Why do we fall in love with the films we’re told we shouldn’t?

By Lily Kilgallon

I had always assumed that a cult classic was simply a film intensely adored by a devoted group. I wasn’t entirely off the mark with this, but I hadn’t realised that rejection and failure is often essential for their creation. Many cult classics, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jennifer’s Body began life outside conventional measures of cinematic success, facing both poor critical receptions and disappointing box office performances. Yet today they are known for their fiercely passionate and protective audiences.

This seems strange. How can films that initially struggled to satisfy the mainstream become cornerstones of pop culture? Could it be because of the exact thing that makes this genre of films unique from the rest: their relationship with their found audience. Afterall, the label ‘cult-classic’ immediately brings the films specific crowd into its definition. By default, the fans become a vital reason that these films eventually rose to fame regardless of their initial performances. So perhaps there should be multiple versions of cinematic success that should be considered: those which can be measured by numbers and another form that can be measured in fan support and intensity.

Take Jim Sharman’s 1975 Rocky Horror Picture Show. Today, it is synonymous with the term ‘cult classic’, but its original release could not have predicted its eventual success as it struggled to make a profit and was pulled from regular screenings after only a few weeks in theatres due to low ticket sales. However, its relegation to midnight showings alone granted it with a new life.

Today, [Rocky Horror Picture Show] is synonymous with the term ‘cult classic’

These screenings rapidly changed the relationship between viewer and film, with people arriving in costumes of fish-net tights, suspenders, and corsets. They would recite dialogue and perform songs and choreography which ultimately produced the culture of participation and vitality that surrounds it today. As a result of its initial failure, it produced circumstances that distanced it from mainstream patterns of consumption and allowed for an unconventional group to make it their own. Rocky Horror did not just eventually find its audience, but they integrated with the film itself and created a new cult-like way of experiencing cinema that surrounds Rocky Horror and most other cult-classics today.

Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body has recently risen to cult-classic status but by trudging a different path than Sharman’s Rocky Horror. Released in 2009, the film was marketed through a lens that fit the male gaze. Specifically utilizing Megan Fox’s sexuality and profiting from her fame following the Transformers film two years prior. It was initially promoted as a steamy, supernatural teen thriller aimed at young men. This obscured much of what the film was actually interested in: female friendship, queer desire, hyper-sexualisation, misogyny and ‘female rage’. Therefore, it was first pitched to the wrong crowd which resulted in a poor box office performance and immense backlash for both Kusama and Fox.

Years later this movie was reassessed, particularly by young women and queer audiences. They saw the film just as Needy described it: ‘hell is a teenage girl.’ What had once been dismissed as a failure was now viewed as a feminist horror and satire that was years ahead of its time. It was to be seen as a dissection of what could happen when teenage girls are solely treated as objects of male desire, rather than just being a movie that has a popular and sexy lead. This cult redefinition changed how Jennifer’s Body was to be understood and meant it was no longer limited by its initial commercial failure and superficial marketing.

What had once been dismissed as a failure was now viewed as a feminist horrow and satire that was years ahead of its time

Both these movies work together to demonstrate how cult cinema is a lot more complicated than a film that simply took a minute to become popular. Their defining feature is the atypical exchange between audience and film. Rocky Horror shows how an audience can extend the experience of a movie beyond the screen to include the viewers themselves. Jennifer’s Body reveals how a film can be resurrected through a collective effort to interpret it accurately.

Perhaps cult classics are so intensely loved because their initial rejection creates the conditions for an audience to claim and defend them from criticism. Although they may not achieve blockbuster forms of success, they are undeniably triumphs in their own right. Cult classics are not simply films that the mainstream crowd eventually learns to love but films that a particular audience takes as their own.

Image: Robin Adams via Wikimedia Commons