Cult Films? I live for them. :)Apr 27 '02 (Updated Aug 09 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Cult films are scary, funny and exciting, with a slight twist to give them "limited" appeal.
Ok I'll admit it. I'm a film geek, and a pretty big one at that. I love ALL types of film, but the other day someone said to me "Jeremy, you can name more films that are weird and obscure than I can name mainstream ones". So I thought what the hey, I'll write a cult movie review. I mean, if you ask me to name my fave films, almost all of them will be considered cult films. I dunno really how to define a cult film, except for that it generally lacks mainstream appeal and thefore only appeals to a "select" (i.e cult) group of people. And they are usually B-movies. The following are in no paricular order, just in the order I think of them. 1: The Rocky Horror Picture Show I got this film about 8 months ago, and fully embraced the cult aspect. I've watched it at least 15 times, and have even started a Rocky Horror cult with my friends. Nothing beats sitting around with your friends, drinking beer, throwing rice, confetti and toast, shouting the audience participation lines and dancing the time warp. Let's face it a 25 year old film that garners that amount of devotion and respect from 16 and 17 year olds (I was introduced by my mum!) is defineatly a cult flick. 2: Meet The Feebles The most disgusting gross out comedy ever, and it's done entirely with puppets! That has cult movie written all over it and it's directed by the master of Kiwi cult movies, Peter Jackson, and is damn funny to boot. I gurantee you will roll around laughing when Sebastien the fox does his musical number. The DVD may suck in terms of extras, but who cares. The film is worth it. 3: Cradle of Fear This movie is so underground that Epinions doesn't even have it on it's database! An indipendant brittish spalatter flick, with cameos from cradle of filth. Avaliable from the makers for a year uncut, and only just passed uncut and released widely on DVD here in Britain. I dunno when the americans are gonna get it but you should. A homage to 80s antholegy horror films, 4 short stories linked by a 5th wrap around, all containing buckets of gore and nudity. It has a total labour of love feel to it, and I adore it. If you love gore movies you will worship this. Out of about 15 people including me, only 5 have managed to watch it all the way through. The rest walked out. It's great. 4: Freaked A comedy written by one half of the bill and ted combo Alex Winter, and has a cameo by Keanu Reeves. This black comedy sees ex-child star Ricky Coogen telling the story of how he was kidnapped, mutated and made to star in a freak show, along with pther kidnapped tourists. Wonderful special effects and shapr one liners make this a film to watch over and over again. 5: Mulholland Drive / Lost Highway How can you have a cult movie list without mentioning David Lynch? I can't decide which of these I like more, so I'll list them together. They are fairly complementery of each other with similar themes and structure. Both are indecipherable puzzle box style films, which feature second or third act reversals of roles, style and theme. Mulholland Drive concerns two women, Rita and Betty. Rita has lost her memory and Betty is trying to help her regain it, while also being an aspiring actress in Hollywood. A straight forward enough film noir until the final 40 mins when the whole thing folds in on itself, the mere act of trying to understand this film is what makes it so engrossing and addictive. Oh that and the lesbiens. Lost Highway would take to long to describe. Just go read my review, http://www.epinions.com/content_71901154948. Shameless self promotion maybe, but it is VERY complicated. Needless to say it features two men's obsession with two womenn. The kicker is both women are played by Patricia Arquette. In closing both films are scary, atmospheric, beautiful and absorbing. 6: The Evil Dead Trilogy Another staple of any cult movie fans diet, Sam Raimi's zombie slaying bonanza starring the immortal master of the one liner Ash (played by Bruce Campell) goes from being scary and gory, to scary gory and funny, to just funny, and still maintains the high standard (who am I kidding) found throughout. A true man's trilogy, everyone loves the evil dead. Remember shop smart, shop S-mart. 7: The Usual Suspects (CONTAINS SPOILER!) My god, Brian Singer created a masterpiece. I saw it a week ago, and the DVD comes out on monday and I WILL buy it. I thought I had it figured out. It's seems so obvious (including to the guy who lent it to me). Verbal Kint is Keyser Soze, as shown by the magnificant finale. But wait. I was thinking earlier, no one ever says that. All we know is that Kints story was almost entirely false, and he's not really a cripple. Yes the burnt guy said he was, but he was not the one who KNEW Keyser. You have to watch it again, I will to see what is actually confirmed of Kints story, and so, because of the addictive nature of the story, the breakout it gave its director, and the large following it has, this is a worthy cult film. 8: Orgazmo/ BASEketball Ok another cheat. But Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's Hollywood debuts are both works of comic geius. The mere premise of both films is hillarious, and both are packed with one liners. The fights in Orgazmo, the psyche outs in BASEketball, and the fact the both share the same 3 main actors, make them both excellent films. Yet no one saw them. Such is the curse of the cult masterpiece. 9:The Entire Urotsukidoji saga Ok this one is an anime. A series of movies about the end of the world. Ok fair enough the end of the world is brought about by a teenage dork who becomes a demon with lethal phallus' when he get's some, but also complete with tenticle rapes, japanes philosophy, strobe lighting, comic (not for the right reason though) one liners, and great fight scenes. Yet the sheer offensiveness of this movie regulates it to the cult bench. But then again, thats where most great films are. 10:Perfect Blue I wanted to put another anime in, and it was this or Akira (but thats defineatly number 11) but this just beats the apocalyptic classic. Unlike most anime it lacks mechs, rapes, demons or small cute monsters. What you get is a cunningly constructed movie about the nature of self perception and idol (ie pop star) worship as well as a bit of madness and wondering about ones reality thrown in too. Pop star "Mima" quits the band she's in for an acting career, but her roles arent exaclt family friendly. Her former self begins to taunt her, and an intimate website about her life appears. What is going on? The entire film is shown from the protagonists view point, and even once it ends, you're still not sure what the answer to it all is. As you can tell I like "do it your self plot" movies. This could have been mainstream easily, but because its an anime it becomes a cult movie. So there you go. 10 of my faveorite cult movies, in a random order. Two that just missed the cut were Akira and Jacob's Ladder, but you should seek them out too.  |
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