Do cult followings ruin movies?

No. Cult followings keep it alive and helps make other aware of it. Ironically most cult films are bad cinema.
I am guilty of loving Kung Fu flicks, mostly black belt theater stuff. I can only think of a few out of 100 that are really that good. I guess that is part of the appeal.

No. In fact, if it weren’t for cult followings, I may have never discovered great things like Eraserhead or Blood Sucking Freaks.

Depends on the person viewing the film. Sometimes watching a film with a cult following, you expect too much. There’s quite a few movies that I’ve seen that lots of people love and I just don’t get what they see. Did it make me aware of the film, yes.

You mean like Donnie Darko or something? I really liked Donnie Darko but all I hear is how people think it’s overrated by the cult following. The first time I saw it I didn’t even know it had a cult following.

Nothing really ruins a movie for me. If it’s a good movie, then nothing can really ruin it for me.

The only things that can ruin a movie for me is its soundtrack. If it has shitty music, it completely ruins the film for me.

@Piper Yes. I haven’t seen Donnie Darko, but others like Monty Python and the Holy Grail – I like the movie, I’ve enjoyed watching it time and time again, I’ve just never felt the need to quote my favorite 5 lines nonstop for hours on end, nor have I ever thought about kidnapping John Cleese and forcing him to reenact the Black Knight scene with me, or even devote a blog entirely to it. But sometimes, when I watch it with other people, I feel like that’s seen as a bad thing and the entire movie theatre will throw popcorn at me if they find out about this.

I love cult movies. I do feel that a movie is ruined for me if I go to the cinema with a group of friends because I fnd it hard to concentrate on the film. I prefer to go to the cinema alone or with one (quiet) friend.

I really don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what other people think about my reaction to a movie or not.

If I like a movie I like it. If millions of people like it and I think it’s overrated, then so be it.

If there’s a film that I think is underrated I’ll let others know about it and if they like it also that’s great. If not, that’s no big deal. Everybody has individual taste and perfectly entitled. Just as I am.

@Buttonstc What about if it’s at a large theatre and over 1000 people are chanting the words along with it?

What about it ? If I don’t feel like chanting I don’t chant.

You’re most likely too young to have participated in any of the original numerous showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, an incomprehensibly popular cult film with a multi-year following you would find incredible.

People had songs and huge chunks of dialogue which they would recite from memory. Many came in costume. They would get up and dance in the aisles. “let’s do the Time Warp Again”

I decided to go with some friends one night to see what all this was about.

It was kind of a cute goofy movie but that was about it for me. I got the impression from some of them like it was their new religion or something.

If they disliked the fact that I wasn’t dancing and singing along that was THEIR problem.

I didn’t go out of my way to be disapproving or mocking in any way but I definitely wasn’t going along with the crowd. But it wasn’t that big a deal.I enjoyed watching it but once was enough for me. (altho ifits showing on TV some night, I’ll watch it just for kicks.

You haven’t really experienced the full fever of a cult film till you’ve been to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror. Everything else is a pale imitation of the original. This went on for years and years all over the country. Years !

(not just until the next cycle of pictures to replace it)

So, I’m quite familiar with cult movies. Meh.

Heck, they still have a fansite up for it on the net. Incredible
And they still have showings in various parts of the country so it’s not too late for you :). The 35th Anniversary is coming up incredibly. And Halloween time prompts lots of midnight showings all over.

Now that’s what I call a cult film.

www.rockyhorror.com

Also check out the Wiki entry.

@Buttonstc Actually, I was putting a lot of work into not mentioning Rocky Horror. I’ve been to a midnight showing, complete with real people acting it out, confetti and… I’m forgetting the special name they called lapdances so they could give them to those under 18. They still actually have midnight showings every few months in my town. While it’s a bit gory for my taste, I could probably watch it with others if I didn’t associate with otherwise sane people becoming raving, temper-tantrum-throwing lunatics. My friends at the time (I was 17 when I went) yelled at me for 2 weeks for not getting into it enough. It became this whole big thing, like being the only atheist among a group of evangelicals.

Well I’m glad my friends weren’t that tyrannical.

Plenty of people go to RHPS and don’t participate. It’s not a sin. If your friends are giving you crap, you just have to learn to give some back.

Believe me, if my friends had pitched THAT type of attitude I DEFINITELY would have felt perfectly free to mock and mock and mock some more without mercy. The only reason I didn’t is because everybody was being civil and having a good time regardless of who was or wasn’t doing whatever.

Just be your own person and stand up for yourself. Everyone’s tastes are different. If they’re acting like this is their new religion and you’re the resident atheist then fulfill your part. Tell them they’re being brainless idiots blindly following the crowd. Feel free to mock them llike they mock you. You have every right to be a nonbeliever.

Feel perfectly free to borrow the age old question of individualists everywhere “if so and so jumped off a ten story building, would you do it too”?

You have as much right to your preferences as they do. If they’re giving you that much crap just give it back to them. And if they get offended, go get some new friends. If they can dish it out but can’t take it, what kind of friends are they anyway? You are not a doormat.

Don’t be afraid to be your own person. Defend it. Humorously at first and more militantly if necessary. Don’t be afraid to put your foot down.

As I said, I’m glad my friends were a nicer bunch which is why I can look back with fond nostalgia to RHPS. If I had a bunch of idiots riding my back about not participating and I didnt deal with it, I might very well feel the same way as you.

Either give as good as you get or find a better quality of friends. Never be hesitant to be your own person entitled to whatever likes or dislikes you have. If everybody were the same it would be a dull boring world indeed.

If your friends insist on continuing to act like douches, go find some who aren’t.

Cult followings make movies. They have an appeal to a subculture because they are unique in some way. In a way, they stand on their own. Movies like “Shakes the Clown” or “Eraserhead” are two popular movies with cult status. It’s always between you and the movie, it’s almost intimate, and comes down to whether you like the film or not, despite any influence.

I don’t think cult followings of films necessarily ruin them, but I do think cult followers of films ruin them. Kind of like the friend @downtide spoke of.

When I finally did see Fight Club it was actually a bit of a disappointment because I already knew half the lines from being around my friends.

Most of the movies mentioned here are terrific films in their own rite.
I am grateful to many of the cult followings, or I may have missed such fantastic films as Zatoichi, The Searchers, The Big Sleep, and Rocky Horror.

The whole concept of cult anything makes me smile for so many reasons. I do believe that you love a movie because something about it speaks to you, but I also believe that lots of people watch movies because they hear so much about them that it makes them curious lol. In this respect cult keeps a movie alive, passes it on to many who were not around to see it, or maybe didn’t hear about it, or get around to going to see it on release.

So many movies are completely legend now and didn’t do all that great during their original release. I remember watching Bladerunner with friends in an almost empty cinema (counting the 3 of us there were maybe 20 people there) and now so many people (myself included) count it among their favourite films of all time. The value of cult, without it many folk might not have seen this gem of a film over the past nearly 30 years, and will keep “discovering” it for the next 30 :-)

I’ve loved hearing other jellies opinions of Rocky Horror. Hubby and I went a few times to midnight showings (nearest we got to dressing up though were t shirts lol) and went to see the stage show quite a few times as well. It’s a laugh, it’s fun and a pretty cool way to spend a couple of hours. That was an awful lot of years ago though <pauses to feel very old> but that having been said I still love my dvds of both Rocky Horror and Shock Treatment (sequel) and we still have our albums (inc the audience participation one) on vinyll (OMG vinyll! how old does that make us lol) I wasn’t ever able to part with them, too many nice memories I suppose. A few years ago I discovered my MIL is a huge fan, how cool does that make my dear little MIL? and there I thought she was just a sweet little lady who knits a lot :-) So, in answer to your question, cult followings can be a good as well as a bad thing, judging by some of our fellow jellies experiences above (being bullied for not following the herd mentality is awful) but as I said, it keeps movies alive, prevents some really good movies (and a few bad ones) from being forgotten.
hugs honeys xx

Nah. I like what I like, but I’m not one of those people who goes around quoting Python or Blazing Saddles all day. Other people’s enthusiasm doesn’t affect me at all.

The great thing about movies is that there’s something for everybody. Including cultists.