 Cult films have existed since the early days of cinema . Film critic Harry Allan Potamkin traces them back to 1910s France and the reception of Pearl White , William S. Hart , and Charlie Chaplin , which he described as " a dissent from the popular ritual " . Nosferatu ( 1922 ) was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker 's Dracula . Stoker 's widow sued the production company and drove it to bankruptcy . All known copies of the film were destroyed , and Nosferatu become an early cult film , kept alive by a cult following that circulated illegal bootlegs . Academic Chuck Kleinhans identifies the Marx Brothers as making other early cult films . On their original release , some highly regarded classics from the Golden Age of Hollywood were panned by critics and audiences , relegated to cult status . The Night of the Hunter ( 1955 ) was a cult film for years , quoted often and championed by fans , before it was reassessed as an important and influential classic . During this time , American exploitation films and imported European art films were marketed similarly . Although critics Pauline Kael and Arthur Knight argued against arbitrary divisions into high and low culture , American films settled into rigid genres ; European art films continued to push the boundaries of simple definitions , and these exploitative art films and artistic exploitation films would go on to influence American cult films . Much like later cult films , these early exploitation films encouraged audience participation , influenced by live theater and vaudeville . 
