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A-Z
of Cult Cinema
Kung fu vampires, sideshow oddities, rock
'n' roll rebels... In this first installment of a two-part
overview, Mark Venner provides an introduction to the strange,
unsettling and adventurous world of cult cinema.
Dublin cinemagoers are no strangers to cult
films; for over two decades one of the most famous cult movies
of all time had a permanent home just outside the city centre.
The Classic cinema in Harold's Cross screened Richard O'Brien's
The Rocky Horror Picture Show on a weekly basis from
1981 until the cinema's closure in September 2003. Cult films
are cinematic gems that elicit fiery passions in film fans
long after their initial releases. The ghastly Sound of
Music is certainly a cult film, but thankfully falls well
outside the bounds of this selection. More mainstream movies
such as Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey
also fall outside our remit, though these films certainly
have passionate and loyal fans. The videocassette boom of
the early 1980s enabled cultists to own their favourite films
for the first time. Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films quickly
became cult favourites as did the Coen Brothers' Blood
Simple and Jean-Jacques Beineix's marvellous Diva –
quirky and unusual films that differed radically from Hollywood
mainstream. Of course, back in 50s and 60s America, offbeat
hot-rod movies, sci-fi films and Roger Corman's exploitation
B-pictures all developed a following through drive-in cinemas
and metropolitan midnight movie screenings. In France the
Cahiers du Cinéma critics championed American
auteurs like Nicholas Ray, André de Toth and
Sam Fuller; idiosyncratic filmmakers mostly ignored or even
derided by mainstream Hollywood. Then there were the late-night
slots on American cable TV; even the BBC showed obscure films,
sometimes in their Sunday Matinée seasons (which is
where I first saw Delmer Daves's The Red House as a
ten year old, only to be haunted by it ever since).
The full article is printed in Film Ireland
102
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