Factors For A Cult Film

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Before watching Freaks I really didn�t know what to expect because the title didn�t ring a bell. After watching Freaks I felt sorry for the people who were displayed in freak shows. I know that freak shows existed, but I just never thought about it. It is really shocking how disabled people were treated. Luckily, society developed and disabled people can live a more or less normal live. There are still a lot of problems disabled people have to face, but the situation became better. In the movie the �freaks� were shown in a really likeable and human way. I especially liked Hans and his German. He had the problems a �normal� man could have as well. In general, I liked watching Freaks, which I didn�t expect because my favourite films aren�t black and white films. After watching the film I checked if the �freaks� were real �freaks� because I couldn�t image that they had such great make-up artists and special effects in the 1930s. The �freaks� were played by real �freaks�. I think the film was banned because people didn�t know how to react or what to think about Freaks.

I have to admit that I have never seen Casablanca before, but I always wanted to watch this movie because of its cult status. I always had the feeling that you have to know Casablanca. So, I was really happy that Casablanca is part of our film list. To be honest, I expected some kind of romantic movie, but nothing more than a romantic movie. Although I have never seen Casablanca, I already knew the quote �We�ll always have Paris� and I was glad to see the quotations now within its original context. I think the fact that I knew the quotation, but not the whole movie indicates the cult status which Casablanca has.

Before watching the movie I read Umberto Eco�s text, so I was prepared to watch a movie which alludes to different archetypes, but I wasn�t sure what to expect or how the different archetypes would be combined within the whole movie. The text raised my awareness of the archetypes and so while watching Casablanca I realized that the movie is much more than a romantic movie. I think it is really good to have some background knowledge to a movie because I watched to movie in a different way. Somehow, I was able to get more of its meaning. Without the text I probably wouldn�t have realized Casablanca as a newsreel or as a propaganda war movie.

For me it was quite hard to watch the whole Plan 9 from Outer Space because I�m not into science fiction movies. Moreover, this movie is just really bad! I needed several pauses when watching the movie because I couldn�t stand it any longer. Flying saucers, zombies and people from outer space packed into one movie were simply too much for me. However, this was only the top of the iceberg. The UFOs are attached to visible strings; sometimes the microphone is visible; the actors speak about sundown, but it is a quite sunny day; within one scene the night changes to day and then day changes to night; the Lugosi �double� doesn�t look similar to Lugosi, he is just a man, who hides his face� The ending fits perfectly to the rest of the movie, it is bad as well. People from outer space are trying to save the universe but they don�t really get their message across�

Although Plan 9 from Outer Space annoyed I realized that this badness makes this movie to a cult movie. Now I know why Plan 9 from Outer Space was mentioned in the text �What is cult film?� as an example for badness. In this text badness was characterized as �films being valued for their ineptness or poor cinematic achievement, often placing them in some kind of opposition to the norm or in that they attain a status of otherness�.

I didn�t know �Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS� before and with regard to the plot, I think I wouldn�t have missed too much if I hadn�t seen the film. Before watching this movie I watched the documentation, which was even more interesting than I expected it to be. When Don Edmunds spoke about �Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS�, I didn�t know what to think about this movie because he said that he was shocked when he read the script for the first time, he said he had never seen such a movie and what struck me the most, he said he had to let out the whore to make this movie. First, I didn�t really get his statement, but now, after watching Ilsa I really understand what Don Edmunds meant. And I think I know what grindhouse is and why Ilsa is part of the grindhouse category. If I got it right, grindhouse (the name comes from a street in NY) is a movie, which makes money by exploiting certain elements, e. g. sexploitation, and of course, it is really no mainstream.

If �Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS� wouldn�t be part of our cult film list I would have turned off after ten or maybe twenty minutes. It was quite hard to watch the whole movie, somehow I managed it, although I really couldn�t stand some of the scenes! The horrible scenes were horrible, but I could watch them because the special effects weren�t that good (from today�s point of view). The mixture of sexploitation and Nazi exploitation, to name the most obvious elements, was too much for me. Some scenes were just like a porn-horror movie and now I can say that I don�t like this �genre�. I definitely won�t watch this movie again, but I think it�s good that I saw it once. So I could make my opinion about Ilsa.

I really didn�t like our last week�s movie and so I thought porn could never be as bad as Ilsa. I started to watch Deep Throat in an optimistic, positive mood. I just expected to watch a porn, or as the woman in the documentary said �I wanted to see a dirty picture and that�s what I got�. To my surprise I somehow �liked� Deep Throat. Don�t get me wrong, I�m not keen on porn, but this plot is absolutely hilarious, �Your clitoris is deep down at the bottom of your throat. It�s better than having no clitoris!� The movie just made me laugh! The film music was great as well, the funky 70s �porn music� somehow didn�t fit to the sex scenes, which made it even more funny.

After having seen Deep Throat and Inside Deep Throat, I can understand why it is considered a cult movie. The actor was in jail just because he acted in Deep Throat, the movie brought in really a lot of money, it was banned in several states and it influenced the so-called porno-chic boom in the 1970s. The movie triggered a lot of emotions, feminists demonstrated against it and in some ways it expressed sexual freedom.

I don�t know what to think about Linda Lovelace, on the one she enjoyed her fame and the money she earned, but on the other hand she said she was raped throughout the whole movie. She acted in a porn and after that she realized that nobody would hire her again because of Deep Throat. It seems as if she just said what she thought was the best for her.

I haven�t seen Easy Rider before, but the title was already really familiar to me. I liked watching this movie. The landscape and the music were great. I know that cult movies are watched over and over again and concerning this movie I understand why people want to watch it again.

The movie was released in 1969, the year of the Vietnam War, Woodstock and Nixon�s election. Easy Rider represents a counterculture generation who is disillusioned with its government as well as the government�s effects on the world. It reflects the hopes of liberation and the fears of Establishment of the 1960s youth.

Easy Rider tells the story about two modern cowboys. The names Billy and Wyatt could already be seen as allusion to western outlaws, e. g. Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp. The modern cowboys weren�t traveling westwards like real frontiersmen did, they rode their Harley Davidson choppers eastwards. The road movie is about the search of freedom, or maybe about the illusion of freedom.

Night of the Living Dead is a milestone in horror movie�s history, especially concerning the zombies (although the term �zombie� wasn�t used in the movie). In this movie it was maybe the first time that zombies were shown as reanimated, slowly walking cannibals whereas in earlier movies zombies were represented as people who were under a spell.

I don�t really like horror movies because I get easily scared. So, wasn�t pleased that we should watch a horror movie. When I started watching the movie, I expected the worst, but Night of the Living Dead wasn�t really scary. To some extend I liked it. I think it is good that the movie is in black and white because the zombies might look ridiculous in color. However, the special effects weren�t that good in that time. I liked it how the light and the shadows are used to create more tension. The soundtrack of the movie is also good. It is this typical horror movie music. Without a good soundtrack the film wouldn�t work because the music helps to express feelings and to create scary atmosphere.

The film was produced in 1968, a time when the racial discrimination of black Americans was still present. I think it must have been progressive that it turns out that Ben, a black actor, is the hero of the movie. I didn�t like the ending! It was somehow too ironic. Ben survived, but then he was killed by some whites.

watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for the first time and I didn�t really know what expect. The movie was somehow hilarious, but I think I can�t watch it all the time. It was weird and very exhausting to watch. I think it is clear why it is a cult movie, the most obvious reason is this huge drug use. Johnny Depp acted great. He played this guy on trip quite authentically. The trips were depicted really good, I guess. I�ve never been on a trip, but I would imagine it more or less the way it was shown. The setting, namely Las Vegas, fits perfectly in this movie. Las Vegas is associated with entertainment, a place, where nearly everything could happen. Las Vegas may be seen as the bad part of America, a city of sin because there is lot of gambling, party and sex going on.

Donnie Darko is one of the few movies, which I�ve seen before. I simply like the movie. I�ve seen it several times and I�ll watch it again. It is a great movie and Jake Gyllenhaal is a good actor. When I saw Donnie Darko for the first time, I didn�t understand the movie completely. The plot is hard to follow and sometimes it is just confusing, but that�s what I liked. I get really bored when watching only these predictable movies whose ending is foreseeable. Concerning Donnie Darko, I had the wish to understand the movie and so I watched it again. The movie simply triggers the wish of the audience to watch it again. It�s normal that you want to understand what you see. This is one reason why it is considered as cult. Moreover, I did some research about the movie and I found a lot fanpages. There are still discussions going on what the movie is about, how to interpret it.

I liked the music of the film. The music fitted perfectly in the scenes. I think the choice of �Mad World� was extremely good. It is played in the end sequence. The song expresses Donnie�s feelings and his thoughts, I guess.

At the beginning of this semester I didn�t like black and white movies, but after some black and white movies I got used to it. I realized that some movies wouldn�t be that good if they were in color. I think this is true for The Bride of Frankenstein as well. I quite liked the movie. I especially liked the scene with the blind hermit. The man, who is unable to see the monster, is the only person who is able to treat the monster without any prejudices. He doesn�t know what the monster looks like and so he is open-minded. The blind hermit teaches the monster to talk. In this scene the monster is shown in a more human way, but then the blind hermit is taken away and the monster is alone again.

As already mentioned in several blog entries, Benshoff links the movie with homosexuality, but I didn�t get this link. I thought of some other underlying messages. It depends on the viewer, everyone interprets the movie in a personal, slightly different way. I think the movie shows that nobody wants to be alone and maybe you shouldn�t judge a book only by its cover. It also expresses that love or friendship can�t just be created in a lab because when the bride sees the monster she is terrified of him.

Throughout the semester we watched a lot of movies, which were more or less considered as cult movies. I wouldn�t have watched most of those movies if I hadn�t attended this class. I liked most of the movies, but Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS was the worst movie, which I watched (this semester). This week Planet Terror was on our watching list. This movie is weird, bad, ridiculous, ... I had these thoughts when watching e. g. Ilsa or Plan 9 from Outer Space as well. I simply don�t like the movie and I also don�t like the Charmed girl with her machine gun leg. Within this movie there are a lot of cult elements. There are different genres mixed together, zombies, really a lot of blood, sex and it�s no mainstream movie. On the other hand, Planet Terror doesn�t have this huge fandom like e. g. Star Wars. Is it enough to combine these cult elements to create a cult movie? According to my impression, this movie could be a cult movie, but I am definitely not sure what to think about the movie.

In general I liked the blog entries, but sometimes it wasn�t that easy to write something. I think questions wouldn�t be a good solution because every entry would be more or less the same. It would be boring to read them. Sometimes it took quite some time to write an entry, but I liked that we were allowed to write about everything that came into our minds. So, we had the chance to be creative. As you mentioned, watching some scenes to get a discussion going would have helped. However, I think the discussions were interesting because you got know different point of views and different interpretations. Things were mentioned, which I didn�t think of before. The discussions sometimes changed the way I thought about the movies.

I agree with you, Brandon Lee�s death fits into the movie and his death added to <em>The Crow</em>�s cult status. Death is a sad but interesting theme. So, his death was used for advertising the movie. It is tasteless, but money-wise it is totally logical. It was the same with <em>The Dark Knight</em>. Heath Ledger died shortly after the movie was finished, but it was really emphasized that it was his last movie. For many people stars are something great, they are interested in. Every fan wants to know everything about his or her idol. If such an idol dies, it triggers a wave of grieving. Think of Michael Jackson, his death concerned the whole world. I don�t think that the death of a star is more important or more tragic than the death of a �normal� person. Death is always sad and tragic, no matter who dies. There are always people who lose someone they love.

<em>The Crow</em> is a dark movie, but I like it because it contains these action elements as well as the love story. I liked Eric right away from the beginning. He loved Shelly and now he kills her murderers. It�s really tragic that Brandon Lee died on set. As you already mentioned, he wanted to marry after finishing this movie. Although it is tragic and sad, this background story is one reason why the movie is a cult movie. A lot of cult movies have these background stories, e. g. <em>Deep Throat</em>. I agree with both of you, he also reminded me of the Joker. When Heath Ledger died <em>The Dark Knight </em>wasn�t finished. One reason why I wanted to see <em>The Dark Knight </em>was that I wanted to see Heath Ledgers last movie. I like Heath Ledger and I thought seeing his last movie would be something special.

I like your blog entry because it describes the way I felt. I also had no clue who Bruce Campbell was. I googled him and found tons of entries. He did so many movies and a lot of other things. I liked Fanalysis because the insight into fandom was very interesting. I never reached the second level. So it was great to see people who are real fan(atic)s. I also liked the costumes. It takes so much time to produce them that is something only for real fans.

When you become an actor you know or at least you hope that you�ll have some fans. People know that they�ll have less privacy. I think that it is okay if you have some fans who like you or the character which you�ve played. There are several levels of the intensity of fandom. It probably gets weird if fan(atic)s want to look like the character you�ve played, no matter if they need a plastic surgery. And it gets really critical if fan(atic)s invade your private life and more or less start stalking you. However, Bruce Campbell is very in touch with his fans. He reads all the fanmail and the fans add to his cult status.

I watched Evil Dead II as well. I didn�t watch the whole movie. I skipped some parts of it because I also didn�t like it. Maybe the movie is so bad that becomes good again ;) The badness is something that could make a movie to a cult movie. Fans are also important for movies to gain a cult status. We would probably like the movie if we were real Bruce Campbell fans. Then we would like Bruce Campbell at least.

I also like Bree van de Kamp, but not as much as you like her. I just like Desperate Housewives in general. According to your description, I think you�re a fan but not a fanatic. The woman trying to be Xena is clearly a fanatic. She is overdoing it and for her it is a real obsession. She legally changed her name, she had a plastic surgery to look like a fictional character, ... I agree with you that fans are important for the film industry. Fans are able to make a film to a cult film. As already mentioned actors and fans should have balanced relationship, the Ying-yang theory.

This commercial is great. It made me laugh. As already mentioned he is probably the right one to advertise Old Spice. He is an experienced man, he produces, acts, writes, ... In Fanalysis Bruce Campbell seemed to be nice and likeable. I just liked it that he is in touch with his fans, but I didn�t think about the reasons why he does it. Jessica, you may be right. I didn�t consider the fact that fans can help him to become cult. Sophia, I think your comparison of Bruce Campbell and Arnold Schwarzenegger is hilarious. I wouldn�t have thought of this. I saw Hercules in NY once and I agree with you. It�s no high quality movie, it�s an awful movie.

I totally agree with you, everybody knows <em>Star Wars</em>! I am no <em>Star Wars </em>fan, but there is no doubt why <em>Star Wars </em>is considered a cult movie. If you google it, you�ll find millions of entries concerning the movie. There are <em>Star Wars </em>fanpages, <em>Star Wars </em>events, <em>Star Wars </em>action figures, games, just everything you can think of. I especially liked the <em>Star Wars </em>Lego figures. You�re right. It is fascinating that one movie has such a huge fan community. I think the comparison with a church is good. I can imagine that for real fans <em>Stars Wars </em>is like a religion. For me, one of the most fascinating aspects concerning cult movies is what those movies can evoke. Movies can influence so many parts of our lives, some trigger a huge fan community or others influence society (e. g. <em>Deep Throat</em>).

I really don�t like it if I know the ending of a movie before I have actually seen the movie. Stephanie, you may be right. Due to the whole <em>Star Wars </em>hype, you probably know what�s going on before you watch this movie. I didn�t consider the �Luke, I�m your father" quotation, which is known by probably everyone. I simply love <em>How I met your mother</em>. I think these references are great examples as well! There are also a lot of references in <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>. Howard has two laser swords hanging above his bed; Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard are playing a kind of guess who � game and Penny asks �Are you Star Wars?�, Sheldon answers �How could a person be an entire movie?�; Leonard and Penny are lying in the bed and he said that he was lying in the bed with a beautiful woman who can quote Yoda.

I also haven�t seen <em>Star Wars </em>before, which is really a shame! As you mentioned, although I haven�t seen the movie, I already knew a lot about it. I guess everybody knows <em>Star Wars</em>. This is definitely one reason why it is a cult movie. In many other movies and TV series references to <em>Star Wars </em>are made. For example, there is this Simpson episode, �I married Marge�. Homer and Marge went to see <em>The Empire Strikes Back</em>. When walking out, Homer says �Who would have thought that Darth Vader was Luke�s father?�, thus ruining the movie for everyone who is waiting to see it.

I decided to comment on your comments because I had quite the same thoughts after reading Benshoff�s text. When I watched the movie I didn�t get the link between monsters and homosexuality. I didn�t even think about that. Nowadays our society is open-minded and homosexuality is accepted, but back then homosexuality was a big deal. For me, this is only one way to interpret the movie.