Okay, get ready for a mind warp because this one’s a tricky subject. What is a cult film, or cult classic as it’s commonly known? Great question. A trickier question would be: what makes a cult film? Just trying to answer that makes my head hurt, so I’ll sum it up. A cult film/classic is a movie that gained a cult following. Meaning audiences raved about this film ever since it hit theaters and it's resulted in discussion boards, memorizing quotes, and even film festivals with cosplay. Yet this doesn’t necessarily mean all cult classics are good movies.
Actually, a lot of them are famous for being the worst movies ever made. I said this wasn’t easy to answer. You might know films like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Donnie Darko” and “The Big Lebowski”. Well, these are in the category as well as terrible movies like “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “The Room”.
The thing that made these films part of the category of cult classics is that they stood out from the regular films. They didn’t have to be bad to get attention, but it certainly didn’t hurt. In fact, most cult classics started out as box office bombs, like “Fight Club” or “The Wizard of Oz”, but their fanbase increased their popularity and made them known as classics. They were innovative, meaning that screenwriters and directors took a chance to try something new in cinema.
Whether it was a different style of cinematography or mixing genres or even just discussing things people found risqué. This also was a reason why most started out as flops. Audiences couldn’t understand it, or they weren’t ready for the change. But some people noticed and appreciated the art, and that was enough to get more people interested. Because that’s really the stem of cult classics: art. Which makes it even more frustrating to define and comprehend, because art is the one thing that is undefinable and has no singular answer.
A terrible film today may become an artistic and innovative film tomorrow. There’s no telling with society. And that’s kind of the cool thing about people and film. It takes a few of us to understand the art behind a film and appreciate it, and soon it becomes a movie that we’ve all seen and can quote in conversation. Can you imagine a world without “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” or “The Shawshank Redemption”?
The whole reason we grew up with these movies and loved them is because we recognize what their original audiences didn’t: that they are amazing movies. I’m not saying we should treat every bad movie like a potential classic hit, but we should recognize film as art and open to interpretation. I will admit that certain movies were just awful, like “Earth A.D.” or “Jack and Jill”, but it may be because of the hilarity of how bad they are that they may achieve cult status. That’s how many bad films got in, and who knows? Maybe someone will see these as good films (though I highly doubt it).
