What defines a “cult classic” film? Unfortunately, there exists no cohesive, comprehensive, widely recognized definition that can be used to classify a film as either undeniably cult, or undeniably not. It’s all far too slippery.
It’s easy to look at a movie’s box office take and gauge its financial success (well, pre-COVID anyway), but figuring out how large and how passionate a movie’s fanbase is years after its release is a lot trickier—and even more so, figuring out the moment when a movie’s cult appeal moves beyond the niche to mainstream recognition. For me, the bigger demarcator of a cult film is the passion of its followers, which isn’t necessarily the same thing. Box office success is a trickier metric; some would define “cult” in a way that requires a film to have come from nowhere and made nothing, which seems a bit too limiting. But generally, a cult film should be a grower rather than a show-er.
Gauging the cult appeal of Eraserhead, Rocky Horror, or Dark Star is relatively easy; with decades of eyes on those movies, opinions are relatively settled. Listing the defining cult films of the more recent past requires a bit more flexibility, but there are a few inarguable criteria: movies that were written off upon initial release but experienced an unexpected afterlife, gaining fans slowly whether because they were ahead of their time, displayed layers few noticed at first, or, sometimes, because of their undeniable (often unintended) camp value. These 50 new cult classics movies fall into one or more of those categories, and all of them are worth a second look.