The other day I was talking with Al, and we were both swapping similar stories. Mostly it was about taking our respective breaks from watching and reviewing cult flicks for several years — and then finding ourselves drawn back into this crazy gravity well once more.

If Al will forgive me for butchering his actual quote, he said something that stuck in my head. He said that watching YouTubers all review the same relatively uninteresting and overblown high budget films made him remember why he — and the rest of us — branched out to explore cult. “These aren’t perfect movies, Justin,” he said. “But they’re so different and interesting that they become special.”

Right now in Hollywood, we’re seeing the collapse of a toxic system that’s invested into these extremely safe, dull, and crowd-pleasing $300M blockbusters that aren’t actually pleasing the crowds. This year’s been brutal for many big tentpole releases, and studios are losing money by continually throwing all of their eggs in just a small handful of baskets. The mid-budget flick, the genre pieces, even comedies aren’t being made. It’s pretty much a nonstop parade of disappointing sequels and superhero movies with fanservice nods and 30 minutes of CGI battles at the tail end.

People kind of have had it, and I sympathize. These are long, boring, and expensive movies that have no substance — and no daring. We’re not seeing the Lucases, the Spielbergs, the Columbuses, or the Dantes emerge on the scene like they once did. Some directors, like Matt Reeves and Rian Johnson, are rare gems in a field littered with JJ Abrams and Tom Hooper.

So when you’re disillusioned, where do you turn? Trust me, there are options. For those of us who opened the door labeled “Cult Films,” we’ve been escaping into a world that’s almost antithetical to what we’re seeing in modern cinema. It’s mostly older stuff, done on a much smaller budget with fewer recognizable faces. They’re almost always in some corner of geek culture, unafraid to alienate those who don’t get it. A lot of it is obscure and weird and even hard to find.

And more than anything else, all these cult movies are, by and large, imperfect. In fact, some of them are defined by their flaws. This might be bad acting, rough-around-the-edges cinematography, giant plot holes, or matte lines thick enough to choke a horse. These are films stocked full of silly concepts, ridiculous creatures, and elements that haven’t aged well — or aren’t considered “acceptable” in modern society.

There’s fun to be had in lampooning a movie’s imperfections, the “so bad it’s good” type of experience. That’s part of it, to be sure. But it’s more than just MST3K-ing everything that comes across our path. If all you’re seeing in a cult movie is its imperfections, then you’re often missing its greatest quality.

Cult movies are plucky things, often defying bad odds to try to bring us something that the filmmakers think is cool. They’re swinging for the fences, happy to take risks even if those don’t always pan out. That’s why so many movies we consider “cult” today absolutely crashed and burned at their release. Audiences saw something weird and imperfect, rejecting it without real considering.

Time is what brings out the real flavor of a cult movie. Once we get past that embarrassing release and its savaging at the hands of critics, the film sits there waiting to be discovered. It gets a new lease on life when enthusiasts who care more for originality than slick perfection stumble across it, fall in love, and start evangelizing it to their friends.

There’s a simple joy in that, in the hunt for these unloved, imperfect, flawed projects that deserve to be rescued and appreciated. I can tell you that as a cult movie enthusiast, it’s been such a blast to return to this way of engaging with cinema than blindly following the box office and Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

“Imperfect” isn’t a badge of dishonor if it’s partnered with creativity, ingenuity, enthusiasm, and a road much less traveled. I hope more people start to understand that.