Presented by the Centre for Cinema Studies and Cinema Thinks the World, the Critical Thinkers Series features research talks by notable and emerging scholars in Cinema and Media Studies. Join us for the first talk in the Fall 2026 Series by Dr. Ernest Mathijs, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at UBC.
Cult Cinema: Fugitive Receptions in a Theatre Looking for Control
Cult cinema is constantly in flux, a slippery and mobile concept. The term is bandied around almost indiscriminately yet hardly ever approached comprehensively. How much have understandings of cult film changed and how do old and new approaches on cult film as an ‘outsider category’ relate to each other? This talk aims to map cult cinema in the 21st Century, and discuss its uneasy place within the study of culture, from urges to reckon with cult films as representations and witnesses of a world in turmoil, to efforts to regard them as dangerous agents of change (or not), instances of technology-driven receptions (from midnight movies to the video nasties to the internet), frivolous exercises in excess, hopeless failures, controversial provocations, or transgressions of taboo and taste. Throughout, the emphasis will be on challenges for methodologies for researching films known as cult films, with a focus on social and cultural theory, on cult cinema as a ‘phenomenal experience’ and on fugitive and centrifugal receptions. Examples will range from reinterpretations of Casablanca, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Targets, A Bullet for the General, Donkey Skin, Daughters of Darkness, Quiemada (or Burn!), ROAR, Freak Orlando, Labyrinth of Passion, Decoder, Poison Ivy, The Room and Rope to new takes on films such as The Wisconsin Death Trip, Green Elephant, Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby, The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, Av: the Hunt, Antechamber 2, Ti West’s X-trilogy, Benedetta, The Unknown Saint, Skinamarink, and Backrooms. Warning: viewer discretion is advised.
About Dr. Ernest Mathijs
Ernest Mathijs is Professor Cinema and Media Studies at UBC. His research focuses on cult cinema, genre film and censorship. His most recent books are The Screen Censorship Companion and 100 Cult Films: The Sequel. He is working on a fully new edition of Cult Cinema and he remains obsessed with the question “how long is a moment?”
This event is free and there is no need to RSVP.
