I always feel that this particular article is the culmination of an entire year’s journey through cinema for me. On January 1st, I know that I’m embarking on a trip through dozens upon dozens of strange films, many of which will be irredeemable and/or boring. Yet every so often, I strike gold and dig out a beautiful, shiny nugget of cult fun. These I lovingly put aside to talk about at the end of each year — my 15 favorite cult discoveries.

There was a nice array of contenders for this year’s list, with several respectable titles that didn’t make the cut in the end. The final batch are the ones that I heartily recommend to the movie lover with a peculiar taste. These range from scifi to comedy to wackadoodle horror, with no common thread other than they amused me and I would totally watch each one again. So let’s dig in!

Megaforce (1982)

This ridiculous and sometimes sexist action romp is the live-action version of our childhood toys that I never knew I needed. Watching this reminded me how our imaginations used to be fused to fantastic vehicles and futuristic tech, even if the actual execution here is more dorky than delightful. There are so many classic bizarre scenes in Megaforce that deserve to be shared with friends, which is why I put it on this list. If you’re throwing a party, put this at the center of it. Trust me.

Popcorn (1991)

Popcorn is a ’90s post-modern horror film, but it takes a different tack than Scream did five years later. It’s honestly more of a love letter to B-movies and older movie theater experiences than anything else, and even includes a handful of movies-within-the-movie as a bonus. This really deserves to be discovered and praised by more people.

Totally Killer (2023)

Back to the Future meets Scream isn’t the worst idea for a movie mash-up — and Totally Killer does this concept about 80% as good as it deserves to be. Sending a modern-day teen back in time to meet her mom as a fellow teen, stop a killer in the past, and somehow figure out how to get back to the present lends itself to a lot of funny jokes — especially at the expense of the ’80s. Great soundtrack, too.

Deadly Prey (1987)

Every year I try to knock off a few “must do” classics of the so-bad-they’re-legendary category. This led me to Deadly Prey, a Rambo knock-off that makes all sorts of baffling choices in every scene. It keeps on piling ridiculous moments and odd characters on top of each other until the whole piece became a meme rather than a story.

The Wrong Guy (1997)

Newsradio’s Dave Foley got his one big shot at a leading role with this Canadian comedy — and was pretty much passed over by the public. But this is exactly the sort of ’90s comedy that makes for a great viewing, with a really bonkers premise (an ignorant guy on the run even though the police have absolved him of a murder), spit-take funny lines, and joyful chaos. My kids especially loved the final confrontation at a minigolf course, continuing to quote it to this day.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

I don’t generally put movies from the current year on these lists, mostly because I usually don’t watch them until a few years later. But 2023 gets this unusual honor twice, this second time with an actually good Dungeons & Dragons film. It’s everything that I want from an action-adventure romp: comedy, capers, colorful characters, and genre callbacks. It was generally clean enough for my whole family to watch and enjoy, too, which I felt was a big plus in its favor. I would love to see a sequel to this.

Drive (1997)

Guys, Drive is the real deal. It’s an amazing cult gem with martial arts, buddy comedy, and even a dash of scifi. The late Brittany Murphy is off the hook — in the best way — in a bit part here, and she’s only the start of what I loved about this film. I’m only sad that it took us this long to get it onto the site, because I strongly feel that Drive would have been one of those Mutant staples if we had found about it in the late ’90s.

State Park (1988)

Sometimes blind selections pay off. I picked this to watch from Tubi because it looked like a naffy ’80s comedy that wouldn’t be too offensive. But State Park ended up being the summer camp flick I’d been secretly craving all year. It’s so very, very ’80s in all sorts of ways, including a look into the hair metal scene at the time, and is peppered with all of the tropes that we now celebrate from more famous contemporary comedies of the decade. And how about that theme song, which is totally “Oh Yeah” from Ferris Bueller but substitutes “State Park” instead? It’s a great popcorn comedy with a dude in a bear costume and a state park that needs to be saved from The Man.

Wish Upon a Star (1996)

I must’ve seen at least four, maybe five body swap movies this year — seriously, how are there so many of these? — but Wish Upon a Star stealthily made its way into my good graces as the most enjoyable of these. This TV Disney movie is a little bit cheeky and subversive, but it generally has a good time with the tale of two very different sisters spending a week in each other’s shoes. It might be weird to say this, but I like movies with likable protagonists — and these two young ladies were a lot of fun to hang with.

Dolls (1987)

I told a friend a while back that I’m really not into horror movies any more — unless, that is, a horror movie can rise above gratuitous gore and nastiness to offer a clever idea we don’t often see. So with this in mind, I gladly dove into Dolls, which is more of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale than a slasher. When a group of strangers get trapped in a magical house, it’s only those who’ve retained their childhood imaginations and inner purity that will make it through the night. That stop motion puppetry is pretty creepy, tho…

About Time (2013)

Yeah, this is the movie that made me cry this year. It was the only movie that did that in 2023, so… congrats? But it wasn’t an overly sad movie, fortunately, just a sincere one about an awkward guy who discovers that the men in his family can time travel in their life to change things and experience days all over again. There’s a core romance here, yes, but it’s really the relationship between the father and son that offers the most meat.

Death Spa (1989)

A killer spa is the kind of concept that the ever-escalating ’80s ended up throwing to audiences by the end of the decade. And it’s every bit as ridiculous and over-the-top as you might expect it to be. Obviously, the filmmakers were in on the joke, so there’s this sense of trying to get away with whatever they could. I mean, you know from the title alone if this is going to be up your alley or not.

Love on a Leash (2011)

I saw a lot of bad movies this year. I mean, that’s a given as a Mutant Reviewer. But there’s bad, there’s so-bad-they’re-good, and there’s WHAT DID I JUST SEE bad. I say this with no exaggeration whatsoever: Love on a Leash was the worst movie I’ve seen this year and maybe even this decade. Beyond its premise — a woman who falls in love with her dog who happens to be a magically transformed man — is a raft of bad filmmaking, subplots that go nowhere, character color coding, and scenes that will have you choking back laughing sobs of incredulity.

Phantasm II (1988)

I did all the Phantasm movies this year, grooving on their odd scifi, Evil Dead-lite tales. Out of all of them, I think the sequel is the best with its bigger budget and commitment to the strange concept of a dimensional-hopping tall man trying to make slaves of the world. It *feels* very cult, at the least.

National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995)

My final pick isn’t so much a discovery as a re-discovery. I haven’t seen Senior Trip in a couple decades, at least, but when I stumbled back over it this year, I found that this comedy hadn’t lost much of its magic. It’s got that irreverent ’90s Gen X approach, some notable actors (Jeremy Renner, Matt Frewer, Tara Strong!), and a lot of hilarious situations that make this one of the better National Lampoon-branded flicks.

That’s this year’s list! And if you’re curious about what I chose in the past, check out my cult discoveries from 2020, 2021, and 2022. Happy New Year, y’all!