I just wanna know what makes a cult film, a cult film. Films like Donnie Darko, Kill Bill and Battle Royale have stirred up a cult following and I'd just like to know how does a film actually gain cult status and what makes it considered a cult film? Also while were on the topics of "cult" films, I'd also like to know why are these films held in high regard and loved so much? Why are they popular? I never really understood this concept and I've been watching my share of "cult" films lately.

kill bill is a cult film? news to me.

Cult films is a movie that attracts a devoted group of followers or obsessive fans, despite having failed on their initial releases. The term also describes films that have remained popular over a long period of time amongst a small group of followers. In many cases, cult films may have failed to achieve mainstream success on original release although this is definitely not always the case.

Sometimes, they even become classics.

Films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Warriors, Blade Runner, and Pulp Fiction...which are some of my favourites have a cult following, but weren't very popular with other people who don't like those sort of movies.

The same goes with tv shows...for instance, the X-Files has a cult following.

kill bill is a cult film? news to me.

lol well it was under the cult section in my local video store so yeah =D

your video store has a cult section? that's a bit odd.

also i think log1x_dr4g0n sums up a cult film pretty well

your video store has a cult section? that's a bit odd.

also i think log1x_dr4g0n sums up a cult film pretty well

Yeah it even has the little tags to tell you it's a cult film. Then again it is sorta next to the Arthouse stuff and I think all of Kubrick's work is there as well so yeah. Cult much? :S

Two Words!
American Psycho.

I think cult films are merely those that aen't really ever going to appeal to mainstream audiences, or small indie flicks that very few people ever actually get a chance to see whether they may have widespread appeal or not, if the funding etc isn't there for promotion they are only ever going to manage a cult following

A cult film (or so I think) is one that breaks part of it's genre and captures a dedicated following. They also tend to be films which don't succeed in their initial release as they are either -

1)ahead of their time or
2)overshadowed by something else

A good example is John Carpenters The Thing which broke several boundaries and was overshadowed by several other releases.

The whole SAW franchise is an excellent example of a cult film.

cult films? my fave are trainspotting, requiem for a dream, a clockwork orange and pulp fiction

I think cult films are merely those that aen't really ever going to appeal to mainstream audiences, or small indie flicks that very few people ever actually get a chance to see whether they may have widespread appeal or not, if the funding etc isn't there for promotion they are only ever going to manage a cult following


Spot on.

In my opinion, a cult film a film that isn't neccesarily the greatest movie, but has a highly devoted fanbase. It usually acquires its title after going to VHS/DVD.

The "cult" term is also often applied to TV series or other media. Firefly is often referred to as being a "cult" hit -- it has a wildly obsessive fanbase, but never gained a particularly massive popular appeal. The "cult" term has also been applied to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, although that series has penetrated the popular culture to such a degree that I'm not entirely sure how much it can be called "cult" anymore.

Add Devine or Ed Wood to the production process of a flick and you gain instant "cult" status imo.

I believe that what makes something a cult film is something at first which pushes the envelope in ways not really touched on that well previously.

Then developing a steadily waning fan base until there are only true fans of the particular film in question remaining.

Finally being able to appeal to those fans time after time in new ways, even if those new ways are subtle re-hashing's of previous ideas and occasionally modifying the initial product to ascertain features previously undisclosed to the audience.

Not to forget of course the necessity to create an atmosphere which can be analyzed ad infinitum and discussed at great length. (If you keep reading you will see what I mean.)

In addition to the analytical portion, something which sets the film out beyond most of it's counterparts within each specific genre as well, such as what differs the Nightmare on Elm St series with the SAW series of films (in this instance being the underlying cause and effect problem)
In my eyes Freddy was out for nothing but revenge on those who had wronged him.
Whereas John Kramer had spent his remaining years ascertaining peoples worthiness to exist in life, by forcing them to face their own mortality and flaws, albeit in ways which are far-in-a-way more unique than most others.

I would appreciate any feedback to these opinions here just from a purely curious and comparative standpoint.

The whole SAW franchise is an excellent example of a cult film.

No.

No.

Yes. And you can add the Child's Play Movies to the list too.

Saw is pop murderporn. There's nothing cultly about it.

cult films? my fave are trainspotting, requiem for a dream, a clockwork orange and pulp fiction

hell yea.



Ichi the killer & menace II society added onto that.

lol well it was under the cult section in my local video store so yeah =D

Well, my library listed "Little Miss Sunshine" in the children's section, so that doesn't mean whoever is organizing your video store isn't also an idiot. Kill Bill is a mainstream film. It was very successful, and it hasn't really been around long enough to wane from the publics collective consciousness, leaving a smaller group of devotees to pimp its awesomeness.

No.

Why not? It's usually not a crowded theater, and you don't hear it talked about much randomly. But yet, there is still a group of fans that follow it and are eager to see what happens next. And if you go online, you find a whole ton of them as opposed to in real life.

Also I don't know if you're trying to say it's TOO popular, or not popular enough to be a cult series. It's definitely not TOO popular. But it does have a following audience.

Why not? It's usually not a crowded theater, and you don't hear it talked about much randomly. But yet, there is still a group of fans that follow it and are eager to see what happens next. And if you go online, you find a whole ton of them as opposed to in real life.

Also I don't know if you're trying to say it's TOO popular, or not popular enough to be a cult series. It's definitely not TOO popular. But it does have a following audience.

Dunno if you've noticed, but the Saw franchise is kinda popular. I don't even watch any of the Saw films and I know all about them and most people I know (or rather, know of) have seen it and talk about it.

I missed this before but


Saw is pop murderporn. There's nothing cultly about it.

Have you ever seen any of them? You sound like what the average person who hasn't seen it would say. You're thinking of Hostel.

The only people left who still watch it are those who watch it for the story and the cliffhangers and the end and trying to figure out the twist. The gore and stuff is just the icing on the cake. If it were "pop murderporn" it would be the other way around, and that pretty much defines Hostel.


Dunno if you've noticed, but the Saw franchise is kinda popular. I don't even watch any of the Saw films and I know all about them and most people I know (or rather, know of) have seen it and talk about it.

Back in 2004 or 2005 maybe. But if you've seen the fourth one, you could tell that they were more focusing on trying to move the story along and leave cliffhangers than have a bloody bodycount. Saw 4 was pretty much a bridge to continue the story, most people who watched it back then probably don't care about that but some still do. Hell, some people even anticipate each movie in the same way that the Harry Potter books were anticipated, coming up with crazy theories as to who really was behind what and what this thing does and what will happen to so-and-so and so on. and are among the first to see it opening night because they're desperate to know what happens. It's just, as many of those people as there are, they're hard to find... if you know what I mean.

It's certainly above the level of "pop tortureporn" as only a moron who has no idea what he's talking about and reads about movies instead of watches them would say that. Maybe it would fit part 3, but calling the original as such shows ignorance.
And it's certainly not a box-office failure, either, but that's a given.