Debased.com 100 Greatest Cult Movies

As an avid explorer of cult cinema, I've long searched for a good list that might work as a beginning for those starting out. Most lists are highly predictable and not much use, but this one from debased.com is a worthy list.

That site no longer exists, so here's an archive of it at the Wayback Machine.

Keep scrolling when you hit the end of the list, because, wait, there's more...

The List

#	Title	Year	Director	IMDb
1	Freaks	1932	Tod Browning	IMDb
2	El Topo	1970	Alejandro Jodorowsky	IMDb
3	Aguirre, the Wrath of God	1972	Werner Herzog	IMDb
4	The Wicker Man	1973	Robin Hardy	IMDb
5	Suspiria	1977	Dario Argento	IMDb
6	Pink Flamingos	1973	John Waters	IMDb
7	Two Thousand Maniacs!	1964	Herschell Gordon Lewis	IMDb
8	The Warriors	1979	Walter Hill	IMDb
9	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre	1974	Tobe Hooper	IMDb
10	Enter the Dragon	1973	Robert Clouse	IMDb
11	Plan 9 from Outer Space	1956	Edward D Wood Jr	IMDb
12	Reefer Madness	1936	Louis Gasnier	IMDb
13	Liquid Sky	1982	Slava Tsukerman	IMDb
14	Five Deadly Venoms	1978	Chang Cheh	IMDb
15	Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory	1971	Mel Stuart	IMDb
16	Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!	1965	Russ Meyer	IMDb
17	Massacre at Central High	1976	Renee Daalder	IMDb
18	Peeping Tom	1960	Michael Powell	IMDb
19	Harold and Maude	1971	Hal Ashby	IMDb
20	Taxi Driver	1976	Martin Scorsese	IMDb
21	The Cabinet of Dr Caligari	1920	Robert Wiene	IMDb
22	Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles	IMDb
23	Night of the Living Dead	1968	George A Romero	IMDb
24	Carnival of Souls	1963	Herk Harvey	IMDb
25	The Tingler	1959	William Castle	IMDb
26	Duck Soup	1933	Leo McCarey	IMDb
27	Eraserhead	1978	David Lynch	IMDb
28	Black Sunday	1960	Mario Bava	IMDb
29	Un Chien Andalou	1929	Luis Buñuel	IMDb
30	The Blood of the Beasts	1949	Georges Franju	IMDb
31	Basket Case	1982	Frank Henenlotter	IMDb
32	Jason and the Argonauts	1963	Don Chaffey	IMDb
33	Cannibal Holocaust	1980	Ruggero Deodato	IMDb
34	The Street Fighter	1974	Shigehiro Ozawa	IMDb
35	Vanishing Point	1971	Richard C Sarafian	IMDb
36	Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956	Don Siegel	IMDb
37	A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb
38	Blood Feast	1963	Herschell Gordon Lewis	IMDb
39	Shock Corridor	1963	Sam Fuller	IMDb
40	The Seventh Seal	1957	Ingmar Bergman	IMDb
41	Daughters of Darkness	1971	Harry Kümel	IMDb
42	Eyes without a Face	1959	Georges Franju	IMDb
43	Zombie	1979	Lucio Fulci	IMDb
44	Mad Max	1979	George Miller	IMDb
45	Once Upon a Time in the West	1968	Sergio Leone	IMDb
46	Billy Jack	1971	T C Frank	IMDb
47	Barfly	1987	Barbet Schroeder	IMDb
48	The Brood	1979	David Cronenberg	IMDb
49	Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott	IMDb
50	...And God Created Woman	1956	Roger Vadim	IMDb
51	The Killer	1989	John Woo	IMDb
52	Night of the Demon	1957	Jacques Tourneur	IMDb
53	God Told Me To	1977	Larry Cohen	IMDb
54	Drunken Master II	1994	Liu Chia-Liang	IMDb
55	High School Confidential!	1958	Jack Arnold	IMDb
56	Häxan	1922	Benjamin Christensen	IMDb
57	Mommie Dearest	1981	Frank Perry	IMDb
58	Brazil	1985	Terry Gilliam	IMDb
59	Re-Animator	1985	Stuart Gordon	IMDb
60	Kiss Me Deadly	1955	Robert Aldrich	IMDb
61	Beauty and the Beast	1946	Jean Cocteau	IMDb
62	Cannibal Ferox	1981	Umberto Lenzi	IMDb
63	Phantasm	1979	Don Coscarelli	IMDb
64	Breathless	1960	Jean Luc Godard	IMDb
65	Diabolik	1967	Mario Bava	IMDb
66	The Great Texas Dynamite Chase	1977	Michael Pressman	IMDb
67	Trash	1970	Paul Morrissey	IMDb
68	They Live	1988	John Carpenter	IMDb
69	Shogun Assassin	1980	Kenji Misumi	IMDb
70	Ms 45	1981	Abel Ferrara	IMDb
71	Sullivan's Travels	1941	Preston Sturges	IMDb
72	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	John Huston	IMDb
73	Los Olvidados	1950	Luis Buñuel	IMDb
74	Bride of Frankenstein	1935	James Whale	IMDb
75	Witchfinder General	1968	Michael Reeves	IMDb
76	The Incredible Shrinking Man	1957	Jack Arnold	IMDb
77	The Evil Dead	1981	Sam Raimi	IMDb
78	Force of Evil	1948	Abraham Polonsky	IMDb
79	Violent Cop	1989	Takeshi Kitano	IMDb
80	The Girl Can't Help It	1956	Frank Tashlin	IMDb
81	Dawn of the Dead	1978	George A Romero	IMDb
82	King Kong	1933	Merian C Cooper Ernest B Schoedsack	IMDb
83	The Masque of the Red Death	1964	Roger Corman	IMDb
84	Phantom of the Paradise	1974	Brian De Palma	IMDb
85	The Last House on the Left	1972	Wes Craven	IMDb
86	Santa Sangre	1989	Alejandro Jodorowsky	IMDb
87	Videodrome	1983	David Cronenberg	IMDb
88	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	1975	Terry Gilliam Terry Jones	IMDb
89	Nosferatu	1922	F W Murnau	IMDb
90	Killer Klowns from Outer Space	1988	Stephen Chiodo	IMDb
91	Bloodsucking Freaks	1976	Joel M Reed	IMDb
92	Inserts	1974	John Byrum	IMDb
93	Johnny Guitar	1954	Nicholas Ray	IMDb
94	The Wild Bunch	1969	Sam Peckinpah	IMDb
95	Tombs of the Blind Dead	1972	Amando De Ossorio	IMDb
96	The Toxic Avenger	1984	Michael Herz Lloyd Kaufman	IMDb
97	The Man Who Fell to Earth	1976	Nicolas Roeg	IMDb
98	The Night of the Hunter	1955	Charles Laughton	IMDb
99	The Killing	1956	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb
100	Vampyros Lesbos	1971	Jess Franco	IMDb

There are other lists worth exploring too. The two I'll highlight here are Top 50 lists rather than Top 100s, but I find them fascinating to compare as one is the product of a mainstream organisation and the other an underground one. In many ways, the first provides a decent surface glance at the genre while the second adds depth for those who want more. They're respectively like the knock on the door of the witch-house and the result of being invited in.

The first is predictable but still worthy, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Films

#	Title	Year	Director	IMDb
1	This is Spinal Tap	1984	Rob Reiner	IMDb
2	The Rocky Horror Picture Show	1975	Jim Sharman	IMDb
3	Freaks	1932	Tod Browning	IMDb
4	Harold and Maude	1972	Hal Ashby	IMDb
5	Pink Flamingos	1972	John Waters	IMDb
6	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre	1974	Tobe Hooper	IMDb
7	Repo Man	1984	Alex Cox	IMDb
8	Scarface	1983	Brian De Palma	IMDb
9	Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott	IMDb
10	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	Frank Darabont	IMDb
11	Five Deadly Venoms	1978	Cheh Chang	IMDb
12	Plan 9 from Outer Space	1959	Edward D Wood Jr	IMDb
13	Brazil	1985	Terry Gilliam	IMDb
14	Eraserhead	1977	David Lynch	IMDb
15	Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!	1965	Russ Meyer	IMDb
16	The Warriors	1979	Walter Hill	IMDb
17	Dazed and Confused	1993	Richard Linklater	IMDb
18	Hard Boiled	1992	John Woo	IMDb
19	Evil Dead II	1987	Sam Raimi	IMDb
20	The Mack	1973	Michael Campus	IMDb
21	Pee-Wee's Big Adventure	1985	Tim Burton	IMDb
22	Un Chien Andalou	1929	Luis Buñuel	IMDb
23	Akira	1988	Katsuhiro Otomo	IMDb
24	The Toxic Avenger	1984	Michael Herz Lloyd Kaufman	IMDb
25	Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory	1971	Mel Stuart	IMDb
26	Stranger Than Paradise	1984	Jim Jarmusch	IMDb
27	Dawn of the Dead	1978	George A Romero	IMDb
28	The Wiz	1978	Sidney Lumet	IMDb
29	Clerks	1994	Kevin Smith	IMDb
30	The Harder They Come	1972	Perry Henzell	IMDb
31	Slap Shot	1977	George Roy Hill	IMDb
32	Re-Animator	1984	Stuart Gordon	IMDb
33	Grey Gardens	1975	Ellen Hovde Albert Maysles David Maysles Muffie Meyer	IMDb
34	The Big Lebowski	1998	Joel Coen	IMDb
35	Withnail & I	1987	Bruce Robinson	IMDb
36	Showgirls	1995	Paul Verhoeven	IMDb
37	A Bucket of Blood	1959	Roger Corman	IMDb
38	They Live	1988	John Carpenter	IMDb
39	The Best of Everything	1959	Jean	IMDb
40	Barbarella	1968	Roger Vadim	IMDb
41	Heathers	1989	Michael Lehmann	IMDb
42	Rushmore	1998	Wes Anderson	IMDb
43	The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension	1984	W D Richter	IMDb
44	Love Streams	1984	John Cassavetes	IMDb
45	Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story	1987	Todd Haynes	IMDb
46	Aguirre, the Wrath of God	1972	Werner Herzog	IMDb
47	Walking and Talking	1996	Nicole Holofcener	IMDb
48	The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years	1988	Penelope Spheeris	IMDb
49	Friday	1995	F Gary Gray	IMDb
50	Faces of Death	1978	John Alan Schwartz	IMDb

The second is from 5 Minutes to Live, a company devoted to tracking down obscure gems and releasing them to the public. From what I can tell from online complaints, they became CINEstrike! Films and then vanished.

5 Minutes to Live's Top 50 Cult Films

#	Title	Year	Director	IMDb
1	El Topo	1970	Alejandro Jodorowsky	IMDb
2	Eraserhead	1977	David Lynch	IMDb
3	Spider Baby	1964	Jack Hill	IMDb
4	Salo: 120 Days of Sodom	1975	Pier Paolo Pasolini	IMDb
5	Performance	1970	Donald Cammell Nicolas Roeg	IMDb
6	Emmanuelle	1974	Just Jaeckin	IMDb
7	Gates of Heaven	1980	Errol Morris	IMDb
8	Scorpio Rising	1964	Kenneth Anger	IMDb
9	Beyond the Valley of the Dolls	1970	Russ Meyer	IMDb
10	Carnival of Souls	1962	Herk Harvey	IMDb
11	Putney Swope	1969	Robert Downey	IMDb
12	Dolemite	1975	D'Urville Martin	IMDb
13	Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story	1987	Todd Haynes	IMDb
14	The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie	1972	Luis Buñuel	IMDb
15	Nosferatu	1922	F W Murnau	IMDb
16	Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles	IMDb
17	Showgirls	1995	Paul Verhoeven	IMDb
18	Deep Throat	1972	Gerard Damiano	IMDb
19	Häxan	1922	Benjamin Christensen	IMDb
20	The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T	1953	Roy Rowland	IMDb
21	Metropolis	1927	Fritz Lang	IMDb
22	A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb
23	Breathless	1959	Jean-Luc Godard	IMDb
24	Myra Breckinridge	1970	Michael Sarne	IMDb
25	Easy Rider	1969	Dennis Hopper	IMDb
26	Black Sunday	1960	Mario Bava	IMDb
27	Mondo cane	1962	Paolo Cavara Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco E Prosperi	IMDb
28	The Wicker Man	1973	Robin Hardy	IMDb
29	Basket Case	1982	Frank Henenlotter	IMDb
30	1990: The Bronx Warriors	1982	Enzo G Castellari	IMDb
31	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	1927	F W Murnau	IMDb
32	Head	1968	Bob Rafelson	IMDb
33	The World's Greatest Sinner	1962	Timothy Carey	IMDb
34	The Last House on the Left	1972	Wes Craven	IMDb
35	Death Race 2000	1975	Paul Bartel	IMDb
36	Dr Mabuse the Gambler	1922	Fritz Lang	IMDb
37	Cannibal Holocaust	1980	Ruggero Deodato	IMDb
38	Candy	1968	Christian Marquand	IMDb
39	The Loved One	1965	Tony Richardson	IMDb
40	Blood Feast	1963	Herschell Gordon Lewis	IMDb
41	The Last Laugh	1924	F W Murnau	IMDb
42	Caged Heat	1974	Jonathan Demme	IMDb
43	Rabid	1977	David Cronenberg	IMDb
44	The Brain That Wouldn't Die	1962	Joseph Green	IMDb
45	Shock Corridor	1963	Samuel Fuller	IMDb
46	Django	1966	Sergio Corbucci	IMDb
47	The King of Comedy	1983	Martin Scorsese	IMDb
48	The Cabinet of Dr Caligari	1920	Robert Wiene	IMDb
49	Space is the Place	1974	John Coney	IMDb
50	Two-Lane Blacktop	1971	Monte Hellman	IMDb

Also of interest here is the top 30 blaxploitation movies put together by blaxploitation.com, who really ought to know. They didn't rank the movies, which are listed in chronological order.

Blaxploitation.com Top Thirty Classic Blaxploitation Movies

#	Title	Year	Director	IMDb
	Man and Boy	1971	E W Swackhamer	IMDb
	Shaft	1971	Gordon Parks	IMDb
	Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song	1971	Melvin Van Peebles	IMDb
	Across 110th Street	1972	Barry Shear	IMDb
	Blacula	1972	William Crain	IMDb
	Come Back Charleston Blue	1972	Mark Warren	IMDb
	Slaughter	1972	Jack Starrett	IMDb
	Super Fly	1972	Gordon Parks Jr	IMDb
	Black Caesar	1973	Larry Cohen	IMDb
	Cleopatra Jones	1973	Jack Starrett	IMDb
	Coffy	1973	Jack Hill	IMDb
	Detroit 9000	1973	Arthur Marks	IMDb
	Gordon's War	1973	Ossie Davis	IMDb
	The Mack	1973	Michael Campus	IMDb
	The Spook Who Sat By the Door	1973	Ivan Dixon	IMDb
	Black Belt Jones	1974	Robert Clouse	IMDb
	Claudine	1974	John Berry	IMDb
	The Education of Sonny Carson	1974	Michael Campus	IMDb
	Enter the Dragon	1974	Robert Clouse	IMDb
	Foxy Brown	1974	Jack Hill	IMDb
	Willie Dynamite	1974	Gilbert Moses	IMDb
	Bucktown	1975	Arthur Marks	IMDb
	Cornbread, Earl and Me	1975	Joseph Manduke	IMDb
	Dolemite	1975	D'Urville Martin	IMDb
	Friday Foster	1975	Arthur Marks	IMDb
	Black Shampoo	1976	Greydon Clark	IMDb
	Car Wash	1976	Michael Schultz	IMDb
	Disco 9000	1976	D'Urville Martin	IMDb
	The Monkey Hustle	1976	Arthur Marks	IMDb
	Avenging Disco Godfather	1979	J Robert Wagoner	IMDb
	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	1988	Keenan Ivory Wayans	IMDb