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The Enjoyment of Bad Movies
Written October 2005
I didn't always enjoy bad movies. The first movie I can remember having a good time laughing at was Spacecamp. But for the most part I believed that good movies were to be watched and bad movies were to be avoided. Now I still believe that good movies are meant to be watched-it's just that most movies nowadays aren't really all that good. I still think that bad-bad movies [see below] should be avoided, but I have come to think that good-bad movies are a lot more dependable in terms of moviewatching satisfaction than most "good" movies. It took me a while to get into the sensibility of enjoying good-bad movies. But first, a distinction:
Separating "Bad-Bad" from "Good-Bad"
Bad-bad movies are the ones that are going to suck in terms of quality, and also aren't going to offer much in the way of inadvertent entertainment because of how bad they are. The big, slick, hyper-focus-tested corporate package entertainments such as Van Helsing or Men in Black II or Monster-in-Law OFTEN turn out to be bad-bad. They just sit there and suck valuable time out of your life without giving you anything in return. Good-bad movies, on the other hand, are often washes in terms of quality, but have some factor that gives you enjoyment in spite of that. That factor could be anything, and many of them are detailed in the sections below; lack of acting ability, a wrong-headed or ludicrous overall concept, poor dialogue, lack of budget. the list goes on and on.
Now, a few modes of appreciation:
Ludicrous costumes/sets
'Nuff said, I just thought we should get this out of the way first.
How could anyone have thought this was a good idea?
One method of bad movie enjoyment is that hand-over-open-mouth appalled feeling of seeing a movie whose basic concept is just so appallingly stupid or in such poor taste that you can't believe it went forward at all. A classic example of this would be Gymkata, which posits that if one were to meld karate and gymnastics, one could create an unstoppable fighting machine who could infiltrate nonexistent Middle Eastern countries and kick multiple ninja asses. It's almost impossible to imagine how anyone at any time thought this might be a viable idea for a movie, and the earnestness with which they carry it all out is what makes it irresistibly charming.
Do they have any idea how stupid this is?
A close relation to "How could anyone have thought this was a good idea?" this one implies that the movie may have started okay, but WENT wrong, as opposed to the other, where the focus is on how stupid the overall idea was in the first place. A good example of this would be The Butterfly Effect, in which Ashton Kutcher goes back in time over and over in hopes of rearranging the future, making things ever worse in the process. It all gives off the distinct whiff of the filmmaker's having absolutely no conception that the movie that they think is so deadly serious is actually a total lark that only a stoned teenager could take seriously-and it's that very disconnect that makes it so appealing.
One of the surest recipes for a bad movie in a ludicrous overall concept. The enjoyment for this can be multiplied exponentially depending on the degree to which the filmmaker's try to avoid dealing with how moronic the concept it, and proceed seriously. A classic example of this is Damien: Omen II, in which the seriousness in which the poor actors soldier on creates a lot of humor when contrasted with the sheer stupidity of the basic concept. This is also what makes the majority of killer animal movies, like Orca, and ESPECIALLY genetically-altered killer animal movies, like Frogs, such dependable gems.
Trying to make do with no budget
A source of great bad-movie pleasure is when you can tell that the props or special effects were obviously created for less than it costs to biggie size an extra value meal, and extra enjoyment can be gotten out of watching the actors or the film simply try to pretend that no one notices. A great example of this is in Exorcist II: The Heretic, when we're supposed to simply not notice that the swarm of locusts is really obviously just a bunch of Styrofoam packing peanuts, or I Eat Your Skin, in which we're supposed to be scared of zombies that obviously have a bunch of dried oatmeal on their face. Sadly, CGI has mostly killed off this form of bad movie enjoyment, as now, rather than having to resort to practical effects-and the wide margin for error that comes with-even the lowest-budget movie can afford some shitty CGI that, even when terribly bad, still just looks like shitty CGI.
Actors doing really stupid things
Bad movies routinely call upon actors to perform really, really stupid things, which can sometimes be so stupid that they shatter the fourth wall, you are taken completely out of the story, and suddenly what you're seeing is an actor rolling around on a floor pretending his completely inert mashed potatoes are attacking or something. A good example of this would be the movie Frogs, in which all of the creepy-crawlies surrounding a Southern mansion become violent attackers after ingesting poison, and venture forth to kill, Kill, KILL! The problem is, frogs and spiders and lizards rarely attack-in fact, they often barely move at all-which creates scenes such as the one where a poor guy has to attack as though he is being attacked by tree moss while someone offscreen chucks spiders at him.
The dialogue
This one doesn't really need much explanation-the dialogue in bad movies is often so terrible, so absolutely ludicrous, that it can become a source of unintentional hilarity. There are just too many examples in this area to possibly list, but for starts you could include the whole of Mommie Dearest and the Streisand A Star is Born, or Showgirls, Barbarella, or Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. oh my God, there's just too many to list.
Clichés/techniques from better movies
One of the more ways of enjoying bad or cheesy movies is as compilations of clichés and film techniques that have become so engrained in the film vocabulary that even the worst movies try to imitate them. This can actually be very instructive when watching better films, as during a better film one is usually drawn into the story and can stop paying attention to technique. During a bad movie one is not involved with the story, so the technique is that much more apparent-and you can use what you've learned when watching a better movie.
Seeing something so bizarre it makes the film worth it
Often bad or off-center films contain a sequence of something that is just so strange or unusual that you're kind of grateful for seeing the entire movie. For example, Slave of the Cannibal God features a wonderful [and moving!] piece of nature footage as a monkey reacts to suddenly not being able to move his head, and calmly tries to figure out why [because it's trapped in a snake's jaws]. Or the priceless Player's Ball sequence from The Mack, or the 1976 gay western barbeque in Black Shampoo. Because for God's sake, where else are you going to see footage of a 1976 gay western barbeque?
