The films that failed on arrival and conquered on video, midnight screenings, and word of mouth. Cult classic reviews for the movies audiences refused to let die.
ActionRoad House (1989) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A philosophy graduate is hired to clean up a Missouri bar and ends up fighting a monster truck. It took five Razzie nominations, underperformed in cinemas, and became…
AdventureLegend (1985) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Ridley Scott built a forest inside a Bond stage at Pinewood, burned it to the ground, and produced the most beautiful fantasy film nobody watched. Tim Curry under three-foot…
AdventureFlash Gordon (1980) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Dino De Laurentiis spent a reported twenty million dollars or more on a deliberately camp space opera, hired Queen to score it, and produced something no serious film…
ComedyCaddyshack (1980) rates 8.5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The plot was abandoned during production and the film assembled itself out of whatever four comedians did in front of the camera. It should not work. It made sixty…
ComedyThe Big Lebowski (1998) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A Raymond Chandler plot handed to a man with no interest in solving it. Failed on release, found its people later, and spawned a festival and something…
Cult ClassicA Clockwork Orange (1971) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Kubrick makes you enjoy a monster's company, then cures him, then asks whether the cure was worse. Withdrawn from Britain by its own director for nearly thirty…
Cult ClassicDonnie Darko (2001) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A time loop film that works better as a portrait of adolescence than as a mechanism. Failed on release for reasons of timing, found its people on DVD,…
ComedyRoman Polanski's affectionate Hammer parody is more gorgeous gothic fairy tale than laugh-out-loud comedy. The Fearless Vampire Killers earns its 6.5 as a beautiful, uneven oddity, a horror comedy that is more interested in atmosphere than in jokes and lands…
Cult ClassicA drifter discovers sunglasses that reveal the wealthy elite are alien creatures controlling humanity through subliminal messaging. They Live is John Carpenter's 1988 American science-fiction horror film depicting a drifter who discovers sunglasses that reveal the wealthy elite are alien…
ComedySam Raimi's part-remake, part-sequel where Ash returns to the cabin and battles increasingly absurd demonic forces. Evil Dead II is Sam Raimi's 1987 American horror-comedy film operating as part remake and part sequel to his 1981 The Evil Dead, depicting…
Body HorrorLovecraft's 'Herbert West, Re-Animator' serial about a Miskatonic University medical student who develops a serum that revives the recently deceased with violent and unpredictable results. Re-Animator is one of the most successful Lovecraft adaptations ever produced and one of the…
CheerleaderMichael Lehmann's 1988 dark teen comedy. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater murder high school cliques.
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