The Greatest Cult Movie Classics of All Time

How to define a cult classic? Is it a shoestring exploitation film from the world of Ed Wood? Off-beat movies made outside the traditional Hollywood studio system? Does the film in question even have to be good?

More often than not, one can identify a cult movie simply by watching it and being washed over by its quirkiness, off-beat tone, or technical mastery despite clear budget restrictions. Yet, this generic rule doesn’t encapsulate all cult films. Sometimes, a cult film is an international success, a wannabe blockbuster, or just a straight-up production of unadulterated shlock.

Most of all, a cult film requires devotion: the devotion of a feverous fanbase that persists for decades, gradually drilling the movie into the mainstream with near-religious zealousness. To become a true ‘cult classic,’ the movie must possess a lasting staying power from its initial mixed reception and may now come highly regarded as one of the best in the history of the film medium.

With the assistance of the Geek Team, Wealth of Geeks presents these true cult classics, beginning with the slightly mainstream before gradually dovetailing into the off-beaten path that makes a film part of the cult.

1. Grindhouse

Though listed as one entry, Grindhouse is truly two films for the price of one, split between Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.

Spliced in with fake trailers (or proofs-of-concept, considering many of these “fake” movies became real several years later), Grindhouse makes for a loving ode to exploitation cinema from two directors who are forever indebted to the works of that genre of film, rather fittingly being a box office failure much like most exploitation films.

Strong word of mouth and robust home video sales ensured that Grindhouse would become a cult classic in its own right, thanks to Rodriguez’s over-the-top horror and Tarantino’s genuinely insane vehicle stunt work.

2. This Is Spinal Tap

Rob Reiner earned renown for the sitcom All in the Family when he set out to satirize the 1980s rock scene with the definitive mockumentary This is Spinal Tap.

Following the fictional band of the same name on their North American tour, all the pretensions and mystiques of prior music documentaries are stripped away and mocked relentlessly. Packed with quotable improvised dialogue and dedicated to its faux-documentary filmmaking, Spinal Tap was only a modest box-office success in 1984 but found a devoted following amongst critics and real musicians who found much of themselves in the satire. Not many cult films can dial themselves up to eleven, but This is Spinal Tap truly lives up to the idiom it created.

3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Scott Pilgrim was too unique not to become a cult film when it first came out in 2010.

Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comics series, Edgar Wright’s spin on the material embraced its video game inspirations with religious zeal, helped by an inspired cast of actors who’d become major stars over the next ten years, particularly the likes of Brie Larson and Kieran Culkin. It was perhaps too off-the-wall to make a profit, let alone back its estimated $85 million budget.

Still, its commitment to video game visuals, comic book pacing, and Canadian setting ensured Scott Pilgrim lived on as a cult hit, ultimately seeing a revival of sorts in the anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off in 2023.

4. Mad Max

Cinesists have written much about the Mad Max franchise over the years, from the influential The Road Warrior to the highly acclaimed Fury Road. Less has been said, however, about the first film in the franchise, 1979’s Mad Max, probably because of how different this entry is from the series it spawned.

Set firmly in a gradually breaking Australia, with Max himself portrayed as a highway police officer driven to vigilantism, the original Mad Max drew a split response from critics but proved vital in the emerging Australian New Wave of the 1970s and ‘80s. Though lacking the series’ trademark post-apocalyptic design, Mad Max possesses the same high-action car stunts that would become its calling card and draw the attention of fans worldwide.

5. Harold and Maude

A black comedy, a sweet romance, and an existential drama rolled into one, Harold and Maude follows the namesake Harold Chasen, a death-obsessed young man, as he strikes an unorthodox friendship with the bohemian Maude Chardin.

The film’s twisted sense of humor offended critics back in 1971 and  itfailed financially because of a lackluster marketing campaign, but its critical reception has vastly improved over the decades. While directors don’t often cite Harold and Maude  as a named influence on their  work over the years, the dark comedy on display would herald the arrival of a more macabre humor and further unconventional depictions of romance in films going forward.

6. Speed Racer

After the success of The Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta, one would think that the Wachowskis wanted to tackle something somewhat different. Speed Racer became that something different and then some, becoming a modern pop-art film that paid homage to its original 1960s anime counterpart with a larger-than-life presence all its own.

Yet the film received dismal box office returns and critical disappointment; its visuals were praised, but its screenplay was found lackluster. However, in the sixteen years since its initial release, Speed Racer became a modern cult film, drawing praise from social media for its anime style in a world far more appreciative of its stylistic action.

7. Legend

For all his strengths as a director, Ridley Scott possesses a highly turbulent filmography marked by remarkable highs and lows throughout his forty-five-plus-year career, of which Legend was considered a considerable low for a time.

A dark fantasy epic starring a young Tom Cruise with Tim Curry as the devilish Lord of Darkness would, on paper, have the makings of the next great ‘80s fantasy epic. Instead, historians credited it with discouraging interest in the genre for many years. However, the release of Scott’s director’s cut in 2002 allowed the film reassesment by a new generation of fans, appreciating its darker fairy tale-inspired tone, grayer character complexity, and gleefully wicked performance by Curry.

8. Brazil

Between his fittingly quixotic endeavor to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to the wonderfully imaginative Time Bandits, Terry Gilliam always possessed a unique touch for British surrealism from his time as a Python.

Nestled between Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen lies the maddening dystopian comedy Brazil, a Fellini-esque riff on the sci-fi totalitarianism found in 1984. With a rich visual design that draws from across the 20th century and featuring the likes of Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro, Brazil ran into distribution hurdles in America from Universal, crippling any chance for box office success.

Nevertheless, Brazil’s whimsical, art-deco set design would greatly influence future films, ranging from Tim Burton’s Batman to the Coen Brothers’ cult favorite, The Hudsucker Proxy.

9. House

A genuinely demented Japanese horror film, House combines the classic tropes of a haunted house chiller with experimental visuals and comedy that could only have been cooked up in the late 1970s.

Granted special permission by Toho Studios to oversee the film to ride off Jaws‘ success, director Nobuhiko Obayashi oversaw a cast of mostly amateur actors based on script ideas he conceived with his then-young daughter. Negatively received by Japanese critics but a domestic box office hit, House plays like an arthouse acid trip mixed with giallo sensibilities for a bizarre, absurdist take on the horror genre that demands a watch.

10. After Hours

Of the many films Martin Scorsese has overseen, perhaps the most curious of his esteemed career remains his frantic black comedy After Hours.

Following a hapless computer worker on his misadventures in the Soho night, After Hours combined the same New York grit that Scorsese made famous in Taxi Driver with the dark comedy he previously explored in The King of Comedy to create a madcap nocturne New York odyssey. Only a modest success back in 1985, After Hours was largely forgotten, being nestled in a small corner of Scorsese’s catalog. However, it proved influential in music, lending its title to the Weekend’s highly acclaimed 2020 album of the same name.

11. Watership Down

Somewhat wrongly, audiences pigeonhole animation as a medium catering to children, focusing on cute visuals and harmless fairy tale plots. Ralph Bakshi already did away with this notion with his adult-oriented Fritz the Cat, but 1978’s British adventure-drama Watership Down takes the general shape of a children’s film with a Brothers Grimm-esque edge.

Infamous for the traumatic injuries inflicted on its cast of realistic rabbit characters and its perceived impact on child audiences, Watership Down nevertheless drew praise for its naturalistic art style and voice-acting performances. Now regarded as an animated masterpiece, the film counts among its admirers Guillermo del Toro and Wes Anderson, with Richard Kelley citing Watership Down as an influence on his own cult film Donnie Darko.

12. The Princess Bride

It may seem hard to believe, but Rob Reiner’s follow-up to the acclaimed Stand by Me only met with modest financial success in late 1987, just making under twice its $16 million budget.

Yet The Princess Bride remains one of the great fantasy films of the 1980s, with some of the genre’s most memorable characters, swashbuckling swordplay, and a witty script provided by William Goldman. The romantic story of Westley and his beloved Buttercup continues to capture the imagination nearly thirty years later, with its post-modern approach to fairy tale storytelling and enduring quotes resonating in a cynical age.

13. Black Christmas

Before John Carpenter’s Halloween, there was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, made just four years prior. Taking the urban myth of “the babysitter and the man upstairs” and creating a slasher mystery in the heart of the Christmas season, Black Christmas became unique for its unseen killer, primarily female cast, and heart-stopping final twist.

While successful in its native Canada, the film performed poorly stateside due to stiff competition and Warner Brothers’ insistence on retitling the movie for release. Despite these hurdles, Black Christmas helped form the early basis for the emerging slasher genre as a whole, with a conversation between Carpenter and Clark over a hypothetical sequel profoundly influencing the development of the defining Halloween.  

14. Suspiria

One of the grand examples of Italy’s giallo horror movement and Dario Argento’s magnum opus, Suspiria combined slasher thrills with gorgeous cinematography still unseen in most horror cinema. Following the witchcraft-inspired murders at a prestigious ballet school in Germany, Suspiria was cut down for its theatrical release in America to ensure an R-rating and received a mixed critical reception in 1977.

However, the film earned critical reevaluation in the decades since, becoming Argento’s most successful American release and ultimately inspiring a reimagining of its own in 2018. Gratuitously violent yet strangely beautiful at once, Suspiria is a vivid nightmare that could only come from the imagination of Dario Argento.

15. Ghost in the Shell

Inspired by the cyberpunk action manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell followed the cyborg security agent Motoko Kusanagi as she faced off against the cyber hacker the Puppet Master in an alternate 2029.

With high-end action mixed with philosophical musings courtesy of Patlabor director Mamoru Oshii, the film became a critical hit yet a box office failure, only beginning to attract a wider audience when it became available on VHS in both America and Japan.

Ghost in the Shell’s gorgeous animation, world design, and lead heroine drew admirers, including the previously mentioned Wachowskis, whose The Matrix was directly inspired by concepts and action sequences from Ghost in the Shell. 

16. Escape From New York

Following the commercial successes of Halloween and The Fog, John Carpenter plunged into dystopian sci-fi action with Escape from New York. Following former soldier turned criminal Snake Plissken as he rescues the US president from a Manhattan transformed into a super prison, Escape from New York combined Carpenter’s love for B-movie sci-fi with a creative action adventure.

Only modestly popular at the time of its release it has attained a cult following over the decades. The film proved instrumental in reforging Kurt Russell into an action star, having only been previously known for Disney comedies, and he would become a key collaborator of Carpenter’s throughout the 1980s. Russell’s Snake also became popularly referenced in other media, most notably in game developer Hideo Kojima’s landmark Metal Gear series in the form of Solid Snake.

17. Slap Shot

Famed for certified film classics Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, director George Roy Hill once more collaborated with actor Paul Newman for a decidedly different comedy than either man was accustomed to.

Following a struggling steel town hockey team turning to violent play to stay afloat, Slap Shot was only a modest hit in 1977 and was deemed subpar compared to Newman’s previous releases. However, as one of the rare, well-remembered hockey-centric movies, Slap Shot has become a cult sports film and inspired two direct-to-video sequels in the early 2000s.

18. Reservoir Dogs

Not only does Reservoir Dogs serve as Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut, but the film also serves as a crucial turning point in American indie cinema, which, alongside the directorial debuts of Steven Soderbergh and Kevin Smith, had a profound impact on filmmaking beyond the 1990s.

While only a modest financial success in 1992, it drew renewed attention thanks to the critical acclaim of Tarantino’s follow-up Pulp Fiction, leading fans to compare the two films back-to-back often. Gleefully violent with quotable dialogue and memorable performances from Harvey Keitel and Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs honored numerous international film movements with a uniquely American pulp twist.

19. American Psycho

A decidedly satirical take on psychological slashers, American Psycho became a stunning showpiece performance for the then-relatively unknown Christian Bale, providing both gratuitous kills and a comedic send-up of corporate yuppie culture.

In adapting Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, director Mary Harron played up the book’s satirical and psychological elements, crafting a horror film just as funny as a skewering of the hyper-capitalism of the late 1980s.

While already pivotal in raising Christian Bale’s profile to an internationally renowned actor, American Psycho gained a new lease on life in the 2000s upon home video release, inspiring perverse affection for its psychotic lead and psychological examination of masculine vanity.

20. The Good, the Bad, the Weird

A Korean action spin on Sergio Leone’s legendary The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Good, the Bad, the Weird follows a trio of gunslingers in 1939 Manchuria caught between bandits and the Imperial Japanese army over a treasure map believed to lead to untold riches.

Unabashedly silly while still retaining its Spaghetti Western edge, the film benefits from director Kim Jee-woon’s action cinematography, particularly a standout sequence between an Imperial convoy and Jung Woo-sung’s ‘The Good’ in a shootout chase for the ages. While one of the highest-grossing films in South Korea, The Good, the Bad, the Weird remains little-known in the United States. Still, its high-octane gunplay, Western inspirations, and unique setting make for a captivating action epic unlike anything else from South Korean cinema.

21. Labyrinth

Though famed as the creator of the Muppets and a pivotal contributor to Sesame Street, Jim Henson had long professed his desire to show that his brand of puppetry could be far more than just simple entertainment for children. In the 1980s, Henson oversaw two mature fantasy films, each darker than he was known for and meeting mixed critical/commercial reception.

However, while The Dark Crystal would see a revival in the form of Netflix prequel Age of Resistance in 2019, that same sort of revisitation has yet to greet Labyrinth. Buoyed by a typically charismatic David Bowie as Goblin King Jareth and a lavish fairy tale production design, Labyrinth experienced a home video revival and maintains a passionate fan following that persists to this day.

22. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Already renowned for their sketch comedy series Flying Circus, the Monty Python troupe worked to tell a surrealist comedy spin on the Arthurian legend in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

With its delightful send-up on the famed Grail Quest, the Pythons skewered medieval epics and chivalry while serving as Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones’ directorial debut. Though a relative box office hit that split critical opinion over its set pieces and jokes, Holy Grail’s reputation grew over the decades to become one of British cinema’s great comedies. Decades later, the film would inspire a musical adaptation from former Python Eric Idle in Spamalot.

23. Repo Man

One of the most highly acclaimed films of the 1980s remains an almost undiscovered gem buried beneath the likes of Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, and Footloose.

Starring a pre-Breakfast Club Emilio Estevez, Repo Man took a punk-rock approach to sci-fi comedy, satirizing Reagan America and atomic fears with repo men, government agents, and punks all fighting over a Chevy Malibu supposedly containing aliens. Marking British director Alex Cox’s feature debut, the film endures thanks to its punk soundtrack and off-kilter humor.

24. Return to Oz

The enduring image of L. Frank Baum’s classic Oz book series remains the definitive The Wizard of Oz from 1939, but that film never received a true sequel or remake thanks to its place in pop culture.

However, because of Baum’s prolific work, unofficial sequels to the MGM production have appeared over the decades, perhaps the most well-known being Disney’s 1985 Return to Oz. Far darker than its spiritual predecessor but more in line with the original tone of Baum’s books, Return to Oz faced mixed critical reception and box office failure, no doubt due to general audiences only familiar with the 1939 interpretation.

However, thanks to its dark fantasy tone and special effects work, the film still holds a special, if slightly traumatic, place in the children who grew up with this more nightmarish Oz. 

25. El Topo

 

Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky remains beloved in the cult, avant-garde film world for his visual aesthetics, hybrid Eastern/Judeo-Christian philosophical themes, and bizarre characters. His second film, the acid western El Topo, became the grandfather of the midnight movie scene, beginning like a typical western set-up before dovetailing into feverish imagery and surrealism.

Blurring the line between the art house and exploitation cinemas, El Topo proved influential on directors David Lynch, Gore Verbinski, and Nicolas Winding Refn. In music, admirers have included Frank Ocean and Peter Gabriel, while game director Suda51 cited El Topo as a critical influence on the similarly cult-adored action game No More Heroes.

26. Phantom of the Paradise

Before Scarface, Dressed to Kill, and even Carrie, Brian de Palma oversaw this radically reimagined interpretation of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera. Rather than following a disfigured classical music genius, Phantom of the Paradise would follow a disgruntled songwriter seeking vengeance against the devious rock producer who stole his work.

Equal parts rock opera, black comedy, and supernatural horror, Phantom received near-universal negative reviews but received praise, fittingly, for its music soundtrack. References to the film can be found in the manga industry, with the design of this rock n’ roll Phantom influencing characters appearing in works as diverse as Berserk and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

27. Heavy Metal

Based on the sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic magazine of the same name, Heavy Metal was an animated anthology that took the underground/French comics stories of its print counterpart and rendered them in the same graphic detail.

Produced by Ivan Reitman and featuring a massive voice cast including John Candy, Harold Ramis, and Eugene Levy, the film showcased various animation studios on different segments, ranging from sci-fi comedy to fantastical horror in equal measure. Thanks to its eclectic rock soundtrack and heavy rotation on television and midnight screenings, Heavy Metal inspired later adult-oriented animation projects, including the modern-day hit Rick & Morty.

28. Point Break

Before Kathryn Bigelow earned an Academy Award for Best Director for her work on the war drama The Hurt Locker, she was perhaps most famous for her early ‘90s action romp Point Break.

With star turns from both Keanu Reeves as an undercover FBI agent and Patrick Swayze as the charismatic leader of the “Ex-Presidents” bank robbery gang, Point Break combined over-the-top crime thrills and sports stunt work to craft a film that epitomizes the extreme era of the 1990s.

While a contemporary critical/financial success, Point Break continues to endure thanks to the chemistry between Reeves and Swayze’s characters, with the film inspiring The Fast and the Furious a decade after its release and referenced in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz.

29. Swiss Army Man

The feature film debut of the Daniels, previously known for music videos and episodes for television sitcoms, Swiss Army Man gave a first taste of the pair’s penchant for the surreal while combining effective comedy and drama six years before sweeping the film world with Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Equal part survival story and buddy comedy, Paul Dano stars as a man marooned on an island, with his only hope of returning home being a seemingly magical corpse portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe. The premise is patently absurd, but Dano and Radcliffe’s commitment to the tone, paired with its imaginatively weird visuals, remains inspiring and destined to become a cult staple in the years to come.

30. Battle Royale

One of Japanese cinema’s most violent and controversial action films, Battle Royale is undoubtedly one of the 21st century’s most influential films for its impact across all forms of media. Following a Japanese middle-school class forced to fight one another to the death, director Kinji Fukasaku’s final film drew praise and criticism for its teen drama, ultra-violence, and dystopian tone, hinging on Takeshi Kitano’s mad instructor.

Unseen in America for ten years until a home video release, Battle Royale quickly drew a cult fan following, impacting the development of the battle royal video game sub-genre in the 2010s and within film and television, most recently in Netflix’s Squid Game.

31. Blue Velvet

Following the critical/commercial failure of his take on Dune, David Lynch returned to his more experimentalist roots with the neo-noir mystery film Blue Velvet. While widely regarded as one of the best examples of its genre today, the film met a split reception upon its release in 1986, with critics torn between its disturbing content and the performances of its cast.

Dennis Hopper’s acting career was reignited following Blue Velvet’s release, and the film also marked the acting debut of Isabella Rossellini. The film’s growing artistic merits proved influential over the decades, with Hopper’s Frank Booth hailed as one of cinema’s greatest villains and its dark examination of suburbia proving pivotal in developing Lynch’s Twin Peaks.  

32. Black Dynamite

As much a parody as well as a loving homage to classic 1970s blaxploitation, Black Dynamite blended the action expected of the genre and a light skewering of the genre’s tropes thanks to Michael Jai White’s script and lead performance as Black Dynamite.

Intentionally over-the-top, with “production errors” added to zero in on the style of production of that period, Black Dynamite earned a warm reception among those who praised its cinematic references. While not a financial success due to its limited release, Black Dynamite would receive an animated series adaptation in 2011, a spiritual successor in the Michael Jai White-directed Outlaw Johnny Black, and talks continue over the development of a proper sequel.

33. Little Shop of Horrors

As infamous as Roger Corman’s New World Productions were for making films on less than shoestring budgets, it remains remarkable how very few of Corman’s directorial credits can be considered traditional “cult films.”

The one exception, however, is the horror comedy The Little Shop of Horrors, which was shot in less than three days and made on a reported budget of $28,000. The story of an alien house plant devouring its victims became an underground comedy hit, particularly among those fascinated by the early career appearance of Jack Nicholson.

The film gained renewed attention in the 1980s when Alan Menken and Howard Ashman reworked the story into a smash musical, the success of which paved the way for the pair to join the Walt Disney Animation Studios and help ignite the Disney Renaissance.

34. Akira

A technical masterpiece of animation and the gateway anime film for Western audiences, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira drips style, action, and science fiction finesse.

Based on Otomo’s own manga of the same name, Akira became a pivotal influence on the growing Japanese cyberpunk movement and, upon home video release in America, became an international cult sensation thanks to its decidedly adult storytelling and post-apocalyptic art design.

No amount of words can truly quantify the level of impact Akira has had across the pop culture landscape, but it did prove once and for all that animation wasn’t just a medium to tell children’s stories. Even today, homages to its famous ‘slide’ scene with protagonist Shotaro Kaneda have appeared in numerous films and TV shows, ranging from Batman: The Animated Series to Jordan Peele’s Nope.

35. The Thing

Perhaps John Carpenter’s greatest horror film and one of the definitive creature features of the 1980s, The Thing brought cold, paranoid terror with gory special effects work that still stands out over forty years later.

Serving as a new take on the novella Who Goes There? and taking some cues from Howard Hawk’s previous adaptation The Thing from Another World, Carpenter’s The Thing was a critical failure upon release and only just made its budget back in a summer packed with the likes of E.T., Poltergeist, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Thanks to a reappraisal on home video and television, The Thing is now considered one of horror cinema’s finest achievements and an artistic high point in John Carpenter’s career.

36. Aguirre, the Wrath of God

The turbulent relationship between director Werner Herzog and his famous leading man Klaus Kinski, have become the subject of countless articles, with an infamous incident involving the threat of a gun while filming their first collaboration, Aguirre, the Wrath of God often taking center stage.

A fictional take on a real-life conquistador expedition to find the fabled El Dorado, Aguirre faced a troubling production cycle in Peru, paralleling the slow descent into madness against the Peruvian jungle vistas. Critically acclaimed upon its release in the American art-house circuit, Aguirre’s reputation continued to grow into a classic of world cinema and was cited by Francis Ford Coppola as a significant inspiration for his own harrowing jungle fever dream Apocalypse Now.

37. The Man Who Fell to Earth

Acclaimed as one of Nicholas Roeg’s finest works, The Man Who Fell to Earth blended science fiction genre dressing with a deeply human drama about humanity’s virtues and vices, marked by a mesmerizing lead performance by David Bowie.

Bowie’s portrayal of alien Thomas Newton falling to mankind’s corrupt influence drew praise from critics otherwise sour on the film. However, its surreal imagery made it a midnight screening staple. Bowie’s work on the film would prove highly influential on his music, fueling the development of his Thin White Duke persona alongside the album Station to Station.

38. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 semi-autobiographic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas remains the gonzo journalist’s most famous work, and efforts to adapt the film date back to the late 1970s. By the late 1990s, when Terry Gilliam came on board as director, development had devolved into a chaotic production cycle that would eventually involve writing credit disputes and general disorganization.

With such background, the resulting film, starring Johnny Depp as Thompson’s alter ego Raoul Duke, naturally provoked split critical opinion, either praise for its visuals or criticism for its messy narrative. Regardless, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas remains an incinerating look at 1970s American culture paired well with Gilliam’s trademark eye for harrowing visuals.

39. Reefer Madness

What began life as a morality tale about the dangers of marijuana use in the 1930s, titled Tell Your Children, quickly transformed into an exploitation midnight staple thanks to loopholes in the Hayes Code allowing the film to avoid the censors’ scissors.

Audiences rediscovered Reefer Madness in the 1970s, with its cheap production design, over-the-top moralizing, and amateur acting turning the film into a staple of camp culture. As well as inspiring a satirical musical adaptation, Reefer Madness maintains its status as a cult film by serving as a precursor to more infamous examples of “so bad it’s good” movies.

40. Raising Arizona

The closest anyone ever came to a Looney Tunes live-action film (at least outside the actual live-action Looney Tunes movies), the second film by the Coen Brothers serves as a complete 180 from their feature debut. Gone was Blood Simple’s dark, moody neo-noir style, and in its place was the bright, fast-paced, over-the-top Raising Arizona.

With Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter playing an ex-con and his former policewoman wife, respectively, Raising Arizona served as an 80s interpretation of classic screwball comedy through cartoonish antics and visual style. Though critics debated its stylistic merits upon its 1987 release, the film began to amass a cult following, starting a trend with many Coen Brothers films straddling between the mainstream and the cult.

41. The Thief and the Cobbler

How does a film that technically hasn’t been released possess a devoted following?

Aficionados of legendary British animator Richard Williams attest that his once-and-future magnum opus, The Thief and the Cobbler, possesses highly detailed imagery and character animation, rivaling many of the top studios in medium. However, that obsessive attention to detail led to a troubled, decades-long production cycle, culminating in the film being snatched from Williams’ grasp by the Completion Bond Company in the early 1990s.

Though the officially released version comes across as a pale Disney imitation riding off of the success of Aladdin, efforts by fans of Williams to restore the film to his original vision persist to this day, with the so-called “Re-Cobbled” cut overseen by Garrett Gilchrist proving the most enduring effort and drawing praise.  

42. Clue

On paper, a film based on a murder mystery board game from the United Kingdom shouldn’t work at all. Yet, director Jonathan Lynn and Carpenter collaborator/producer Debra Hill oversaw a black comedy that continues to win fans almost forty years after its release.

With an all-star comedy cast including Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, and Madeline Kahn, Clue took the classic murder mystery and injected screwball comedy into the proceedings, combining physical slapstick and farcical dialogue. The film also honored its board game origin by including three different endings, randomized at different theaters to keep audiences on their toes.

Though receiving mixed critical and financial success, Clue drew attention upon home release for its send-up of classic mystery, earning nods in other media and inspiring an in-development remake by Ryan Reynolds.

43. Big Trouble in Little China

Fulfilling John Carpenter’s wish to make a martial arts film, Big Trouble in Little China celebrates kung-fu B movies while twisting the expected plot conventions those movies typically call forth.

Featuring Carpenter collaborator Kurt Russell as sidekick/wannabe leading man Jack Burton, Big Trouble drew praise for its inversion of expected hero/sidekick dynamics, heightened style, and world-building. However, the film bombed at the box office amid the high anticipation for James Cameron’s action/horror film Aliens, marking the final time Carpenter would work within the Hollywood system and return to independent filmmaking following his disillusionment.

In the decades since, however, Big Trouble would inspire reappraisal, and its influence can be felt most acutely in NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat franchise in the character Raiden.

44. Streets of Fire

Born during the development of 48 Hrs. and coming from a desire to create his own take on a comic book film, Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire mixed his patented action thrills with rock n’ roll sensibilities. Combining 1950s music flair with 1980s style, Streets of Fire was an early showcase for Diane Lane and Willem Dafoe while maintaining the same level of gritty street action that Hill had become well-known for by that point in his career.

Yet the film became a box office bomb and proved detrimental to the future work of some of its actors for the next several years, particularly Lane. Streets of Fire, however, proved popular in Japan and ultimately influenced the development of the anime OVA cyberpunk series Bubblegum Crisis.

45. Showgirls

Fresh off of a successive trio of films, Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct, director Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls drew intense attention over its sexual subject matter and infamy over its NC-17 rating. Yet the resulting drama became both a box office bomb and a critical dud upon its release in 1995, drawing scorn for its perceived exploitation, gonzo tone, and Elizabeth Berkley’s lead performance.

What should have been a career killer for most involved would, however, become reappraised as both a modern camp classic and an entertainment satire of Hollywood rags-to-riches stories. The debate around Showgirls’ merits as a film continues to rage unabated, but its status as a guilty pleasure has long been secure.

46. Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Never has a director embraced anarchic glee so unabashedly as Joe Dante did with this sequel to his own Gremlins. One would think he’d take the conventional follow-up approach, but after being promised complete creative control over the sequel by Warner Bros., Dante set out to make a film that tested the limits of his affection toward absurdist cartoon antics.

Satirizing modern American culture, upping up the slapstick, and even outright mocking the ideas outlined in the first Gremlins, The New Batch appeared destined from the get-go to never come close to the success of its predecessor. Yet despite its box office failure, attributed to the many years between installments, Gremlins 2 drew critical praise for its commitment to large-scale anarchy and retains a devoted following.

47. Eraserhead

In retrospect, David Lynch would always be a cult-adored filmmaker from day one, and audiences won’t find more proof of that assumption than in his debut feature film, Eraserhead. Part experimental art film and part body horror, Eraserhead came about from Lynch’s fears of fatherhood and the works of Franz Kafka to create the fittingly Kafkaesque tale of a man struggling to care for his horrifically mutated child.

The film garnered little attention upon initial release but slowly gained commercial success along the midnight film circuit. Today, Eraserhead remains praised for its unsettling sound work and gorgeous black-and-white photography, influencing the likes of The Shining and becoming a crucial part of the acceptance of the midnight movie.

48. Evil Dead II

Just as much a remake of its gory predecessor and a comedy farce sequel, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II cemented his position as a master of stylish horror and confirmed Bruce Campbell as a modern cult leading man.

Only loosely following up on the original The Evil Dead, the sequel sees Campbell’s Ash Williams transform into one of horror cinema’s great heroes while adding a dose of surreal dark comedy to the blood-soaked cabin horror proceedings.

Like the original film, Evil Dead II became a critical favorite but once more proved unimpressive at the box office. Yet its reputation has gone on to eclipse that of its milestone predecessor, turning Evil Dead into a franchise and inspiring developer id Software’s groundbreaking first-person shooter Doom.

49. Heathers

Purposely designed as a dark mirror version of John Hughes’ 1980s teen movies, Heathers was a mean-spirited, subversive take on coming-of-age films with a dark comedy streak uniquely its own. Both director Michael Lehmann and writer Daniel Waters flipped the script on what was expected of the era, taking the idea of a teenage girl seeking revenge on the mean girl clique of her high school and homing in on the dark impulses American teenagers possess.

Its release was hampered by the bankruptcy of its distributor, New World Pictures, but Heathers earned some praise from contemporary critics for its satirical tone and dark subject matter. Today, the film is cited as endlessly quotable and has inspired a musical and a modern-day television series.

50. Pink Flamingos

Though widely hailed for his work on Hairspray, John Waters always possessed a taste for filthy camp, and his most significant exercise in revulsion remains the notorious Pink Flamingos.

Starring Divine in his most famous lead role, Pink Flamingos engaged in grotesque acts of the obscene and criminal, leaving no taboo alone and culminating in one of the most revolting final scenes ever committed to film. The film’s subject matter would see it banned in several countries, but it proved itself among the Baltimore underground scene and was embraced among international film circles.

Today, Pink Flamingos is a staple of the midnight movie portfolio, hailed by director Gus Van Sant as an American film classic.

51. Freaks

Before the success of Dracula, Tod Browning always found himself living amongst the sordid world of carnies and their traveling shows. Freaks was a project that Browning had been tinkering with since the mid-1920s, finally having the chance to tell the story of a duplicitous trapeze artist trying to swindle a dwarf of his rightful inheritance in 1932.

However, the film’s bizarre imagery and grotesque horror scenes, combined with the general stigma against the sympathetic portrayal of Freaks’ sideshow cast, led to outright disdain from critics and became box office poison. So repellant was the film’s reception amongst the general public that, while he’d oversee four more films, Freaks utterly killed Browning’s directing career.

Yet Freaks persisted and found a brand-new audience in Europe before being rediscovered in the late 20th century by American critics, who’ve since reclaimed the film as Browning’s crowning achievement.

52. Branded To Kill

What began life as a typical yakuza B-movie for studio Nikkatsu ultimately became director Seijun Suzuki’s most iconic film. A production equal parts crime thriller and avant-garde arthouse, Branded to Kill remains infamous for Suzuki’s firing by his studio after the film’s initial critical/commercial failure and subsequent lawsuit, resulting in the director’s blacklisting for a decade.

Yet that highly public lawsuit turned Suzuki into a cause célèbre, and his filmography, including Branded, was screened at midnight revivals and film societies throughout Tokyo before emerging onto the international stage in the 1980s. Branded to Kill’s international acclaim has been cited as influential on the works of Quentin Tarantino, John Woo, and Jim Jarmusch, fueling distinct pop-art visions of hitman action ever since.

53. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

One may be forgiven for thinking why a highly acclaimed kaiju film that serves as an atomic bomb parable would find itself amongst a list of cult classics, and they would be correct. However, the original Japanese version of Godzilla remained out of reach for American audiences for decades, only officially emerging stateside in 2004.

In the meantime, audiences had to make do with this “Americanized” variant, King of the Monsters, including newly shot footage with actor Raymond Burr to slide him into the original Godzilla story. American film critics lambasted this take for cutting down the human drama of the original film, but it proved a hit amidst the American sci-fi boom of the 1950s. The original 1954 film kickstarted Godzilla as a franchise, but King of the Monsters ensured that the world would know about Japan’s greatest monster.

54. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

Made for a reported budget of $150,000, Melvin Van Peebles launched American Black Cinema to new heights with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Peebles wrote, directed, and starred as the lead, delivering an incendiary statement of a black man defying white police oppression.

Its revolutionary politics drew mixed reception at initial release but drew praise from the Black Panthers and proved a significant influence in the works of Spike Lee. While not officially a blaxploitation film, Sweet Sweetback proved pivotal to the genre’s emergence, its financial success ensuring that upcoming Hollywood-funded black-centric action films such as the in-production Shaft and 1972’s Super Fly would endure.

55. The Big Lebowski

Of all the eclectic films the Coen Brothers have overseen since Blood Simple, their most beloved comedy film remains 1998’s The Big Lebowski, a Raymond Chandler-style crime story told as if Phillip Marlowe half-heartedly engaged in the actual detective work. Following the slacker Jeffery “The Dude” Lebowski as he’s mistaken for a wealthy millionaire before finding himself in a missing persons mystery, The Big Lebowski met a mixed reception upon its initial release before finding a new home on the midnight movie circuit.

Thanks to its eccentric supporting actors, surrealist dream sequences, and Jeff Bridges’ lead performance, Lebowski slowly became a beloved entry of the Coens, inspiring a spin-off film starring John Turturro’s Jesus and a religion centered around The Dude fittingly named Dudeism (!).

56. The Warriors

One of the definitive New York films and a classic action thriller, The Warriors brought style to the gritty streets of the late 1970s.

Following the midnight odyssey of a Coney Island street gang after a citywide gangland meeting goes awry, the film was negatively received upon release for its depiction of street violence, and its box office cut asunder following reports of real-world violence at screenings. Yet its stylish pulp sensibilities found an audience and earned critical reassessment, inspiring video games, comics, and a currently in-development musical adaptation by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

As recently as John Wick: Chapter 4, with a direct homage to the famous DJ sequence and the song “Nowhere to Run,” The Warriors continues to inspire action filmmaking.

57. They Live

At once a damning indictment of Reagan-era America and an off-beat sci-fi thriller, They Live met with a negative reception back in 1988 but has since been reclaimed as one of John Carpenter’s most remarkable directorial feats. In an homage to classic 1950s B-movie science-fiction, a drifter discovers that aliens rule over the modern world, and he can only see the world as it truly is through sunglasses created by an anti-alien resistance movement.

In a project made following his decision to leave the Hollywood system behind, Carpenter lets his contempt for the rapid consumerism of his era flow throughout the campy action romp. In the decades following its release, They Live continues to be strikingly prescient, with the film’s critique of power imbalance and mass media more relevant than ever in 2024.

58. Plan 9 From Outer Space

If there were ever a man who lived that was the embodiment of cult classic cinema, it would be the legendary schlock director Edward D. Wood Jr.

One can’t talk about Ed Wood without mentioning his magnum opus (?), Plan 9 from Outer Space. Marked by terrible acting, poor set design, nonsensical plotting, and film continuity problems, Plan 9 became a staple of midnight television following a dismal theatrical release.

After being dubbed the “Worst Film of all Time” in 1980 by the film critic Michael Medved, public interest in Wood’s campy, unsophisticated film was revived and drew admirers for its inept charm. Now hailed as a prime example of “so bad, it’s good” cinema, Plan 9 continues to possess a legion of fans, and its production was a key plot point in Tim Burton’s acclaimed biopic Ed Wood in 1994.

59. The Room

No matter what director Tommy Wiseau claims now, The Room was intended as a romantic drama in the vein of Tennessee Williams’ great works but would instead become known as the “Citizen Kane of Bad Movies.”

Featuring little to no advertising save for what Wiseau paid out of pocket, the film was skewered by critics for every aspect of its production, from the poor acting to the inept production design. Yet those exact aspects helped transform The Room into a 21st-century midnight classic, with late-night screenings encouraging audience participation not unlike previously established midnight circuit staples.

Actor Greg Sestero, the film’s co-lead, would publish a memoir about his experience in The Disaster Artist, inspiring a film adaptation in 2017 and cementing Wiseau’s madhouse film on an even broader scale.

60. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Was there any real doubt where The Rocky Horror Picture Show would place? Adapted to the screen from the West End musical The Rocky Horror Show, this homage to classic B-movie horror and science fiction helped turn Tim Curry into a beloved cult actor with his turn as the mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter and remains the pinnacle of audience participation screenings.

Despite an overwhelming hostile initial reception, it has a theatrical run spanning nearly five decades, helping transform the midnight film scene from the traditional arthouse into a staple of grindhouse cinema. Credited as a vital component of the LGBTQ movement’s strides toward greater acceptance and referred back to in pop culture, The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains an international phenomenon and the ultimate cult movie classic.

Honorable Mention: Jodorowsky’s Dune

Before Denis Villeneuve and David Lynch took turns adapting Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi masterpiece, Alejandro Jodorowsky was tapped to direct the first film version of Dune in the mid-1970s. Due to budgetary difficulties and Jodorowsky’s refusal to compromise his creative vision, the film never got in front of the cameras. Because this version of Dune was never actually made, it technically doesn’t qualify as a cult movie classic.

Still, the production team and initial cast included a who’s who of famed musicians, designers, and actors that’d prove instrumental elsewhere. A documentary about the failed project emerged in 2013, providing further details about the troubled production, with the team assembled by Jodorowsky going on to influence the sci-fi boom of the latter decade and the 1980s.

Going beyond cinema, the storyboard illustrations by Jean Giraud, the famed French comic book artist Moebius, would be instrumental in developing Jodorowsky’s sci-fi epic, The Incal.