Steven Jay Schneider's "101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die"
by Brad_Dharma | created - 18 May 2014 | updated - 18 May 2014 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Servant (1963)
Unrated | 116 min | Drama
Upper-class Tony hires servant Hugo Barrett, who turns out to have a hidden agenda.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, James Fox
Votes: 13,814 | Gross: $0.04M
2. Scorpio Rising (1963)
28 min | Short, Music
A gang of Nazi bikers prepares for a race as sexual, sadistic, and occult images are cut together.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Stars: Ernie Allo, Bruce Byron, Frank Carifi, Steve Crandell
Votes: 5,706
3. Chelsea Girls (1966)
Unrated | 210 min | Drama
Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's art house classic follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City, presented in a split screen with a single audio track in conjunction with one side of screen.
Directors: Paul Morrissey, Andy Warhol | Stars: Brigid Berlin, Randy Borscheidt, Christian Päffgen, Angelina 'Pepper' Davis
Votes: 1,497
4. Persona (1966)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Thriller
A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 130,862
5. Les idoles (1968)
105 min | Comedy, Musical
The rise and fall of a pop/rock trio immersed in the counterculture of the 1960's. The rebel Charly, the audacious Gigi and the thoughtful Simon present their stories, thoughts and feelings... See full summary »
Director: Marc'o | Stars: Bulle Ogier, Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Lagrange
Votes: 158
6. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
X | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Three girls come to Hollywood to make it big, but find only sex, drugs, and sleaze.
Director: Russ Meyer | Stars: Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John Lazar
Votes: 12,027 | Gross: $2.66M
7. The Butcher (1970)
Unrated | 93 min | Drama, Thriller
An unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Stéphane Audran, Jean Yanne, Antonio Passalia, Pascal Ferone
Votes: 9,382 | Gross: $0.47M
8. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann
Votes: 23,845
9. The Night Porter (1974)
R | 118 min | Drama
A concentration camp survivor rekindles her sadomasochistic relationship with her lover, a former SS officer - now working as a night porter at a Vienna hotel - but his former Nazi associates begin stalking them.
Director: Liliana Cavani | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Votes: 14,713 | Gross: $0.63M
10. Sholay (1975)
Not Rated | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After his family is murdered by a notorious and ruthless bandit, a former police officer enlists the services of two outlaws to capture the bandit.
Director: Ramesh Sippy | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Amjad Khan
Votes: 58,707
11. Dracula's Dog (1977)
R | 87 min | Horror
Communist soldiers accidentally unleash the part-vampire servant of Dracula, as well as Zoltan, his vampire dog, during excavations in Romania. Together, they set out for America to find ... See full summary »
Director: Albert Band | Stars: José Ferrer, Michael Pataki, Jan Shutan, Libby Chase
Votes: 1,634
12. Wild Style (1982)
R | 82 min | Drama, Music
South Bronx graffiti artist Zoro is commissioned to paint a backdrop for a hip-hop concert.
Director: Charlie Ahearn | Stars: Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, Fab 5 Freddy, Patti Astor
Votes: 2,947
13. Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
A spoof of low budget 1950s science-fiction movies, interspersed with various comedy sketches and fake commercials making fun of late-night television.
Directors: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis, Robert K. Weiss | Stars: Rosanna Arquette, Michelle Pfeiffer, Arsenio Hall, Donald F. Muhich
Votes: 12,636 | Gross: $0.55M
14. Barfly (1987)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Based on the life of successful poet Charles Bukowski and his exploits in Hollywood during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige, Jack Nance
Votes: 21,973 | Gross: $3.22M
15. Hairspray (1988)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A 'pleasantly plump' teenager teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry
Votes: 23,438 | Gross: $6.67M
16. Frankenhooker (1990)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A medical student sets out to recreate his decapitated fiancée by building her a new body made of Manhattan street prostitutes.
Director: Frank Henenlotter | Stars: James Lorinz, Joanne Ritchie, Patty Mullen, J.J. Clark
Votes: 13,498 | Gross: $0.21M
17. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Music
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Director: Stephan Elliott | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Rebel Penfold-Russell
Votes: 55,006 | Gross: $11.22M
18. La haine (1995)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama
24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili
Votes: 196,326 | Gross: $0.31M
19. Crash (1996)
NC-17 | 100 min | Drama
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger
Votes: 66,337 | Gross: $2.04M
20. Le Dîner de Cons (1998)
PG-13 | 80 min | Comedy
A few friends have a weekly fools' dinner, where each brings a fool along. Pierre finds a champion fool for next dinner. Surprise.
Director: Francis Veber | Stars: Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster, Daniel Prévost
Votes: 44,331 | Gross: $4.07M
21. Ichi the Killer (2001)
R | 129 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of achieving.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Ômori, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Paulyn Sun
Votes: 60,032 | Gross: $0.02M
22. The Room (2003)
R | 99 min | Drama
In San Francisco, an amiable banker's seemingly perfect life is turned upside down when his deceitful fiancée embarks on an affair with his best friend.
Director: Tommy Wiseau | Stars: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman
Votes: 94,978 | Gross: $0.22M
23. Kamikaze Girls (2004)
102 min | Comedy
Momoko, a strange and seemingly emotionless girl obsessed with 18th century France, befriends a Yanki biker and the two experience the ups and downs of their unusual lives in a rural Japanese town.
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima | Stars: Kyôko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Sadao Abe
Votes: 8,086
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