2.
6
What is a cult horror film?
by Welch Everman
American academic Welch Everman used his years of teaching at the U niversity of
Nbine to compose a collection of cult cinema that has as its only common feature
the fact that it is in sorne way or another related lo the horror genre. Everman
organized his collection alphabetically. The films come from all around the world
(with notable presences for the USA, the UK and Italy), and date mainly from the
late 1950s lo the early 1980s, with a heavy emphasis on the 1970s. The most recent
film is from 1985, The Bride, and the oldest is Freaks, from 1932. In the introduc-
tion Everman lists a few key characteristics of cult horror films. The first he high-
lights is the 'badness' of the films, a production problem (wrong casting, low
budget), but also as an aesthetic quality: the badness makes them 'kind of oflbeat,
kind ofweird, kind of strange'. Next, cuit horror films share a loyal fandom, a niche
audience 'that willliterally watch anything as long as it is a horror flick'. Third, cult
horror films are almost always made outside Hollywood, as independent efforts.
Fourth, Everman singles out the 'aura' of cult horror fi.lms, which is in his view a
'something' that makes them special, like the early appearance of an actor who
would later become a big star Gack Nicholson in The Terror, or Nancy Reagan in
DonO'Z:an'sBrain), or the late appearance of a star in decline (Yvonne De Carlo in
Cheerleaders, or Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 ji-orn GUler Space), or the use of a certain
effects, props, or styles (3D, killer babies, Dracula's dog etc.). Finally, Everman
observes that cult horror movies are both conservative in their ideology (a desire
for a return to order is prevalent), yet they tend ro reject authoriry (anything
uniformed is evil or inadequate). Above all, cult horror film s are horrific, offering a
wide range of threats lo the integrity 01' sociery and the human body and as such
they act as a warning for all that can go wrong, and that is part of their appea!.
A note on the extract: this essay is the introduction to \V'elch Everman's encyclo-
paedic overview Culc Horror Films: FTOm Auack of the 50ft Woman ro Zombies of
¡Hora Tau, published by Citadel Press in 1993. We have deleted from this essay the
notes on how the book is organized, and have retained the part that attempts lo
define cult horror - pages 1-4.
The phrase eulr horror film has come ro mean "bad horror film," and that's a bit
unfair-but only a bit. The truth is that, yes, most movies that are called cult horror
films are bad, and that's certainly true for most of the movies discussed in this book.
WHAT 15 A CULT HORROR FILM? 213
They have minimal budgets, they are poorly written and directed, the production
values are near zero, and the acting is appaUing. A lot ofthese films, though, are so bae!
they're good-or at least they're funny. Take a look at L'VérezcolloIWashington, DraCllla's
Dog, or Blood Orgy oI lhe She Devils ane! you'll see \vhat I mean. On the other hane!,
so me of these movies-like Hillbillys in a Haunled HOllse and Tenlac!es-are so bad théy
really are bad, and others-such as The lHind Snalchers, The Asphyx, and Dono'van's
Erain-are very gooe!, low bue!gets and aU.
In other words, cult horror films are not necessarily bae!, and even when they are,
they aren't necessarily a total loss. \Vhat these films seem ro have in common is that
they're aU kine! of ofibeat, kind of weird, kind of strange. Brains float in fish tanks,
giant creatures level major metropolitan areas, presidential advisers tum into were-
wolves, and vampire dogs roam the countryside in search of victims. Some cult horror
films are mine!less copies or very conscious rip-offs of bigger-budget movies, while
others are so original and so ie!iosyncratic that they hare!ly make any sense at aU.
¡\bybe it's easier to sal' what cult horror films are noto
'ersiry of Cult horror films, first of all, are not for everybody. Horror movies are always
1 feature popular-it is very likely that nobody has ever lost money making one of these films.
:verman But the word ClIllsuggests a smaU group ofloyal fans, so a cult horror film would seem
.le world
to be one made strictly for the horror audience, the audience that wiU literaUy watch
from the
st recent anything as long as it's a horror flick. By this definition, blockbuster hits such as
.ltroduc- The Exorcisl, the Afien series, and Bram Stoker's DraCllla woule! not be cult horror
he high- films because they are made ro appeal to a more general audience. On the other hane!,
ing,low only a true horror film fanatic would sit through Satan's Cheerleaders or The Corpse
: oftbeat,
Grinders.
l, a ni che
urd, cult Cult horror films, then, are not classics and never will be. Classic horror films are
t efforts. those that have influenced the entire history of horror movies-James Whale's Frank-
IS Vlew a enstein, Tod Browning's Dracula, George Waggner's The \l7oifiHan, and so on. It isn't
:tor who very likely, however, that movies like Dracula 'vs. Frankenslein, lvlansion oI lhe Doomed,
eagan in
or The v(lmpire Lovers will have any lasting effects on the genre.
Cario in
a certain Ane!, for the most pan, cult horror films are not products of the big Hollywood
Everman stue!ios. The vast majority are independent productions, and a lot of them were not
(a desire made in tlle Untied States. \Vhen connoisseurs of cinema talk about foreign films,
anything they usually mean movies like Kagell1l1sha,ll1fiel oI the Spirits, Christiane F, or Jules
lft'ering a
and lim. When cult horror film fans talk about foreign films, they mean Godzilla on
1 as such
peal. lHonsler [sland (Japan), Curse oI the Devil (Spain), Torso (Italy), ivlary, lV!ary, Bloody
lvlary (l'vlexico), or Brides of Blood (the Philippines).
encyclo- In his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of ¡\lechanical Reproduction," German
ombies o/ philosopher \Valter Benjamin wrote that the object of cult worship is invested with an
essay the
aura, an ine!efinable something that sets it apan from ore!inary objects, making it spe-
empts to
cial, unique, one 01' a kind (in Illuminations, Hannah Arendt, ed., Harry Zahn, trans.,
New York: Schocken Books, 1969, p. 226). The aura defines a religious object-the
relic of a saint or the place where a miracle has occurree!. In our own time, objects of an
are also investee! with the same kind of aura-it's the aura that makes a Picasso painting
Id that's a bit e!ifferent from a cheese knife, a coffee cup, or any other mass-produced object. Cult
~d cult horror horror films seem ro have auras, too, something that makes them special-though, in
i in this book. many cases, the aura is more like an aroma and not a particularly good one.
214 WELCH EVERf'vIAN
For example, a horror film might become special beca use it rnarks one of the first
efforts by an actor or a director who would later go on to bigger, bener, or at least
different things. Roger Corman's movie The Terror is a cult film partly because o~Jack
Nicholson's early appearance in a starring role. A brief appearance by Tom Hanks
in He Knows '¡"al/'reAlone adds a lot to an otherwise pedestrian slasher flick, and
Donovan's Brain-already a fine film-gets an aura boost from the presence ofNancy
Davis, who would become First Lady Nancy Reagan. Dementia 13 is an early and
impressive effort by director Francis Ford Coppola, and Land of the /vIinotaur-a loser
on almost every count-can boast of a musical score by Brian Eno. We11,everybody
has to start somewhere.
A horror film might also gain special cult status beca use it features a late appear-
ance by a fading star-Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame in ¡'vfansion of the
Doomed or Yvonne DeCarlo and John Ireland in Satan's Cheerleaders. And the pres-
ence of a name horror star-Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, or Lon Chaney Jr.-might
add a bit of an aura even to low-budget quickies such as The Terror, Plan 9 From Outer
Space, or Hillbillys in a Haunted House.
A cult horror film might have something else going for it, something ro set it
apart. Ir might be the first of its kind, as Blood Feast is the first film ro offer not only
ga110ns ofblood but also exposed entrails for our entertainment. Or it might be in 3-D
or involve audience participation or simply present a new idea for a monster, such as
the killer babies in the !t's Ali'¿'e series or the living dead Knights Templar in Tmnbs of
the Blind Dead and its sequels. Or, for a variety of reasons, it might be weird enough or
good enough or perverse enough or awful enough ro stand out from the crowd.
The cult horror film, then, is unique and yet marginal at the same time. In general,
most of what happens in popular culture happens in the margins. For every
1vladonna, there are hundreds of sleazy-nightclub singers working in out-of-the-way
joints a11over America, and for every blockbuster horror hit like The Exorcist, there are
hundreds of marginal copies such as Beyond the Door and House of Exorcism.
But these marginal horror movies are interesting and popular, too-not with a
mass audience but with the core ofhorror fans. And what is popular must say what we
want it to sayo Otherwise, we wouldn't like ir.
So cult horror films must say what we want them to say, though we may not be
readily aware of what these film s are rea11y saying to uso Still, every now and then, it
might do us sorne good ro take seriously what we would not norma11y take seriously
and ask these cult horror movies what they are a11about.
l\;lost horror filmmakers don't have a particular message in mind-they just want
ro make a buck. The best way to do that is to copy films that have already made a buck.
That's why John Carpenter's Halloween led to an enormous wave of mad-slasher clones
that are sti11being cranked out today. But even the most mindless copy of a success-
fuI horror film-e ven the copy of a copy and the copy of a copy of a copy-says
something, whether the makers of the movie know it or nor.
For instance, virtua11y all horror films are basically conservative. Think for a
moment of how the horror film works. In the beginning, things are okay. Then some-
thing unusual turns up-a vampire, a werewolf, an alien, a monster of sorne sort, a guy
in a hockey mask-and everything is a mess. But someone figures out how to solve the
problem, and in the end, things are preny much as they were in the beginning.
WH/lT 15 A CULT HORROR FILM? 215
: of the first This basie horror-film formula assumes that the way things are is the way things
, or at least ought to be, and so the goal of the movie is to get everything baek to the way it was,
luse of Jaek baek ro normal. This is a fundamentally eonservative view of the world. Horror films.
lüm Hanks are often eonservative in more speeifie ways: for example, in their trearment ofwomen
~ ftick, and as helpless, powerless vietims or in their view of anyone who is different as dangerous
e ofNancy and deserving of death.
1 early and On the other hand, these same movies often raise important questions about the
:UT-a loser way things are. iVtany horror film s question authority or rejeet it outright. It isn't at aH
everybody unusual ro see the government, the militar y, the poliee, and seientists depieted as
ineffectual or evil. Beginning in the 1970s, the ecological horror film started question-
ate appear- ing the way we were treating Earth. During that same decade, the true horror-film
1Sion 01 the heroine began to emerge-the woman who could deal with the problems that had
d the pres- once been the provine e solely of meno
Jr.-might Any particular horror movie can be offering a number of mixed and contradict-
Prom Outer ory messages-for example, that v/omen ought ro be helpless, but if they are, they
deserve whatever happens to them, or that nuclear weapons are really bad and can
19 ro set it create monsters, but when we use them against the monsters they have created, then
er not only these weapons are really good. As Stephen King points out in his book on the horror
t be in 3-D genre, Danse lVIacabre (New York: Berkley Books, 1983, p. 177), it isn't unusual for
ter, sueh as a particular horror movie to be conservative, even reactionary, and liberal, even
in Tombs 01 revolutionary, at the same time .
. enough or [... )
'owd.
\VELCH EVERMAN
In general,
lvIarch 1993
For every
of-the-way
;t, there are
'no
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ay what we
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md then, it
e seriously
y just want
ade a buek.
sher clones
a s.uccess-
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hink for a
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sort, a guy
:0 solve the
lllg.
