Cult film

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), an example of a cult film that follows in the film and theatre poster.

The term cult film refers to any type of film production that has acquired some kind of popular cult following, either because of its format or its production, but above all because of its plot or its historical significance or its ideology. Cult films are often considered controversial, because they include highly controversial ideas or themes or because, being more conventional in their subject matter, they present it in a way that is far removed from aesthetic or narrative conventions.

It should be noted that, over time, many cult films have transcended this status, and have gone from being admired by some subculture or limited fandom, to being recognized even as movie classics in a way universal. This is the case of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens or more recently The Big Lebowski.

Cult films are the cinematographic crystallization of culture that ignores the standards of mainstream culture and assimilates into the genres of B-movie, exploitation cinema, camp cinema and independent cinema, characterized by their ideals of social transgression, the fictional theme of exploitation, and low standards in film production.

Features

Promotional Faster, Pussycat! (1965).

Cult films acquire such status due to the positive response they receive from a significant, but limited, part of the audience or critics because of their plot, their original aesthetics, their anomalous narrative structure or their special relevance in the context of film history. Due to their frequently controversial or offensive content, their structural transgressions (which move them away from narrative conventions, making them cryptic and not very understandable) or the usual low formal quality, which is determined by the scarcity of media, cult cinema is not usually totally commercial. In its general theme, cult cinema usually contains elements of exploitation fiction such as explicit sex, violence, crime and drug use. Other approaches include surreal artistic expression, black humor and the presentation of ironic or grotesque figures with a regularly dramatic or comic intent. In a more ironic and lax sense, films that present a camp theme in the that effeminacy and the dignifying or ridiculing of homosexuality and the expression of transgender identities prosper, such as drag and other B series films of very low objective quality that, however, for various reasons, are They have won the sympathy of broad sections of the public.

Grosso modo, and in a strict sense, it can be said that a film achieves the status of a cult film when it is capable of producing admiration and recognition in a group of viewers or critics large enough to to ensure its continuity as a significant film piece, but too limited to catapult the work into general recognition. However, this term is ambiguous and there are several variants, even contradictory ones, about what can be considered a cult film according to its attributes and chronology. Typically, this denomination is applied to a film if:

• Despite being relatively unknown to the public or even between generalist criticism, the film is particularly appreciated by the specialized criticism or by certain restricted sectors of the audience. Inferno (1980)
• The commercial success of the film has been moderate but constant since its launch and enjoys a special prestige among a certain sector of the public, but not between the criticism, which has traditionally treated the film with displicity. The Terminator (1984)
• The criticism at the time of its premiere was mainly favorable, but not so much the public opinion, which, however, has become more favorable or even enthusiastic over time.The Shining (1980).
• It had little popularity or acceptance in its launch, but it has experienced a gradual increase in popularity to achieve universal recognition of criticism, the public or both. The sacred mountain (1973), Blade Runner (1982), Scarface (1983), Lost Highway (1997).
• It is a classic of cult, wanting to indicate those cinematographic productions that were once rotundo successes of criticism or public and that now, despite being much less known and having left the commercial circles, remain the subject of admiration. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964).
• Despite their debatable quality, they have a special historical significance for their contribution to the development of cinema. The Jazz Song (1927).

Cult movie

Several titles, especially those dating from the golden age of cinema, were not a cult object when they were released, but until they were popularized and taken up again as magnificent works that portrayed the society of those years. They did not gain popularity until their commercialization, remastering and introduction into society, which caused them to be accepted as revolutionary works of cinema due to their production or their arguments. Prior to the blockbuster cinema, there were various themes in the construction of plots for films that showed the firm ideas of transgression of their director, which made them cult, contrary to the blockbuster that had the objective of showing what the public wanted to see and not what the director wanted to capture.

Promotional The Golem (1920).

Expressionist and surrealist cinema (1910 -1920)

Expressionist cinema is a cinematographic trend that originated in Germany (specifically in the Weimar Republic), but very popular in other European countries that were just entering the recent film industry. Contrary to other American approaches to silent film cinematography, expressionist cinema enjoyed complexity in its arguments by presenting serious ideas focused on horror and suspense, set in gloomy settings with irregular furniture and shots. Expressionist cinema had a surrealist and impressionist approach that was dedicated to presenting merely fictional stories focused on the interpretation of emotions and feelings such as love and fear, recurring in gloomy settings, anguish and deformed visions of the director to represent the context or the interior of the character. Expressionist cinema was also characterized for being one of the first forms of cinema to include social criticism based on unreal arguments, normally evoking characteristics of horror and suspense cinema.

In German expressionist cinema, directors such as Robert Wiene, Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch stand out. Some lost film titles of German expressionism considered cult films are: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem (1920), Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), Der Letzte Mann (1924) and Metropolis (1927).

Surrealist cinema is an avant-garde current of cinema that, similar to German expressionism, is dedicated to presenting fictional plots and dreamlike plots accompanied by gloomy scenes that denote anguish and suspense. Surrealist cinema is completely dependent on the capture of the camera to give a dreamlike effect to the plot of the story. The stories usually have contrasting changes and scenes that are not related to the previous ones, which is why their plots are often misunderstood, as well as including depressive scenarios and plots that refer to social criticism. Some surrealist film directors are Luis Buñuel and Jean Cocteau. Some titles considered cult films of surrealist cinema include: The Oyster Princess (1919), Intermission (1924), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and An Andalusian dog (1929).

Precode Hollywood (1920 - 1940)

Promotional Freaks (1932)

It is known as Pre-code Hollywood (translated into Spanish as Hollywood before the code ) to the time between 1920 and 1934 in which film production in the United States Unidos was not governed by any censorship parameter, and the representation of various lewd themes such as explicit sex, violence and drug use was frequent. The years of film production of the Pre-code are influenced by the theme of commercial pulp literature among the lower classes of the United States in the so-called "roaring twenties". The period of production of obscene cinematography ended with the definitive application of the Hays Code to regulate the parameters that defined audiovisual production until 1967, which denied the portrayal of promiscuity and violence in films.

At the end of the 1910s, the slapstick film genre developed, which based its appeal on physical comedy (violence to produce humor). Slapstick had a comic character, unlike contemporary European genres such as expressionism, which had a much more serious and gloomy character. The slapstick had popular actors such as: Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Currently, these types of films tend to be cult due to their historical significance in the development of cinema and include titles such as: The Kid (1921), Safety Last! (1923), The Gold Rush (1925) and The Great Dictator (1940).

Promotional cautionary She Shoulda Said No! - The Devils Weed (1949).

Starting in the 1910s, a strange form of social propaganda emerged in the cinema called cautionary (translated into Spanish as «precautiorio») that portrayed various social themes that were socially unaccepted for the time, such as miscegenation, fornication, homosexuality, crime, promiscuity, abortion and drug use to prevent the audience from these situations. The films were so popular because of their prohibited nature that the concept began to be exploited and became one of the first approaches to exploitation cinema. Some cautionary cult films include: Reefer Madness (1936) and Marihuana (1936). to human sexuality and eroticism, highlighting some aspects such as explicit sex, masturbation, sodomy, fornication and homoeroticism; some such cult films include Lot in Sodom (1933) and Fireworks (1947).

Promotional King Kong (1933)

A great demand for cinematography that will reveal social transgression began in the cinema, cinematography began to be used as a method of social criticism that hid the intentions of the author of the work. Cult-accepted directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, D. W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein, dedicated to the production of dramas with serious intent, hiddenly charged with visual eroticism and social criticism. Some titles include film classics such as: Broken Lilies (1919), Frivolous Wives (1922), Scarface (1932), What the Wind Gone (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Spellbound (1945). Fantastic fiction also became a cult object in classic films such as: Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), King Kong (1933), Tarzan and his Companion (1934) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). In the world vision, cinematography began to spread to express drama and social criticism as in La huella (1925), La Diosa (1934) and Doña Bárbara (1943); turning these titles into cult films for their intention to portray a society in an excessively realistic way, ignoring the fantasy of American films.

Classic cinema (1940 -1960)

Promotional Godzilla (1954)

The period of classic Hollywood cinema was the period in which a large number of film titles were produced that were highly recognized by the audience and highly remunerated due to the recent daily life of cinema. The Pre-code period began to be abandoned due to the ravages of World War II, which is why film production began to become sexualized again in commercial films, including some titles from cult films such as: The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Lolita (1962). It was not until 1967 that the Hays Code, which censored film production, was completely abandoned and various genres of exploitation cinema with highly lascivious themes reappeared.

Within the film world in the United States, the works of cult film directors such as: Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen and John Ford are popularized. Titles appear, today considered cult films, such as: The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Thing from Another World (1951), Singin'; in the Rain (1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Wild One (1953), Roman Holiday (1953), Johnny Guitar (1954), Sabrina (1954), Rear window (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), To catch a thiref (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), Vertigo (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), Pickpocket (1959), Psycho (1960), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), The Birds (1963), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964), Blow-Up (1966) Two for the Road (1967) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

On the international scene, what is now popularly known as Bollywood appears, bringing with it admiration and cult towards films of Indian origin such as: Mother India (1957) and Mughal-e- Azam (1960). In Japan, the chambara began to be exported thanks to internationally recognized films such as The Seven Samurai (1954); in addition to the Japanese drama and horror appreciated in films such as Tales of Tokyo (1953) and Godzilla (1954). Italian cinema stands out with the films of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, currently considered the director of cult films with works such as: Le Notti di Cabiria (1957) and La dolce vita (1960).

Promotional Attack of the 50 Feet Woman (1958).

B-films (1950 -1960)

It is known as B cinema those film productions that present low production due to the little economic investment that is denoted in the plot and special effects. B-movies are often focused on science fiction and horror fiction, so they are often filled with low-quality special effects that mark the low production of the film. B movies are often considered cult movies because they are usually identified under the parameter of genius based on mediocrity ("it's so bad, it's good"), in addition to the fact that they are not usually commercials and are usually found as lost films. In a similar genre is the Z movie that is characterized by being of worse quality than the B movie because it has a lower budget than it. The most recognized director of B and Z movies in the history of cinematography is Ed Wood.

Some B-movies considered cult films include: Bride of the Gorilla (1951), Forbidden Planet (1954), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), The Blob (1958), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). Some Z theater movies are usually considered the worst movies ever and usually include movies like: Glen or Glenda (1953), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1956) and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964).

Gore cinema is a cinematographic current that began as a variant of B cinema in which various cadaveric scenarios involving mutilation or murder were captured. Some films of this genre in its classification as cult B movies are Blood Feast (1963) and Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Promotional Glen or Glenda (1953).

Cinema camp (1960 -1990)

Camp is known as that aesthetic notion of exaggeration and effeminacy that has characterized various artistic currents such as cinema, music and fashion. Camp is a key element in the conception of closet culture prior to the Stonewall riots in 1969, dedicated to including homosexuality, transgender and queer into heteronormative society. The camp served as a method of transgression for homosexual culture, which was later incorporated into mass art forms that dealt with homosexuality and that despite their original intention of wanting to dignify the LGBT, ended up ridiculing it.

In the cinema, different elements are usually identified that refer to the absurd argument contained in the film; normally with an allegorical approach and on some occasions accompanied by elements of exploitation cinema. Based on the aesthetics of dignifying the socially unacceptable, the presence of an eccentric environment, the flamboyant aesthetic, and on some occasions, the sexploitation. Some famous camp directors are: Andy Warhol, Russ Meyer, John Huston, Armando Bó, Ed Wood and John Waters. The main characteristics of camp cinema fall on a crude comic intent, the use of drag, the eccentric environment, sexploitation and occasionally B-production or unintentionally funny. In the cult camp cinema there are films such as: Glen or Glenda (1953), Mary Poppins (1964), Pink Flamingos (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), La Cage aux Folles (1978), Dear Mommy (1981), Victor Victoria (1982), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Showgirls (1995), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Hairspray (2007) and Burlesque (2010).

Exploitation cinema (1960 - 1980)

It is known as exploitation cinema or exploitation to that cinematographic production that is characterized by «exploiting», hence its name, the themes or style of some other film that was achieved in its day considerable commercial success or momentary impact. They usually recreate themselves in the exhibition of controversial or obscene topics such as violence, explicit sex, nudity, homoeroticism, drug use, crime and death.

Promotional of the film Nazi exploitation, Ilsa, the SS wolf (1975).

Subgenres

There are various genres considered as exploitation cinema, although they did not belong to the Boom of exploitation between the 1960s and the 1980s, its greatest peak being in the 1970s. Cinema Cautionary from the 1930s, which is considered the beginning of exploitation cinema; mexploitation cinema, jewsploitation and teensploitation cinema are considered as exploitation cinema, but they are modern, have their origins in the 1990s and are commercially successful. Exploitation cinema and its currents are also usually classified as B cinema and camp cinema, although there are other approaches such as slasher cinema that would be classified as commercially successful blockbuster.

• Biker: It is characterized by presenting characters related to motorcycling, which are often identified as bikers. It relates to the fiction of exploitation for its insistence on portraying vandalism, crime, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, physical violence and theft. Some cult titles of this kind include: The Wild One (1953), Motorpsycho (1965), Hells Angels on Wheels (1967), Satan's Sadists (1969) and C.C. and Company (1970).
• Blaxploitation: It is characterized by representing the black pride with African American characters and their culture (urban culture, funk, soul, blues, etc.). They often integrate harmful elements such as drug use, physical rape, detonation of weapons, sex, eroticism and crime. Some cult films belonging to this subgener are: Shaft (1971), Blacula (1972), The Thing with Two Heads (1972), Super Fly (1972), Sugar Hill (1974), Foxy Brown (1976), Black Samurai (1977), Jackie Brown (1997) Black Dynamite (2009).
• Britsploitation: It is a variant of gore cinema that pays homage to Hammer Film Productions' horror films and television series. Some cult titles of this kind include Do not desecrate the dream of the dead (1974) and An American Wolf Man in London (1981).
• Cannibal: It is characterized by showing graphic scenes of violence, which arise from an argument related to human cannibalism between different ethnic cultures of the jungles of Asia, America and Africa in the form of an apparent documentary funded by naive explorers of the hostility of the false tribes. The best known films of this subgener are: Last Mondo Cannibale (1977), The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978) Cannibal Holocaust (1980) e Eaten Alive! (1980).

Promotional sexploitation, Nude on the Moon (1961).

• Carsploitation: It is characterized by presenting an argument entirely based on car driving (usually muscle cars), which usually includes topics such as clandestine car racing, car theft, car accidents, physical violence and crime. Some films of this genre are: Vanishing Point (1971), Mad Max (1979), The Blues Brothers (1980), Dead End Drive-In (1986), The Hitcher (1986), The Fast and the Furious (2001) and Death Proof (2007).
• Eco-terror: It is characterized by presenting animals in a behavior or appearance contrary to what they naturally have, usually focused on attacking the human race. They often present topics of violence, animal abuse, murder, devouring and detonation of weapons. Some cult titles belonging to this genre are: King Kong (1933), Birds (1963), Jaws (1975), Orca (1977), Piranha (1978), The beast under the asphalt (1980), Cube (1983) and The ocean devourer (1984).
• Giallo: is a subgener of cinema thriller and the police fiction that emerges as an Italian variant that combined the essence of the English noir and the hard boiled American. They often present topics of violence, crime, murder and detonation of weapons. Some cult titles are: L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970), Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971), 4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio (1971), Don't Look Now (1973) and Tenebrae (1982).
• Gore: It is characterized by scenarios that depend entirely on mutilation and blood scenes. He often shows murder, torture, mutilation and use of weapons. Some cult titles of this kind are: Blood Feast (1963), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), The Evil Dead (1981), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Final destination (2000) Saw (2004), Hostel (2005).
• Mondo: It is characterized by presenting sensationalist themes about ethnic customs in different exotic places. The shockumentary is a fake documentary, similar to cannibal, which presents the research of explorers who institutionalize the traditional customs of ethnic cultures away from urbanity. They usually present a theme that involves massacre, human sacrifice and cannibalism. It usually contains features of Gore and presental explicit graphic material of violence and murder. Some cult titles belonging to this genre are: Mondo cane (1962), Shocking Asia (1974) and Faces of Death (1978).
• Nazi exploitation: It is characterized by characters related to Nazism who commit crimes of a sexual nature within a context of World War II, usually involving officers or military members who belong to the formation of the German troops of the National Socialist Party. This genus presents various erotic elements such as explicit sex, sexual feticism practice, BDSM, physical violence, weapons use and murder. Some cult films include: Love Camp 7 (1969), Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975), Kitty Hall (1976) and SS Experiment Camp (1976).
• Nunsploitation: It is characterized by nuns wrapped in sexual or violent situations. It typically includes the use of weapons, BDSM, sexual abuse, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, murder, crime and explicit sex. Some cult titles this genre are: The Devils (1971), Killer Nun (Suor Omicidi) (1978), School of the Holy Beast (1974) and Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010).
• Pink eiga (מוווה): It is a Japanese film genre that is characterized by arguments that include erotic or violent scenarios involving elements such as murder, explicit sex, sexual abuse, abduction and BDSM. Some titles belonging to this genre are: Daydream (1964), Go, Go, Second Time Virgin () to refer to the question of consenting (1969), Sex " Fury " (1973) and Ambiguous (.) (2003).
• Rape/Revenge: It is characterized by presenting a common argument between her films, starting with a woman who is sexually abused, rehabilitated and ending up murdering the person who abused her. This approach to exploitation cinema resorts to explicit sex, eroticism, sexual abuse, physical violence, the use of weapons, gore and murder for the construction of its main argument. Some titles of this genre are: Lipstick (1976), I spit on your grave (1978) and The Accused (1988).
• Sexploitation: It is characterized by including an erotic context defined by simple scenes involving the nude, the semi-naked or the explicit sex in building its argument. Some cult titles this genre are: Faster, Pussycat! (1965), Supervixens (1975), Caligula (1979) and Showgirls (1995).

Blockbuster (1970 - 1999)

It is known as blockbuster to the commercially successful film production that did not have notorious political intentions as in past decades that the cinema was used as a means of protest and social criticism, it simply describes entertainment cinema which was in great demand in the daily life of the cinema of the 70s. This notable commercial success precisely means that few films classified as blockbuster fall strictly into the category of cult cinema, although there are certain exceptions to this. because of the special repercussion and influence they have had on certain groups. George Lucas is related to one of the most recognized directors of cult blockbuster films of the 1970s and 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s, the horror film genre was innovated by including cult genres such as eco-terror (animal terror) and slasher as its main exponents of the cult in the 70s and 80s. Eco-horror cinema was popular with films such as: Jaws (1975), Orca (1977), Piranha (1978), Alligator (1980), Cujo (1983) and Monster Shark (1984). Slasher cinema is a subgenre of exploitation cinema and thriller cinema that It is characterized by showing a common plot in the plot of the film in which a psychopath who brutally murders a group of teenagers participates. As a complementary detail, it includes premature sex and drug use among the adolescent characters. Some popular titles in the slasher genre are: Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), Prom Night (1980), My Bloody Valentine (1981), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Child's Play (1988).

Popular cinema showed different perspectives, focusing on love cinema, thriller cinema and fantasy cinema, decorating the plots with scenes and other slightly erotic, highly dramatic or comically absurd components.

Some blockbusters that have earned the title of cult film in some sense are: The Exorcist (1973), American Graffiti (1973), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Star Wars (1977), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Grease (1978), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), Alien (1979), Flash Gordon (1980), Xanadu (1980), The Elephant Man (1980), Somewhere in Time (1980) or Ask Time to Come Back (1980), The Evil Dead (1981), Blade Runner (1982), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), First Blood (1982), Flashdance (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Brazil (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Top Gun (1986), Dirty Dancing (1987), Predator (1987), Bloodsport (1988), Akira (1988), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler's List (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Clueless (1995), Fargo (1996), Mars Attacks! (1997), Men in Black (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Nasty video is a cinematographic current that constantly resorts to black humor, constantly exemplified by its greatest exponent, Stanley Kubrick's film, A Clockwork Orange (1971). New Queer Cinema is a cinematographic current that shows sexually active homosexual characters as in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Maurice (1987). In other aspects, non-commercial cinema became popular in films and short films such as: Deepthroat (1972) and Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987).