I'm not a fan of the elitism that derives from special clubs, groups, orginizations, subcultures, classes, schools, cliques and the such. Which is why I don't like to call myself a geek due to the stigma associated with that term. However, based on the content and volume of media that I consume, one could rightfully call me a geek and I wouldn't have much headway to defend myself.
There are a handful of movies that I watch over and over again for which I have a genuine admiration. I understand that pretty much any movie that is even slightly mainstream has been viewed by thousands if not millions of people. Movie making is a business and the point is to attain as much exposure as possible to sell tickets, videos and related merchandise. That said, there are some movies that have come and gone, and are dead in the eye of the general public. Some of these movies turn to dust and blow away never to be seen again. Yet, a smaller few are held together on life support by a small community of people who care for and nurture these movies. It is that group of films, what used to be called the "Cult" film, that lacks mainstream exposure, but is adored and tended to by people who appreciate the movie a thousand times more than your average eat-it-up-shit-it-out moviegoer.
When I say underground, underexposed movies with an adoring audience used to be called "Cult Films" what I mean is that there is an ever expanding relationship with the community of insecure 17 - 38 year old's who are on a constant, desperate scavenge to be hip cool knowitalls about the latest pop culture fad and the corporate entities who own these "Cult" films wherein T Shirts, Posters, Special Edition DVD's, albums and more are shared in an "I won't tell if you won't tell" agreement which posits the idea that overnight hundreds of thousands of people suddenly discovered and are the ipso experts on, say "Evil Dead" or "Escape From New York" thereby negating such a movie's "Cult" status because, Charlie, no longer is a small group of adoring watchers keeping this movie alive. It's moved up to the next tier of film status which, for sake of conversation, we can call "Above Cult".
What causes this phenomenon more often than not comes in the form of an announcement of a remake or sequel to a property typically 15 years or older. A more recent example I can conjure would be "Tron". We heard about the Tron sequel close to 2 years before it's release date. This gave our Above Cult boys and girls to come out of the woodwork and profess their endless Tron fanhood. You would think they were there when it first came out. Sadly, most of these folks wouldn't have been born yet. The thing about Tron is, it's not a very good movie. The only people after, say 1996, who would even give it the time of day would be extreme nostalgists or Uber Geeks. After the dazzle of the, now extremely dated, special effects wore off, there really isn't much there for your standard movie goer. He goes into the computer, everything looks computer-y. He awkwardly stumbles around and stops the bad guy from stealing his program. The end.
Why would so many people claim they were the world's biggest Tron Fan? Their insecurity doesn't allow for them to humbly admit that maybe they know nothing about the original, but are somewhat intrigued by the look of the new movie. No. They "used to have Tron birthday parties" and "Dressed up as a Tron character for halloween" and some other bullshit that you can neither prove nor disprove and to do anything other than take their word for it isn't worth your energy.
Here's a good test for this specific "Tron" example. Tron was released on DVD once many years before the idea of a sequel was mentioned and can only be found on ebay at the going rate just shy of $100. If they claim to be such a huge Tron fan, ask to borrow their copy of the DVD because it is out of print and you can't find it anywhere. A hardcore Tron fan might say "No, I don't want you to scratch it, but I'll try to burn you one". A pseudo Tron fan will stutter and possibly pee in the Tron pants they bought at the mall last week.
I'm not writing this to prove my Tron fandom, I'm not much of a fan at all. Just a casual viewer who has seen it once or twice and saw the new one and pretty much enjoyed them. I only use that movie as an example because it harbors all of the traits of the larger point I am trying to make which is how hard it is to watch something you love get swallowed up and spit out by the general public who put your shoes on for a few months and return them with weird white stains that are impossible to remove.
It's like living in a quaint New England town that becomes victim to the trend of rich couples moving in. Their friends and friends' friends hear about the same town and next thing you know the property values have gone up so high that you can no longer afford to live in the town that generations of your family were raised in.
Another example I can use is the "Doug Effect". There is an episode of the cartoon, Doug (A show which has also been raped by trendsters) where a character in a TV show, by coincidence, starts dressing like Doug. Everybody at school assumes that Doug is dressing that way because he was inspired by the TV character. He is adamant that he has always dressed the way he does, but nobody believes him. Suddenly everybody in school is dressing like him. It drives him nuts so he tries to come up with a new look. By the time he does, the fad is over and he goes back to dressing like himself.
That's what happens to the movies we love sometimes. I am watching it happen right now to "Monster Squad" a movie I watched on TV countless times as a kid. I remember one day I was sorting through a bargain VHS bin where I found a copy of it and freaked out. I watched it over and over, tried to get other people to watch it and most were simply uninterested. I was fine with that. Maybe it sucked, but I didn't care. I enjoyed it and that's all that mattered. Cut to years later, suddenly it's "cool" to like the Universal monsters and Monster Squad is being dug out of obscurity for a DVD release. I was just as enthusiastic as finding the VHS copy because now I could see it in widescreen and listen to the director's commentary. But I noticed something odd. I started bumping into Monster Squad "Experts". "Where the fuck have you been?" I would think until it hit me. "Oh no, Monster Squad is going to be chewed up and spit out soon". Then, wouldn't ya know it - There is a Monster Squad remake on the way.
Now I'm ready to hear people tell me about their Monster Squad birthday themed parties they had as a kid as I nod silently while veins expand in my forehead. The matter of the fact was, Monster Squad was a box office failure. It was the last movie with any notoriety that was written and directed by Fred Dekker because of how much of a failure it was. It hardly scraped by in video tape sales. The only real fans were the little kids who found it on HBO when nobody was home. It was a small audience, but an adoring audience.
Why does this upset me? Shouldn't I be happy that the culture is now beginning to discover this much deserved movie? I should, but I'm not because I know for a fact that it's not being appreciated in the true sense of the word. The people who are now starting to take this movie on are only doing it for fad's sake. It will be forgotten about again once the next so called nostalgic fad hits the streets. I will only be witness to something being torn apart, eaten up and shit out by a group of people pretending to be something they aren't and care about something they don't.
Aside from remakes, there are other causes for once "Cult" movies to be placed on an Above cult pedestal such as an actor or director's death. This instance is even worse because it requires somebody do die in order to get noticed. I can see when Michael Keaton passes away, the same people who spit and shit on the Tim Burton Batman in the wake of the newfangled Christopher Nolan series will suddenly say "You know what ... maybe Michael Keaton was a better Batman than Christian Bale" to which I will respond with a chainsaw.
The sad thing about the Above Cult movie trend is that there is no stopping it. It is, however, important to observe it and point it out. It would be a crime if we were ignorant to this because there would be no way to distinguish between the people who truly care about something and the proverbial cult movie locusts who come and go in a blink having swallowed and shit out what you love most.
If you watch a movie under superficial pretenses, you may as well announce your hatred for it because you're only hurting the movie and the people who truly appreciate it. The movies I watch over and over again - the ones I give more attention to (If I ever had a kid, I would totally play favorites) I watch because I love them and that alone is my motivation to play them on loop when I'm working on a project or fall asleep to them every night. The only reason any of us should appreciate something is because of the meaning it holds to us as an individual and not how it affects the way you are perceived by the people around you. In other words, go find your own treehouse, douchebag.
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