carl McCoy (Fields of the Nephilim) as "The Prophet".

Hardware's a good flick. I saw it accidently years ago at a drive-in. I was happy I did.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Mine are pretty end of the world themed..with a couple of horrors..joyful soul that I am :P

Quiet Earth
Threads
One Night Stand
Testement
When The Wind Blows
Lair of The White Worm
Dead Mans Shoes

"Threads" is a very effective movie. I also kind of like "Miracle Mile" for end of the world themed movies.

As far as apocalyptic, there's always "Road Warrior" and recently I liked "Doomsday".

[Mr Karl]

the quiet earth, that's a really good one..........................haven't seen that in a very long time

[OliX]

Saw Carlito's Way yesterday. Definitely a cult movie

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Saw Carlito's Way yesterday. Definitely a cult movie

I just liked how I finally got to see Penelope Ann Miller's breasts in that one.

[OliX]

Hehe True!
You guys made my day with all the reminders and tips

Anyone named Quick Change with Bill Murray? Love the movie and love the actor.

Or Little Shop of Horrors

[OliX]

I looked it up...It's "The Dark Backward". I've heard of it, but I never have seen it. It's good, huh?

I liked it

[Dusk]

Nightmare Before Christmas