Audiences are far too quick to bestow the тιтle of cult classic on movies these days, and there are plenty of amazing films that are just too popular to be considered cult anymore. A cult classic is generally a film that failed to garner an audience when it debuted, but has since found a fanbase on home video or streaming.
Cult classics can be major Hollywood movies, or subversive independent releases, and they can also come from any genre. Horror tends to produce the most cult classics, but there’s no shortage of beloved science fiction, action, or comedy films that weren’t successful upon initial release but have gone on to become fan-favorites.
The concept of the cult classic has been watered down significantly, and there are now too many movies being labeled as such. There are also plenty of well-known movies that have transcended their cult status, and are too popular to be part of the category anymore. Cult classics should be exceptionally rare, and some movies no longer fit the bill.
Almost Famous (2000)
Almost Famous absolutely bombed at the box office in 2000, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t garner a lot of attention at the time. Cameron Crowe’s charming music dramedy captures the Sєx, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of the ’70s, but it does so through an analytic lens that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
It was almost immediately labeled a cult classic because of its success on home video, but the movie was hardly ignored by the mainstream. Almost Famous scored three Oscar nominations, and won the Best Original Screenplay trophy. Considering the film has spawned a stage musical, it draws into question whether the film was ever a cult classic to begin with.
Night Of The Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1968)
George Romero redefined the zombie genre when he directed Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, and it’s still one of the most important horror films of all time. Romero essentially created the modern zombie by replacing the old school magic and curses with reanimated corpses hungry for human flesh. It also broke new ground for racial representation in horror.
Considering Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ was incredibly profitable, its cult classic status was questionable from the start. However, its controversial nature did make it subversive, so it was not a mainstream film back in 1968. Since then, zombies have gone mainstream, and Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ is generally first and foremost in any discussion of the genre.
Fight Club (1999)
Fight Club is the ultimate expression of Gen-X angst, but it failed to resonate with its audience when it debuted in 1999. David Fincher’s interpretation of Chuck Palahniuk’s book captured the disaffected essence of the author’s themes, and usually ranked highly among the director’s best movies. Brad Pitt gave the performance of a lifetime, and he wasn’t the only one.
It earned its cult classic status on video, and its subversive themes helped it capture the zeitgeist of the final days of the 1990s. However, that immediate success also stripped Fight Club of its obscurity, and it was one of the most popular films of 1999. Ironically, too much talk about Fight Club lessened its impact as a cult classic.
The Thing (1982)
Director John Carpenter is a master of horror, and he’s also a master of cult classics too. Many of his movies failed upon release, but are generally considered masterpieces of the genre. His remake of The Thing is a prime example, and the claustrophobic sci-fi horror nightmare was not what audiences were looking for in the summer of 1982.
The Thing bombed critically and commercially, and was ignored until its home video release. Even then, it took years for the film to gain a following, and it remained a true cult classic for decades. However, the internet’s constant search for cult classics overexposed the hidden gem, and now it’s an established part of the ’80s horror canon.
The Princess Bride (1987)
The Princess Bride had all the makings of a bona fide hit, but it hardly broke even at the box office in 1987. The adaptation of William Goldman’s book had a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and was a playful spoof of many of the classic tropes of the fantasy genre. Despite spoofing, it did those tropes better than its contemporaries.
Because it didn’t do well in theaters, The Princess Bride found its audience on home video and was immediately vindicated. Many quotes from the film have entered the popular lexicon, and it’s a cult classic that lost that status by being so universally beloved. There was never anything “cult” about it, and it was really just a classic that flopped.
Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2 (1987)
Sam Raimi’s Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ was a gritty slice of modern horror that got ringing endorsements from luminaries like Stephen King, but Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2 was a different beast entirely. Eschewing the straightforward terror of its predecessor, the sequel added tons of slapstick humor that essentially set the tone for the rest of the ongoing Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise.
With its buckets of gore, Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2 was not a conventional release back in the ’80s, and was essentially designed as a cult film from the start. Were it not for the proliferation of the internet, Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2 would have remained a firm cult classic forever. However, it has transcended its subversiveness to be a generally recognized classic.
Donnie Darko (2001)
In the annals of cinema, few films intentionally toyed with the audience as much as Donnie Darko, and the early Aughts indie film is still popular. Melding elements of the sci-fi, horror, and thriller genres, Donnie Darko was such a unique vision that it vexed mainstream audiences. However, its release was also hampered by real-life events that altered its marketing.
Donnie Darko was released mere weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and its original marketing was scaled back because it prominently featured a plane crash.
A box office bomb turned a tidy profit on video, and Donnie Darko was an indie success story that couldn’t happen today. Its surreal storyline lends it an element of cult, but its overwhelming popularity has elevated it above cult status. Donnie Darko is a movie that burgeoning cinephiles gravitate toward, and is a gateway to even more hidden gems.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show was the original cult classic, and it gained an audience before home video was widely available. The original off-Broadway musical was adapted for the big screen with many of the original cast members returning, but the movie’s mix of odd-ball humor and overt Sєxuality didn’t make it a prime candidate for a wide release.
Before cult classics there were midnight movies, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show became an instant hit at late-night screenings. That underground success eventually spilled over into the mainstream, and the unusual musical soon became beloved with a much larger audience. Though it was edgy for 1975, some of the movie’s songs have become part of pop culture.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen brothers are known for making films with tons of artistic merit that also happen to be pretty successful. The Big Lebowski is their humorous love-letter to classic detective stories, but it swaps out a hard-boiled gumshoe for an aging hippie and his weirdo friends. Released at the height of the slacker era, it should have hit it big.
The Big Lebowski was hardly a bomb, but it did get surprisingly mixed reactions from critics. It almost immediately gained a huge fanbase that hasn’t diminished, and few films from the late 1990s had such an impact on stoner culture. The Big Lebowski is a classic, but its status as a cult classic was uncertain from the beginning.
Blade Runner (1982)
Science fiction was all the rage in the 1980s thanks to Star Wars, but some films failed to capture the attention of mainstream audiences. Blade Runner was a neo-noir story wrapped in a sci-fi mystery, and director Ridley Scott’s original vision suffered from a lot of studio tampering. As such, the revolutionary sci-fi film pᴀssed by with little fanfare.
It was released at the beginning of the home video boom, and the Harrison Ford vehicle was a must-see on tape. Over the decades, a fanbase grew around the complex film, and the various cuts only added to the intrigue. Eventually, it became an important cornerstone of the sci-fi genre, and even spawned a big-budget sequel.
