Complete cult!

[Gob]

What makes a cult film?


By Ian Haigh
BBC News Magazine

Cult film is being celebrated by thousands of fans in London in a festival of strange outfits and aficionado enthusiasm. But what makes a film become cult?

A fully-grown man - lawyer by day - constructs a fully-functional Predator costume for a themed party.

At another party a different fully-grown man arrives with rouged lips, stockings and suspenders in homage to Dr Frank N Furter.

This kind of behaviour usually signals when a movie has achieved cult status.

Cult film is a tricky term.

The Oxford English Dictionary informs us that cult films should have "enduring appeal to a relatively small audience", and be "non-mainstream". But search the internet, and you see the cult badge has been applied to a plethora of disparate films.

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is a cult classic. The director's withdrawal of the film in the UK soon after its release denied it a place in the mainstream.

But it lived on in the form of battered VHS tapes passed reverentially between teenagers, becoming a small screen rite of passage in the near three decades until it was finally rereleased.

Other films bestowed with cult status have had mainstream releases and proved unpopular. But they can be born again in the form of a steadily burgeoning and fanatical following.

Two-Lane Blacktop might not be the most famous road movie. But it's the archetypal cult film. Hardcore fans forced its release on video in the 1990s, goading a studio that had let it spend years in obscurity.

Cult fans revel in such obscurity. Reefer Madness was originally released by a church group in 1936 to highlight the dangers of marijuana. The film is now a classic amongst the stoner community, where fans guffaw at the sensationalised propaganda.

Another category of cult film is the "so-bad-it's-good".

Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space is a perennial candidate for the title of worst film ever made.

But fans marvel at the continuity errors and scenes where actors visibly read from scripts. That Bela Lugosi - who died during filming - was replaced by a much taller man, is the cherry on the cake.

Showgirls is in the same category. This tale of strippers and the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas was greeted by critical derision and empty cinemas when it was first released.

But it has lived on as a cult film, selling $100m of DVDs and videos as hip audiences wept with laughter at parties celebrating its awkward eroticism.

WHAT MIGHT MAKE A FILM CULT?
# Appeal to a specific community
# Encourages dressing up
# Intelligent B-movie referencing
# Long-running midnight screenings
# Exceptionally poor quality

So how does a cult film come to be? Subverting a Showgirls or a Reefer Madness is an established route.

Films become "cult for an entirely different reason than originally intended", says Xavier Mendik, director of the cult film archive at Brunel University. Mendik is also the man behind Cine-Excess IV: the Fourth International Conference on Global Cult Film, in London.

"A group will pick up on incredibly diverse parts of a movie so that it meets their needs."

It's not that the cults are based around some hidden brilliance.

"Fans [often] view the films that they celebrate either with a patronising affection or even downright contempt," argues Professor Mark Jancovich, head of film and television studies at the University of East Anglia.

Cult fans are "active", as opposed to "passive mainstream cinema viewers", says Mr Mendik. This can manifest itself in many ways, but perhaps the most noticeable is dressing up and role-playing.

Take a film like The Big Lebowski. Its cultishness is demonstrated at conventions, peopled by purple jumpsuit-wearing fans spouting catchphrases.

FIVE CULT FILMS
# Attack of the Killer Tomatoes : Killer tomatoes terrorise America
# Two Lane Blacktop : Drag-racing drifters do route 66
# Beastmaster : Lost prince uses animal telepathy to get revenge
# Withnail and I : Resting actors have bad Cumbria holiday
# Beyond The Valley of the Dolls : Unhinged, high-camp romp

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a pioneer. Having failed to attract mass audiences on first release in 1975, within a year the film's fan base was growing. Audiences warmed to the film, and delighted in wearing fishnet stockings and leather at midnight screenings. The trend has lasted 35 years.

And cultishness is in the eye of the beholder.

If the qualification is "active" fans or dressing up, then what about Star Wars, with its conventions and Chewbacca-costumed cinemagoers, or The Lord of the Rings, with screenings teeming with orcs and elves?

Or The Wizard of Oz, where a substrata of gay fans - "friends of Dorothy" - provide a cult audience within an already vast fan base.

But does the enormous pre-cult commercial success of these "mainstream" films disbar them from true cult status? The cult film jury is out on this one.

It's clear that the big studios are aware of the power of cult to swell their wallets.

The institution of "midnight movies" in the US provides a breeding ground for cult classics.

Donnie Darko grossed just $514,545 in five months of US theatre screenings. But a re-release in 2002 saw Richard Kelly's surreal film of sinister teen-angst given 28 consecutive months of midnight screenings at one New York theatre. The film now has a cult following, and the backers have made some money.

But trying to consciously gain a cult following is a process full of pitfalls.

"Snakes on a Plane tries too hard to be cult, and fails to attract a cult audience," says Leon Hunt, film and television lecturer at Brunel University.

One possible avenue to cultishness is to be self-referential. Mr Mendik sees some directors as "double-coding their work and loading a film with B-movie ephemera".

"Whilst anything can be a cult movie, you cannot guarantee the manufacture of one," he says.

To create a cult is not easy, but to have an army of publicists who will queue at midnight in the rain to see your film for the 18th time is a tantalising goal.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 640334.stm

Published: 2010/05/03 12:54:50 GMT

Ok gang, what are your favourite "cult" movies?

One of mine; The Lord of Misrule

[Scooter]

Harold and Maude

[Crackpot]

Evil Dead 2

And not quite cult yet:

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera

[Timster]

Dawn of the Dead (the original)

[Reality Bytes]

Blues Brothers

[Big RR]

I think there are different types of cult films--there's the one's people will go to midnight shows of (Like Rocky Horror Pciture Show) but, with the advent o vdeo and DVDs, there are a lot of films that would have made midnight showings previosuly that now are in the hands of cult collectors. Things like Eraserhead (early David Lynch which i first saw in amidnight show and now own), gorefests like Last House on the Left (the original, directed by Wes Craven, who wnet on to much more mainstream horror), Profondo Rosso (Dario Argento, also known as Deep Red), and for real schlock, Cannibal Holocaust, which was (falsely, as it was later shwn (and clear to anyone who saw the film)) accused of showing real snuff film style scenes (yes, a lot of my cult film tastes run to schlocky horror). And along that line, let's not forget the truly terrible film I Spit on Your GRave/Day of the Woman (don't know who directed it).

Other films I would include are Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg), Blue Velvet (Lynch), The Shining (Kubrick--I could put 2001 here as well), an others which were much more mainstream films that seems to have similar devoted fans. I'm sure there are others within other genres (I'd have to agree with HArold and MAude, e.g., one of the most original films I've ever seen), but horror is my "guilty pleasure" genre of films.

[Sue U]

By definition, anything David Lynch does is a cult film. And I think Quentin Tarrantino fans must be a cult of cutlists.

Does Dr. Strangelove count as a cult film? If so, it's my fave.

I'm also a fan of spaghetti westerns, particularly the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name" series.

And of course, I couldn't forget the Godzilla and Mothra films, at least up to the 1970s.

(I'm not really a fan of horror movies, so I'm almost embarrased to admit I also like Evil Dead 2.)

[Big RR]

Actually, Dr. Strangelove is high on the list of what I see as collectable cult films. And your mention of the spaghetti westerns reminds me of my favorite Eastwood film, The Beguiled.

[Crackpot]

Evil Dead 2 Is pure Genius. Why because it's the most realistic from a natural human reaction perspective. Quick you're confronted by an evil demonic zombie raising presence what do you do?

A) Stare it down steely eyed and courageously set out on a trek to find it's cause.

B) Go batshit insane stumble around doing the best you can do to survive and only attempt to stop it when the method falls in your lap.

I think we all know the true answer

[Sue U]

I just thought Evil Dead 2 was funny.

Speaking of black comedy, I have always wondered why Confederacy of Dunces was never made into a movie. It is one of the most cinematic books I've ever read, and really cries out for a screenplay.

Oh, now that I've googled it, it seems I'm not the only one:

There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and direct an adaptation, starring John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but Belushi's death would prevent this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the lead, both of whom died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a curse to the role.[5]

British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to adapt Toole's book for the screen.[6] He was sent to New Orleans by Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation.[7]

A version adapted by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to be directed by David Gordon Green, was scheduled for release in 2005. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother. A staged reading of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as his mother, Paul Rudd as Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Green, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy.[8]

Various reasons are cited as to why the movie has yet to be filmed. They include: disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.[5] When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a "mystery." [9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confeder ... daptations

I always thought Belushi was ideal (and maybe unique) for the role of Ingatius -- I didn't even know it was already tried. I can't even imagine Will Ferrell in the part -- that'd be a serious mistake. I hate to suggest it, 'cause Im not a fan, but maybe Jack Black?

[dales]

The Coleman Francis trilogy.

1. Skydivers

2. Beast of Yucca Flat

3. Red Zone Cuba

This guy makes Ed Wood look like Francis Ford Coppola!




Addendumb......most any film shown on MST3K

[Gob]

Saving Grace