10 Cult Films You Need To See Before You Die

Movies with that indefinable "something."

By Ian Watson /

There are several books dedicated to cult cinema and, if they all agree on one thing, it€™s that there is no single definition of what constitutes a cult movie. If you mean a film admired by a minority, it€™s that. Or if you mean a film that inspires a near obsessive passion amongst certain people, it€™s that too. But it may also refer to foreign-language curiosities, films so bad they really are worth watching and such bizarre time capsules as 1950s public information films. For our purposes, though, it€™s a film whose audience is bigger now than when it was first released. Whether a film is good or bad, posterity is the only real judge of its merits. Who would€™ve believed that Citizen Kane, a miserable flop when first released, could top Sight & Sound€™s Best Film list while How Green Was My Valley, which won Best Picture, would be forgotten? If even a box office washout like Silent Night Deadly Night (1984) can inspire sequels and a remake, then there€™s no telling which films will eventually find their audience. Given time, even Josh Trank€™s Fantastic Four might be embraced as a misunderstood classic (okay, perhaps not). If any of the following films are playing at your local arts centre, you should cancel your plans and attend €“ that is, if you don€™t already own them on DVD.