Freaks was a great movie.

Its funny to watch Reefer Madness and see how crazy people are and how willing society is to blantently lie to people to scare them in to changing.

Its also funny how an anti-marijuana propaganda film is now watched by stoners as a fun filled comedy.

How about Desperado by Robert Rodriguez. I don't believe it's that popular and it's f***in awesome, one of my favorites.

NYANKS, you just mentioned Desperado....don't need to say it twice.

And I'm not sure I'd call that a cult hit...tons of my friends love that movie...but then again my friends and I have seen soo many movies.

El Topo
Audition

 I think now your having an extreme prejudice towards any movie with big name actors or big budget.  No where in the defintion of a cult film did i read "movie filled with no name actors and made from shit money"

While the 5th element made a ton of money, most of it was from ticket sales OUTSIDE the US (3/4 of its net was actually from foreign ticket sales)  Hence it started out as more of a cult film in the states, as it was a small group of fans.  

Pulp Fiction is Tarantino, thats all that has to be said about that.  

I think we both just have different views on what a cult film is.  I think your view is a movie no one knows about, small group of devoted fans.

While i see a cult movie as not necessarily having to do with its recognition but rather with its appeal.  Cult movies dont appeal to everyone, and just cuz someone has seen, doesnt mean they liked it.  Cult movies are those movies that end up appealing to a small group of people, and create a devoted fanship of that film. 

 So Pulp Fiction only ended up appealing to a small group of people? I mean, really? Next thing you know "The Matrix" is going to be a cult film.

Seriously, calling movies like Fight Club and Pulp Fiction cult is ridiculous. They're two of my favourite movies too but they are big budget Hollywood productions that everyone half interested in movies has seen. If movies like that are cult, then christianity and islam are also cults and not mainstream religions.

Here's my favourite cult movie: Cannibal Holocaust. It's about a group of students who go into the jungle to find cannibals and make a documentary about them. They never return but their footage is found and we see what horrble things happened to them. Sound familiar? That's because the Blair Witch Project was a blatant (and vastly inferior) rip-off of this cult classic.

I just checked Fight Club's box office gross on IMDB: just over 37 mill. So I guess it could be considered a cult film.

Plenty of great flicks already mentioned: Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Reefer Madness, Eternal Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, Audition, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks, Plan 9, Hot Fuzz, Blade Runner, Little Shop of Horrors, Office Space, Requium for a Dream, Goonies, Monster Squad, the Ernest movies, The Prophecy, and Studio Ghibli flicks are all good movies.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure(love it) was mentioned, but like Napolean Dynamite(and even Austin Powers), it was made on a light budget and went on to be considered a box office success. Studio Ghibli stuff is popular overseas, but not so much here. I guess what is "cult" is in the eye of the beholder. Even though it went on to be big, I consider Pulp Fiction(love it) to be somewhat cult.

I was kinda surprised to see Nuke 'em High mentioned. Fun movie, but I wouldn't say it's one of my cult faves. I'm just glad someone else out there has saw it besides me. :)

I'd also throw in Master of the Flying Guillotine and Five Deadly Venoms.

Rocketpig, my hats off to you for mentioning Caligula. I have a super-duper long cut of the movie and really enjoyed it. It's somewhat bighbrow stuff at one moment, then total trash porn the next. And it has bigshot actors in it too, which makes it even more odd. "Jupiter loves me!!!"