A film that grossed barely a tenth of its production budget on release thirty years ago is now selling out midnight screenings across the country following a newly restored theatrical rerelease.
Word of mouth on short-form video platforms is largely credited with the revival, as clips of the film's most visually distinctive sequences circulated widely among viewers who had never heard of it before this year.
The director, now in her seventies, said she never expected to see the film find an audience in her lifetime. "We made something we believed in and it just didn't land with the audience of its moment," she said. "Apparently it landed with a different one."
Distributors are reportedly fast-tracking a companion documentary about the film's troubled production, hoping to capitalize on the renewed interest before it fades.