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From IMDb:
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'Spinal Tap' Tops Cult Movie List


Seminal rock'n'roll documentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap has topped a new poll of cult movie hits. The 1984 Rob Reiner movie about an ill-fated rock group, starring Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, beat The Rocky Horror Picture Show and 1932's Freaks to claim top spot in the Top 50 Cult Movies list in influential American magazine Entertainment Weekly. Notable omissions include A Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Life Of Brian, Straw Dogs and Reservoir Dogs.

The top ten is:
1. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
3. Freaks (1932)
4. Harold & Maude (1971)
5. Pink Flamingos (1972)
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
7. Repo Man (1984)
8. Scarface (1983)
9. Blade Runner (1982)
10. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
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Most of that top ten is actually pretty respectable, but how on earth did Scarface and The Shawshank Redemption beat out Plan 9 From Outer Space and Eraserhead? Hell, what's The Shawshank Redemption even doing on the list? I was under the impression that it was a pretty mainstream hit, and I wasn't aware of any groups of die-hard Shawshank Redemption fans. The top 7 I have no beef with (though I'd probably put Plan 9 at #1).

Anyone have the full list?

I agree. There are too many mainstream hits on that list. Even THIS IS SPINAL TAP. I think it started out as a cult hit, but over the years many people have seen it and I think it is borderline "mainstream" these days.

I think a more accurate top 10 is probably (and this is not necessarily MY top 10, it is just based on things that I have heard or read):

1. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (undisputed champ)
2. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
3. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
4. PINK FLAMINGOS
5. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
6. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
7. FREAKS
8. GLEN OR GLENDA?
9. ERASERHEAD
10. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

I would have had a few other on the list (like EASY RIDER, BILLY JACK, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, etc.), but I think they are more "mainstream" nowadays.

Scarface? Directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, starring Al Pacino?  That ain't no cult film, that's one of them there Hollywood mainstream moving pictures.

(Agree about Shawshank & Spinal Tap)

Even Blade Runner (which I love) isn't cult, but then it is Entertainment Weakly

I must disagree Raj.

Scarface is an extremely cult film.  People worship this film.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a b/underground flick to become a cult film.

Same with Blade Runner.  It's not your normal everyday flick, and there is a huge following behind it.  Once again, doesn't have to be unknown to be cult.

True, but when I saw Scarface, it was just another Hollywood shoot'em up that's looking to tap into the War On Drugs ramp up which Reagan started in the early 1980s.  

Similar with Bladerunner, which I love (got the director's version on DVD).  A well done movie.

If they wanted movies with devoted followings, then why aren't Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, A Wonderful Life, or hell, Star Wars, up there in the top ten?

I haven´t seen"This is Spinal Tap".Is it any good?

SPINAL TAP is hilarious . . . as are all of the "mockumentaries" that Christopher Guest and company have made. My 2nd favorite is WAITING FOR GUFFMAN.

Did you see A MIGHTY WIND?  Funny in places but I think they may have finally started running out of steam.  

The thing about SCARFACE and BLADE RUNNER is that both didn't do well when first released but gained popularity over time, due to cult follwings.  I question SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION too--didn't it get an Oscar nomination?
But maybe it didn't do well at the box office, only to achieve popularity through its endless cable re-airings.  

I'm very surprised to see FREAKS and HAROLD AND MAUDE in there, but they are definitely cult films.   ROCKY HORROR would have to be number one.

The concept of the "cult film" is one of my favorite whipping boys for pretentious mainstream film geeks who think they're really cool and underground when they mention "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" or "Rocky Horror."  These people obviously have no f**king clue what a cult film is and have probably never seen Bad Taste in their lives.  I hate hate hate hate hate people like that.  My film professor is like that.  He's a dick.  So is everyone else whose list of cult films is just a bunch of old Hollywood stuff that was controversial when it was released.

Brother R

Brother R, I agree completely, but I do see how some of those films can be labeled as "cult".  Well, except for Shawshank.

Can "Toxic Avenger" be a cult film?

-the first rule of fat club-

8. Scarface (1983)
9. Blade Runner (1982)
10. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Yea, sure... why not say ET, Ghostbusters, and The Godfather too...

My list of cult films...

1... Plan 9 from Outer Space
2... Black Christmas
3... Flesh Gorden
4... Galaxina
5... The Rocky Horror Picture Show
6... Repo Man
7... Dawn of the Dead
8... Zombie 2/ or The Blind Dead
9... Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
10... Freaks

I kind of agree with The Burgomaster EASY RIDER, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE has become more "mainstream" nowadays. I also think, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE has also became mainstream.

Also, The Night of the Living Dead, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Plan 9 from Outer Space are becomming very mainstream lately...

And it seems like a large cult followning for the Pre-Halloween movie Black Chirstmas.

And I just got Galaxina last month and for some odd reason I love this movie... It pre-dates Space Balls and it seems to be very funny... And this movie is also a cult film because of the playmate that was murdered.

Dawn of the Dead fans seems bigger then night of the living dead.

And as zombie films goes... those Euro Shockers Zombie movies are also rising cult status...

:D

I could even see putting Reservior Dogs on the list, but never Shawshank. Face it, EW is not the avant guard magazine that it thinks that it is.

I don't know how old some of you are, but I'm old enough to remember when BLADE RUNNER first came out--it was considered a total disaster by all but a handful of obsessive fans and a very few critics.  The movie didn't really start getting mainstream acceptance until the early Nineties.

yeah, 'freaks' is an awesome movie - no one can dispute that fact, but is it as big a cult film as they seem to think it is on this list.  also, i don't see this list as the 'best' cult film more than the most widely recognized movies that have an inordinately large audience.  i think 'shawshank...', though a strange choice, does fit that description as it seems to only get more popular over time where it was just kind of this unknown movie only a few years ago.  'scarface' on the other hand is a ridiculously cult film - if grown people put posters of a film in their houses, that is CULT. :P

Just picked up the magazine... Here's the full list, if anyone cares:

1. This Is Spinal Tap
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. Freaks
4. Harold & Maude
5. Pink Flamingos
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
7. Repo Man
8. Scarface
9. Blade Runner
10. The Shawshank Redemption  
11. Five Deadly Venoms
12. Plan 9 From Outer Space
13. Brazil
14. Eraserhead
15. Faster, p***ycat! Kill! Kill!
16. The Warriors
17. Dazed and Confused
18. Hard-Boiled
19. Evil Dead II
20. The Mack
21. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
22. Un Chien Andalou
23. Akira
24. The Toxic Avenger
25. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
26. Stranger Than Paradise
27. Dawn of the Dead
28. The Wiz
29. Clerks
30. The Harder They Come
31. Slap Shot
32. Re-Animator
33. Grey Gardens
34. The Big Lebowski
35. Withnail and I
36. Showgirls
37. A Bucket of Blood
38. They Live
39. The Best of Everything
40. Barbarella
41. Heathers
42. Rushmore
43. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
44. Love Streams
45. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
46. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
47. Walking and Talking
48. The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years
49. Friday
50. Faces of Death, Vol. I

Wow... Not horrible, but not very good, either. Where's Night of the Living Dead? Where's Reefer Madness? Where are Peter Jackson's gross-out films (I thought for sure they'd go for them, given LOTR's success)? Ah, well-- I guess that's what happens when the establishment pretends to be underground. Oh, and they say that Toxic Avenger was directed by "Samuel Weil." If they were trying to pass themselves off as fans of the films, they just blew their cover.

Yeah, as much as everyone beats this into the ground, Jackson's gross out films should really be on there.

Nick

Yesterday I mentioned"This Is Spinal Tap"to one of my friends,and he didn´t even know what was I talking about!

Cult movie,huh?

Yeah, I was thinking that "um...since when does Entertainment Weekly know what the top 50 cult films are?" Come on, it's Entertainment Weekly...hell, they had the dixie b***hes on the cover.

WTF!!! Where is "Big Trouble in Little China"?!?!?

f**k that,where is"The Matrix"!?

Good thing we don´t get"Entertainment Weekly"where I live...

I remember when I still subscribed to EW, they had a Top/Best 100 Films on Video You've Never Seen (this was before DVDs). I know the magazine is aimed at a mainstream audience, but I was already aware of about 60% of the list, had seen half of those, and was looking for the others. They only tipped me of to maybe five movies I hadn't heard of that interested me.

This Top 50 Cult Films list is lazy, why only 50? One anime, only one blaxploitation flick, one Roger Corman flick, one George Romero flick, two HK flicks (one Shaw Brothers kung fu, one shooter), one Russ Meyer (and a safe choice at that), one Troma, and only one Klaus Kinski. No samurai flicks, Sonny Chiba, spaghetti westerns, Dario Argento, giallo, HG Lewis, etc.!

They really played it safe (don't risk to risk some cancelled subscriptions, or even worse advertisers) and democratic (one flick each from very broad definitions of various genres). SHAWSHANK, THE WIZ, PEE-WEE'S... don't belong on the list. I notice there's at least fourt flicks with heavy stoner appeal, two of them that I take issue with being on the list. I don't "smoke", but I don't consider them cult movies. One has plenty of mainstream appeal, the other is just a film that I never liked.

Where's PROJECT A, POLICE STORY, DRAGONS FOREVER, HEAD, PIRANHA, DEATH RACE 2000, SUSPIRIA, THEY CALL ME TRINITY (and sequel), RICKY-OH, THE KILLER, REEFER MADNESS, HORRO EXPRESS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, BAD TASTE,THE STREETFIGHTER, DEADALIVE, any of the BLIND DEAD flicks, BLOOD FEAST, ZATOICHI, or 2000 MANIACS? Where are some Jet Li flicks, Tsui Hark, Alejandro Jodorosky (at least what's available), Lucio Fulci, Jess Franco,Takeshi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Paul Naschy or other Spansih Horror, Corman's Poe adaptions, Hammer Horror, Edgar Wallace-inspired Suspense films, the Dr. Mabuse flicks. or Italians sword and sandals (HECULES or any of the thousands of clones).

They let out greats Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones. No Ogami Itto and son, no BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, no Bettie Page, no Rat Pfink a(nd) BooBoo, no Bride with White Hair.

Any list that leaves off KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM, and doesn't have more anime on it isn't worth a damn. I understand leaving off some of the really hard to find stuff or things most audiences can't handle like CANNIBAL FEROX, hentai, NEKROMANTIK, etc. But this is a joke, not even a decent starter list. Then again what else should I expect from a magazine that now carries Joel Stein's unfunny dogs**t pile of a column every week.

AND WHERE THE HELL IS INFRAMAN?!?!?!?!

I agree,this stupid list sucks.

Where's ROBOT MONSTER, MANOS, THE HANDS OF FATE, GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, Bert I. Gordon's "films"?   Terrible list.  Just too many mainstream movies and too little variety.

I think you have to decide what you mean by 'cult film'

My understanding of a cult film is one that, when released, did poorly or got little attention.  Only later, as time goes by, the film develops a larger following of people who really like the film, a 'cult following' if you will.

Showgirls?   SHOWGIRLS??

1. This Is Spinal Tap

I could see it as a cult movie but not that high.

2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Cult movie that is becomming mainstream because of MTV

3. Freaks

Very  likly this high on the list

4. Harold & Maude

Yea, but not the top 10... (I would rather see Sid & Nancy higher up)

5. Pink Flamingos

Sure...

6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I think this movie is more mainstream today.

7. Repo Man

Agree... :D

8. Scarface

Cult movie... (maybe because of the famous... "Say Hello to my little friend") but I think The Taxi Driver would be higher on  list as Scarface is "very" mainstream of a movie.

9. Blade Runner

Sure... Maybe today... but this high on the list...

10. The Shawshank Redemption

Funny... very funny!!!

11. Five Deadly Venoms

Not too sure, but I think there are other martial art movies has reached bigger cult status...

12. Plan 9 From Outer Space

Arrrrrrrr... For years this movie was called the King of Turky's ... I do think this movie should be higher on the list, and then again this movie is starting to become very mainstream too... I wished Ed Wood was alive durring this...

13. Brazil

cult movie, agree...

14. Eraserhead

cult movie, agree...

15. Faster, p***ycat! Kill! Kill!

cult movie, not too sure seems to be on the list because of Austin Powers...

16. The Warriors

cult movie, agree...

17. Dazed and Confused

cult movie, I think not...

18. Hard-Boiled

cult movie, I think not... (I love hard-boiled but I think this move is too mainstream to become a cult movie)

19. Evil Dead II

Too mainstream to become a cult move!!!

20. The Mack

Sure... But what about Superfly?

21. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

NoNoNo... If this movie was a cult movie it would be ranked 100!

22. Un Chien Andalou

(I dont know about this one so I cannot say)

23. Akira

Maybe 10 years ago, but I do think this movie is very mainstream when looking at anime movies

24. The Toxic Avenger

Well, I guess... But I think Attack of the Killer Tomatoes should be higher.

25. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

I think not, if any disney movie has reach cult status it would be TRON.

26. Stranger Than Paradise

Dont know about this one...

27. Dawn of the Dead

Sure, but I think this should be higher on the list... (Because of the gore, I dont think this movie will ever become Mainstream as Night of the Living Dead)

28. The Wiz

HeHeHeHeHeHeHe... Yea, right! Cult film think not.

29. Clerks

Agree...

30. The Harder They Come

Dont know about this movie...

31. Slap Shot

Sure... Anybody that loves hockey will see this movie... (The story is too crapy to become Mainstream) [Yes, I do like this movie]

32. Re-Animator

Yea, this has become a very cult movie because of its gore content

33. Grey Gardens

Not too sure...

34. The Big Lebowski

I dont think so, the movie has "Cult fashion" written all over it... This movie is no cult film...

35. Withnail and I

???

36. Showgirls

Well, its a good story... but cult film (I think Angel has a higher cult status then this movie)

37. A Bucket of Blood

Sure, but is it the best that they can come up with...

38. They Live

Agree, this movie does have a cult following [Not too sure if The Thing, or Escape From New York] should have a higher cult statis then this movie... :D

39. The Best of Everything

(is somebody pulling movies out of a hat or what... ) Cannot say about this movie

40. Barbarella

Yes, agree!!!

41. Heathers

Yes, agree, too...  (oddly this movie seems to start the "Scream/I know what you did" type of movies... sure this isnt much of a horror flick but it seems to start those films...

42. Rushmore

I cannot say about this movie... (I think I've seen this movie but then again maybe not... I dont think its a cult film)

43. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

I dont think this is a cult film either... its a bad movie and it seems that they need a real bad film to make the list to bad movie fans... I think they could of picked a better movie.

44. Love Streams

Another movie picked from the hat???

45. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Sure, but this high on the list... maybe on the top 200 list...

46. Aguirre, the Wrath of God

And another movie picked from a hat...

47. Walking and Talking

And yet another movie...

48. The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years

Yea, sure... But I think Heavy Metal would be ranked much higher then this... or even Woodstock...

49. Friday

Yea, agree... but this should be much higher on the list...

50. Faces of Death, Vol. I

Yes, maybe 10 years ago, or even 15 years ago... I could see this as 100... but I do think there are other movies like Faces of Death that was made durring the 1960's blood shock years that would have a higher cult standing.

"Mainstream" movies CAN become cult movies.

Ah.
For me, "cult" is more like off the beaten path, done by a small or independent company.  Movies with big hollywood bucks behind them, for me, just don't fit in,  especially when they start getting promoted (by hollywood publications) as "cult."

Sounds like a lot of people have a different interpretation of what a "cult" film is.  Perhaps EW's list was based off of their own interpretation.  As crappy as the list might seem to many of us, it's their interpretation, their opinion.  Yeah, I disagree with most of the list, but I think it's commendable that EW's attempting to branch out and cover other stuff that isn't as popular.  I'd rather have a list like this that I can agree or disagree with as opposed to the latest news on American Idol or the next "big" Hollywood movie that everyone's heard about a million times.

Oh, and, for the record, I agree with a lot of the movies that you guys have pinpointed that were left out (Matrix, Big Trouble in Little China, etc).  As well as ones that shouldn't be on there (Shawshank Redemption?  Okay..).

Nick

To me it's a movie that doesn't do well in its initial release but its memory is kept alive by fans.  Actually, I guess the biggest part is the memory being kept alive.
About the only thing to me that would disqualify a movie would for it to have quite a bit of mainstream success when it first came out.    One of the biggest things for me is if people quote lines from it years later, or if people still talk about certain scenes.  Or if you can find at least one website dedicated to it out there put together by an obsessive fan.  

About the only titles that I don't think there's much of a case for are WALKING AND TALKING and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, though like I said earlier, that movie is similar to cult films in that it gained a lot of popularity years after it was released.  But I believe it was pretty popular to begin with.

It's a common mistake, but "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is not a Disney film. David L. Wolpers Productions, Quaker Oats Company, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Home Video were involved in the production and distribution, but not Disney.

There is a Disney film on the list. Not "Tron," though that is a good candidate for a cult film, but "Rushmore," which was produced by Disney's adult subsidiary ,
Touchstone Pictures.

And restricting myself to films I've seen, liked, and are listed at this stie, here are 15 films that should qualify as cult films.

The Beastmaster
The Blob (1958)
Death Race 2000
The Fly
Killer Shrews
Lair of the White Worm
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Nosferatu
Planet of the Apes
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Tarantula
Terror of Tiny Towm
Tingler
Wizards

I got to look at the issue when a co-worker showed me his copy yesterday. I was even more disappointed when looking at some of the write-ups for each film.

They listed a catch phrase or quoteable line from several of the movies. For THE WARRIORS the catchphrase listed was Cyrus' line "Can...You...Dig...It?". C'mon as much as I like that line, anyone who knows anything about the movie knows that the most memorable and quoted line is: "Warriors.....Come out to pla-aay!"

The line is so associated with the movie that when I bought my copy, the girl behind the counter (who looked all of 17) quoted it to me the instant she saw the cover. I got a warm fuzzy feeling when she said that, knowing that the movie's following lives on. Damn, I'm a sad case.

I agree on the write-ups. It's painfully clear from the Buckaroo Banzai capsule that the writer simply scanned a plot synopsis.

           The new Leatherface is in the zine all dirty,and blood drenched...I thought that Michael Bay promised to make a clean,sanitized,bloodless "Chanisaw" movie!!!
             With R. Lee Emery(as Leatherface's perverted cop brother),and the Savini-esque looking Leatherface,maybe there is a little hope for this film(so,we all hope).