Cult movies, this term sounds quite evil, in fact, comes from the English Cult Film, this type of film covers a very wide range, some seem to be incompatible with the film sub-genre, such as bad film (bad film), blood clot movies, cruel records, Japanese monster movies, juvenile crime documentaries, soft movies, etc., almost all involving niche culture, confrontational to mainstream movies alternative films can be summarized in it.
Originally it was the "Universal Screen" magazine that translated "Cult Film" as "cult film", the first time this concept was introduced to China, because the translation itself has obvious meaning bias, with the spread among fans, the concept of Chinese "cult film" and the original "Cult Film" gradually formed a distinction and became a proprietary concept with regional characteristics. Transgender and other niche subcultures, bizarre plots, unique shooting methods of alternative films. Taiwan, on the other hand, is more humorous, translating "Cult Film" as "leaning on the film" according to the pronunciation, which means that people will scream "leaning" when watching the movie.
The 1975 Rocky Horror Show is often seen as a classic of cult movies, and Ivankov in One Piece is based on Dr. Ford in the film. The story tells the story of a couple who accidentally break into an ancient castle, the owner of the castle is Dr. Ford, who claims to be from the transgender planet, who transforms a Frankenstein Loki, and the castle itself is a spaceship for aliens to conduct transgender experiments, where the couple experiences incredible sexual adventures. The film was a sensation in the 70s and formed a unique cultural phenomenon. This inventory is not based on the criteria of curiosity and heavy taste, but selects some representative directors and recommends their highly artistic classic works.
Number one
Stanley Kubrick
A master director, a one-of-a-kind artist, an incredible perspective style and a subversive narrative style, he has enjoyed praise for more than four decades of artistic career, while being controversial and provocative, some people say he is crazy and sadistic. His work has become more than just a film, but a cultural phenomenon that spans times and countries. His works "Dr. Strange Love", "Clockwork Orange", and "The Shining" are all absolute classics in cult movies.
This list recommends the most representative "Clockwork Orange", because it is too famous, I am not going to expand the introduction, only a small detail of life. There was a teacher in our school who also liked movies, and once talked to him about "Clockwork Orange", forgot how to say japanese, so he drew the image on the movie poster, and the teacher immediately understood, proper cultural symbols.
Second place
Quentin Tarantino
Needless to introduce, probably the most well-known director of our time, the first representative of the aesthetics of violence. The amazing work "Pulp Fiction" has long occupied the forefront of cult movies. This one is lazy not to introduce in detail.
Third place
David Finch
He is very good at using light and shadow to create a gloomy, low atmosphere, and the film exudes uneasiness and paranoia, preferring crime themes and protagonists with mental trauma. He has long formed a distinct personal style, known as "cold aesthetics". His film, which can be called a cult classic, is "Fight Club", which tells the story of a cynical and severely insomniac clerk Jack, who meets the rebellious and tyrannical leper businessman Taylor, and the two create an underground organization that allows people to fight with their bare hands without protective gear. The current situation of Fight Club and Taylor's behavior make Jack more and more unbearable, and when he leaves Taylor, he finds that he can't break free of Taylor's shadow, and he begins to wonder who he really is, Jack and Taylor, who is the real self.
You can think of it as a classic of suspense and schizophrenia, but more importantly, the philosophical meaning and truth of life it conveys, evil and mediocrity, lurking in the same body, getting along against each other, one after another, and the classic line in the movie is constantly quoted - "We grew up watching TV, believing that one day we will become rich, stars or rock stars, but we will not." That's the reality that we're gradually facing, so we're very angry."
Fourth place
David Lingqi
The all-round director, who is both a cinematographer and a composer, has works with psychedelic and surrealism, even obscure, eerie and black humor, often expressing Freudian psychoanalysis, aestheticizing death, and his style is also known as "Lynchism". There are many cults in his works, such as "Elephant Man", "Mulholland Road", "Eraserhead", "My Heart Is Wild", etc., and this list is "Blue Velvet".
The protagonist Jeffrey returns to his hometown, accidentally finds a human ear on the way, and later discovers that the case may be related to a nightclub singer, so he tries to go to the singer's house to peep, but accidentally sees the singer being brutally tortured by a gang leader named Frank, who has a sexual masochism, and every time he abuses a person, he will stuff a piece of blue velvet in the person's mouth, or cut something from his body as a memorial... The film is a metaphor for the very different poles of life, bright and dark, normal and deformed, beautiful and evil. It's a psychological film, and the smell of depravity and evil is shocking.
Fifth place
The Cohen brothers
The world's independent film industry has no disadvantage of the golden signboard, brother Joel Cohen, brother Ethan Cohen, they are not only unique in style, the idea is also outstanding, people are imprisoned by the environment, people by society, people are imprisoned by history, is the Coen brothers' consistent theme, their way of expression is black and absurd, but the core is always a profound humanistic care. Each of their productions has demonstrated an astonishing talent, sweeping major film awards as the standard-bearer of independent films in the United States.
The cult of their work is Murder of the Green Toe, a middle-aged nicknamed City Man who spends his days bowling with two wastewood friends, and one day, a group of thugs mistakenly recognize him as a rich man with the same name and threaten to pee on his carpet. In order to get justice, the "city people" had to go to the paralyzed rich man to ask for compensation, but after seeing the rich man, he accepted the commission and took the ransom to save the rich man's kidnapped girlfriend... Through various coincidences, everything is entangled, forming an intricate and dark humor farce. The film has cult elements such as sex and drugs, but unlike other cult films, it is a comedy with a lot of laughs.
Sixth place
Peter Jackson
Peter the Great, the big New Zealand director who made the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, has also filmed the small-budget science fiction "Cosmic Freak" and the horror zombie film "Corpses PlayIng Across the Line". In fact, before entering Hollywood, he often made fictional human beings become zombie stories, doing his best to be disgusting and perverted, mixing many B-grade film elements such as blood, violence, nonsense humor, horror, horror, etc., challenging the audience's patience limit, but the use of these elements fully reflected his genius.
This single recommendation "Corpses Play Across the Line" has been praised by many ashes fans as the most terrifying movie, and there is no lower limit to blood and flesh. The story tells of an expedition that brought back a strange rat monkey from Sumatra and sold it to the zoo. The protagonist Lenny's mother is accidentally bitten by a caged rat monkey and has since become eccentric, eating spiders, eating dogs, and even biting the doctors and nurses who treated her, turning them into zombies. Lenny wielded a chainsaw to slash zombies madly, the picture was full of blood, but the background music was an elegant waltz, not a steely psychological endurance is not recommended to watch.
Seventh place
Takashi Miike
An important development place for cult films is Japan, where a large number of bloody perverts and ghosts and horror themes are doubly magnified under the blessing of their own cultural characteristics. The representative of this has to mention Takashi Miike, his famous work "Killer A Yi" is the ultimate in perversion, directly showing the bloody tongue cutting picture, unscrupulous sexual abuse and abuse, this work has long been included in the list of banned films in the world, and it is said that it has directly affected Quentin's creative style.
Takashi Miike's prolific prowess is also staggering, and for more than a decade he has been constantly importing B-grade films that make the audience's scalp tingle, and many of his works are extremely murderous and abusive in the flowery images, destroying the eyes and spirit of the audience. "Skin-cutting Love" and "Memoirs of Ghost Tricks" have been banned by various countries. Limited by resource constraints, today I recommend a slightly softer "Code of Evil". The film tells the story of a teacher with an anti-social personality, Lian Shi, who meticulously plans a massacre on campus step by step. Hideaki Ito, who is full of righteousness, starred as a villain killing teacher, and has also set off a hot discussion in Japan.
Eighth place
Wen Ziren
A Chinese-Malaysian director who is good at leveraging large box offices at a small cost, the representative director of plasma films has long become a mainstream director in Hollywood after directing the "Chainsaw Horror" series of horror films in the early years. He is good at carefully arranged, behind the blood of the deep exposure of human good and evil, even the "Chainsaw Horror" and "Dead Silence" such blood plasma films can make a unique personal taste. This list recommends a more recent horror movie, The Conjuring 2.
Based on true events, "The Conjuring 2" is set in the 1970s suburb of London, England, where a single mother asks for help, saying that the furniture and toys in the house are moving fast, and the youngest daughter is also haunted by ghosts, so the ghost-driving duo goes deep into the haunted house to drive away ghosts. The evil spirits in the film are not only more powerful, but also have many physical manifestations. The horror atmosphere in the small space is played to the extreme, and the sound effects are directly poking at people's hearts, basically watching a horror movie for one year.
Ninth place
Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook created a Korean-style cult genre, his works are black and weird, have a strong offensive thinking, and are named "Master of Darkness", the sexual and violent scenes in his films are not unadorned and straightforward, but full of influenced style, his revenge trilogy "I Want Revenge", "Old Boy", "Kind Gold", the story is extremely dark, but the image is extremely dazzling. This list recommends "Old Boys", a long shot of a corridor battle shot in a horizontal motion, and the extreme violent aesthetic is enough to enter the annals of film history.
"Old Boy" tells the story of a middle-aged man who was suddenly kidnapped on his way home drunk and then imprisoned for 15 years for unknown reasons, and the man also desperately wanted to commit suicide, but saw in the news that his wife was killed, his daughter's whereabouts were unknown, and he was smeared as a suspect. So he decided to exercise in the forbidden room and one day go out for revenge. Just as he was about to secretly dig through the wall, he was inexplicably let go, so he looked around for clues to plan revenge... The film involves the aberration between father and daughter, sister and brother, and the generation and revenge of hatred are dark to the extreme.
Tenth place
Ali Astor
Finally, a newcomer director, although only two or three works, has shown a potential that cannot be underestimated, and was named "the most promising filmmaker" by the Chicago Film Critics Association in 2018. His major works, "Genetic Doom" and "A Midsummer Night's Horror", were filmed in 2018 and 2019 respectively. His style is to mix various elements such as evil spirits, curses, soul summoning, witchcraft, etc., not to create horror with shocking sound effects and routine shots, but to create a horror atmosphere with a literary and artistic narrative, and simply show evil, not metaphorical to the dark side of society, simply evil is fresh and unworldly.
This list recommends "Genetic Doom", which won best horror film at the 2018 Phoenix Film Critics Association Awards, tells the story of a family member who begins to experience various strange things after the death of his grandmother, and they gradually discover that although the old man has passed away, he still affects family members with some evil existence. The first half of the film depicts a suffocating but empathetic tragic original family, the father is almost absent, the mother is cold and divided, the family looks distant and tempts each other, and the second half begins to introduce mysterious elements such as exorcism, possession, and summoning spirits, fortunately, the director's camera and narrative skills are advanced, and a sense of evil door is continued throughout.
Because the scope of cult films is too large to really achieve a comprehensive inventory, the directors selected in this list are all using cult elements in their creations, but their works and personal styles are still affirmed by the mainstream, and even can be unique in the international film industry. If you want to learn more about cult movies, recommend a British author Mark Jankvich's "Defining Cult Movies". Cult movies are niche aesthetics, but they are worshipped like "cults" in a specific group of people, which stimulate the other side of people's hearts in an extreme way, and people's hearts and society are themselves entangled between good and evil.