Cult Status Movies

[chuyler1]

chuyler1, you included American Pie as well as Road Trip. These could never be considered anything close to cult, as you later stated yourself.

It was a test. Yeah, I mentioned them but after reading other people's suggestions I realized that the thread was heading in the wrong direction so I took something I would consider a cult classic and broke it down. The truth is, if you consider Porky's to be a cult classic now, American Pie will fit in the same category in 20 years (Porky's had two sequels also).

So, I included a few picks that I would consider to be more "independent" and never really found a mass audience. I guess these may or may not be cult, although I do recommend them either way, and in my head they are cult, because I love them, and most others I know do not.

Perhaps, the movie has to be old and forgotten by the masses to reach "cult classic" status. A movie may have had a mass audience when it came out but is only survived by a small handfull of people who love the movie.

Can a movie become too popular by the masses to be cult? I think movies like Rocky Horror or SPinal Tap are probably too widely praised then for your definition.

Its not how popular it is, but whether the majority enjoys the movie and would watch it over and over again, versus only a small group of people that would do so. This is Spinal Tap isn't as popular as you would think. As for Rocky Horror...that's a tough one...is the movie a cult classic or does the entire concept of it create a cult? The same could be said for Star Wars and the Star Trek series.

Here is a quote from filmsite.org:
"Easy Rider surprisingly, was an extremely successful, low-budget (under $400,000), counter-cultural, independent film for the alternative youth/cult market, with sex, drugs, casual violence, a sacrificial tale (with a shocking, unhappy ending), and a pulsating rock and roll soundtrack reinforcing or commenting on the film's themes."

That may have been who the movie was intended to target but they under estimated the size of their audience.

I don't know, its a tough call between "classic" and "cult classic". I'd continue to babble but its 5:07 and its time to go home.