Movies that could have a future cult following.

I don't really consider The Hangover series to be cult classics tbh. They are extremely popular and mainstream films.

As usual, much of this depends on how you define "cult". I know lots of people disagree with me, but I think Star Wars is probably the biggest cult film of all time. If you don't think so, take a trip to a convention or two. But that's just how I think of a cult film. It isn't limited by budget or the audience it was made for, but how devoted its audience is. However, I do think that it's difficult for me to see a straight (melo)drama as a cult film, unless it does tie into a specific demographic/zeitgeist. For example, neither Gone With The Wind or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are cult films, to me. Despite their longevity, cross-generational appeal or, certainly in the case of GWTW, it's devoted audience. Whereas The Breakfast Club does. That said, while feeling alone and alienated as a teenager is a common experience, I can see a time when those of us who were there at the time are dead and the film is no longer seen that way by later generations of teenagers.

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I agree about the audience devotion thing, but I've always thought of cult as synonymous with polarising more than anything. Cult films have a small group of very committed, very passionate fans, then there's large swathes of people who either have no idea what the fuss is about or dislike/hate the film outright, because it's tailored to fit a very specific, esoteric taste. The Big Lebowski and Napoleon Dynamite are good examples.

As far as movies with future cult potential go, I'd be naming stuff along the lines of Observe and Report (count me as a fan of that one, Sexy), The King of Kong, Super, Hesher and Bellflower. If I had to.

I can see and understand this, but I could say the same thing about Star Wars. For the vast majority it's a pleasant distraction that they've seen once or twice, maybe, but they'll never understand the fuss or why it influences so many peoples lives.

I can see all the Judd Apatow films becoming cult films ala John Hughes and, like Hughes, the cult level of appeal will be limited only to those of the age when they were released.

I wrote a post that my iPhone ate and those were the exact two words that I used to describe cult films. Specific and esoteric. There is a clear misunderstanding of what cult films are if some of the movies being thrown out are any indication. Skepsis is exactly right in his definition.

Honey's definition implies that Harry Potter and LotR are cult films too, and I can't go there. Star Wars definitely has a cult following but it did in 1977. If a film inspires cultlike devotion and is vastly popular when it first comes out it, I would call that different from a cult movie that grows over time but still isn't really hugely popular.

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Star Wars is a PHENOMENON. I wouldn't call it a cult film. Star Wars is like The Bible. It's a new religion. A cult film is like... Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Toxic Avenger, Repo Man, Donnie Darko, The Big Lebowski.

John Hughes movies -- I wouldn't call them all cult films. Maybe The Breakfast Club. This is what I'm thinking about with like the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen era -- all will fit a group, but maybe only a couple really stand out or become cult. I don't know if John Hughes movies, though, will necessarily be limited to only the people who were of age when they came out. The Breakfast Club, for example, will probably live on for a long, long time with new generations.

And then there are some other things that last -- smaller things. Like I think The Doom Generation, which I love, is a '90s cult film.

As for the Apatow/Seth Rogen/Jonah Hill/all those guys era -- Superbad and Pineapple Express will stay strong. I dunno about the rest. I remember going to see Superbad when it came out and I thought it seemed different and unique at the time. In fact, I believe I mentioned this in my movie review of it here at the time. I believe it will last and so far it has.

Oh I hated Doom Generation so completely Im sure Office Space is universally regarded as a cult hit already. As is Glengarry Glen Ross in its own way, trust me Ive quoted that flick and others quote it to me like no other. Firefly is a cult lock.

Future cult hit?! Off the top of my head Ill say Pineapple Express. Easily the best weed movie since Cheech & Chong in the 1970's, and as funny as.



I also think Superbad is a cult lock now. I dont know! Who the hell determines these things?!

I also think there's something very primal and beyond-the-norm about cult films. Some kind of spark about them -- some theme or something -- that is transgressive and speaks to a majority of people about something they cannot express or understand. On some other level of consciousness. I think they probably cut through the veil of conformity and society.

Here is a fact for you, you can get Jedi as your religious preference on your dog tags in the Army.

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I believe I've heard that before. Yes. Star Wars is like a religion. I think movies can be religious. They can BECOME a religion -- maybe just to one person or maybe to a group or maybe to a whole world, like with Star Wars. I mean, I think Christianity started out this way -- through The Bible, through the stories of Jesus, etc. Eventually it grew into something massive. The same thing can happen with movies.

I saw it at the right time in my life and it affected me. I own two copies of that movie on DVD. And the soundtrack. It's not my favorite movie and I don't view it as a great work of art, but it clicked with me.

Soooooo should i watch these

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Not if you don't want to because I don't believe that "revered movie = will be loved by all." I don't understand the Big Lebowski thing at all. Not yet, anyway. What the hell is that all about? Good grief.

They're slightly different only because when I say Star Wars, I mean Star Wars. Not the Star Wars prequels/sequel/universe. Just Star Wars or what is now known as Episode IV. However, I certainly can see the properties of LotR and HP as cult, but I don't really see the films that way because I think the cults already existed. I don't think of Empire or Return as cult films, either.



See, I keep seeing Lebowski listed as cult and while I see it that way, I can't really see that way through the 'normal' description of cult. It's too popular. Too well known and has been since its release. It's a Coen brothers film, ffs. That was mainstream even back then.

I don't see all Hughes movies as cult, but as a group they all usually appeal to the same people.

This is a good example of a film I couldn't see as cult due to its genre. It's a straight drama. It's quotable, but I don't think of that as something that makes a film cult. A film might become cult partly because of its quotable dialogue, but I don't include or think of a film as cult for that reason.

I really didn't like Pineapple Express. Not a laugh for me in the entire film.

No one. It's a collective thing.

I see religions as cults. Maybe this is why I think of cult films the way I do?

I think that even if a small group is obssesed with a movie,then most of the people,if they don't like the film or haven't seen it,are still aware of it and its existence.I watched HK recommended doc about Midnight movies (cult movies basically) and then I asked my family who lived at the time(70s) if they know them.They said they do but they haven't seen them or even hated them if they did.For me,if it's a cult film,I have at least to be faimiliar with its title.

I agree with HK on this,Star Wars is easily a cult movie.And so is LOTR and HP.

Some of you tend to think that a cult film is the art house movie which is remembered despite its extremely narrow distribution.Well,for starters I think that narrow distribution is basically dead since you can find almost anything on the Internet,in shops etc.Doesn't that automatically kill cult film?

And finally,I don't think that films have the same impact that it did.I mean,people went to kill after they saw Natural Born Killers.They are not so important anymore to become cult.

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Obviously The Twilight Series ( I prefer to stick to Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers )

The Twilight Movies are extremely popular movies of a certain generation. In 20 years they will be forgotten about.

If the definition of cult films =popular films then what is the point in having the definition at all?

By the way, I don't mean that a popular movie can't be a cult film, I'll get behind Star Wars being a cult film, but people are being far too broad with the definition.