15 Cult Movies You Need To Watch Right Now:
A lot of people have different ideas about what makes a movie a cult classic, but most agree that it must have a group of loyal, passionate fans.
The best popular movies are from many different types of movies, all of which have their own unique birth stories. They include films that were ahead of their time and didn’t connect with most people, but found a committed group or had a big impact on film history even though they didn’t do very well at the box office.
It’s not possible to make a cult movie in a certain way, but a cult film must be able to catch the mind of its audience and inspire its loyal followers to express a part of themselves via the story.
Cult movies really took off alongside home video, which let movies that didn’t do well at the box office find new viewers in their own living rooms. Social media and file-sharing websites have made it easier for movies to quickly find viewers outside of theaters.
Escape From New York:
Terrorists take over the president’s plane as he flies to an international peace meeting in Hartford, Connecticut, of all places. This could be the most stupid scene in a stupid movie.
The president gets away within an escape pod, which is wonderful. The pod does crash in Manhattan, though, which is bad. In this future version of America, authorities have transformed Manhattan into an open jail. A 50-foot-high wall surrounds the island, and the bridges are covered in mines.
People sentenced to life in prison often act out. Being stuck there is undesirable, and it is crucial to save the president. Snake Plissken is that person. He is a shamed former special operations soldier who robbed the Federal Reserve as well as rocks a mean eye patch.
If Snake saves the president, the government will forgive him, but to make sure he doesn’t do anything bad, they prick him with a needle and fill him with “micro explosives” that will go off within less than 24 hours if he doesn’t do the job.
Then they give him a stealth glider and tell him to sneak onto the island. Snake lands on top of one of the World Trade Center towers as planned.
Streets Of Fire:
This movie, which director Walter Hill called “A Rock & Roll Fable,” was supposed to be the first in a series of movies that would be both musicals and action movies. But the movie bombed at the box office, and the idea died after just one movie.
Still, the movie, which starred a young Diane Lane as well as Michael Pare as the soldier who liked her rather unlikeable rock star character, gained a loyal fan base thanks to home video sales.
Also, the music is great, with songs like “Nowhere Fast” and “Tonight is What It Means to Be Young” by Jim Steinman. Not to mention Dan Hartman’s FM radio hit “I Can Dream About You.”
The Hunger:
Tony Scott directed this sexy horror movie about a vampire named Miriam Blaylock as well as her friend John, who live in the real world. Miriam gives her lovers the opportunity to live forever. She used to be an Egyptian queen.
To get help, John turns to Dr. Sarah Roberts, a doctor who studies aging, when he starts to age quickly and fall apart. When The Hunger came out, it got mixed reviews. Scott said, “Hollywood just hated that movie.”
“Esoteric and artsy-fartsy” was what they called it. However, The Hunger has gained a cult following over the years, especially among people who identify as goth. Later, critics are additionally more positive. Camilla Paglia, a social critic, called The Hunger “almost a masterpiece.”
Clue:
There’s a reason why Clue is so well-known. The movie was always really inappropriate, and it tried to make its source material more appropriate for an adult audience by giving it several ends that would often change after each showing.
A lot of people went to the movies to try to see all three ends because this made them so mad. Over time, we’ve come to admire Jonathan Lynn’s goal of creating a film experience that is unlike any other. This movie is its own thing, and we’re happy to join the cast and their crazy ways of thinking in this great whodunit.
Labyrinth:
Jim Henson’s animation is amazing, and David Bowie’s dancing as the Goblin King, who takes Sarah’s baby brother, is even more amazing.
Why not read a few pieces of Labyrinth slash fiction that you can’t bring to work? Or, now that I think about it, civilization, or even writing your own? A really gross one regarding a bog of endless smells is being worked on.
The Wicker Man:
It’s a cult classic in every sense of the word, and it’s not the same as the well-known version starring Nic Cage, which stands for something else. A lot of horror movies have been known to surprise their viewers, and The Wicker Man is no different.
Neil Howie, the strict, deeply religious police sergeant who is saving up for marriage, would be a huge bore on a Scottish island where people worship Celtic gods, drink a lot of ale, and are very open to having affairs. But while Sergeant Howie searches the island for a lost local girl, the people who live there start acting in a much more evil way.
One of the things that makes The Wicker Man so interesting is how first-time director Robin Hardy uses Pagan images to create an unsettling mood and then changes your allegiances to the most bland main character you can think of.
The Wicker Man is already known as one of the best movies of its kind by the time the real Wicker Man shows up for the scary ending.
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls:
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this campy, humorous story, meant to imitate the hit movie Valley of the Dolls, is that it was written by the famous film critic Roger Ebert.
It tells the strange as well as twisted story of a female rock band that has to deal with creepy managers, jealous partners, greed, and fame. The movie is also directed by Russ Meyer, so there’s a lot of abuse.
But fun is king, and the music has a strong late-1960s–early-1970s trippy vibe that has made it common, even though critics didn’t like the project.
Josie And The Pussycats:
The musical comedy Josie as well as the Pussycats is based on the well-known Archie Comics series. It shows how the rock band made up of Josie McCoy, Valerie Brown, and Melody Valentine got bigger.
Wyatt Frame, a shady record producer, controls the trio’s lives by using hidden messages within their music to manipulate the minds of teens. Josie as well as the Pussycats made only $14 million at the box office, even though it cost at least $22 million to make. Most reviewers gave it terrible reviews.
However, it has been reevaluated in recent years. Some reviews said the movie was ahead of its time and liked how it made fun of product placement as well as the music business.
Harold And Maude:
I’ve always liked movies with older women in major parts that are difficult and show people who don’t fit into any category. Maude, who is 79 years old, loves life, while Harold, who is 20 years old, wants to die.
They make a strange pair, yet once both of them learn to fully appreciate life, something changes in them and in the audience. This movie strangely feels like a dream that wants you to know that life is worth living in any way that feels right to you.
People love cult movies because they are weird and silly, but they additionally appeal to a deeper part of us that makes us want to keep being the most excellent and honest versions of ourselves. Harold, as well as Maude, are no different.
The Room:
This is unique. Many critics have dubbed The Room, released in 2003, as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” Everything about it is terrible, but the script is especially bad. It talks a lot about future wives instead of fiancees, puts subplots in the wrong places, and tells you to “keep your comments within your pocket.”
Well done, actor, writer, and director Tommy Wiseau! There are regular late-night showings of The Room, so you can join in the fun. Don’t forget the right way to meet other watchers.
Ghost World:
Enid does not wish to attend college. She doesn’t need a job. She doesn’t want her dad to date Maxine again. She doesn’t really know what she needs when she thinks about the big world after college.
Because she has to make a choice, the stress of it makes her feel bad. Does she need to? So it only makes sense that Terry Zwigoff’s comedy from 2001 has become a cult favorite.
The outfits, set designs, music, and acts are all so unique and of high quality, even though the budget seems very small. The movie does feel like a time machine in more ways than one, though.
This book shows how bored and unhappy people were in the early 2000s, mostly through Enid’s voice. Instead of a strong rallying cry, it is told with a long, drawn-out, over-the-top sigh.
Clerks:
Here is our first look into Kevin Smith’s mind, which is often crazy but always brilliant. Clerks is the first movie in Smith’s New Jersey trilogy. It was made for less than $30,000 and was shot in black and white.
The movie is about a day in the life of a convenience store clerk and his slacker video store worker friend, and how much they hate their jobs right now. The conversation is often racy.
Icons like Jay and Silent Bob have also been around for a long time. Smith has made two sequels to Clerks, and both are good, but the first one is still the best thing he’s ever made.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!:
Russ Meyer was a great trash film director, and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! might be his most fun project yet. Three go-go dancers who like violence and rapid cars are at the center of the story.
The three women, Varla, Rosi, and Billie, go on a killing, theft, and general chaos spree. The movie has a lot of stylization, like a live-action comic.
When it first came out, Faster, Pussycat! did poorly at the box office and got bad reviews from critics. However, it has now gained recognition as a classic trash movie that has influenced many others.
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas:
Terry Gilliam, who used to be in Monty Python, found a way to adapt a strange book with themes of grotesqueness, wonder, beauty, depth, anger, and nihilism set in Las Vegas.
Gilliam does a great job of showing how Thompson’s writing was really all over the place. Johnny Depp as Raoul as well as Benicio Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo take us through the fear and loathing of drug-fueled dreams that end in clarity and truth.
Even though Roger Ebert gave the movie an infamous one-star review, saying it “can’t communicate the genius beneath the madness,” Fear and Loathing still finds a way to show something that no one can understand unless they are completely consumed by the madness. If you have time, you should read and watch this book and movie.
Brazil:
Terry Gilliam’s future is like a mix between Kafka and Orwell set in Thatcher’s Britain. A doomed government worker falls in love with a mystery girl while the world around him is suffocated by endless red tape.
There were a lot of problems making the movie the company wanted to make a lot of changes, but Gilliam refused, and his flawed but brilliant version is the one that has won a huge and loyal fan base.
There are a lot of Gilliam fan sites with tools and profiles, but Jack Mathew’s Battle of Brazil is the real Brazil book. It tells the story of the director’s fight with Universal Studios, blow by blow.