Film Studies Librarian
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Other library resource(s)
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Cult cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Though relatively young in the world of film studies, the research and analysis of cult cinema and cult film culture continues to grow as a robust, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that crosses critical theory, media studies, sociology, psychology and even theology. While some scholars see this scholarly versatility as an advantage for studying cult film, others suggest that it is symptomatic of cult cinema itself, which has no universal definition. Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik, two of the leading scholars of cult film, suggest that these films are unified by their shared transgression of “common notions of good and bad taste.”
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
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A quick definition for cult films
A term denoting an eclectic group of films defined post hoc in terms of their consumption by dedicated and devoted groups of filmgoers who engage in repeat viewing, celebratory enthusiasm, and performative interaction (memorizing dialogue, practising gestures, wearing costumes etc.). Films subject to cult followings are extremely varied, but among the best known is the Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, US, 1975).
The emergence of a cult film audience is related to the rise of niche exhibition markets in the US and elsewhere in the postwar period, especially an increase in repertory cinemas in large cities, and also to the introduction of the ‘midnight movie’, a phenomenon popular with young audiences that subsequently spread to cinemas in suburban shopping malls in the early 1970s. From the 1980s the introduction of video and DVD, as well as streaming, has further enabled cult audiences to appropriate a wide variety of films from around the world, while the internet facilitates communication between cult film enthusiasts. It is also common for cult film fans to travel to conventions or film festivals focused on particular films or groups of films.
Cult films are usually regarded as transgressive and/or oppositional to mainstream taste. This challenge to conventional filmmaking and viewing practices comes in the form of celebration of poor craftsmanship, as in the films of US director Ed Wood, and the connoisseurship of ‘trash’ genres such as horror, pornography, extreme cinema, spaghetti westerns, peplum films, martial arts films, Japanese monster movies, and Mexican wrestling films (see latsploitation). ...
Kuhn, A. and Westwell, G. (2012). "Cult film." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 Nov. 2021
Finding library resources for cult films
To find what we have in the Library's collection, you can do a subject search for "cult films" in the online catalog. That search will show you what film titles are classified as these films as well as books and other items about them. As you look at the list under cult films, the subject headings which include "history and criticism" critically talk about the genre itself.
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cult filmsCall number range PN 1995.9 .C84 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
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100 greatest cult films
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 O47 2018ISBN: 9781442208223The term "cult film" may be difficult to define, but one thing is certain: A cult film is any movie that has developed a rabid following for one reason or another. From highly influential works of pop art like Eraserhead and Faster, Pussycat Kill Kill to trash masterpieces such as Miami Connection and Fateful Findings, thousands of movies have earned recognition as cult classics over the years, and new movies rise to cult status every year. So how do viewers searching for the best or most important cult films decide where to start? In 100 Greatest Cult Films, Christopher J. Olson highlights the most provocative, intriguing, entertaining, and controversial films produced over the last century. ... -
Cult cinema: an introduction
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 M38 2011ISBN: 9781405173742Cult Cinema: an Introduction presents the first in-depth academic examination of all aspects of the field of cult cinema, including audiences, genres, and theoretical perspectives. -
Cult films: taboo and transgression: a select survey over 9 decades
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 H38 2008ISBN: 9780761839675Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression looks at nine decades of cult films history within American culture. -
Fervid filmmaking: 66 cult pictures of vision, verve and no self-restraint
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 W38 2013ISBN: 9780786470662For film professionals and buffs, the term ""Kitchen Sink movies"" refers to those films that take severe right-angle turns at unexpected moments, where filmmakers borrow from across the artistic spectrum to create a wild, disorienting ride. -
The Routledge companion to cult cinema
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781138950276The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema offers an overview of the field of cult cinema - films at the margin of popular culture and art that have received exceptional cultural visibility and status mostly because they break rules, offend, and challenge understandings of achievement (some are so bad they're good, others so good they remain inaccessible). Cult cinema is no longer only comprised of the midnight movie or the extreme genre film. Its range has widened and the issues it broaches have become battlegrounds in cultural debates that typify the first quarter of the twenty-first century. ...
Selected book title(s)
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British trash cinema
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5.G7 H86 2013ISBN: 9781844574155British Trash Cinema is the first overview of the wilder shores of British exploitation and cult para-cinema from the 1950s onwards. -
Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997 .F3478 D44 2014ISBN: 9780231167390Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) is an enigma. A box-office failure when initially released on the grindhouse circuit, it has since been embraced by art-house audiences, and referenced in countless films, television series, and songs. -
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997 .R57549 W456 2007ISBN: 9781905674503Within just a few years, The Rocky Horror Picture Show grew from an oddball musical to a celebrated cinematic experience of midnight features and outrageous audience participation. This study tells the extraordinary story of the film from initial reception to eventual cult status. -
They live
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997.T4275 L48 2010ISBN: 9781593762780Kicking off the series is Jonathan Lethem's take on They Live, John Carpenter's 1988 classic amalgam of deliberate B-movie, sci-fi, horror, anti-Yuppie agitprop. Lethem exfoliates Carpenter's paranoid satire in a series of penetrating, free-associational forays into the context of a story that peels the human masks off the ghoulish overlords of capitalism. -
They Live
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997 .T4275 W55 2015ISBN: 9780231172110Born out of the cultural flamboyance and anxiety of the 1980s, They Live (1988) is a hallmark of John Carpenter's singular canon, combining the aesthetics of multiple genres and leveling an attack against the politics of Reaganism and the Cold War. -
Withnail and us: cult films and film cults in British cinema
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Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 S65 2010ISBN: 9781848850927Withnail and Us charts the journey of cult in culture through an exploration of British cult films and their fans.
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about movies can be found in many publications. Our collection does not include a journal or magazine which looks exclusively at cult films. Other film journals within our collection will cover cult films. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find relevant articles.
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Film & television literature index
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Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about cult films. -
The web of science citation databases
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Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie titles
To find more cult films, search the library's online catalog.
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Caligula
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #192Portrays the decadence and debauchery that marked the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula from 37-41 A.D. -
A clockwork orange
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #6309ISBN: 9781419830594Stamping, whomping, stealing, singing, tap-dancing, violating, Derby-topped hooligan Alex has a good time -- at the tragic expense of others. His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick's future-shock vision of the Anthony Burgess novel. -
The Ed Wood collection: a salute to incompetence
Call Number: Jones Media DVD #5800ISBN: 0792848276Six feature-length films written by and/or directed by and/or starring the unforgettable Ed Wood. -
Freaks
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #ISBN: 9780790746548A group of freaks take revenge on a trapeze artist and her boyfriend after years of abuse. Filmed using real circus performers. -
Fritz the cat
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #1038ISBN: 9780792851547An animated film about Fritz, an alleycat student in New York City during the 1960s who seeks new and varied experiences. He and his friends begin their lusty adventures in Washington Square Park, where cruising for chicks is the neighborhood pastime. -
The goonies
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #6368ISBN: 9781419855122Two kids find a treasure map just as they're about to lose their house. They and their friends go on a search for the treasure, but not without trouble from a few ne'er-do-wells. -
Harold and Maude
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14786Countercultural director Hal Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian. Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age. -
La decima vittima
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Call Number: Jones Media DVD #9985In the 21st century, a computer selects "hunters" and "victims" in a deadly game.
Internet resource(s)
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Kult CinemaKult Cinema is a site to visit for upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release dates of obscure cult films of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.