Phibes currently has an 80 percent Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.ĭirected by John Landis and written by veteran comedy writers David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, The Kentucky Fried Movie is a slap-dash collection of gag-filled skits that poke fun at clichés found in various film genres including martial arts, blaxploitation, and mafia films.
Phibes’ penchant for creepy organ music and his electronically enabled voice give this film the extra dose of weirdness that pushes it into cult movie territory. Phibes methodically plans the Biblically based murders of the people he holds responsible for his wife’s death. After being hideously disfigured in a car accident, Dr. Phibes is a dark-yet- campy horror flick. Starring B-movie veteran Vincent Price as a vengeful and deformed doctor, The Abominable Dr. Dark Star currently has a 79 percent Tomatometer rating. While its low production values reflect its shoestring budget, devoted fans of this surreal science fiction comedy have elevated this film to cult movie status. However, unlike 2001, Dark Star also includes an inflatable “beach ball” alien and a highly intelligent bomb. Like Kubrick’s classic film, Dark Star features a small space crew on a long-range mission into space. Carpenter later became well-known for his work in the horror genre with films like Halloween and The Thing. The Rocky Horror Picture Show currently has a 77 percent Tomatometer rating.Īlthough it’s a comedy that parodies Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dark Star was the 1974 directorial debut of renowned horror director John Carpenter. Originally released in 1975, the film is still shown in many theaters around the world, where fans gather to watch and participate by shouting back responses to the characters on screen. Considered by many critics as the seminal cult movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a bizarre horror-musical-comedy hybrid that features Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, and ’70s rock star Meat Loaf. No list of ’70s cult movies would be complete without The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A Boy and His Dog currently has a 75 percent ”Tomatometer” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was a commercial failure when it was released in 1975 but has since gained a substantial following. Vic is aided in his daily struggle to survive by a dog that is able to telepathically communicate with him. A Boy and His Dogīased on a novella of the same name by speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison, A Boy and His Dog is a dark comedy that features Don Johnson as Vic, a young boy scavenging for food in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Here are the top 10 cult movies from the 1970s, per to critics’ ratings collected by Rotten Tomatoes. These films tend to inspire devoted followings from audiences that appreciate their offbeat qualities.Īlthough cult movies have been around since the birth of the film industry, some critics consider the 1970s a particularly fruitful era for the production of cult movies. Although the definition of a “cult film” can vary widely depending on which critic you ask, many would agree that cult films are typically movies that feature strange or dark content and often come from genres such as horror, fantasy, or science fiction.