The 25 best films about fandom

Elvis Presley’s dominance of American pop culture in the late 1950s and early 1960s was so all-encompassing that his image even hung heavy over projects he never made. Bye Bye Birdie, a musical about a teen idol’s impact on a few specific fans amid a very particular publicity stunt, is one such story, and it’s gone on to have a life of its own as both a Broadway musical and a classic film. From the ensemble cast, including Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell, to songs that paint a memorable portrait of the power of pop stardom, it remains a classic fandom movie, and a classic movie musical.

Clint Eastwood the filmmaker might be best known for his Westerns and war epics, but his directorial career actually started right here, with this effective little chiller powered by a fearless and terrifying Jessica Walter. The story of a radio DJ stalked and ultimately overpowered by an obsessive fan, Play Misty For Me feels a little like Misery before Misery existed, and a lot like the beginning of something very special for Eastwood.

The feature directorial career of Robert Zemeckis began with this story of a group of teenagers in 1964 trying to get in to see the first American TV performance of The Beatles. Packed with enthusiasm and a sense of gravity hanging over the moment The Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan’s stage, I Wanna Hold Your Hand announces Zemeckis as a particular kind of chronicler of Americana, and remains a wonderful study of the raw power of Beatlemania.

There are several movies about joyful obsession with pop music on this list, but Rock ‘N’ Roll High School might be the most joyful of them all. Set at a high school where the teachers just can’t keep up with those damn kids and their music, it’s all about a devoted rock fan (P.J. Soles as a pure charm bomb) who just wants to get her favorite band to play a song she wrote for them. It’s the only movie where The Ramones take over, and then burn down, a school, and you don’t want to miss that.

The Horror Fan Who Goes Too Far may have been explored more recently and more broadly in 2022’s Scream, but that’s far from the first time horror filmmakers have had the idea. Driven by a seriously creepy performance from Dennis Christopher, Fade To Black follows an awkward film fan as he turns into a murderous cosplayer, complete with transformations into some of cinema’s great monsters. It’s one of those films that gets under your skin, in part because of how plausible some of it feels.

Underappreciated upon its release in 1982, The King Of Comedy has since gone on to be revered as one of director Martin Scorsese’s finest films, and it’s easy to see why. Featuring wonderful performances from Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, and Sandra Bernhard, and powered by Scorsese’s blending of darkness and absurdity, The King Of Comedy is both deliriously funny and at times frighteningly plausible. Annie Wilkes may be the first name in dangerous fandom, but Rupert Pupkin is not far behind.

Sometimes, devoting your whole life to fictional characters pays off in a big way, especially when those supposedly fictional characters are revealed as real monsters who are out to take over the world. Though some of its jokes are a bit cringeworthy to modern ears, The Monster Squad still works as a great monster mash adventure and as an endearing portrait of a group of young fans who stumble into a fight only they can win, then fumble their way to victory. And yes, Wolfman’s still got nards.

Arguably the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel ever made, Rob Reiner’s Misery has become the archetypal story of the obsessed fan turned dangerous. Driven by Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning performance as devoted reader turned delusional captor, and balanced with James Caan’s quiet terror as a kidnapped novelist, Misery plays just as well now as it did four decades ago, in no small part because its portrait of the darkest possible side of fandom is just as frightening now as it was when King first wrote the story.

One of the great underseen slasher films, Popcorn follows a group of film students and cinephiles who decide to launch a fundraiser in the form of a gimmick-laden horror movie marathon, only to find they’re being stalked by a killer with ties to one of their own. Drenched in wonderful Easter eggs from horror history, and rich in over-the-top details, it’s one of the movies that feels imbued with a deep love for the films which inspired it.

We have other movies about fan obsession and darkness, but perhaps none more beautiful than Satoshi Kon’s classic about a pop singer who tries to become an actress and enters a psychological wormhole of trauma and transformation in the process. Haunting, gorgeous, and packed with memorable moments, Perfect Blue works not just because it’s a creepy study of a fan gone mad, but because it’s an even creepier study of how public perception can change the celebrity behind the scenes.

It’s easy to look at aspects of Trekkies as overt “Get a load of this guy” comedy, particularly since the film arrived in the early internet days before “fandom” became a larger industrial concept with a global reach. Look closer at Roger Nygard’s film, though, and you’ll find a sincere attempt to document how a science-fiction franchise has deeply and irrevocably changed lives, shaped worldviews, and built community. It’s a recognized classic in the pop culture documentary world for a reason.

It’s been called the best Star Trek movie ever made, despite existing outside of the franchise that inspired it. That should give you an idea of the impact Galaxy Quest fans had on the legions of fans who saw themselves in both the exhausted actors just trying to keep themselves relevant, and the alien fanboys who called upon a fictional starship crew to save them. After all this time, Galaxy Quest still has relevant things to say about the phenomenon of fandom, and its jokes still land with remarkable insight and wit.

There’s a reason they call it the KISS Army. The devoted legions of KISS fans around the world have been preaching the gospel of their favorite band for decades, and that love was powerful enough to get the KISS fandom its own movie after the original lineup’s reunion in the mid-’90s. The story of four friends who fight to see their favorite band come hell or high water, Detroit Rock City is basically I Wanna Hold Your Hand with a different Fab Four at the center and a lot more raunchy jokes. That doesn’t stop it from being thoroughly entertaining, though, and of course, you get to see KISS headlining.

Cameron Crowe’s loving, achingly beautiful fictionalized portrait of his own time as a young music journalist is compelling for many reasons. It’s beautifully shot, beautifully written, and features great original songs along with a classic 1970s soundtrack. But what really makes Almost Famous work is its depiction of fandom as both a blessing and a curse, something that can be your ticket to your own creativity, or be your undoing as you slip deeper and deeper into tragic devotion. Its reckoning with these two sides of loving something, and the way it reconciles both, still sends chills down our spines after two decades.

What makes us love bad movies so much that they take on a bizarre second life as cult classics with both ironic and unironic admirers around the world? That’s the question at the heart of Best Worst Movie, a documentary that simultaneously looks back on the making of cult classic Troll 2 and examines why modern audiences have embraced the film as a must-see bad movie experience. It’s a very good case study of a single cult film, and along the way, it manages to say even more about the phenomenon of Bad Movie Nights.

Sports movies are usually framed as exercises in collective triumph, which is part of why Big Fan’s portrait of solitude and tragedy is so effective. Featuring a grounded, tragicomic dervish of a performance by Patton Oswalt, Robert Siegel’s story of a New York Giants fan confronted with the darkness of his own obsessions is stunning, smart, and unexpectedly funny, painting a portrait of a world of violence that exists both on and off the field, and a man caught between devotion to a team and the preservation of his own sanity.

Part road movie, part heist, part journey through friendship, Fanboys might not appeal to anyone beyond devoted Star Wars lovers, but that doesn’t make it any less effective to those of us that get it. With an ensemble cast that includes Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, and Seth Rogen, Fanboys tells the story of a group of friends who take a late-’90s journey to Skywalker Ranch so they can steal Episode I: The Phantom Menace in time to show it to their dying pal. It’s a movie packed with references to the franchise set in a galaxy far, far away, and that alone makes it fun for the right viewer. Look a little closer, and you’ll find plenty of heart stuck in there too, reminding us that these movies about space wizards really do mean a lot.

Part history of Star Wars fandom, part dissection with the wave of disappointment that came over fans in the era of the prequels and special editions, The People Vs. George Lucas is remarkably good at capturing both sides of the battle posed by its title. Lucas himself doesn’t turn up outside of archival footage, but the film still strikes a fascinating balance between showing us angry fans who believe the franchise belongs to them, and showing us a creator who’s just trying to retain some degree of control over the behemoth he birthed.

Simon Pegg built much of his career on filtering his pop culture fandoms into stories about roommates, zombies, zombie roommates, and more, but he might have hit his fandom apex with Paul. Co-written by Pegg and longtime mate and co-star Nick Frost, this film about two super-nerds who link up for a road movie adventure with an alien who sounds like Seth Rogen is as infectiously fun as you’d hope, and that’s before the movie piles on some frankly stunning major cameos.

Rodney Ascher’s film about a series of fan theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is perhaps the greatest single document of cinematic obsession ever produced, and that’s really saying something. Making liberal use of imagery from Kubrick’s film, as well as narration from the theorists themselves, Room 237 will try to convince you that The Shining is everything from a takedown of American imperialism to a film about genocide to definitive proof that Kubrick shot the fake moon landing for NASA. The only thing more stunning than these theories themselves is how much the film makes you believe they might just have a point.

Brandon Cronenberg announced himself as a powerful new sci-fi/horror voice right away with his feature debut, set in a world in which viruses contracted by celebrities can be replicated and injected into fans who are willing to pay the price. Tense, creepy, and driven by high-concept elegance, Antiviral is a fascinating look at fandom as contagion, and the often frightening closeness of parasocial relationships.

In 1982, three friends got together to film a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders Of The Lost Ark on a shoestring budget, with nothing but their enthusiasm and devotion as a guide. It took seven years, but they pulled it off, and in 2014 we got a film about how it all went down, complete with an attempt to shoot one last sequence with the help of a little crowdfunding. Heartwarming, exciting, and driven by genuine love for one of action cinema’s finest moments, Raiders! is a film about one of fandom’s all-time great labors of love.

We’re all aware of the cultural impact Disney films have had around the globe for the last century or so, but that impact has perhaps never been as well-personified, and as worth exploring, as it is in this documentary. Built around a family who’s doing their best to guide each other through the world, Life, Animated follows Disney superfan Owen Suskind as he navigates his own autism with the help of animated movies as a communication and expression tool. The film wonderfully illustrates how these films and their messages shape Owen and help him shape those around him, and even explores what happens when those films might no longer be enough.

Aubrey Plaza’s ferocity as an actress capable of walking the fine line of black comedy is on full display in Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West, a wild film about the title character’s (Plaza) quest to become best friends with a woman (Elizabeth Olsen) who captivates her on Instagram. Plaza is absolutely magnetic in the role, Olsen plays her part perfectly, and the whole thing plays like a slow, devastatingly addictive car crash about parasocial relationships, facades, and the filters we use on social media and in real life.

Scream has always been a franchise with a close, incisive eye on horror fandom, but that reached new levels with the 2022 “requel” treatment of the Ghostface murders. Driven by a new generation of characters with their own ideas about horror cinema, the film’s final reveal gave us slashers driven by a twisted devotion to their favorite scary movies. It’s a twist that fit right in with the rest of the franchise, poked fun at angry fanboys everywhere, and managed to deliver a brutal conclusion that, in its own way, is a fan-film echo of the 1996 original.