About This Quiz
These cult films may not have been box-office smashes, but their cult following is undeniable. How many of these films can you identify in this hidden picture reveal?The Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" (1998) is the feature film debut of an adult Tara Reid, along with singer-songwriter and 'Til Tuesday frontperson, Aimee Mann.
"Office Space" (1999) was the live-action feature filmmaking debut of Mike Judge, creator of TV's "King of the Hill" and "Beavis and Butthead." Judge got his start making the short animated cult film series featuring Beavis and Butthead. One of these shows viewers what happens when amphibians meet wooden bats. It's called "Frog Baseball."
If you look closely, you can see Tyler Durden pop up for a few frames at a time before his character is introduced in "Fight Club" (David Fincher, 1999).
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Like 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back," 1974's "The Godfather: Part II," and 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," James Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) is arguably a better film than its predecessor.
A lot of the humor in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (Terrys Gilliam and Jones, 1975) comes from the limited amount of money the group had to spend on the movie. For instance, the reason the knights "ride around" by skipping while clapping coconut shells together is because they couldn't afford actual horses.
In "Reservoir Dogs" (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), the word "f&!k" (without the punctuation) is used 272 times. Also, there was a paramedic on the set to make sure that Mr. Orange's blood loss matched that of real-life gunshot victims.
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"Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" (1985) marks the feature debut and first collaboration of filmmaker Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman. Burton met Elfman and offered him the job after seeing Elfman's band, Oingo Boingo, perform at a Los Angeles club.
"Down by Law" (Jim Jarmusch, 1986) is the English-language debut of Oscar winner Roberto Benigni.
Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" (1981) spawned two feature film sequels, a remake, and a television series.
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David Bowie's 2015 musical, "Lazarus," is a sequel to his narrative feature acting debut, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (Nicholas Roeg, 1974).
One of the things "Night of the Living Dead" (George Romero, 1969) is known for is being one of the first films to feature an African-American lead hero in a mixed race cast.
There's a movie poster for the concert movie "Stop Making Sense" in Dan Cain's bedroom in "Re-Animator" (Stuart Gordon, 1985). The band in the movie featured in the poster: Talking Heads. The villain in the movie in which the poster is featured: Dr. Carl Hill, who, when anti-hero Herbert West "re-animates" Hill's severed noggin, becomes a literal "talking head."
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"Repo Man" (1984) was based on writer-director Alex Cox's experience working as an assistant to a real-life repo man. The movie lines, "Only an a**hole gets killed for a car," and "Ordinary f***in' people, I hate 'em," were two things Cox heard on his ride alongs.
The leads of 1973's "Sisters," Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt, were roommates in the early '70s. At one of their Christmas parties, director Brian De Palma put a special gift under their tree: a script of the movie. This was their offer to star in the film.
"Slacker" (1991) is Richard Linklater's first feature film. It consists of a series of moderately connected vignettes as the camera roams from scene to scene.
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Despite what you might think, 1982's "The Thing" was neither the first nor the second time actor Kurt Russell and director John Carpenter worked together. The "Escape from New York" series had begun the year before, but cult favorite "Big Trouble in Little China" was still four years away. The actual first time they worked together was in 1979, on a TV movie called "Elvis," with Russell in the title role.
"The Toxic Avenger" (1984) spawned three feature sequels and an animated TV series. Though the feature versions were strictly for adults, the cartoon was aimed at kids.
Cult classic "The Warriors" (Walter Hill, 1979) was remade as a video game in 2005. Original cast members Michael Beck (Swan), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), David Harris (Cochise), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy), and James Remar (Ajax) reprised their roles from the movie for the game.
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"Welcome to the Dollhouse" (1995) was Todd Solondz's first feature film. It starred Heather Matarazzo in her first feature film.
1987's "Withnail & I" was the feature film debut of writer-director Bruce Robinson and lead actors Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann. Robinson and Grant worked together again two years later, in "How to Get Ahead in Advertising," in which ad agency man Grant grows a second head.
Kevin Smith developed a sequel TV series to 1984's "The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai across the 8th Dimension" (directed by W.D. Richter) in the mid-2010s, but it ended up going nowhere. So much for Buckaroo Bonzai taking on the World Crime League.
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"Breathless" (1960) was French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard's first film. Despite over one hundred directing credits since then, it was his only hit.
There was a battle over which version of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985) to release. The studio, MCA-Universal, recut the Gilliam's version to make the film more accessible. Gilliam's version won out when the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded the film best picture, director, and screenplay. Somehow, the critics had access to Gilliam's cut and not the studio's.
Director Tobe Hooper based the character of Leatherface in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" on 1950s murderer/necrophiliac/grave-robber/human taxidermist/mama's boy Ed Gein. The movie spawned seven sequels/spin-offs/remakes.
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