Those Movies, the Horrifically Bad Ones (2 Viewers)

[Winston T. Boogie]

For several years some friends and I used to do movie nights in the summer up in Lake George. One of the things we'd do on occasion was a Festival of Flops.With this though we didn't pick films that were just stuff that was made by a guy like Ed Wood, the preference was always to pick films where they had a bunch of money and talent involved and they still turned out a total stinker. Elaine May's Ishtar.

I mean if a guy does not know what he is doing and had a minimal budget he has a pretty high percentage of turning out a bad film. What is far more offensive is when you have a guy that is known to be a talented filmmaker, he's got a decent cast, and plenty of money to make his film but then he turns out a total turd...like Ridley Scott's Prometheus.

Or William Friedkin's The Guardian.

It's much more horrible, I think, when good filmmakers go bad. It also makes these films much more interesting to ponder, like how could they have possibly made this?

 

[Emcee]

We have to recognize there are two distinct categories of BAD movies. Those that are so bad they are a hoot to watch (especially with a group and drunk) and those that make you wish you could just get your time back.
Plan 9 from Outer Space survives and thrives because it is in the former category some of the others listed are just bad - you will be forever sorry you wasted your life on them.

Yes─there is a distinction in the definition of bad when concerning filmdom. In one instance, it might refer to those cheesy, camp-inflicted movies that were perhaps intended as groundbreaking or even straightforward, but yet come across as funny or melodramatic. These movies generally fall into the so-bad-their-good category, meaning they can be enjoyed as being horrifically bad, even if that wasn't the behind-the-scenes intention.

There's also bad movies that are──quite honestly──just bad. These movies are beyond the normal campy bad, but are almost impossible to sit-through. Your time feels wasted, and you can't even say you enjoyed it on as a guilty pleasure, or on the DL. Stay away from these.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Fun-bad movie overkill! (click on titles for trailers, and gird your brain):

Maniac
Reefer Madness
Glen or Glenda
Cat Women of the Moon
Robot Monster
Bride of the Monster
Devil Girl from Mars
Women's Prison
Attack of the Crab Monsters
Bop Girl Goes Calypso
From Hell It Came
The Giant Claw
She Demons
The Unearthly
Attack of the 50 Ft Woman
Attack of the Puppet People
The Brain from Planet Arous
Frankenstein's Daughter
High School Confidential
High School Hellcats
Queen of Outer Space
Astounding She Monster
The Alligator People
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Giant Gila Monster
Girls Town
The Killer Shrews
Plan Nine from Outer Space
Santa Claus
-30-
30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
College Confidential
Horrors of Spider Island
The Lost World
Confessions of an Opium Eater
Konga
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Brainiac
Eegah
The Manster
Reptilicus
Zotz
Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Monsters
Madmen of Mandoras (aka They Saved Hitler's Brain)
The Slime People
13 Frightened Girls
The Horror of Party Beach
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
Village of the Giants
The Wild Wild Planet
Murderer's Row
Argoman
Casino Royale
Gappa, the Triphibian Monster
Hot Rods to Hell
Lightning Bolt
The Love-Ins
The Million Eyes of Sumuru
Mission Stardust
Operation Kid Brother
Prehistoric Women
The X from Outer Space
Barbarella
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
The Green Slime
King Kong Escapes
The Lost Continent
Gamera vs Guiron
Godzilla's Revenge
Latitude Zero
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Trog
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant
Night of the Lepus
The Thing With Two Heads
The Doll Squad
The Klansman
The Last Days of Planet Earth
The Giant Spider Invasion
Infra-Man
Master of the Flying Guillotine
At the Earth's Core
The Mighty Peking Man
The Battle Wizard
The Last Dinosaur
Yeti, Giant of the 20th Century
The Swarm
Skatetown U.S.A.
Starcrash
For Yu'r Height Only
Heavenly Bodies
Miami Connection
Hard Ticket to Hawaii
Penitentiary III
Lady Terminator
Frankenhooker
Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky
Battlefield Earth

 

[timk1041]

Fun-bad movie overkill! (click on titles for trailers, and gird your brain):

Maniac
Reefer Madness
Glen or Glenda
Cat Women of the Moon
Robot Monster
Bride of the Monster
Devil Girl from Mars
Women's Prison
Attack of the Crab Monsters
Bop Girl Goes Calypso
From Hell It Came
The Giant Claw
She Demons
The Unearthly
Attack of the 50 Ft Woman
Attack of the Puppet People
The Brain from Planet Arous
Frankenstein's Daughter
High School Confidential
High School Hellcats
Queen of Outer Space
Astounding She Monster
The Alligator People
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Giant Gila Monster
Girls Town
The Killer Shrews
Plan Nine from Outer Space
Santa Claus
-30-
30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
College Confidential
Horrors of Spider Island
The Lost World
Confessions of an Opium Eater
Konga
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Brainiac
Eegah
The Manster
Reptilicus
Zotz
Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Monsters
Madmen of Mandoras (aka They Saved Hitler's Brain)
The Slime People
13 Frightened Girls
The Horror of Party Beach
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
Village of the Giants
The Wild Wild Planet
Murderer's Row
Argoman
Casino Royale
Gappa, the Triphibian Monster
Hot Rods to Hell
Lightning Bolt
The Love-Ins
The Million Eyes of Sumuru
Mission Stardust
Operation Kid Brother
Prehistoric Women
The X from Outer Space
Barbarella
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
The Green Slime
King Kong Escapes
The Lost Continent
Gamera vs Guiron
Godzilla's Revenge
Latitude Zero
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Trog
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant
Night of the Lepus
The Thing With Two Heads
The Doll Squad
The Klansman
The Last Days of Planet Earth
The Giant Spider Invasion
Infra-Man
Master of the Flying Guillotine
At the Earth's Core
The Mighty Peking Man
The Battle Wizard
The Last Dinosaur
Yeti, Giant of the 20th Century
The Swarm
Skatetown U.S.A.
Starcrash
For Yu'r Height Only
Heavenly Bodies
Miami Connection
Hard Ticket to Hawaii
Penitentiary III
Lady Terminator
Frankenhooker
Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky
Battlefield Earth

A lot of bad ones on that list, although a few of them aren't too bad. Some are worse than others. You can throw in a few other AIP quickies such as Sorority Girl, Motorcycle Gang and Daddy-O.

 

[OLDTIMER]

You wouldn't expect an MGM musical from the 1950s to be bad, but I just found a quote from Esther Williams about "Jupiter's Darling" (which I mentioned earlier). Esther said, "If this had been my first picture there wouldn't have been a second!"