A cult film (or cult movie/picture) is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside of the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame amongst mainstream audiences, including Carnival of Souls (1962), Easy Rider (1969), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Death Race 2000 (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), The Warriors (1979), Evil Dead (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Blue Velvet (1986), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Fight Club (1999).Cult Films at Film Site; accessed 5 October 2007 Many cult movies have gone on to transcend their original cult status and have become recognized as classics; others are of the "so bad it's good" variety, and are destined to remain in obscurity. Cult films often become the source of a thriving, obsessive, and elaborate subculture of fandom, hence the analogy to cults. However, not every film with a rabid fanbase is necessarily a cult film.

The term cult film is used to describe a film that has had little to no success commercially and critically upon its initial release but has later spawned a small, but devoted and usually obsessive fanbase, however there are various exceptions. This has led to a misconception in Cult classic films that the definition is a film that 'you either love or hate'. The term was first coined in the early 1980s in the book Cult Movies, by Danny Peary and is continued to be used to describe the films to this day. Usually, cult films have limited but very special, noted appeal. Cult films are often known to be eccentric, and do not follow traditional standards of mainstream cinema and usually explore topics not considered in any way mainstream—yet there are examples that are relatively normal. They are often considered controversial because they step outside standard narrative and technical conventions known.Cult films at Film site; accessed October 5, 2007

General overview

A cult film is a movie that attracts a devoted group of followers or obsessive fans, despite having failed on its initial release. The term also describes films that have remained popular over a long period of time amongst a small group of followers. In many cases, cult films may have failed to achieve mainstream success on original release although this is definitely not always the case. Whilst they may only have a short cinema release cult films often enjoy ongoing popularity due to myriad VHS, LaserDisc and DVD releases. In some cases, these films tend to enjoy long runs on video, thus being issued in video "runs" with more copies than other movies. The box office bomb Office Space (1999) managed to financially redeem itself when word-of-mouth made it a popular video rental. Harold and Maude (1971) was not successful financially at the time of its original release in 1971, but has since nevertheless earned a huge cult following and has become successful following its video and DVD releases. This has also happened with The Big Lebowski (1998), among others. Many cult films were independently made and were not expected by their creators to have much mainstream success. Carnival of Souls (1962), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Pink Flamingos (1972), Basket Case (1982), The Evil Dead (1981) and its sequels and Eraserhead (1977) have all been commonly acknowledged as having become cult films. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different from what was intended by the film makers. Many films that become cult contain unusual elements. Cult films usually offer something different or innovative in comparison to more mainstream films but cult films can also be popular across a wide audience.