The Tenth Annual Mutant Awards: 2007

Army of Darkness

Over at good old wikipedia, the most pertinent description of a 'cult film' is "a film that has had little success upon its initial release but has later spawned a small, but devoted and usually obsessive fanbase, however there are various exceptions..."

Fairly accurate, no? The joy of wikipedia is that it thrives on the input of us all; my amusing parallel here is that by voting in our MRFH Awards, your input is helping to define and enlarge the idea of what 'cult film' means anymore. Online debate, endless publications dedicated to cult coverage, the determination on the parts of many to reject the mainstream, DVD sales... all of this and more are fairly exploding the old ideas about cult and forgotten films and "so bad it's good" classifications. Sadly, all the whackos in real cults continue to be marginalized and mocked as, well, whackos. But who cares, right?

That said, for the purposes of fun and honors, we the Mutants wanted to see just what you would answer if we held a ballot to your head and demanded "What's the Best Cult Film of All Time?!?!"

As expected, things were kind of all over the place. But it wouldn't be fun without confusion and intrigue, yes?

We gave you nine reasoned choices, with the unspoken admission that there are certainly many more potential films that could contend for such a prize (depending on which part of world and whose meeting place/basement you might find yourself in), although such a list might have destroyed your computer display. In return, you gave us results that were all over the place: reassuring us all that although there are a handful of films that might spring to mind as frontrunners there remains and will always be passionate (and hopefully polite) argument as long as movies last.

In this particular case, while films like Empire Records (4%), Young Frankenstein (2.8%), and the works of Bill and Ted (2.4%) and Willy Wonka (2.8%) made us know they were invited to the party, it was the big "cult classic" guns that insisted they were the party. The Princess Bride (20.6%) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (22.6%) regaled The Rocky Horror Picture Show (9.3%) and Clerks (10.5%) with magnificent tales and party tricks, and everyone had a good time. But when the spotlight turned on and the plaque came out, it went directly into the hands of Army of Darkness (25%).

Is the zombies? The slapstick? The Bruce Campbell? All of the above and more? That's where the debate comes in. For now, let's all just nod our heads and raise our glasses to Army of Darkness, which exists in so many DVD editions that choosing 'Best DVD version of the Best Cult Film of All Time' is the debate that will carry us through the reception all the way to the 2008 MRFH awards. Army of Darkness, keep on keepin' on!

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