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Promotion campaigns will try anything to present a film as ‘cult’, from Barnum-like stunts to William Castle-type gimmicks. Still, in most cases a film becomes cult through a failure in effectiveness or containment of tested techniques (missed opportunities, messed up openings, unintended scandals). A good example is the ‘freak’ programming of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a 1970s children’s matinee movie. Next to that, specialist screenings and festivals play an important role. The 1970s circuit of midnight screenings that led to the cult reputations of El Topo, Eraserhead, or The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one example. Exploitation cineastes like Lucio Fulci and Jean Rollin, and the more edgy work of iconoclastic directors like Guy Maddin or Gregg Araki thrives on such circuits. The lack of availability often determines a film’s cult. The cult reputation of the ‘video nasties’ in the1980s was directly connected to their unavailability in the UK. Other ‘inaccessible’ films include Zéro de conduite (1933, banned for decades), or Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story (1987, blocked by courts). In some cases, a soundtrack is as close as one can get to a film, as was the case with Koyaanisqatsi (1982) for a long time. Even so-called blockbuster cults, such as Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2007) or The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), which are available in abundance, operate according to this mechanism of limited access – in this case the element of ‘rarity’ shifts back to specialist events like dress-up screenings or red carpet premieres, or elite merchandise.
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