Well.. what a can of worms we opened with this topic! :lol:
Theres nothing like several shades of grey to make for a good healthy discussion, huh? ;)
So now, as we've (hopefully) reached a (sort of) consensus, here is my somewhat lengthy definition of the word "cult"
For this, I am going to tell the stories of 2 girls I used to know.
The first girl was a massive fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
It used to screen every tuesday at a local art house cinema, and she, with a group of like minded companions would go and see it every chance she got.
By the time they finally stopped showing the film, she had seen it 450+ times over a 5 year period.
The group she went with (usually 15-20 people) used to go all out and get dressed up in Rocky Horror type drag.. fishnets, suspenders, over the top make-up...the whole deal.
They sang and danced along with every song... and pissed off a lot of people by squirting them with perfume filled water pistols and chucking popcorn everywhere
Okay. So what?
Well, thats obviously a cult movie, agreed?
It screened for a incredible length of time due to the overwhelming demand from it's fans - in an art house cinema.
It was offbeat.
It was not mainstream.
So lets see what other films this applies to - with the singing and dancing, at least.
The second girl lived in a whistle stop town...population: 30 people.
There wasn't much to do in this town, so she used to watch videos like Footloose, Dirty Dancing and Grease.
She would watch the films over and over, and then she would get all the local girls and mums together in the little town hall, show the films and teach them all the dances afterwards
It got to the point where, if a song from Grease came on the radio, all the girls would get up and sing and dance along at the drop of a hat.
Pretty scary stuff to watch, to be honest :blink:
Farmers daughter doing a duet with the old barmaid from the pub to the song Your the one that I want or dirty dancing together to I had the time of my life Yikes! :o
Now whats my point here?
Well, would you say that Footloose or Dirty Dancing are cult movies?
No? Well, what about Grease?
Now don't get me wrong here.. maybe they are, maybe they aren't.
I'm not going to say, but by the definitions put forth on this topic, no, they are not.
They are mainstream.
Neither ran for an over extended period in an art house cinema.
They couldn't really be called offbeat.
But in that small town with it's tiny populace, they did achieve cult status.
The similarities in the behaviour of the people in these 2 stories demonstrate that.
This is why I've taken the position I have in this topic, and why I have no problem with some of the slightly dodgy (at times) suggested films.
Thats it, I'm done.
Hope I didn't bore you too much with my ramblings.