Cult Movie Bracket: The Final Final!

Cult Movie Bracket Logo SM

By Hampus Eckerman: For each pair, vote for the top cult movie. Vote for what is rememoralizable, what is fun, what is interesting, what is cult. You will have at least 24 hours to answer, but after that it depends on when I have time to count the votes.

1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Princess Bride (1987)

2. What movie should have won?

3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?

67 thoughts on “Cult Movie Bracket: The Final Final!

  1. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

    Sorry Buttercup and Westley, but Frank wins this one. (I had this on audio cassette and literally wore the tape out because I loved “Science Fiction/Double Feature” so much. And the cult status of this means that I can’t actually go and see it any more because I don’t enjoy the audience participation aspect. Even though that’s what has meant it has survived.)

  2. Rocky Horror.

    Though Princess Bride is entirely worthy of being the second-most-cult movie. It’s in the top 5 of cult movies in history!

  3. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Princess Bride (1987) all the way

    2. What movie should have won?
    Hmmm. Have a soft spot for Rocketeer and Buckaroo Banzai, but Princess Bride is still the epitome of a cult hit for me – limited response at release, and grew in popularity in the re-watching

  4. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    1. Time Bandits
    2. Literally any other cult movie besides those two choices.

  5. Forehead Cloths! Getcher Souvenir Forehead Cloths Now! Send them to all your friends! Send them to all your enemies!!

  6. 1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

    The Princess Bride is by far the better movie. But this is a bracket for best *cult* movie, not best movie, and Rocky is a better cult movie than The Princess Bride.

    2. I’ll be all right with it if Rocky wins.
    3. Brazil. Plan 9 From Outer Space. Freaks. The Room. Fight Club. Bride of the Monster. D.E.B.S.
    4. Repo Man: The Automotive Opera

  7. Thank you for rememoralizable. 🙂

    1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

    2. I’m good with Rocky. It’s cult, it has personal meaning for me and I don’t prefer the written version.

    3. Mothra and Bride of Frankenstein.

    4. Looking forward to the answers of others here.

  8. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    Sorry, RHPS is the cult movie

    2. What movie should have won?
    I’m satisfied with Rocky Horror

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Better off dead
    Get Crazy
    Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death

    4. Which would be the first mashup you could think of between two of the cult movies?
    A time bandits scene in Ladyhawke

  9. Rocky Horror Picture Show. As “cult”, it’s unbeatable. There are “better” movies, in a variety of ways, but that’s not what’s being voted on here.

    I didn’t think of and submit it until the last minute, but I was really surprised (and still am) that The Ruling Class didn’t get more support.

  10. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?
    RHCP, even though I do love Princess Bride and Labyrinth

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Labyrinth! I was hoping it would make it to the final, but am not surprised by the final finalists.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    oooo
    hmmmm
    Not sure. Must ponder.

  11. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?
    Labyrinth

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Hell Comes to Frogtown
    They Live
    Tremors

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    Heh. Roddy Piper’s gum-chewing vs. David Bowie’s pants.

  12. The Princess Bride

    What should have won? Flash Gordon (1980)

  13. Wow. I like The Princess Bride better, but I think it can’t hold a candle to the cultishness of Rocky Horror.

    So: Rocky Horror.

  14. I vote Rocky Horror for best CULT movie. (Princess Bride would be at the head of the pack for Best Movie, however.)

    I can’t believe I forgot to nominate Amazon Women on the Moon…..

    (But Rocky would still have beaten it.)

  15. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?

    I’m actually quite happy with those choices.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

    Buckaroo Banzai was definitely voted out too early. Ditto for They Live. I’d also have loved to see more classic 1950s B-movie SF.

    And apart from a bunch of Japanese movies and Metropolis (which is silent), I don’t recall any non-anglophone films represented at all. Biggest misses are: No Italian westerns, whether serious (Django) or non-serious (Terrence Hill and the late Bud Spencer), no Italian sandal epics at all (might be difficult to settle on one, though), no 1960s German B&W thrillers such as the Edgar Wallace or the Doctor Mabuse movies or even Jerry Cotton, no giallo movies and finally, no Winnetou.

  16. Cora, please pardon my ignorance, but what is “Winnetou”? I see that she’s a character in pulp Western novels by Karl May (which, sadly, I’ve only heard of because of a reference to them in a Mercedes Lackey novel that I read recently); were there movies? Or is it one particular movie you’re referencing? Or something else?

  17. 1. The Princess Bride
    2. My thought when this bracket was first proposed was that Rocky Horror Picture Show would win. I don’t care for it but I figured it would win.
    4. Monty Python and……any of them

  18. . QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

    2. What movie should have won?

    Hawk the Slayer

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

    The Wizard of Speed and Time

    4. Which would be your favorite mashup between two of the cult movies?

    The Princess Bride of Frankenstein

    5. Godstalk

    5 part 2. Serenity.

  19. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    Although there is no doubt in my mind that The Princess Bride is more beloved.

    2. What movie should have won?

    There were a lot of solid, legitimate contenders. And to my mind, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of them. So, yay there.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

    The Goonies. Why did I not think to suggest it until midway through the brackets?

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?

    I don’t think I can decide — there are simply too many amazing options. I tried running through them last night, but I fell asleep just as I was imagining John Waters’ Meet the Feebles.

  20. 1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

    2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

    @David Brain: agreed with the following caveat. I can’t. watch it with the audience participation thing – the way it is done now.
    Theater owners (out of necessity I presume…if not fire marshall’s complaints) have squeezed all of the juice out of the participation thing…no candles…no real toast, or hot dogs, no water pistols or newspapers, As a former dedicated and regular back row occupant I have to say that the film is no longer a ‘Cult Film’. The whole idea of audience participation was to join in and participate in the transgressive nature of the film. There’s just no way to be transgressive when you are following the rules….(and the film is just not that transgressive anymore)

  21. 1. Princess Bride. By a whisker.

    2. Either of the finalists would be a good choice.

    3. Just sorry Doc Savage didn’t make it to the heats.

    4. Big Lebowski meets Godzilla?

    ‘That bridge really tied the city together.’

  22. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    Did RHPS redefine the parameters of audience interaction with movies? Anyway, it is what I first call to mind when I think of cult movies.

    2. What movie should have won?
    The Room, Hausu, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Zardoz, Glen or Glenda, Destroy All Monsters, The Guns of El Chupacabra… so many worthy contenders!

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Like Kevin Hogan, I can’t believe I forgot The Goonies. I deliberately did not nominate Blood Freaks, because I haven’t seen it and have no desire to, but it is certainly a cult movie.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    Return to ZardOZ!
    In which Sean Connery runs around a mysteriously depopulated fantasy landscape wearing only a red velour diaper, pursued by Wheelers…

  23. Whoops, I meant Blood Sucking Freaks in my comment above, not Blood Freaks. Blood Freaks isn’t so bad. Similar titles confused me.

  24. Emerging from depths of day job to rejoin bracketing…

    1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?

    RHPS is a deserving winner.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?

    Mothra.
    Hrafninn flýgur? But hardly anyone I know has even seen it so maybe not much cult. Should be though.

  25. “Hrafninn flĂ˝gur? But hardly anyone I know has even seen it so maybe not much cult. Should be though.”

    About my whole generation in Sweden saw it, even if many missed out on the sequels.

  26. About my whole generation in Sweden saw it, even if many missed out on the sequels.

    Interesting, did not know it was so popular in Sweden.

    Sadly have not seen any sequelts myself.

  27. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE: For me, it’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. <strong.Princess Bride was a late bloomer of a hit, while Rocky</strong. is truly a cult film.

    2.What movie should have won? The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place? Seriously? I’m not going to go back through those lists, yeesh.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies? It has already been done, when the Drew Carey show did a competition between the fans of Rocky Horror and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

  28. “Interesting, did not know it was so popular in Sweden.”

    Was part of the school education, I think it was shown during our history lessons, but might have been part of lessons in nordic languages.

    The sequels were a co-production between all nordic countries if I remember correctly. The first one is the best, but the second is good too. Third one I have mostly forgotten.

  29. For those wondering, Hrafninn flĂ˝gur is remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, but in a viking setting (for those of you who didn’t see it, you might have seen one of the other remakes like A Fistful Of Dollars, Last Man Standing or The Warrior and The Sorceress). The whole movie can be found on Youtube with english text.

    One scene starting at 9:30 (beware of violence) is so well known that all swedes will be able to quote it from heart. Actually, there is only one sentence to quote.

  30. Third part with english subtitles here. There is no need to have seen the second part to enjoy this one:

  31. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?
    Either of the finalists. Or Labyrinth.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Labyrinth. D.E.B.S. Thelma & Louise.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    The D.E.B.S. Element (D.E.B.S. in Spaaaace!)

  32. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE

    The other week, I was reading the Pentateuch and thinking about the nature of God. Specifically the part in Leviticus where God immolates two of Aaron’s sons for profaning the sanctuary with cheap-ass fire. And like, that’s not nice, so how do you reconcile the God of that story with the loving God of the later Jewish and then Christian tradition? Part of it is, you go back to Maimonides, and recognize that in the Torah, and indeed the Gospels, God and the writers have to deal with the People as they really are, in terms they are prepared to understand. And early on, those terms are pretty…crude. So you make stories in which God makes the occasional dick move just to make sure He has your attention, even though that is not His actual nature. He’ll tell you, “I totally burned these dudes alive one time, so watch out!” if he thinks that’s all your prepared to listen to, and he’s willing to cultivate a dangerous reputation to keep an unruly crew in line.

    And that was when I thought: “Hey, kind of like the Dread Pirate Roberts!”

    And that is why my vote goes to:
    The Princess Bride (1987)

    2. What movie should have won?
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show – I mean, come on! God-bothering aside, it does not get any more cult than decades of people dressing up for midnight showings in theaters over and over and over again.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Brick – never in. Oops!
    Unbreakable – never in.
    Tank Girl – I watched this literally right after watching Trainspotting. Tank Girl brought me back to life.

    Most of all…

    Brazil – All due respect to Time Bandits, but Double Ewty Eff that the latter makes it to the semi-finals while Gilliam’s masterpiece gets bounced early. God should really set someone on fire for that.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    The Rocky Horror Lebowski Show – Walter and the Dude get waylaid in Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s castle. Hijinx ensue. Walter decides that at least gender-bending is an ethos. Frank beats Donnie in bowling. And the Dude abides.

  33. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    Both contenders are worthy, but sadly predictable. Perhaps they are not ‘cult’ enough anymore.

    2. What movie should have won?

    Something more obscure, but equally awesome. I have a little candle burning for ‘Allegro Non Troppo’, because it is brilliant, but not so well known.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place? Kiki’s Delivery Service’\, Eating Raoul, Better Off Dead….

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?

    Better Off Eating Raoul (perhaps not…)

  34. @Cassy

    Cora, please pardon my ignorance, but what is “Winnetou”? I see that she’s a character in pulp Western novels by Karl May (which, sadly, I’ve only heard of because of a reference to them in a Mercedes Lackey novel that I read recently); were there movies? Or is it one particular movie you’re referencing? Or something else?

    First of all, Winnetou is a he – noble chief of the Apache and blood brother of the German adventurer known only as Old Shatterhand. Karl May’s Winnetou novels were a youth reading staple from the 1870s all the way into the 1980s and they were adapted to the screen in the 1960s, starring Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand. Both novels and movies are heavily dated (plus, the movies feature a whole bunch of European actors playing Native Americans, actual Native Americans being kind of hard to come by in 1960s Germany and Yugoslavia, where the films were shot), but still fondly remembered by generations of Germans to the point that a Winnetou parody broke German box office records in the early 2000s. The movies are also slashy as hell (unintentionally so, I suppose), massively melodramatic and have next to nothing to do with the actual American West, which makes them cult. Early exposure to Winnetou and Old Shatterhand has also permanently ruined me for Hollywood westerns.

    Here is a clip of Winnetou’s death scene from 1965, which is an excellent example of what the movies were like (Potential trigger warning for white actors playing Native Americans). Rewatching the scene, I found myself both sniggering at the corniness of it all, but also had tears in my eyes, because Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were my heroes, too, as a kid. BTW, my childhood best friend was totally going to marry Winnetou, while I was going to marry Old Shatterhand.

    Interesting that Mercedes Lackey referred to Winnetou, since the books and movies are not all that well known outside Germany. Do you remember where you found the reference?

  35. 1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    2. What movie should have won?
    The very idea of cult movies precludes the whole notion of determining The Single Greatest of All Time. Cult movies are a celebration of weird minority tastes that the greater public just doesn’t get.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Escape From New York

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    Snake Plissken heads into Frank N. Furter’s Transylvanian castle in search of the POTUS (aka the criminologist, a man with no neck) and while he’s there, he checks out a Broadway play.

  36. 1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    The Princess Bride (1987)
    This is a tough one, but Rocky wins by a nose  fishnet hose.

    2. What movie should have won?
    Better Off Dead.

    3. Which movies were voted out too early or were never in the bracket in the first place?
    Better Off Dead.
    Also, Escape From New York.
    Also, Labyrinth.

    4. Which would be your favourite mashup between two of the cult movies?
    Better Off Escaping From The Labyrinth In New York.
    I want my Two Dollars!

  37. Eneasz Brodski: RHPS

    Can I just say how cool I think it is that you came to visit File770 because I linked to your reviews? And that I hope you’ll stick around? (This place is SOOOOOOO…. frickin’ addictive 😉 ).

  38. Cora, forgive me for misgendering Winnetou; as I said, I was entirely unfamiliar with, erm, HIM, as it turns out. I found the reference back to the Karl May books on a quick google but sadly didn’t look far enough to see anything about the character. Karl May’s accidentally-alternate-reality-Westerns novels were mentioned in From A High Tower, one of Misty Lackey’s “Elemental Masters” books. The plot involves a traveling Wild West show, a copy of Buffalo Bill’s show, touring Europe sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. It runs head-on into the preconceptions of the American West fostered by Karl May. (The owner of the show doesn’t understand why their audiences doesn’t like seeing the Indians (in this case, real Pawnee) portrayed as the bad guys until a local German girl explains it to them….) Lackey wrote an explanatory forward about May in the book, for we Americans who had never heard of him….

    Wow, that video clip is… something.

  39. RESULT:

    1. QUOTABLE QUAGMIRE
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – votes: 23
    The Princess Bride (1987) – votes: 11

    At a mansion built on the cliffs of insanity, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, searches for twue debauchery. Wesley do have fun storming the mansion, but have lost their wheel barrow and have thus no obvious way of getting in. Thankfully, they’re lucky, we’re all lucky, and with a jump to the left they’re inside. But things take a turn for the worse.

    Janet has a thing for muscles and then Fessick is gone. Inigo runs after the six-fingered man, but is seduced by Magenta. Buttercup has fallen for Rocky and in the end, Wesley just hopes that Dr. Frank-N-Furter can make him a man.

    WINNER: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

    2. What movie should have won?

    This is a first: More than 80% of the filers that answered this question were in agreement: Rocky Horror Picture Show is a worthy winner. In the other movie brackets, the answers have been much more spread out.

    AFTERWORD:

    To have bracket for cult movies is more or less impossible, as cult movies usually are for small group and fanatics, but popular voting rewards movies with lot of viewers. So what we have seen is that the more obscure works have steadily lost out to more known works and by some peoples definitions, less “culty”.

    What we instead have gotten is what the filers do feel culty about which to no surprise is anything done by Monty Python or Terry Gilliam, Princess Bride, David Bowie’s trousers and of course the winner, Rocky Horror Picture Show.

    But what we have gotten from this bracket is a fantastic compilation of cult movies, created by the wretched hive of the filers. I beg you, read the full compilated list of all movies the filers could think of and you will find an abundance of hidden gems. And do not forget to read the nomination thread with all comments about the movies and why they should be on the list.

    So thank you all for your participation and thanks to Mike for hosting this bracket. I have an idea for one final movie bracket for sometime this fall, but it will have to wait until all the WorldCon stuff is over.

    Thank you again!

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