Theme: Cult Films

Cult Movies are films that have gained a dedicated audience outside of mainstream appreciation. Exactly what constitutes a Cult Movie is not an easy definition as there seems no overriding theme between films beyond their having a select audience.

In most cases, these are films that failed in their original release but have found a dedicated Fandom afterwards. Equally, Cult Movie has become a marketing label that is used to define midnight screenings or specialty streams at film festivals, even the dvd catalogues of some companies.

Cult Movies usually include those that have a psychedelic or mind-bending quality; original and underappreciated films that were critical and box-office failures; weird, surrealist and downright strange cinema; those that are widely regarded as Bad Movies; those that have some provocative or transgressive sexuality that was ahead of its time; camp classics or embarrassing failures of since well-known actors; or those that have levels of fascination that go beyond a mere multiplex reading.

Sometimes a cult work can also become a mainstream success. Few would argue that both Star Trek (1966-9) and Star Wars (1977) have massive cults but can the mainstream success of either mean that they still can be called cult works?