This semester I am excited to learn the history of cult films and what they have offered to film history. We have already watched two very interesting pieces to say the least. We also have discussed some of the history behind it. In the readings we talked about this week we discussed what could be considered a cult film. A cult film may consist of a very bad script or a very good one. People however, still latch onto these films making them cult classics. Cult films become a cult film because so many people can relate or love what the movie may have to offer. From the reading, The Cult Film Reader, it discussed how a cult film is defined as having Anatomy, Consumption, Political Economy and Cultural Status. All of these things play some type of role in a cult film. They may not all be equal however though. Many cult films flourish because of what they project, how they are perceived, when it relates to the time period and just being the film itself and how it is defined. There are many elements behind anatomy, consumption, political economy and cultural status that make up the film. Things such as how good or bad it is, the money in the economy and how they are promoted and how they progressed over time. They are often just movies that aren’t promoted widely but then end up getting this massive following.

Last week, we watched a movie called Maniac. In my words I would describe it as interesting in a weird way I guess? But also not the greatest. While watching this film it made me question many things such as why were all the cats always different and what happened to the crazy guy and the dead girl who came back to life? The film was directed by Dwain Esper and released in 1934. This movie was just the start of exploitation films. I would say the film was good in a funny way if that makes sense. It wasn’t actually good but was funny because of all the random shit that happened throughout it.

We then watched American Grindhouse. I thought this documentary was very interesting it. I loved how it covered the history of exploitation films. Many films like this were very taboo and they started early. The films also relate to film noir. These movies both consist of adult themes that are similar. These exploitation films also changed drastically over time until now. Many teens were watching them and were aimed to the viewing of teens, which lead to drive in theaters. At one point these films also got very violent which projected a different kind of viewing that wasn’t necessarily something everyone wanted to see. We then began to see more gore movies too, like Psycho and Blood Feast. But all in all, exploitation films really just lead up to pornography. People were seeing these films because of what they showed and eventually they weren’t enough so pornography came about. It is interesting how much they changed over time but how I think now we as a society wouldn’t accept what they did back then. The topics of those movies were something out of the ordinary and now people would think they are odd or not right.