Brain Blasters

Herewith begin my weekly musings on the field of cult movies. As an opener, it would probably behoove me to define exactly what is meant by a “cult movie.” I’m going to be a bit disingenuous here, and provide a definition arguably so nebulous that some might consider it useless. That’s fine. There have been many attempts at this sort of definition, and most founder on specifics once one moves much beyond the “I know one when I see one” type of description often applied to porn. That said, here goes. Generally speakin..., the cult flick usually emerges from the realm of the B-movie (the two terms are not synonymous, though there is a large degree of overlap). As soon as there is any kind of following, however small but definitely committed, we have a cult film. So far, so good. The problem, of course, is what happens when the cult becomes huge. The Star Wars films and The Lord of the Rings (in both print and movie form) command a rabid following, some of whose members displaying behaviour no less obsessed and eccentric than that of the most religious followers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is the textbook definition of a cult film.

So whither our definition? One might refine it by emphasizing the B-movie or indie nature of the movie. In other words, it must not be mainstream, or at least not have had a mainstream success. This last qualification is, I think, important, because there are major studio productions that do, I feel, qualify as cult films. Very often, however, they were not box office successes upon original release. They are frequently pretty terrible, and are celebrated by their audiences for their awfulness. In other words, the cult movie audience embraces the film for reasons not necessarily intended by its makers. Some examples: Myra Breckinridge, Showgirls, Battlefield Earth.