cult films
Devoted audience favorites
Cult films are movies that inspire devoted, passionate followings despite—or because of—their unconventional qualities.
They often achieve this status through midnight screenings, quotable dialogue, or aesthetics that mainstream audiences rejected: Rocky Horror Picture Show remains the definitive cult film.
The cult suggests a small but fervent congregation rather than mass appeal.
What qualifies as cult is contested; some films graduate to broader recognition while retaining their cult credibility.
- blaxploitationSeventies Black action cinema
- B-moviesLow-budget films
- quotableWorth citing verbatim
- classicsWorks of lasting value
- directorOne who leads
cinema · reanimator · Rocky Horror · audience participation · exploitation · midnight movies · late night viewing · Clerks · grindhouse · independent cinema · drive-in theater · box office bomb · Eraserhead · John Waters · filmmaking · low-budget · trash · repertory
- filmmovies, film, filmmaking, cinematography, film editing
- filmscomedies, dramas, documentaries, thrillers, westerns
- film termsfilm, auteur, genre, celluloid, mise-en-scene
- movie culturecinephile, movie buff, film critic, moviegoer, cinephilia
- arthouse cinemaarthouse, arthouse cinema, repertory, film screenings, screenings
- cinemafilm, film studios, movies, movie, cinema
cult filmsblockbusters
Hugely successful entertainment products
tentpole films · summer blockbusters · tentpole movies · crowd-pleasers
culture, cult, films, cultural, cultures, multicultural, culturally, subculture, cultist