Cult movies - what are your favorites

I stumbled across Real Genius tonight on cable and watched it for the umpteenth time. One of my favorites. And I got to thinking about cult movies (which I think this has become) and what you folks might like in that category.

btw: If you're into the cult movie genre, Daniel Peary wrote 3 great books way back when.  Cult Movies,  Cult Movies 2 and Cult Movies 3.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=danny+peary+cult+movies&sprefix=danny+peary+cult%2Cgarden%2C179&crid=3G4Q0OHVQ90ZE&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adanny+peary+cult+movies

Wow, I see that he's written a lot more than 3 on cult movies. Gonna order me some books tonight.

Anyway, Peary's 1st 3 books turned me on to many, many great movies that I would otherwise have never heard about. Highly recommended.

Paths of Glory.

Great thread topic.  I haven't read those cult movie books, but based on my own feeling of what a cult movie is my faves list would start:

Donnie Darko, Sexy Beast, Rocky Horror. 

I'm sure there's others that aren't coming to me.

Princess Bride - Clockwork Orange - The Big Lebowski

Not sure how or when a movie gets the "cult classic" determination - but I think In Bruges should be.

and Memento.

Eraserhead

Repo Man

The orignal Batman move, staring Adam West.  The whole movie is on YouTube for free.  Here are the highlights:  

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension.

Repo Man

Pink Flamingos

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Or any other Russ Meyer movie.

Withnail & I

Blue Velvet

The Toxic Avenger

If this guy's list is accurate, Danny Peary has a geniunely interesting idea of what can be a cult movie:

https://letterboxd.com/thecinema4pylon/list/danny-pearys-cult-movies-1-2-3/

Napoleon Dynamite.

In light of the Colin Farrell clip, I have to mention a truly bizarre movie I just watched that I think is destined for cult status:  The Lobster.  You might not love it, though it seemed to receive mostly high critical praise, but you won't forget it.

bub said:

Napoleon Dynamite.

In light of the Colin Farrell clip, I have to mention a truly bizarre movie I just watched that I think is destined for cult status:  The Lobster.  You might not love it, though it seemed to receive mostly high critical praise, but you won't forget it.

Oh, I loved The Lobster.

DaveSchmidt said:

If this guy's list is accurate, Danny Peary has a geniunely interesting idea of what can be a cult movie:

https://letterboxd.com/thecinema4pylon/list/danny-pearys-cult-movies-1-2-3/

This is a good list.

I took that and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night out of the library on the same day.  I watched the latter first.  It seemed weird and off beat until I saw The Lobster.  But it too may achieve cult status some day - a low budget Iranian vampire western noir with some drug addiction and prostitution thrown in.   Worth a look.

ridski said:

bub said:

Napoleon Dynamite.

In light of the Colin Farrell clip, I have to mention a truly bizarre movie I just watched that I think is destined for cult status:  The Lobster.  You might not love it, though it seemed to receive mostly high critical praise, but you won't forget it.

Oh, I loved The Lobster.

Agree on "Batman--The Movie."  The shark-bomb. The mid-sixties-ness. The light touch. 

"Rushmore." Jason Schwartzman.

"Lost in America."  Albert Brooks's scene with Gary Marshall.   

"The Blues Brothers."  The Aretha Franklin scene. The James Brown scene. Chicago. Nonverbal funny stuff (Belushi making an entrance by turning fat handsprings down an aisle, the brothers' stupid dance moves on stage). Chicago.

Agree on "In Bruges." When Gleeson and Farrell talk to each other. When those fat snowflakes just hang in the air in that storybook square. See also the harrowing "Calvary" by the other McDonough brother, with a wonderful performance by Gleeson.  But it's too painful for repeated viewings and so I wouldn't call it a cult classic.

"The Graduate."  All the scenes with Ann Bancroft.  The Simon & Garfunkle soundtrack. 

Bedazzled (1967).

(Something appears to be off about the list in my link above. It says it covers all three Peary books, but it doesn't contain Bedazzled, which other sites are telling me is in Cult Movies 2.)

ridski said:

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension.

Love this but haven't seen it since college. I am preserving it in my memory and not risking watching it again and being all "what was I thinking?"

In a similar vein, Strange Brew.

Does "Top Secret" count as a cult movie? Good spoof, funny characters including of course Deja Vu.

Yes I love the 60s Batman movie! It holds up as a campy classic, although as a little kid I took it more seriously. 

Does "Top Secret" count as a cult movie? Good spoof, funny characters including of course Deja Vu.

I loved Clue, as well. A silly romp with a talented cast.

Choose Me

Let The Right One In

Bring It On.

DaveSchmidt said:

Bedazzled (1967).

(Something appears to be off about the list in my link above. It says it covers all three Peary books, but it doesn't contain Bedazzled, which other sites are telling me is in Cult Movies 2.)

Scroll to the bottom of the photo listing, then click the "Next" button. I see it at the top of pg. 2:

https://letterboxd.com/thecinema4pylon/list/danny-pearys-cult-movies-1-2-3/page/2/

With the recent passing Harry Dean Stanton, I strongly recalled "Paris, Texas". It was something I watched when I lived with an artsy crew in college, and the film made a lasting impression.

And with the passing of David Bowie, I was also reminded of Labyrinth. I think it makes cult status -- my kid even got a Labyrinth t-shirt in a Geek Gear/Loot box he got for his birthday last year. (Then we watched the movie).

BrickPig said:

Choose Me

Let The Right One In

Speaking of vampire movies, I loved Fright Night and may do a viewing around Halloween.

sprout said:

Scroll to the bottom of the photo listing, then click the "Next" button. I see it at the top of pg. 2:

Ah, thanks. It was there all the time. Which reminds me:

Duel.

Oh, and "King of Comedy." RIP Jerry Lewis, the brilliant straight man to De Niro's stalky Rupert Pupkin.

Pulp Fiction

The Flamingo Kid

Grey Gardens

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

The Virgin Suicides

The Others

Nightmare on Elm Street

Jeepers Creepers

Love Jones 

DaveSchmidt said:

Bedazzled (1967).

(Something appears to be off about the list in my link above. It says it covers all three Peary books, but it doesn't contain Bedazzled, which other sites are telling me is in Cult Movies 2.)

Absolutely love Bedazzled.

In Bruges is awesome.

So I Married an Axe Murderer mike myers early movie w precursor to Fat Bastard

Memento

Morganna said

Absolutely love Bedazzled.

Julie Andrews!

Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Memento yet.

I was going to mention Memento.   

Can a movie be a cult classic if it received awards or was recognized?  Like No Country for Old Men.

I guess Pulp Fiction has a lot of mainstream success but is still considered a cult classic.

Check out Peary's list, jamie. It should ease any qualms you may have.

So what makes a cult movie anyway? My definition for most cult movies is that it's a movie that upon first release was not widely seen, for whatever reason - too weird, too (seemingly) awful, whatever. Maybe it just got overshadowed because the latest Star Wars was released that week.

90% of those movies fade away into oblivion, never to be heard from again. But some start to gain a following and get a second life years later.  

There are other kinds though. I think anything that Alejandro Jodorowsky makes pretty much starts out as a cult movie. (anyone seen Sante Sangre?) These movies are largely considered cult because they're so damn weird that only certain personalities like them.

But I think Pulp Fiction qualifies too, though it doesn't fit into the above. Movies like Pulp Fiction develop a "cult" following, who really dive deep into the movie to examine it's form or performances or internal intricacies or maybe how it set trends, who see it multiple times, etc.

It's all good.

DaveSchmidt said:

If this guy's list is accurate, Danny Peary has a geniunely interesting idea of what can be a cult movie:

https://letterboxd.com/thecinema4pylon/list/danny-pearys-cult-movies-1-2-3/

Yes, it's accurate. And my definition pretty much came out of reading Peary's books and trying to figure out why a particular film made his list.

The Lobster.  Easily the strangest movie I've ever seen.

bub said:

Napoleon Dynamite.

In light of the Colin Farrell clip, I have to mention a truly bizarre movie I just watched that I think is destined for cult status:  The Lobster.  You might not love it, though it seemed to receive mostly high critical praise, but you won't forget it.

sounds like my kind of movie.

yahooyahoo said:

The Lobster.  Easily the strangest movie I've ever seen.

bub said:

Napoleon Dynamite.

In light of the Colin Farrell clip, I have to mention a truly bizarre movie I just watched that I think is destined for cult status:  The Lobster.  You might not love it, though it seemed to receive mostly high critical praise, but you won't forget it.