From “Longlegts” to “Carrie,” “Heathers,” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”
What makes a horror movie a cult horror movie? In a word: rewatchability. And with Halloween nearly upon us, the question of what frightening, shocking, silly, classic, or demonically camp movies to press play on again (and again) has never been more pertinent. Here at Vogue, of course, we dole out extra cult horror points if a movie can hold its own sartorially. Dario Argento’s Suspiria has inspired everyone from Nicolas Ghesquière to the Rodarte sisters; Yves Saint Laurent designed Catherine Deneuve’s costumes for the blood-soaked romance The Hunger; and Eiko Ishioka’s Japanese-influenced creations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula are just as striking now as they were in the ’90s. Below, Vogue rounds up 40 favorite cult horror movies, ranging from the very new to a few select tried and tested (and especially chic) classics.
That's a weird list and being in chronological order really hammers home the recentish bias. Which is an issue because time is the test of a cult film - Longlegs, Barbarian, The Substance and I Saw the TV Glow will likely make the grade but.. Evil Dead Rise over the first films? The Last Omen over The Omen? That's borderline perverse.
And no The Thing? 1 from the noughties? 2 from the nineties? 3 from the eighties? They might be showing their age there. And virtually no foreign films? 🤷♂️
Stood the test of time (more recent ones are included that have potential)
Rewatchable
Not from big studios or big name directors (at the time they made them) - no Shining, Hellboy, Blade, eXistenZ, From Dusk Till Dawn, They Live, Mist, Event Horizon, etc. bit subjective but...