Cult Movies I Missed Out On

There are those movies that everyone sees, and there are those movies that nobody sees. Then there are those movies that nobody sees, and then after a time, everybody sees. People suggest it to other people. Friends insist that other friends watch. And after a while, it develops its own little following of people who love the films that much. Sometimes I’m on those bandwagons. Office Space. The Shawshank Redemption. Chasing Amy. But other times, I simply don’t get on. Here are four films that I just haven’t gotten on board with, for one reason or another.

Ash and his chainsaw are about as cult classic as Bruce Campbell himself (of whom I am definitely a fan). I watched Army of Darkness at the suggestion of a friend and enjoyed it tremendously, even though I knew it was the follow-up to the Evil Dead films. Having watched the trailers and read descriptions for both films, I can almost guarantee that Army of Darkness is the limit to how far I will go. Yes, I know they’re not firmly planted on the scary end of the horror scale, and I know that most of the special effects look cheesy now. But the bottom line is that I’m just not a fan of the whole “let’s watch these people slowly get killed off one-by-one”. If I wanted to take bets on who makes it to the end of the film, I’d watch a war movie. At least their deaths are noble and not the result of making all the classic horror mistakes (going to the dark basement alone, anyone?).

The world is not very spoiler-friendly. Within two days of The Sixth Sense coming out, I knew the twist. The same can be said of Fight Club. I’m not sure why I’ve never gotten around to watching it. I’m sure that the twist at the end isn’t the main drive of the film. Judging by how often it’s on tv, I’m going to say that it must be rewatchable. Same thing with The Usual Suspects. I still love that movie even though I already know the ending. I just watched it again a few weeks ago. But where that one is a murder-mystery-psychological-thriller type film, Fight Club just sounds like a movie about underground fighting, and possibly some complications that arise from it. And yes, I know I’m breaking the first rule of Fight Club by talking about fight club, but I have no idea why.

The first time I saw anything to do with A Clockwork Orange was on an AFI documentary about Singing in the Rain. Apparently there is a scene in the film where Malcolm McDowell is kicking someone while singing the classic showtune. I can see how some people would find it mildly entertaining in its opposing forces, but I am not one of them. Based on the book of the same name, the film contains a good deal of violence and abuse. I’m sure there are some fascinating psychological aspects of the film that make it worth watching, but it doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy. If I wanted to become depressed about the way people treat each other, I could just turn on the news.

As anyone who watches a great deal of movies will tell you, our minds become a directory of films, actors and directors. If we haven’t seen it, we’re heard about it. It makes us dangerous people to play Scene It with, because we can instantly piece together any fragments of clips or clues we recognize to come up with possibilities. So when I saw a clip of Jeff Bridges in a bowling alley while playing Scene It one night, I knew it was The Big Lebowski. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I’m not sure), that’s the most I’ve ever been exposed to it. I’ve heard great things about it and I know it’s supposed to be good, but I haven’t made the effort to watch it yet. Maybe it’s because bowling just isn’t my thing. But I can say this — out of the four films I’ve listed, this is the one I am the most likely to eventually watch.