Cult Following by J. W. Ocker

Author:J. W. Ocker [Ocker, J. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: 2024-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Fandom and Cultdom

Fandom often feels dangerously close to cultdom. The obsessive devotion many have to the Star Wars or Harry Potter franchises, or the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Lakers—complete with the requisite monetary investment and cosplay in matching attire or sports jerseys—certainly has some overlap with cult-like behavior. However, the world of arts and entertainment has a specific use of the world cult—the cult classic, a piece of forgotten or disparaged media that is beloved by a niche group.

The term cult classic is most often applied to movies. Perhaps that’s because film has an entire “so bad it’s good” category. Perhaps it’s because the success of a film is easy to gauge through box office numbers. Perhaps it’s because, for much of the medium’s existence, films could only be seen during brief runs in theaters, and even after home media and streaming, many niche films remain hard to find. Examples of notable cult classics include Freaks (1932), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Eraserhead (1977), and Showgirls (1995). Also, every film that John Waters directs.

Sophie Collins, writing for the website Movieweb in 2023, defined cult classics as “movies that may be less successful financially or shunned by the mainstream. Nonetheless, they developed a fanbase that engages in things like repeat viewings, dialogue references, and audience participation.” You can see the parallels between cult classics and actual cults in this definition. Like religious cults, cult followings form around media that is rejected by the mainstream, and as a result, the devoted followers rally even harder around the object of their admiration.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is perhaps the ultimate cult classic. This musical–comedy–horror–science fiction film failed on release and was quicky pulled from theaters. Thereafter, it moved to college campuses and midnight movie showings. Eventually, the LGBTQ+ community discovered it, as well as interactive theater fans, who would dress up as the characters and sing and act along with the movie. Today, it has the longest theatrical run of any movie in history. Half a century after its debut, some theater somewhere is always playing it. It also became a Halloween staple, trotted out as seasonal viewing.

And that’s where the term cult classic starts getting as cloudy as the term cult. Over time, The Rocky Horror Picture Show shifted from a cult classic to a mainstream hit. Can the same be said for mainstream religions like Christianity and Islam, which began as small groups of followers (an even dozen, in Jesus’s case) rallying around a prophet, before they attracted the billions of followers they enjoy today? Today, rather than dedicating themselves to Jesus and Mohammed, or even contemporary cult leaders, many people commit themselves to beloved films instead. At least a showing of Rocky Horror isn’t likely to end in terrorism or murder or suicide—the worst that’ll happen is you’ll lose your voice or get a blister from your stilettos.

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