 Films that are influenced by unpopular styles or genres can become cult films . Director Jean Rollin worked within cinéma fantastique , an unpopular genre in modern France . Influenced by American films and early French fantasists , he drifted between art , exploitation , and pornography . His films were reviled by critics , but he retained a cult following drawn by the nudity and eroticism . Similarly , Jess Franco chafed under fascist censorship in Spain but became influential in Spain 's horror boom of the 1960s . These transgressive films that straddle the line between art and horror may have overlapping cult followings , each with their own interpretation and reasons for appreciating it . The films that followed Jess Franco were unique in their rejection of mainstream art . Popular among fans of European horror for their subversiveness and obscurity , these later Spanish films allowed political dissidents to criticize the fascist regime within the cloak of exploitation and horror . Unlike most exploitation directors , they were not trying to establish a reputation . They were already established in the art @-@ house world and intentionally chose to work within paracinema as a reaction against the New Spanish Cinema , an artistic revival supported by the fascists . As late as the 1980s , critics still cited Pedro Almodóvar 's anti @-@ macho iconoclasm as a rebellion against fascist mores , as he grew from countercultural rebel to mainstream respectability . Transgressive elements that limit a director 's appeal in one country can be celebrated or highlighted in another . Takashi Miike has been marketed in the West as a shocking and avant @-@ garde filmmaker despite his many family @-@ friendly comedies , which have not been imported . 
