Sayoh Mansaray's essay titled "The Offbeat Allure of
Cult Films" is an interesting interpretation of the definition of the word
cult film. I always assumed cult films
were called that because they had a large following for unusual reasons. I never really thought of a cult film as
being "so bad it's good."
I also like the way she explained that a
major component of cult films are "quotable dialog."
Mansaray sticks to
defining cult films by using recent movies in order to better relate to her
audience. It would be hard to describe a
bad movie being good if your audience had never viewed the movie.
The point of her essay clearly defines how
one could label a cult film. The term
prior to this article for me was very vague, but now I believe I have a better
understanding when defining a cult film.
This essay would matter if you had no clear understanding of the term,
which I think is a common problem for most people.
Hey Chris, I like that your post is short and to the point! I'm not quite sure if I agree with the content of Mansaray's essay because I think she is narrowing down the definition a bit too much. I watch a lot of movies, and for some of them, I can quote the entire movie (only about 3 movies). Those movies are not all "cult" movies by the author's definition, which is why I don't agree with her views. If someone had an already formed idea of what a cult film was, do you think they would accept or reject this essay?
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