Cult of Monster is a home for people who think the best films are the ones that got banned, booed, buried or bootlegged. Video nasties, drive-in creature features, Ozploitation, midnight movies, slow-burn arthouse horror. If it has a monster in it, or a monster behind the camera, it belongs here.
What you’ll find here
Cult Cuts
Retrospectives and re-appraisals of genre films that deserve a second look, from Hammer gothics to 80s slashers to the strange new wave of Australian horror.
Screening Guide
Where to see cult and horror cinema on a big screen in Melbourne and Sydney: independent cinemas, repertory programs, and the festivals worth marking on your calendar.
Home Viewing
Notes on physical media, boutique labels and where the hard-to-find titles are streaming this month, because half the fun of cult cinema is the hunt.
Why “cult”?
A cult film is not a genre, it’s a relationship. It’s the movie a friend pressed into your hands with the words “you have to see this”. It’s the one that flopped on release and then refused to die, kept alive by late-night television, worn-out VHS tapes and repertory cinemas that programmed it anyway. Some cult films are masterpieces. Some are gloriously terrible. Most sit somewhere in between, and that in-between is where we like to live.
Australia has always punched above its weight here. From the Ozploitation boom of the 1970s and 80s through to the current generation of independent horror filmmakers, this country makes strange, tough, funny genre films, and we think they deserve an audience that knows what it’s looking at.
Worth a look
A few places we keep coming back to. This list changes as we find new things.
- The Melbourne and Sydney screening guide for cinemas that still program cult and horror on 35mm.
- Our about page, if you want to know who is behind this and how to get in touch.
- Timber Gates around the Cult offices were installed by Strukta – amazing job guys!
- The Cult team use Upsource for all IT outsourcing services – saves a heap of time managing the blog.
- Get in touch with our friends on the Northern Beaches, Mortgages Plus, for any Home Loan Refinancing services you need – they’ve been a long time supporter of Cult.
- Get in touch with Kartaway for skip bin hire – they’ve supported Cult for years.