Cult Movies

Combustible Celluloid's Personal Favorites

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Jenny Wright in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark.

Updated July 31, 2008: What is a cult movie? A cult movie is a movie that earns a fanatical following by a small group of people. It's also a movie that bears watching many, many times and contains memorable, repeatable dialogue. Cult movies are preferably made socially unacceptable ingredients, such as horror, sex, violence, or science fiction.

Some movies, like Star Wars and Casablanca have devoted followings, but those are considered too large for cult status. The main idea is that we love our cult movies specifically because we know that most people don't.

The following are cult films endorsed by Combustible Celluloid. I've seen these movies over and over in the theater and on video. They are films that I know well enough to play in my head. But they are films without which I might just perish were I on a desert island.

Buy It!	Army of Darkness (1993, Anchor Bay Entertainment) The third film in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy features more zombies, more action, more laughs, and more kisses. "Gimme some sugar, baby!"
Buy It!	Basket Case (1982) Frank Henelotter's amazing low-budget splatter comedy showcases Siamese twin brothers -- one normal, the other a squishy little beast who lives in a basket -- searching for revenge on the New York doctors who separated them.
Buy It!	The Big Lebowski (1998) Any of the Coen Brothers' films could qualify as cult classics, but this one is both the most underappreciated and has the most fanatical following. That's mostly thanks to Jeff Bridges' brilliantly laid-back performance as The Dude. "That rug really tied the room together..."
Buy It!	Big Trouble in Little China (1986) John Carpenter's goofy kung-fu comic book adventure revels in its own silliness and features an amazing John Wayne-ish performance by Kurt Russell.
Buy It!	The Black Cat (1934) Edgar G. Ulmer's expressionistic horror film teams Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi for the first time and also spins a Poe-like tale of murder, possession, torture and imprisonment.
Buy It!	Black Sunday (1960) Black Sunday (a.k.a. The Mask of Satan) stars Barbara Steele as a resurrected witch and her modern-day double. It was Mario Bava's first film as director and a huge hit for distributor American International Pictures.
Buy It!	Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott's bleak, rainy sci-fi epic starring Harrison Ford as a nearly washed-up Replicant hunter reveals a new layer with each viewing. With Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah and Brion James. From a Philip K. Dick novel.
Buy It!	Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch's brightly colored suburban horror show peels away America's facade and revels in the dark sex we like to imagine that we don't think about. With Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper.
Buy It!	Brazil (1985) Terry Gilliam's futuristic comedy squeezes the life out of the world and builds it into higher and higher vertical towers. Jonathan Pryce plays the everyman whose life is changed by some bungled paperwork.
Buy It!	Brick (2006) In a combination of Dashiell Hammett and high school movies, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) tries to solve the murder of his ex-girlfriend, using lots of rock-hard, quotable dialogue in the process.
Buy It!	Cat People (1942) Jacques Tourneur directs Val Lewton's brilliant, atmospheric production about a Serbian woman (Simone Simon) who may or may not turn into a cat when aroused.
Buy It!	A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick brilliantly and hilariously adapts Anthony Burgess' cautionary sci-fi novel about a vicious punk (Malcolm McDowell) who undergoes scientific treatment to make him "fit" for society.
Buy It!	Danger: Diabolik (1968) Based on an Italian comic book (or "fumetti"), this Mario Bava crime thriller has never enjoyed the devotion of Bava's horror films. John Phillip Law plays the title character, a master criminal with an underground lair and a sexy, blond girlfriend (Marisa Mell).
Buy It!	Detour (1945) Edgar G. Ulmer's nasty little B-noir is a road movie in which Tom Neal never has a chance once he crosses paths with Ann Savage, the wickedest of all femme fatales.
Buy It!	Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly makes an incredible directorial debut with this sci-fi, horror, coming-of-age tale of a poor schizophrenic (Jake Gyllenhal) who, with the help of with a giant demonic rabbit, glimpses a vision of a terrible future. Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze are very good in supporting roles.
Buy It!	Ed Wood (1994) Tim Burton's beautiful and funny homage to the worst filmmaker who ever lived (played by Johnny Depp). Shot in black and white, the film dutifully re-creates three of Wood's masterworks.
Buy It!	Enter the Dragon (1973) Robert Clouse's kung-fu epic showcases the great Bruce Lee at his absolute best, culminating in an amazing fight scene in a room of mirrors.
Buy It!	Evil Dead II (1987) Sam Raimi perfected the horror comedy with this kinetic, hilarious tale of Bruce Campbell fighting off unseen evil demons in a cabin in the woods.
Buy It!	Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1964) Russ Meyer's fast car, fast women crime picture features three amazon go-go dancers who try to swindle a nasty old man out of his hidden fortune.
Buy It!	Female Trouble (1974) John Waters fans might argue over whether the earlier films are better than the more recent ones, but the truth is that any Waters film qualifes as a cult classic. Female Trouble is one of the funniest and most outrageous, with Divine playing the petulant Dawn Davenport. "I hate you and I hate Christmas!"
Buy It!	Freaks (1932) Tod Browning's circus sideshow horror flick focuses on the humanity of (real) circus freaks, climaxing in a horrific show of revenge.
Buy It!	Gun Crazy (1949) Tod Browning's circus sideshow horror flick focuses on the humanity of (real) circus freaks, climaxing in a horrific show of revenge.
Buy It!	Heathers (1989) Michael Lehmann directs the greatest and most realistic high school movie ever made with Christian Slater as a student obsessed with causing teen suicides and Winona Ryder as his would-be girlfriend.
Buy It!	I Walked with a Zombie (1943) Jacques Tourneur directs Val Lewton's masterpiece, a voodoo zombie remake of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Buy It!	Memento (2001) To portray a man with no short-term memory, director Christopher Nolan very simply lays out his film in reverse, so that we have no idea what happened just moments before. Bottle-blond Guy Pearce plays the lead role, a man hunting for his wife's killer using only Polaroids and other clues he leaves for himself. Joe Pantoliano and Carrie Anne Moss co-star.
Buy It!	Naked Lunch (1991) David Cronenberg's brilliant adaptation of an unadaptable novel by William S. Burroughs. Peter Weller inhabits the persona of the junkie writer stuck in the Interzone with a talking bug typewriter. With Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands and Ian Holm.
Buy It!	Near Dark (1987) Kathryn Bigelow's stylish, ultra-violent tale of redneck vampires may be the best of its genre. Starring Bill Paxton, Jenny Wright and Lance Henriksen.
Buy It!	Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero's uncommonly intelligent zombie flick has as much to say about the living as it does the dead.
Buy It!	Peeping Tom (1960) Michael Powell's Technicolor horror film delves into the purest form of voyeurism as a cameraman goes on a killing spree, stabbing women with his tripod while filming their expressions.
Buy It!	Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Tim Burton's feature debut is a road movie with the unflappable Pee-Wee (Paul Reubens) trying to get his stolen bike back.
Buy It!	Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) Edward D. Wood Jr.'s masterpiece has Bela Lugosi in his last film role and space aliens reviving earth's recent dead in order to take over the world.
Buy It!	Re-Animator (1985) Stuart Gordon's clever and funny sci-fi story has two medical students reviving corpses and getting into more and more trouble with each one.
Buy It!	The Road Warrior (1981) George Miller's fuel-injected futuristic car movie features Mel Gibson as a leather-clad badass who cruises the highways in search of gasoline, occasionally battling with freaks of all shapes and sizes.
Buy It!	Repo Man (1984) Alex Cox's punk comedy follows a young repo man (Emilio Estevez) who learns the Meaning of Life from the master Harry Dean Stanton as they hunt for a $20,000 Chevy Malibu with some dead aliens hidden in the trunk.
Buy It!	Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979) Allan Arkush's teen comedy features the greatest rock band of all time, the Ramones, inspiring students like Riff Randell (P.J. Soles) to take over the high school. (Co-written by Joe Dante and Joseph McBride.)
Buy It!	Rushmore (1998) Jason Schwartzman stretches himself a little too thin while attending Rushmore, including a helpless crush on a beautiful teacher (Olivia Williams) and a friendship with an inconsolably sad entrepreneur (Bill Murray in one of his greatest performances). Every quirky move and every deadpan line reading just zings.
Buy It!	Shaun of the Dead (2004) Edgar Wright directs this spot-on zombie comedy, which spends more time setting up a sense of place, developing characters and creating brilliant jokes than on zombie effects and gore. Star Simon Pegg co-wrote the screenplay.
Buy It!	Sid & Nancy (1998) Alex Cox's bio-pic of the Sex Pistols' infamous bass player and his abrasive blonde girlfriend rises to the top through its great performances by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb.
Buy It!	Spider Baby (1964) Jack Hill's strange B-flick features Lon Chaney Jr. as the caretaker for a family whose members go more and more insane as they get older.
Buy It!	Stop Making Sense (1984) Jonathan Demme's concert film with the Talking Heads may be the most exuberant and best-paced of its kind.
Buy It!	Stranger than Paradise (1984) Jim Jarmusch's minimalist black-and-white road comedy masterpiece features a couple of losers whose dull lives are interrupted by the visit of a cute female Hungarian cousin.
Buy It!	This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Rob Reiner's uncanny, phony rock documentary is still the unprecedented champ of the genre. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer offer dead-on performances of brain-dead British heavy-metal rockers.
Buy It!	Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) Monte Hellman's existential race movie shatters all expectations with its minimal dialogue and long, slow takes. Starring the great Warren Oates and rockers Dennis Wilson and James Taylor.
Buy It!	Videodrome (1983) David Cronenberg's ultra-bizarre sci-fi story explores the relationship between man and video -- literally. James Woods and Deborah Harry star.
Buy It!	The Warriors (1979) In a kind of bizarro New York, an innocent gang tries to get back across the city to Coney Island after being wrongly accused of murder; along the way, every other gang in the city, each with its own costume and motif, tries to kill them. Walter Hill directs this energetic, unforgettable work.