ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the regulation and circulation of five transgressive films that have been released and distributed, both legitimately and illegally, across the last decade: Antichrist, Grotesque, A Serbian Film, The Human Centipede II and Hate Crime. These case studies are firstly investigated to gauge the extent to which the censorship of the films has generated the same levels of subcultural cachet amongst Anglo-American cult film audiences as they did in the pre-digital era. The chapter presents examination of the ways in which the culture of neoliberal film regulation has affected the cultification of films that have been censored by either the British Board of Film Classification or the Motion Picture Association of America. The “mainstreaming” of cult cinema is evident in the creation of a ‘cult films’ category on Netflix, which promotes a range of historical, offbeat and controversial films under the cult banner.
