The Top Fifty Cult Movies. (?)

[Mr. Jiggles]

EW did this a couple of years ago. A lot of them I can agree with, but I think it's missing a few. It sucks that there's are so few true exploitation flicks on the list. No Foxy Brown. And where the f is Shogun Assassin? Or Mad Max? Or Fear and Loathing? Or the Holy Grail? Or Kids? Oh, well. It IS Entertainment Weekly.

I think I've seen all but Withnail and I, Love Streams, Aguirre, The Wrath of God, and Un Chien Andalou.

And Pink Flamingos was a serious waste of, well, anything involved with it. I only watched it to see the tranny eat the dog turd. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you are lucky. Hmm. That'd make a good sig quote.

Anyways... Here they go.

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
"It's such a fine line between stupid...and clever."
"He died in a tragic gardening accident... Authorities said... it's best to leave it... unsolved."


The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
"Hi, my name is Brad Majors..." (Asshole!) "...this is my fiancee, Janet Weiss." (Slut!)


Freaks (1932)
"Gobble gobble, gobble gobble... We accept her... One of us, one of us..."


Harold and Maude (1971)
Harold: "You sure have a way with people."
Maude: "Well, they're my species!"


Pink Flamingos (1972)
"Filth are my politics! Filth is my life."


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
"Hey, Grampa, we're gonna let you have this one!"


Repo Man (1984)
"Let's go get sushi and not pay!"


Scarface (1983)
"Shay 'jello to my wittle vrend!"


Blade Runner
"Wake up. Time to die."


The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
"Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."


Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
"Hwayiii!"


Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"
"Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future."


Brazil (1985)
"That is your receipt for your husband...and this is my receipt for your receipt."


Eraserhead (1977)
(A pervasive hiss of unsettling white noise.)


Faster, Pussy-Cat! Kill! Kill! (1966)
"Honey, we don't like nothing soft. Everything we touch is hard."


The Warriors (1979)
"Warriors come out to plaaay." or
"Can...you...dig it?"


Dazed and Confused (1993)
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man: I get older, they stay the same age."


Hard-Boiled (1992)
"There's no room for failure now. The innocent must die!"
"Give a guy a gun, he thinks he's Superman. Give him two and he thinks he's God."


Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987)
"Groovy" or
"I'll swallow your soul!"
"Let's head on down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch."


The Mack (1973)
"We can settle this like you got some class, or we can get into some gangster s---."


Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)
"I know you are, but what am I? Infinity!"
"There's a lot of things about me you don't know anything about, Dottie, things you wouldn't understand, things you couldn't understand."


Un Chien Andalou (1928, France)
(It's a silent movie, but shrieks and gasps can often be heard in the audience."


Akira (1988)
"Tetsuoooooo!"


The Toxic Avenger (1985)
"They're going to nuke the monster!"


Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
"What is this, Wonka, some kind of fun house?"
"Why? Having fun?"

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
"It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and he's a wild man, so bug off!"


Dawn of the Dead (1978)
"They kill for one reason: They kill for food!"


The Wiz (1978)
"Ease on down the road."


Clerks (1994)
"I'm not even supposed to be here today."


The Harder They Come (1973)
"Don'... f--- ... wit' ... me."


Slap Shot (1977)
"Old-time hockey!"


Re-Animator (1985)
"You steal the secret of life and death, and here you are trysting with a bubbleheaded coed!"


Grey Gardens (1976)
"In dealing with me, the relatives didn't know that they were dealing with a staunch character...S-T-A-U-N-C-H."


The Big Lebowski (1998)
"The Dude abides."


Withnail and I (1987)
"I demand to have some booze!"


Showgirls (1995)
"I'm not a whore, I'm a dancer!"


A Bucket of Blood (1959)
"I've never seen anything like it before...and I hope I never see anything like it again."


They Live (1988)
"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...I'm all out of bubble gum."


The Best of Everything (1959)
"Here's to men! Bless their clean-cut faces and dirty little minds!"


Barbarella (1968)
"I'd better adjust my tongue box."


Heathers (1989)
"Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast or something?"
"Hey Ram, doesn't this cafeteria have a no-fags-allowed rule?"


Rushmore (1998)
"She's my Rushmore, Max."


The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
"...No matter where you go, there you are."
"Laugh-a while you can Monkey-Boy!!"


Love Streams (1984)
"Life is a series of suicides, divorces, promises broken, children smashed, whatever."


Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
"I will not wear that hip-hugger thing. Mother. It makes me look really fat."


Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972)
"I am the Wrath of God!"


Walking and Talking (1996)
"Do we really have to listen to this vagina music all the way there?"


The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years (1988)
"I'm the happiest son-ofabitch, motherf---er there ever was."


Friday (1995)
"It's Friday... You ain't got s--- to do."


Faces of Death, Vol. 1 (1978)
"Banned in 46 countries!" (Tagline)

[Katamari Prime]

Does EW still exsist? Haven't seen an issue in a long time. And your right, Mr. Jiggles, the list doesn't seem complete to me either.

[Autovolt 127]

Where;s Children of the Corn,No that's an Actual Cult film.

[smangerbot]

no six string samurai? outrage!

[squirrelcar]

I'm totally not a filmie, but I've seen almost half those.

...and I'll probably never see the other half.

[smkspy]

No Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Monster Squad= Fail in my book.

Pink Flamingos is a MAJOR cult film where it is shite or not.

Good list though, I've seen 75% of those.

Oh, and if Friday is on that list then Austin Powers should be also.

[Blaster_Prime]

Um Hello??? You are missing one very important film on this list...UHF!!! Quite possibly one of the best cult films of our time. Not to mention a few others that have been forgotten from the list...Tank Girl, Bad Taste, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Mystery Science Theatre 3000: the Movie, and Big Money Hu$tlas

[BarBoBot]

Dazed and confused is one of my all time favorates.

The biggest cult classis has got to be Rocky Horror Picture Show. They still show it in theaters after all this time.....but it still sucks :)

[Omnibus Prime]

They've got fucking Showgirls, but no Fear & Loathing? Horrifically, laughably bad =/= cult movie...er, unless Plan, 9 and Space are in the title.

Also seems like Donnie Darko has more than earned a spot on any such list worth a shit. I'd strike Shawshank as that's pretty universally thought of as an excellent movie, period and not some niche 'cult' fave.

[trebleshot]

WTF?

Where are Puppet Master and Dead Alive?

I'd really like to know what EW's definition of "cult movie" is, so I can brain them with an unabridged dictionary.

[KA]

yeah i was like shawshank? pfft.

[Gnaw]

I'd strike Shawshank as that's pretty universally thought of as an excellent movie, period and not some niche 'cult' fave.

yeah i was like shawshank? pfft.


My thoughts exactly.

[Random Autobot]

Hmmm, it seems the creators of this list, as well as a few of the board members commenting on it, are a little lost on exactly what a "cult" film is. Shawshank is in no way a cult film, nor is Fear and Loathing. Both great films, yes, but not cult films.

First off, the list fails because both "El Topo" and the original "Night of the Living Dead" are nowhere to be found. These two films are essentially what caused the term "Cult" film to come into existence, and gave birth to the "Midnight Movie Madness" phenom. Without Topo and Dead, you don't have Pink Flamingos, or The Harder They Come, or even the Rocky Horror Picture Show, for that matter.

I'm not entirely sure I would classify any thing by Bunuel as a cult fim either. Bunuel's "Le Chien Andalou" is a mind fuck, an experiment in adapting theatre of cruelty onto film, but if it's a cult film, than so is "The Gold Rush" by Chaplin.

I would replace Shawshank with Fight Club, which is a legitimate cult film created by a major hollywood production. Withnail and I is a great film, and anyone who hasn't seen it, should do so.

[Grimlock_13]

At least it has Lebowski. Otherwise it's a list full of fail.

[Mr. Jiggles]

Hmmm, it seems the creators of this list, as well as a few of the board members commenting on it, are a little lost on exactly what a "cult" film is. Shawshank is in no way a cult film, nor is Fear and Loathing. Both great films, yes, but not cult films.

First off, the list fails because both "El Topo" and the original "Night of the Living Dead" are nowhere to be found. These two films are essentially what caused the term "Cult" film to come into existence, and gave birth to the "Midnight Movie Madness" phenom. Without Topo and Dead, you don't have Pink Flamingos, or The Harder They Come, or even the Rocky Horror Picture Show, for that matter.

I'm not entirely sure I would classify any thing by Bunuel as a cult fim either. Bunuel's "Le Chien Andalou" is a mind fuck, an experiment in adapting theatre of cruelty onto film, but if it's a cult film, than so is "The Gold Rush" by Chaplin.

I would replace Shawshank with Fight Club, which is a legitimate cult film created by a major hollywood production. Withnail and I is a great film, and anyone who hasn't seen it, should do so.


Fear and Loathing only made 10 mil at the b.o., and gained it's popularity in the aftermarket and on campuses which makes it a cult movie.

Fight Club made over 100 mil worldwide, Rosie talked about it on her show and even my grandmother has seen it. NOT a cult movie.

And DOTD is much more of a cult move than NOTLD. Everybody gives props to Romero for NOTLD and the impact it had on horror and the midnight movie scene. Dawn is the more obscure and has possibly an even greater cult following that Night.

RHPS is much more of a throwback to the serials and horror of the 30s and 40s (which have become cult movies in their own right), than gritty horror like Night, or acid-trip existentialist Jodorowsky movies.

[Frognal]

A better list would've divided them into genres and explained what the criteria for inclusion was.

[Omnibus Prime]

Fear and Loathing only made 10 mil at the b.o., and gained it's popularity in the aftermarket and on campuses which makes it a cult movie.


My thoughts exactly. Commercial fail + small rabid fanbase. Hell, I saw it in the theater, bought it on VHS, bought the bare-bones DVD and then bought the Criterion release. Pretty rabid, that. The book may have been a pretty big cultural splash in 1971, but by 1998, with HST largely removed from the public consciousness, the movie pretty much played to a small but devoted audience from the start.

I'm kinda with RA on Fight Club though. It may have made 100M worldwide, but 60+% of that was overseas. Domestically, it was pretty much a flop for having the bankable Pitt, and to a lesser extent Norton attached. It grew after the fact among the college set too, via campus playings and the slick DVD right as the scales were tipping in favor of DVD but most releases were still pretty basic.

[Random Autobot]

Fear and Loathing only made 10 mil at the b.o., and gained it's popularity in the aftermarket and on campuses which makes it a cult movie.

Fight Club made over 100 mil worldwide, Rosie talked about it on her show and even my grandmother has seen it. NOT a cult movie.

And DOTD is much more of a cult move than NOTLD. Everybody gives props to Romero for NOTLD and the impact it had on horror and the midnight movie scene. Dawn is the more obscure and has possibly an even greater cult following that Night.

RHPS is much more of a throwback to the serials and horror of the 30s and 40s (which have become cult movies in their own right), than gritty horror like Night, or acid-trip existentialist Jodorowsky movies.

I'm willing to bend on F & L, but remember, that $10 million was only ists domestic box office tally, not worldwide. Shawshank is not a cult film, as I've never heard of any specific rabid fanbase devoted solely to it.

Fight Club may have eventually made money world wide, but it was a flop in North America, and picked up a rather voracious fan base after it's DVD release, so I would say it belongs on the list far more than Shawshank.

No doubt Dawn of the Dead is a cult classic, and I'm not saying it should be replaced by NOTLD. But to not have the two films that started the whole idea of "Cult" films on the list is fail, no matter how you slice it.

Rocky Horror Picture Show is the definition of a cult classic, just because it's the most famous doesn't mean it's not a cult film . It was a massive failure at the box office during it's initial release, and then quickly picked up an obsessed fan base in Midnight screenings. That quickly developed into thousands of people on any given saturday night dressing up as their beloved characters, and acting out the movie as they watched it in a theatre for the gajillionth time. There is no doubting that it is a cult classic, in every sense of the term, it just happens to have a larger cult following than most of the other movies combined.

[honestgabe]

I'd take Brazil over Fear and Loathing.

[unicron's blues]

At least it has Lebowski. Otherwise it's a list full of fail.

QFT. And you know, two films that were both blockbusters and cult films at the same time are Star Wars and Halloween(original).

[fosterlager]

I'd take Brazil over Fear and Loathing.

Is that the Terry Gilliam directed film? I have that and started it but gave up about 1/2 hour in. Does it improve later on?

[Random Autobot]

I'd take Brazil over Fear and Loathing.

Brazil is on the list, and rightfully so. God, I love that movie.

[trebleshot]

Is that the Terry Gilliam directed film? I have that and started it but gave up about 1/2 hour in. Does it improve later on?

That's it. As for the second question, depends on your point of view.

EDIT: Personally, I liked Jabberwocky better. But then, I'm weird.

[Savanna]

No Office Space, no Super Troopers, total fail. I do find half that list to be off though.

[Ironhide2005]

Where the hell is Starwars,Back to the Future,and Fast times at righmount high

[fosterlager]

Where the hell is Starwars,Back to the Future,and Fast times at righmount high
They're on a list of NON-cult films.

[Evil Porkchop]

Serenity isn't on it... so the list is incomplete.

[Random Autobot]

Where the hell is Starwars,Back to the Future,and Fast times at righmount high

Fast Times is the only one you mentioned that would qualify as a cult film. Blockbusters with rabid fanbases aren't necessarily cult classics, in fact, they rarely ever are.

[smkspy]

Serenity isn't on it... so the list is incomplete.

I think Serenity falls more into cult tv show than movie. I've tried showing it to friends, but it doesn't seem to catch on without the tv show to back it up.