What exactly is a cult movie? Good question. The Oxford Dictionary defines cult as a system of religious worship, a devotion or homage to a person or thing and a popular fashion especially followed by a specific section of society. So if you use the term to mean films that inspire a near-obsessive passion in certain people, its that. Or if you mean films that were only seen by a dozen people, but who subsequently decided to become filmmakers, its that too. It also refers to foreign-language curiosities, films so bad they really are worth watching and such bizarre time capsules as 1930s Marijuana warning movies. In short, cult is a catch-all term for the films that are too weird too play multiplexes - unless its at a midnight screening. When cinemas began midnight programming in the 1970s, they offered the only real chance to watch the seemingly illicit films that lurked outside the mainstream. Matinee screenings mightve featured Charlton Heston saving a stricken airliner or surviving a Los Angeles earthquake, but the night belonged to Ed Wood, John Waters and George Romero. Home video ultimately did away with the midnight movie circuit, but there still exists, in arts centres up and down the country, a tradition for late night programming that appeals to a minority audience. If any of the following films are playing near you, you should cancel your plans and attend.