Topeka senior Jon Tenholder had to be smiling that night. Dozens of pajama-clad students were gathered around the KU Filmworks treasurer on a clear Saturday night last September for KU Filmworks’ cult kid movie night. As Filmworks celebrated its monthly cult movie nights for its members, Fairway sophomore Karl Wiederaenders was busy organizing the next weekly cult film night for his floor at Hashinger Hall. So, what’s the deal with cult films anyways?

This fall, the movies that have reigned at the top of the box office consisted of a talking Chihuahua from Beverly Hills for two weeks, another “give-Marky-Mark-a-gun” flick (Max Payne), yet another High School Musical sequel and a vampire flick to name a few. During these harsh times of mainstream movie blandness, some students are venturing into Hollywood’s sleazy forgotten cousin: cult film.

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart uttered these now famous words in 1964 while trying to explain how he determines if a film is pornographic. Trying to find a suitable definition for cult film is equally as hard.

The answer may lie with our northern neighbors at the University of British Columbia, where premiere cult filmologist Ernest Mathijs resides. Mathijs, co-editor of the recent Cult Film Reader and author of several articles on the culture and reception of cult cinema, says a cult film is a film with such a devoted following that “it keeps the film in continuous circulation,” well beyond its original screening. Films that are raised to this status “tend to be uneven, bad, naughty, gross, gory, shocking, and disrespectful of moral values and conventions of 'normal' cinema-making,” Mathijs says.

According to Mathijs, cult film has been around since the early 1930s, with cult followings of slapstick film stars Charlie Chaplin and others, mostly because of the films’ anarchic nature. However, many critics still credit the recognition of cult film to the rise of midnight movie showings in New York in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

Attack of the Midnight Movies

Five years ago, Liberty Hall screened a midnight double-feature of Pulp Fiction and Evil Dead 2, delighting many locals in the process. One local resident, Malcom Miller, wondered exactly why this didn’t continue—and decided to do something about it.

“I remember going there and having a good time,” Miller says. “I remember being left wondering why this doesn’t go on more often.”

Thus began the monthly Midnight Movie Madness night at Liberty Hall, where Miller, 22, would personally pick the cult movie of his choice to show to the viewing public.

“There is a pretty strong following or appreciation of cult films,” Miller says. He’s had strangers come up to him to thank him for what he’s doing.

Miller tries to do the event once a month, but the next few months he will be on hiatus from the movie night, waiting to start back up again in March, if not before.

Jackpot’s Secret Stash

It’s 4:30 p.m. on Friday and students are trailing outside of classrooms on a gray, muggy day. Seeking refuge on Mass. Street from the daily campus grind, a stop by The Jackpot would seem strange for so early in the day. Inside, however, customers are already filing in and finding their seats around the bar as Rob Gillaspie, Jackpot bartender, lead singer of local rockabilly outfit The Spooklights and resident cult film purveyor pulls Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a favorite at the bar, out of its case.

Every Friday and Saturday, Gillaspie, 32,

hosts his afternoon cult film theater to the locals of the Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts St. Sometimes he will take over the Jackpot for 12-hour marathons for theme nights, like his Halloween Horrorfest last October. Gillaspie’s love of cult films is rooted in the low-budget nature of many cult classics, as he grew up on a steady diet of creature features and B-movies.

“When I’m watching a movie that has someone approaching an untouched subject matter with a very limited budget, it moves me,” Gillaspie says. “To me, that’s important.”

It’s a group thing

Of course, many of the best times for viewing cult films are when you organize the event yourself. But remember to watch with friends, because it’s the group nature of cult films that give them their appeal, KU film professor Matt Jacobson says. It isn’t necessarily the film that defines a cult film, but that it has a devoted following that will build a major part of the life around this movie. The whole idea behind a cult movie is that it inspires people beyond its release time.

Picking out just the right film is always important as cult films span a variety of genres. From the campy, so-awful-it’s-good sci-fi films of Ed Wood such as Plan 9 from Outer Space to the trashy, over-the-top comedies of John Waters such as Pink Flamingos to the surreal, eerie big budget films of David Lynch such as Eraserhead, there’s no one correct answer to the question of which cult film is best. Just remember that watching a cult film is akin to knowing an inside joke. It’s only funny if you are around others who are in on it, as well.