Category Archives: Cult Films

A cult film (also known as a cult movie/picture or a cult classic) is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences. Many cult movies have gone on to transcend their original cult status and have become recognized as classics; others are of the “so bad it’s good” variety and are destined to remain in obscurity. Cult films often become the source of a thriving, obsessive, and elaborate subculture of fandom, hence the analogy to cults. However, not every film with a devoted fanbase is necessarily a cult film. Usually, cult films have limited but very special, noted appeal. Cult films are often known to be eccentric, often do not follow traditional standards of mainstream cinema and usually explore topics not considered in any way mainstream—yet there are examples that are relatively normal. Many are often considered controversial because they step outside standard narrative and technical conventions.

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Film Review: Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977)

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SYNOPSIS:

“Luke Skywalker stays with his foster aunt and uncle on a farm on Tatooine. He is desperate to get off this planet and get to the Academy like his friends, but his uncle needs him for the next harvest. Meanwhile, an evil emperor has taken over the galaxy, and has constructed a formidable ‘Death Star’ capable of destroying whole planets. Princess Leia, a leader in the resistance movement, acquires plans of the DeathMore

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Film Review: Caged Heat (1974)

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SYNOPSIS:

“A girl is caught in a drug bust and sent to the hoosegow. The iron-handed superintendent takes exception to a skit performed by the girls and takes punitive steps, aided by the sadistic doctor who is doing illegal electroshock experiments and raping drugged prisoners. After a while the prisoners put away their petty differences and plan the Big Prison Escape.” (courtesy IMDB)

REVIEW:

Caged Heat (1974), also known as Renegade Girls, could… More

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Film Review: Tonight For Sure (1962)

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SYNOPSIS:

“On the Las Vegas strip, two unlikely men rendezvous: Samuel Hill, an unkempt desert miner, and Benjamin Jabowski, a John Birch Society dandy from the city. Intent on some sort of mayhem, they enter the Herald Club before the burlesque show starts, and they wire something to the electrical box, set to blow at midnight. They sit at the back of the club to get to know each other. As theyMore

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Film Review: The People vs. George Lucas (2010)

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SYNOPSIS:

Uses a courtroom debate approach to explore the issues of filmmaking and fanaticism around one of the industry’s most famous franchises and its creator. The innovative film combines filmmaker and celebrity interviews with fan films – submitted via the film’s site – to make this the world’s first digitally democratic feature documentary.

REVIEW:

If anything is to be said about George Lucas and his legacy is that he… More

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Film Review: Fando Y Lis (1968)

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SYNOPSIS:

Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky’s memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.

REVIEW:

Alejandro Jodorowsky has created some fantastic visually engaging films over the years. Each of which I’ve seen is rich in ideology and surrealities. “Fando y Lis”, one of Jodorowsky’s early releases is no exception in idea but if a bit more alluding in translation. This Spanish… More

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Film Review: Lunacy (2005)

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SYNOPSIS:

A horror movie testing two approaches to running an insane asylum – absolute freedom versus control and punishment – within the context of a world that combines the worst of both. Jean Berlot, a young man subject to a nightmare of being forced into a straitjacket by two orderlies, is befriended by a marquis. At the marquis’s estate, Jean witnesses a black Mass, buries someone alive, and is invited to try preventive therapy. He’sMore

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Film Review: Psycho (1960)

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SYNOPSIS:

“Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California
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Film Review: Casino Royale (1967)

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SYNOPSIS:
“Sir James Bond is enjoying his retirement when four international agents press him into service again in hopes of smashing SMERSH and topple Le Chiffre at the baccarat tables. Bond is taken in by Agent Mimi (alias Lady Fiona McTarry) who immediately falls in love with him. Bond’s illegitimate daughter, Mata Bond, whose mother was the late Mata Hari, is going to help out. The current agent using the Bond name, Cooper, has hisMore

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Film Review: The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

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SYNOPSIS:

Based on an “actual event” that took place in 1943. About a US Navy Destroyer Escort that disappeared from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and sent two men 40 years into the future to 1984.

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Film Review: Cut-Throats Nine (1972)

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SYNOPSIS:

A wagon load of convicts on their way to prison is being escorted through the mountains by a cavalry troop. They are attacked by a bandit gang, and only a sergeant, his beautiful young daughter and an assortment of seven sadistic, murderous prisoners survive, and they are left without horses or a wagon. The sergeant must find a way to get his prisoners to their destination while protecting his daughter, watching out forMore

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Film Review: In a Glass Cage (1987)

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SYNOPSIS:

A former Nazi doctor-turned-pedophile, paralyzed from the neck down after a suicide attempt, is forced to accept a boy as his nurse under threat of blackmail: the boy secretly witnessed the doctor’s torture and murder of another boy, and possesses the man’s diary, which details his wartime experiments and his subsequent descent into pedophilia and murder. Before long, the boy displays his ambition to follow in the older man’s footsteps.

REVIEW:

Klaus now… More

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Film Review: Reflections of Evil (2002)

SYNOPSIS:

Julie, who died of a PCP overdose as a teen in the early ’70s, searches from beyond the ethers for her little brother, Bob, an obese watch-seller, who is dying of sucrose intolerance, in the early ’90s.

REVIEW:

It was 2002, when I received this film in the mail. At the time the creator, actor and director Damon Packard was marketing himself in rather odd fashions. I wasn’t sure what to make… More

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Film Review: Evil Dead II Dead By Dawn (1987)

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SYNOPSIS:

“A young man named Ash takes his girlfriend Linda to a secluded cabin in the woods where he plays back a professor’s tape recorded recitation of passages from the Book of the Dead. The spell calls up an evil force from the woods which turns Linda into a monstrous Deadite, and threatens to do the same to Ash. When the professor’s daughter and her entourage show up at the cabin, the night turnsMore

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Film Review: Blue Velvet (1986)

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SYNOPSIS:

Jeffrey Beaumont is an honest young all American man. On an afternoon stroll he finds a human ear in a field near his home. His curiosities lead him to a twisted and wildly freakish syndicate of characters existing in his quiet picturesque little town, forever changing the way he views reality.

REVIEW:

Director: David Lynch
Cast:
Kyle Maclachlan-Jeffrey Beaumont
Isabella Rossellini-Dorothy Vallens
Dennis Hopper-Frank Boothe
Dean Stockwell-Ben
Laura… More

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Film Review: Straw Dogs (1971)

SYNOPSIS:

Dustin Hoffman plays a regular American mathematician, who gets into some trouble with local bullies. He is made fun of and then his wife is raped. When they attack his home, he fights back. His outbreak of violence is extreme. Upon moving to Britain to get away from American violence, astrophysicist David Sumner and his wife Amy are bullied and taken advantage of by the locals hired to do construction. When David finallyMore

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Vintage Screams: Twin Peaks (TV series)

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While it’s feasible that there’s the odd person over thirty years of age out there that didn’t see the Twin Peaks series when it was first televised in 1990, it’s unlikely that they are unaware of the cultural run-off from the groundbreaking show. Catchphrases like “She’s dead – wrapped in plastic” and “Who killed Laura Palmer?” adorned T-shirts, fans held coffee-and-doughnut parties, and large sections of the world went quiet for an hour every week.… More

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Film Review: Wild At Heart (1990)

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SYNOPSIS:
“Lula’s psychopathic mother goes crazy at the thought of Lula being with Sailor, who just got free from jail. Ignoring Sailor’s probation, they set out for California. However their mother hires a killer to hunt down Sailor. Unaware of this, the two enjoy their journey and themselves being together, until they witness a young woman dying after a car accident – a bad omen.” (courtesy IMDB)

REVIEW:
David Lynch’s cunningly disguised unofficial remake of… More

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Film Review: Eraserhead (1977)

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SYNOPSIS:

“Is it a nightmare or an actual view of a post-apocalyptic world? Set in an industrial town in which giant machines are constantly working, spewing smoke, and making noise that is inescapable, Henry Spencer lives in a building that, like all the others, appears to be abandoned. The lights flicker on and off, he has bowls of water in his dresser drawers, and for his only diversion he watches and listens to theMore

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Film Review: Targets (1968)

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SYNOPSIS:
“Peter Bogdanovich’s debut feature is a thinly disguised account of ex-marine Charles Whitman, who, after murdering his mother and his wife, armed himself with a number of rifles and handguns and on a sunny 1966 Texas morning, began a shooting spree that killed fourteen people and wounded thirty-two people. Bogdanovich’s version tells two stories concurrently, about an aging horror-film star who feels that his type of movie monster has become passé, and the otherMore

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Film Review: Kissed (1996)

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SYNOPSIS:

Over the years, a child’s romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.

REVIEW:

Titles of films can sometimes be very misleading, in the case of “Kissed” I am very happy to say that this is not a stupid romantic comedy. This is a highly romantic and a little bit depressing film dealing with the emotional responses of the necrophiliac trying to… More

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Film Review: The Last Circus (2010)

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SYNOPSIS:

1937, Spain is in the midst of the brutal Spanish Civil War. A “Happy” circus clown is interrupted mid-performance and forcibly recruited by a militia. Still in his costume, he is handed a machete and led into battle against National soldiers, where he single handedly massacres an entire platoon. Fast forward to 1973, the tail end of the Franco regime. Javier, the son of the clown, dreams of following in his father’s careerMore

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Vintage Screams: Key Genre Films 1970s

1970s Key Genre Films

With The Andromeda Strain (1971) director Robert Wise proved that he was still as adept with science fiction themes as he was with the supernatural. A well constructed thriller, it tells of a group of scientists trying to analyse a strange alien spore which comes to earth. Stanley Kubrick, having explored the sterile depths of space in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), returned to a grungy Earth to show what might be happening in the… More

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Vintage Screams: Key Genre Films 1960s

1960s Key Genre Films

Throughout the sixties, Hammer studios continued with their blood-and-thunder remakes, including The Curse Of The Werewolf (1960), The Two Faces Of Doctor Jekyll (1960), The Brides Of Dracula (1960), The Phantom Of The Opera (1962), Kiss Of The Vampire (1964), The Evil Of Frankenstein (1964) and Dracula Prince Of Darkness (1966). Hammer also delved into other aspects of fantasy over the next few years: Science fiction in Five Million Years To Earth (1967), lesbian vampires… More

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Vintage Screams: Key Genre Films 1950s

1950s Key Genre Films

Just as the thirties had been a golden age for Gothic horror films, so the fifties would do the same for science fiction. The power of the atom had undeniably hooked the public on the wonders of science. This, coupled with the development of rocket power and the first major UFO sightings, provided a wealth of exploitable material for the film industry. The first film off the launch pad was to have been Destination MoonMore

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Vintage Screams: Key Genre Films 1940s

1940s Key Genre Films

The forties got off to a cracking start with Paramount’s Technicolor production of Doctor Cyclops (1940) starring Albert Dekker as a crazed scientist who discovers the secret of miniaturisation deep in the South American jungles. The film contains superb special effects sequences which required the construction of gigantic sets and props of everyday articles, including books, chairs, pot-plants and scientific instruments. Universal Studios, while reluctant to invest their horror films with big budgets, also turned… More

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Film Review: The Brother From Another Planet (1984)

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SYNOPSIS:
“A slave from outer space escapes to earth. Except for his three-toed feet, he looks like an ordinary young black man. He crash-lands on Ellis Island, appropriately enough, and ends up in Harlem. There he makes friends with the owner and the regulars of a bar. Because he can fix any machine (by simply touching it), he’s able to make money. He’s mute, which proves more of an advantage than a disadvantage, and heMore

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Film Review: The Rapture (1991)

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SYNOPSIS:

A telephone operator living an empty, amoral life finds God and loses him again.

REVIEW:

By now, you should be plenty familiar with the idea of the “rapture” whether religious or not. However you might not have thought to associate it with Mimi Rodgers and David Duchovny. This early 1991 film takes on this bold subject area and actually succeeds with an unassuming winning cult film creation.

Directed by Michael Tolkin,… More

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Film Review: Fast Company (1979)

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SYNOPSIS:
“Standard ‘good guys versus bad guys’ drag-racing movie. Nice scene of the driver’s view during a funny car run.” (thanks to IMDB for that detailed synopsis)

REVIEW:
He might deny it on the audio commentary, but this seventies exploitation movie rates as one hell of an anomaly in the career of Canadian auteur David Cronenberg. Made after he’d delivered his creepy body-horror films Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), and just before his first real… More

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Film Review: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

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SYNOPSIS:

“Cableman Roy Neary is one of several people who experience a close encounter of the first kind, witnessing UFOs flying through the night sky. He is subsequently haunted by a mountain-like image in his head and becomes obsessed with discovering what it represents, putting severe strain on his marriage. Meanwhile, government agents around the world have a close encounter of the second kind, discovering physical evidence of otherworldly visitors in the form ofMore

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Film Review: Barbarella (1968)

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SYNOPSIS:

“After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film’s opening titles), Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Excessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive aMore

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