re: The 50 Best Cult Movies

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I guess I have a different opinion of cult because The Thing ain't it.

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I don't love defending The Thing as cult, but throughout the 80s and 90s it was. The "mainstream" movies you mentioned feel mainstream now because of decades of cult adoration. Heathers is a movie everyone has seen, but it made $3 million dollars when it was released, and it was ignored. OLM mentioned it, but Blade a runner is now considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It took decades (probably more like 17 years) of cult viewership to convince people it wasn't the disaster people thought it was in the early 80s.

I think the meaning of cult has changed as internet niche cultures have developed. Yeah, Time Rider is cult, but it's fanbase is no niche that is likely or possible not a one of the pretty good writers of this list has ever seen it. The Thing is now mainstream because of a cult fervor developed around it and John carpenter in the late 80s. Discounting that history would be a shame.

Same with CHUD or From Beyond. Or Tokyo Gore Police (actually, was this on the list?). Those might make one writers ballot and no one else's. There are degrees of cult, for sure. But for a ballot-voted list, expecting the most obscure cult movies to top that list is unrealistic.