Rough Guide to Cult movies - a selection
by arth6506 | created - 03 May 2022 | updated - 18 May 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Things to Come (1936)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, War
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott
Votes: 9,069
Sci-Fi
2. Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
M | 100 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Thinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, William Schallert
Votes: 10,157
Sci-Fi
3. Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Passed | 93 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A family leaves Los Angeles for a camping trip just before hydrogen bombs destroy the city. In the midst of the chaos, the father must fight to keep his family alive along the highway.
Director: Ray Milland | Stars: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel
Votes: 4,830
Sci-Fi
4. Gunga Din (1939)
Approved | 117 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
In 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Votes: 12,801
Action & adventure
5. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
R | 115 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis
Votes: 28,723 | Gross: $25.00M
Action & adventure
6. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
PG | 129 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1880s India, two former British soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey
Votes: 52,043
Action & adventure
7. The Butcher Boy (1997)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
The antisocial son of an alcoholic father and a bipolar mother grows up in 1960s Ireland.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Eamonn Owens, Alan Boyle
Votes: 11,471 | Gross: $1.82M
Alcohol
8. Under the Volcano (1984)
R | 112 min | Drama
A day in the life of a self-destructive British consul in Mexico on the eve of World War II.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Andrews, Ignacio López Tarso
Votes: 6,244 | Gross: $2.56M
Alcohol
9. Fritz the Cat (1972)
X | 78 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
Fritz drops out of college, starts a riot in Harlem and hits the road with an ex-girlfriend before getting mixed up with domestic terrorists.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Judy Engles
Votes: 14,343 | Gross: $25.00M
Animated
10. Heavy Metal (1981)
R | 86 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
A glowing green orb that embodies ultimate evil terrorizes a young girl with an anthology of bizarre and fantastic stories.
Directors: Gerald Potterton, John Bruno, John Halas, Julian Harris, Jimmy T. Murakami, Barrie Nelson, Paul Sabella, Jack Stokes, Pino Van Lamsweerde, Harold Whitaker | Stars: Richard Romanus, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks
Votes: 38,169
Animated
11. L'Age d'Or (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy, Drama
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Votes: 14,809 | Gross: $0.03M
Arts
12. Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)
Unrated | 80 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The criminal exploits of Public Enemy number 1, George 'Machine-Gun' Kelly, during the 1930s.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Devon
Votes: 1,982
B-movies
13. Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)
R | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Ilsa is an evil Nazi warden at a death camp that conducts "medical experiments." Ilsa's goal is to prove women can withstand more pain and suffering than men, and therefore should be allowed to fight on the front lines.
Director: Don Edmonds | Stars: Dyanne Thorne, Gregory Knoph, Tony Mumolo, Maria Marx
Votes: 8,210
Banned
14. Blood Sucking Freaks (1976)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
In the Theatre of the Macabre in New York Sardu and his assistants present a show involving the torture and mutilation of young women. The audience assumes it is just an act but the torture is real, as are the deaths.
Director: Joel M. Reed | Stars: Seamus O'Brien, Viju Krem, Niles McMaster, Dan Fauci
Votes: 6,288
Banned
15. The Trip (II) (1967)
Approved | 82 min | Drama
A disillusioned TV-commercial director is guided by his friend through an LSD trip, during which he evaluates his identity and his relationships with women.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper
Votes: 5,394
Banned
16. The Visitors (1993)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A medieval knight and his servant ask a familiar wizard to move them back in time to prevent father-in-law's accidentally killing. Instead, they fly away to the 20th century.
Director: Jean-Marie Poiré | Stars: Christian Clavier, Jean Reno, Valérie Lemercier, Marie-Anne Chazel
Votes: 37,987 | Gross: $0.70M
Blockbuster
17. Baise-moi (2000)
Not Rated | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two young women, marginalised by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.
Directors: Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi | Stars: Raffaëla Anderson, Karen Lancaume, Céline Beugnot, Adama Niane
Votes: 18,567 | Gross: $0.01M
Buddy films
18. A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
Director: John Woo | Stars: Lung Ti, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat, Emily Chu
Votes: 25,467
Buddy films
19. Tampopo (1985)
Not Rated | 114 min | Comedy
A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.
Director: Jûzô Itami | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho
Votes: 22,575 | Gross: $0.22M
Food
20. Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
One by one, the greatest Chefs in Europe are being killed. Each chef murdered in the same manner that their own special dish is prepared in. Food critics and the (many) self-proclaimed greatest Chefs in Europe demand the mystery be solved.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Morley, Jean-Pierre Cassel
Votes: 2,604
Food
21. Victory (1981)
PG | 116 min | Drama, Sport, War
As allied P.O.W.s prepare for a soccer game against the German National Team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris, the French Resistance and British officers are making plans for the team's escape.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Pelé, Bobby Moore
Votes: 33,275 | Gross: $10.85M
Football
22. Happiness (1998)
NC-17 | 134 min | Comedy, Drama
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
Director: Todd Solondz | Stars: Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker
Votes: 74,445 | Gross: $2.81M
Independent
23. Pink Flamingos (1972)
NC-17 | 93 min | Comedy, Crime
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
Director: John Waters | Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Votes: 27,911 | Gross: $0.18M
X-rated
24. Missing (1982)
PG | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
When an idealistic American writer disappears during the Chilean coup d'état in September 1973, his wife and father try to find him.
Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea
Votes: 23,372 | Gross: $14.00M
Paranoia
25. Disparen a matar (1990)
109 min | Action
During a police round-up, Mercedes witnesses the unjust murder of her son, a working-class man, by a police captain. Refusing to accept the official version of the story - that her son was ... See full summary »
Director: Carlos Azpúrua | Stars: Amalia Pérez Díaz, Jean Carlo Simancas, Daniel Alvarado, Flor Núñez
Votes: 46
Media
26. Shock Corridor (1963)
Approved | 101 min | Drama, Mystery
Bent on winning a Pulitzer Prize, a journalist commits himself to a mental institution to solve a strange and unclear murder.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans, James Best
Votes: 13,065
Media
27. Talk Radio (1988)
R | 110 min | Drama, Thriller
A rude, contemptuous talk show host becomes overwhelmed by the hatred that surrounds his program just before it goes national.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene, Leslie Hope, John C. McGinley
Votes: 14,621 | Gross: $3.47M
Media
28. All's Well (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
Godard examines the structure of movies, relationships and revolutions through the life of a couple in Paris.
Directors: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin | Stars: Yves Montand, Jane Fonda, Vittorio Caprioli, Elizabeth Chauvin
Votes: 3,895
Media
29. Under Fire (1983)
R | 128 min | Drama, War
Three journalists in a romantic triangle are involved in political intrigue during the last days of the corrupt Somoza regime in Nicaragua before it falls to a popular revolution in 1979.
Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy
Votes: 8,516 | Gross: $5.70M
Media
30. Village of the Damned (1960)
Not Rated | 77 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the English village of Midwich, the blonde-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.
Director: Wolf Rilla | Stars: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn
Votes: 19,142
Horror
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