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www.roughguides.com
CULT MOVIES: INTRO
Credits
Contributors:
Paul Simpson, Samantha Cook, Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, David Parkinson
and Jason Wood
Contributors to previous editions: Editing: Kate Berens, Matt Milton, Joe
Jo Berry, Michaela Bushell, Chas Chandler, Staines
Andrew Duffy, Mark Ellingham, Caroline Layout: Kate Berens
Elliott, Angie Errigo, Marianne Gray, Steve Picture research: Kate Berens, Andrew
Morgan, Ann Oliver, Richard Pendleton, Lockett
Edwin Pouncey, Helen Rodiss, Victoria Proofreading: Jason Freeman
Williams, Emma Young Cover design: Tom Cabot
Production: Rebecca Short
Publishing Information
This third edition published August 2010 by
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
375 Hudson Street, New York 10014, USA
Email: [email protected]
Distributed by the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
Penguin Group (USA), 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
Penguin Group (New Zealand), Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
Typeset in Rockwell and Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk to an original design by Diana Jarvis.
Printed by Toppan Security Printing Ltd, Singapore.
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all
information in The Rough Guide to Cult Movies; however, they can accept no responsibility for any
loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for
the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
© Rough Guides, 2010
464pp; includes index
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-84836-213-0
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
CULT MOVIES: CONTENTS
Contents
Introduction .........................vii Chick flicks ..........................63
Colour section .....................ix Circus ...................................67
Comedies ...........................69
Action ....................................1 Coming of age ....................77
Actor's lapses .......................4 Cops .....................................80
Adventure ..............................6 Costume ..............................84
Alcohol ...................................9 Courtroom .........................88
Animals ................................13 Crime ...................................91
Animated .............................14 Cross-dressing ...................98
Anime ...................................19 Cult studios .......................100
Apocalypse .........................22 Culture clash .....................102
Art .........................................24 Cut ......................................104
Asian extreme .....................27 Dance .................................106
B-Movies ..............................30 Decadence........................109
Bad Girls ..............................35 The Devil ...........................111
Banned .................................37 Disaster ..............................114
Beaches ...............................41 Doctors...............................117
Bikers ...................................44 Documentaries .................119
Biopics .................................46 Drama ................................125
Blaxploitation ......................49 Drugs .................................132
Bollywood ............................52 Dystopias ...........................136
Buddy ...................................54 Epics...................................138
Business ...............................57 Erotica ................................141
Cars ......................................60 Euro horror ........................143
iii
CULT MOVIES: CONTENTS
Eye candy ..........................146 Minimalism ........................232
Families ..............................148 Monsters ............................234
Fantasy ...............................151 Music ..................................237
Fight club ...........................157 Musicals .............................243
Film noir .............................159 Mutations ...........................249
Food ...................................166 Nazis ...................................251
Gambling ..........................168 Nostalgia ............................254
Gangsters ..........................170 Nuns ...................................257
Gay .....................................174 Outlaws ..............................259
Gross out ...........................178 Paranoia .............................261
Guilty pleasures ...............180 Politics ................................266
Heist ...................................183 Porn ....................................271
Historical............................187 Presidents ..........................273
Hollywood .........................190 Prison .................................275
Horror ................................193 Private eyes .......................279
Independent ....................197 Propaganda ......................284
Kids .....................................201 Psychos ..............................286
Kitsch ..................................205 Religion ..............................289
Lesbian ..............................209 Road movies .....................292
Made for money ...............211 Robots ................................296
Mafia ...................................213 Rock stars ..........................299
Martial arts ........................218 Romance ...........................302
Mavericks ..........................222 Samurai ..............................308
Media .................................225 Satire ..................................310
Midnight movies ..............229 School ................................312
iv
CULT MOVIES: CONTENTS
Sci-fi ....................................314 Teen ....................................371
Screwball ...........................320 Thrillers ..............................374
Serial Killers ......................323 Torture porn ......................380
Sexploitation .....................326 Trains ..................................382
Shorts .................................329 True Stories .......................384
Shrinks ...............................332 Turkeys ..............................387
Silents .................................335 Underground ....................390
Slasher ...............................338 Urban nightmare ..............393
Soundtracks ......................340 Vampires ...........................395
Space .................................344 Vamps ................................397
Spaghetti Westerns ..........347 Villains ................................399
Spoofs ................................349 War .....................................401
Sport ...................................353 Weepies .............................408
Spy movies ........................358 Westerns ...........................412
Steampunk ........................363 X-rated ...............................419
Superheroes .....................365 Yakuza ................................423
Supernatural .....................369 Zombies .............................425
Index ..................................427
v
CULT MOVIES: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
Thanks above all to the filmmakers who contributed pieces to this guide: Nick
Broomfield, Atom Egoyan, Cari Joji Fukunaga, Keith Fulton, John Hillcoat, Tom Kalin,
Asif Kapadia, Stephen Kijak, Gideon Koppel, Andrew Kötting, Joe Lawlor, Christine
Molloy, Louis Pepe, James Marsh, Scott McGehee, David Morrissey, Chris Petit,
Nicolas Roeg, Ira Sachs, David Siegel, Peter Strickland and Paul Andrew Williams.
The publishers would also like to thank Franz Brown and Marie Reynolds of the
Tejeda-Brown Family Limited Partnership for permission to use Reynold Brown's
poster design for Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman. A book featuring this and dozens
of others of Brown’s classic designs – Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures by Daniel
Zimmer and David J. Nornung – was published in 2009 by the Illustrated Press.
Editorial thanks go to the dedicated writers on this edition, to Sachin Tanwar and
Pradeep Thapliyal, to Jason Freeman, Diana Jarvis and Dan May, and to Roger
Bardon, Richard Craig and Peter Buckley for additional contributions.
Samantha would like to thank Greg Ward, Jim Cook and Pam Cook, and, at Rough
Guides, Andrew Lockett and Kate Berens.
Larushka would like to thank Tom Moggach for all his love and support, her sister
Ludmilla for being generally splendid and Kim Newman for lending me Snakes on
a Train.
Jason would like to thank all the filmmakers listed above, Mia Bays, Walter Donohue
and Dave Shear.
vi
CULT MOVIES: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The movies, where one man's masterpiece is always liable to be someone
else’s Air Bud: World Pup, is a world where no opinion is final and deciding
what makes a film “cult” can be as intellectually arbitrary as deciding if a
film is “good” or “bad”. There is also a big difference between the films we
watch over and over again and the films which appear in the critics’ lists of
greatest-ever movies.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “cult” as: 1) a system of religious
worship especially as expressed in ritual; 2) a devotion or homage to a
person or thing; 3) a popular fashion especially followed by a specific
section of society; 4) denoting a person or thing popularized in this way.
The dictionary, in its linguistic wisdom, assigns the last definition to a cult
figure or cult movie. In cinematic terms, the word “cult” is often applied
to films starring fifty-foot women on a mission of personal revenge, killer
tomatoes or an entire Western town populated by midgets. Sometimes this
has been extended to include movies that are either “so bad they’re good”
(the clichéd example of this being any work by the “world’s worst director”
Ed Wood) or are the objects of quasi-religious worship (The Big Lebowski).
The word “cult” also implies knowledge hidden from the masses. So a cult
movie may be the preserve of a select few or have depths missed by the
casual viewer.
Umberto Eco, author of cult book The Name of the Rose, identifies
Casablanca as a cult movie. This sounds ludicrous, as Casablanca is one of
the most famous films of all time. But Eco adds: “The work… must provide
a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and
episodes as if they were aspects of the fan’s private sectarian world,a world
about which one can make up quizzes and play trivia games so that the
adepts of the sect recognize through each other a shared expertise.” By this
definition, Casablanca is certainly a cult movie
vii
CULT MOVIES: INTRODUCTION
For this book, we’ve reserved the right not to include every title as well
known as that, figuring the space would be better given to titles further
away from a perennial spotlight. We’ve also added a few other criteria to
Eco’s definition. Any movie reviewed here should: 1) prompt people to
go around quoting it to each other or inspire an unreasonable amount of
devotion long after the masses have forgotten its existence; 2) be good but
underappreciated, possibly because, in a market driven by stars and event
movies, they were just too different to have a long run at a cinema near you;
3) be an undiscovered gem, perhaps because it’s foreign or went straight
to video; 4) be so bad it’s a hoot; 5) be compelling for some other reason
– the script may stink but there’s a song, a stunt or scene that makes it all
worthwhile; 6) be a mainstream film that has that indefinable something we
call “juice”; 7) not be a Police Academy sequel.
We’ve made a conscious effort to include as many different movies as
possible. You can thrill to Battleship Potemkin and still relish the moment
Springtime for Hitler breaks into “Don’t be foolish, be a smarty, come and join
the Nazi party”; you can feel an irrational exhilaration when you hear John
Belushi chant “Toga! Toga! Toga!”, or be mesmerized by Kurosawa's Ran.
For this third edition we've added lots of new categories, from Asian
horror to Underground, via Bad girls, Bikers and Mavericks, Psychos and
Rock stars – plus many more. Film directors with a nose for the unorthodox
and intriguing – from the legendary Nic Roeg to rising stars like Cari Joji
Fukunaga – have also told us about their (often rarely seen) favourites.
These sections are in special boxes dotted throughout the book. And we
have updated all the sections, spending improbably long hours pondering
the merits of films to include or to drop. All the while, we’ve tried to maintain
a spirit of fun about the proceedings and the way the book goes about its
business, which is to say very seriously in a not so serious kind of way.
viii
