What is a cult film by Alexander Moss
Related: cult films - connoisseur
Any film grossing less than its catering costs
I recently read an article which defined ‘Cult’ as ‘a debased euphemism for ‘any film grossing less than its catering costs’’ and I’d concur with the view that to overuse words is to demean them. The word genius, for example, used to confer upon its subject an extraordinary and unique distinction, it now seems more like a tawdry metaphor for either mere financial success or individual eccentricity. As with ‘Cult’, a word, perhaps, whose meaning for film writers has become more than a little, if not cheapened, then certainly more vague.‘Cult’ Film, etymologically, is that which inspires a cult of followers or advocates into appreciation and fandom. ‘Cult’ movies once enjoyed a rather vaunted status as a result of being perceived as esoteric in nature -to appreciate ‘Cult’ film is on one level to belong to a society or subculture- though in reality, to be a film cultist is nothing more than to share certain tastes with certain other people. Cult movies -such as Night of the Living Dead- may be extraordinarily important, seminal works which initiate entire cinematic traditions. Just as comfortably, -as with The Candy Snatchers- they may simply represent a classic staple work, which evokes a certain era. Cult movies can be great -Star Wars- or they can be really, really bad -Plan 9 From Outer Space. What and whichsoever a ‘cult’ film is, it distinguishes itself enough to accumulate legion followers of devout deference and -sometimes worryingly intense- obsession.
Unprecedented cinematic cruelty and violence
aps, the most prominent talismans of this sea-change are 1971’s Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange -both works by major directors on correspondingly major budgets, these were the titans who ushered in a new era of unprecedented cinematic cruelty and violence. All envelopes on every kind of acceptability had evidently been shredded to pieces and the exploitation moguls and splatter-hacks were there in their thousands, ready as ever to make a fast buck off of the next big thing -which in this case was to provide more repulsion, more outrage and more gruesome thrills and spills for jaded audiences. The scene had come indoors from the drive-in; it was in the arena of the ‘grindhouse’ that the explosion would take place, and this cavalcade of depravity was to become manifest in many different ways:Il Sadiconazista
The Il Sadiconazista (which is to my mind among the most objectionable of the virulent strands of filth that defined this era) took a staple exploitation mold of sex, violence, brutality and degradation and set the action within the confines of a WWII Nazi P.O.W. camp; among the more memorable examples of this genre are the Ilsa franchise, S.S. Experiment Camp and Gestapo’s Last Orgy.Candy Snatchers - A Cult Classic
The Candy Snatchers, -a deeply grime-ingrained, downbeat bummer of a flick- earns its special place in the hearts of thousands of grindhouse cultists by its unrelentingly bleak and sordid worldview. Rehashing the abduction angle and providing a typically depressing vision here is arch exploitation which as much defines the grindhouse mold as enjoin with it. --Alexander Moss May 22nd 2002 via http://www1.epinions.com/content_2632753284
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