In the ‘60s and ‘70s, a phenomenon occurred that changed exploitation cinema and helped mould films that would eventually become cult classics—Midnight Movies. Midnight movie screenings were the start of filmmakers including more sex and violence in their films, an era of provocation. This era gave birth to Blow Job, Sins of the Fleshapoids and El Topo. 

The ‘60s were also the time where the term “camp” became well known. Camp is an aesthetic style that is regarded as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics were popularized by filmmakers such as John Waters in films such as Pink Flamingos (1972). Films with camp aesthetics can be closely linked to films that fall into the category of paracinema. Paracinema refers to film genres that are out of the mainstream. Jeffery Sconce, the person who wrote the defining article on paracinema, has described paracinema as, “badfilm, splatterpunk, mondo films, sword-and-sandal epics, Elvis flicks, government hygiene films, Japanese monster movies, beach party musicals, and “just about every other historical manifestation of exploitation cinema from juvenile delinquency documentaries to … pornography.” 

What makes these films cult—a crucial aspect of cult cinema—is reception, which I will dip into very briefly. Cult cinema can be a number of different experiences. Cult cinema can be a phenomenal experience—an aesthetic one that is sought for its own sake or a spacial relationship (both geographical and mental). Cult cinema can be a bad experience, one that constitutes as poor or distasteful filmmaking. Cult cinema can be a collective experience, one that forms community. Ernest Mathijs describes this as, “a commonality of congregation that sees itself at odds with normalized culture.” Cult cinema can also be a connected experience, where a “network of relationships” is created, whereby this creates a feeling of belonging. Lastly, cult cinema can be a surplus experience. This is what Paul Ricoeur describes as a, “surplus of meaning and of value which is qualified but not exhausted by analysis.”

This week’s screening was a 1945 American film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, Detour. The film follows a piano player, Al Roberts (Tom Neal), as he hitchhikes from NYC to LA to go to California to marry his girlfriend (Claudia Drake). During his trip, he is forced to make a few detours which, ultimately (with a couple of bad decisions), lead to his downfall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWIuKcyuesg

Detour is a “B” movie. This means that it was made on a low-budget, did not make use of very famous actors and was made over a very short period of time. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, “B” movies were intended to be the less publicized half of a double feature.  Detour was relatively well received when first released, it was a “B” movie that was worthwhile. Overtime, it became a primary example of film noir. Film critic Roger Ebert has written that Detour was, “from Hollywood’s poverty row, shot in six days, filled with technical errors and ham-handed narrative, starring a man who can only pout and a woman who can only sneer, should have faded from sight soon after it was released in 1945.” Detour was, however, far from this. Ebert continues, “it [Detour] lives on, haunting and creepy, an embodiment of the guilty soul of film noir.”