Texas Cult Classic Films: A Legacy of Horror, Hilarity & Hope
Being a big box office smash may be the first and most obvious goal for any film, but there's something truly special about a film achieving cult status. Not only does it allow the film to live on in perpetuity inside the fans' hearts, but it also reveals the true nature of that film: that it is, either in beauty or in badness, a work of art.
I have many cult classic favorite movies; films that wrap around me like a comfortable blanket, like New Zealand's What We do in the Shadows, or Howl's Moving Castle, animated by Japan's Studio Ghibli and based on a book that takes place in a fictional version of Wales. I'd be remiss not to mention my wacky and unexpected favorite Clueless, a version of Jane Austen's Emma that takes place in Southern California, although the original narrative took place in the English countryside.
Of course, a cult classic need not be totally pleasant and comforting. Take, for example, the entire horror genre. Cult classic horror is generally a satisfyingly gory slasher, such as the untouchable Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Cult classics can also be challenging or incredibly sad. Requiem for a Dream comes to mind, a film I saw exactly once but still have memorized, so completely it seared itself in my brain.
I'm biased to my home state, but Texas is absolutely home to some of the best cult classic films, king among them the aforementioned Texas Chainsaw series.
Sometimes, Texas is simply the backdrop or the filming location, and sometimes it's as present as the leading actor. Ask most any human on planet earth to point out Texas on a map and they'll get it right. Texas is simply enormous in both size and spirit, so it's no wonder that she's been honored, parodied and just loved in film after film.
We put together a list of our favorite Texas cult classic films, and all are highly recommend watches. Alright, alright, alright.
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