I watched The Howling last night and it got me wondering on the topic of popularisation of movies and labelling certain movies as cult. The Howling was on one of these lists that mention the top 50 horror movies of all time. Having purchased the Howling and sitting through it last night, I became acutely aware that it was a terrible movie. The characters reminded me of the family from Dynasty and the plot line was about as interesting as the Dallas/Bobby dream season plot line.

 

Why is this movie listed as a top 50 horror? The list I refer to is not a unknown blog list that we are talking about, it’s a major magazine. I think possibly some movies were either seen in the decade that they came out and have been reviewed under a nostalgic looking glass or because of the relatively few werewolf movies, it has nowhere to go other than a top 50 list. The problem that occurs is that these rated movies then become part of the cult world and after that it’s difficult to draw the line between being a eccentric worthwhile movie and a waste of two hours.

 

So once it becomes part of the cult world, it then becomes a matter of watching a movie and not even being sure if the movie is great or crappy. Is it above one's allocated perceptions or do you make the club. The beauty of cult movies is that it's almost impossible to define exactly what cult is. This makes it almost impossible to perceive the value of a movie labelled as cult. So in the spirit of public service, I ask you to be wary of lists and cult books which tempt you away from you hard earned money. Anyway, that's it for me, time to go watch Pink Flamingo.