Cult film

A cult film is a film that attracts a small but devoted group of obsessive fans or one that has remained popular over successive years amongst a small group of followers. Often the film failed to achieve mainstream success on its original release but this is not always the case. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different to what was intended by the film-makers, although usually a film that becomes “cult” started-out with unusual elements or subject matter.

A film reaches cult status due to an audience's relationship to the film. This makes the designation of cult status to a film difficult, however continued success amongst a subset of moviegoers many years after the film’s original release is a key defining factor.

Many cult films are from such genres as horror, science fiction and world cinema[?].

The construction of meaning within the cult film text, and the nature and epistemology of cult film (and also its audiences), however, are now studied academically.

An instance of how cults differ between societies include the elevation of the British comedy film actor Norman Wisdom into a cult icon in Albania during the years of Communism under Enver Hoxha, at a time when his family-friendly style almost certainly ensured that 'cult' would be the last term on earth to be applied to him in the West. Curiously he and his films are now acquiring nostalgic cult status in Britain.

Some films that are regarded by some as cult films:

• The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension
• Apocalypse Now
• Army of Darkness
• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
• Bad Taste[?]
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls[?]
• Blade Runner
• The Blues Brothers
• Braindead
• Brazil
• The Breakfast Club
• The Day The Earth Stood Still
• Dark Star
• Dazed And Confused[?]
• Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Donnie Darko
• Eraserhead[?]
• Evil Dead
• The Graduate
• Grand Illusion[?]
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Harold and Maude
• Heathers
• Henry--Portrait of a Serial Killer[?]
• If...
• Incubus
• It's a Wonderful Life
• James Bond series
• Koyaanisqatsi
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Mars Attacks
• The Matrix
• Monty Python's Life of Brian
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Meet The Feebles
• Pink Floyd's The Wall
• The Princess Bride
• The Producers
• Pulp Fiction
• Reefer Madness aka Tell Your Children
• Repo Man
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Silent Running[?]
• St. Elmo's Fire[?]
• Santa Sangre[?]
• Star Wars series
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Tommy (the Who rock opera)
• TRON
• The Wicker Man
• Withnail and I[?]
• The Wizard of Speed and Time
• Yellow Submarine