Best so-bad-its-good films

briany · 24-08-2023 2:05pm #1

It strikes me that the best films of this kind are not actually bad, but it's just that they're good in a way that the creators weren't originally aiming for. As a film critic once said, they seem like they were made by someone who knew how to make a film, but then received a sharp blow to the head, or by aliens who'd seen films from Earth and decided to try and make their own.

Fatal Deviation, The Room and Troll 2 (probably the three best known around here) all fall into this category. They all have this stilted kind of otherworldly feel like they came from an alternate dimension. I'd like to get some recommendations going on this topic, but I think the most important criteria is that the creators were not making it with a nod and a wink, but that all the usual elements that go into a film were so skewed due to lack of money, experience or common sense, that they come together to create unintentional comedy or to at least make the film entertaining in a way that was completely unintended.

Lower budget, the better. I especially like the aesthetic of those really shítty 80s and 90s films which look like they were shot on a camcorder.

Str8outtaWuhan · 24-08-2023 2:09pm

Battlefield earth

Oscar_Madison · 24-08-2023 2:17pm

Street Trash

z80CPU · 24-08-2023 2:32pm

Beavis and Butthead do America

Bogwoppit · 24-08-2023 2:41pm

Atomic train

goose06 · 24-08-2023 2:43pm

ConAir

o1s1n · 24-08-2023 3:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021621#Comment_121021621

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021660#Comment_121021660

You knew you grew up in the 90s when you genuinely believe the two above films aren't 'so bad they're good' - they're just genuinely really good 😁

I can say the same about all Nick Cage movies, Face-Off, The Rock, genuinely watching them as great, serious movies when they came out.

Still love them to this day but definitely watch them with a different set of eyes.

Could say the same for some more 90s greats like Under Siege, Broken Arrow and Hard Target.

Kaybaykwah · 24-08-2023 3:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021530#Comment_121021530

I had the immense displeasure of working on that fillum. It still haunts me

to this day.

sprucemoose · 24-08-2023 3:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021767#Comment_121021767

........xenu?

Str8outtaWuhan · 24-08-2023 3:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021767#Comment_121021767

You can't just leave it like that, spill your guts human animal!!!

Str8outtaWuhan · 24-08-2023 3:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021660#Comment_121021660

Leave now, Con Air is a brilliant movie.

briany · 24-08-2023 3:38pm

Yeah, none of the films recommended so far are actually in the criteria. They're either decent films that a particular person regards as naff, or just forgettable. They all feature professional actors, so are unlikely to have that weird stilted quality that real so-bad-its-good films have, or that unintentional oddness.

I'll give a further example of what I think fits - Tales from the Quadead Zone, a blaxploitation horror anthology film set around a mother reading stories to her dead son, 'Ghost Bobby'.

Anyone have any proper, shítty-looking, shíttily-edited/scored/acted/directed/promoted films to put out there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7EoVEBMl-Q

brokenbad · 24-08-2023 4:26pm

Blackbird - Michael Flatley's vanity project. Laughingly so bad it has to be seen to be believed.

jh79 · 24-08-2023 4:27pm

http://bleedingskull.com/bleeding-skull-50-the-best-shot-on-video-films/

Not a fan of SOV horror personally but this seems to be a good summary of the most infamous ones.

furiousox · 24-08-2023 4:29pm

Brain Damage (1988)

CalamariFritti · 24-08-2023 5:03pm

Snakes on a Plane

Sleepy · 24-08-2023 5:22pm

Blood Surf

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0226919/

buried · 24-08-2023 5:38pm

Fight Of Fury (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-jN98YqNIs

z80CPU · 24-08-2023 5:48pm

Ace Ventura Pet Detective

z80CPU · 24-08-2023 5:49pm

RiverDance the movie

Dancing Irish Elks.

Kaybaykwah · 24-08-2023 10:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021794#Comment_121021794

I was working on the film sets. We had one colo(u)r throughout. It was a metallic blue that was more or less a glorified truck machinery paint we used on everything for the alien ships, pods, whatnot. No other colour for 5 months preproduction apart from the breakdown effects to give it a nice, used, alien look. Lol

When the movie came out the critics really torenit apart with good reason, but also because of its relation to the Church of Scientology. I can remember John Travolta in his Alien getup with the tall boots looking like a shabby version of the band KISS guy.

I actually had a lot of fun working on it, it was nice warm sunny summer spent on a lot of outdoor sets.

~Rebel~ · 24-08-2023 11:48pm

Birdemic is glorious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5dJDgZ644

Fun fact - I was at a screening of this with the director present where he shot a scene for Birdemic 2 using the audience. Everyone had to swing their arms around wildly, fighting off imaginary birds, before collapsing dead in our seats.

Carroller · 25-08-2023 12:05am

Mars attacks!

Evolution

nuttyboy79 · 25-08-2023 12:50am

https://youtu.be/AFuAnL5Ra0M?feature=shared

Black Sheep

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 6:55am

An American Hippie In Israel (1972). Crazy title, crazy film.

https://youtu.be/5auUkEFpsL0?si=EmS1460pYxl16SLA

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 6:57am

Some of the recent-ish films listed here like Birdemic and Black Sheep are deliberately bad, in a trying too hard for cult status kind of way.

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 7:15am

This is more like it. G.B.H. (1983). Zero budget, shot on video Mancunian gangster hardman punch em up. Bad acting, silly dialogue and porn movie style soundtrack.

https://youtu.be/hc5M0iwwZ6E?si=DtdROoGtX0eD413e

Kingp35 · 25-08-2023 8:58am

A lot of 1950's/1960's sci-fi would fall into this criteria. I absolutely love Robot Monster - a guy in a gorilla suit with a fish bowl on his head "terrorises" a family. It's awful but I enjoy it.

fatal Deviation is genuinely one of my favourite films, it cracks me up every time I watch it.

JohnFalstaff · 25-08-2023 9:09am

Plan 9 From Outer Space

robbie67 · 25-08-2023 9:11am

Plan 9 from outer space its dreadful but great craic

Bogwoppit · 25-08-2023 9:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121021859#Comment_121021859

You haven’t actually seen Atomic train then.

briany · 25-08-2023 9:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024211#Comment_121024211

I haven't, no, but if it's the miniseries thing starring Rob Lowe, I can see enough of it to know that it may have a daft plot, but everything about it looks to be OK in execution.

As I said before, (imo) so-bad-they're-good films have a quality of pervasive oddness that comes from a mix of incompetence, lack of experience, odd artistic choices, low budget, pure (bad) luck and so on, that come together to make the film entertaining in a way different than was originally intended. That's why Troll 2 is considered such a jewel of the genre, because everything about that film is a bit off, but not intentionally so. Same thing with The Room. Same thing with Fatal Deviation. There isn't a scene in Fatal Deviation that isn't accidentally brilliant. Even the credits are funny - 'Mikey Graham from the *rock group* Boyzone" .

But maybe this is why there are only a few that get talked about, because they're incredibly rare due to the astronomical odds needed to make one happen, and we know about all the 'best' ones already.

TagoMago · 25-08-2023 9:57am

Taffin is absolute gold, I could watch Pierce Brosnan's iconic "MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T BE LIVING HEEEEERRRRREEEE" line on loop all day

briany · 25-08-2023 10:07am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024372#Comment_121024372

That line is definitely more like what I have in mind. It's such a ridiculous moment. If the rest of the film is as mad as that moment, it would be a candidate, for sure.

Say Your Number · 25-08-2023 10:11am

On Deadly Ground is unintentionally hilarious.

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 10:26am

I Drink Your Blood (1971). Saw this on vhs video way back. Its got everything you want from 70s American grindhouse cinema. Post Manson moral panic about hippies, meat cleaver wielding foaming at the mouth psychos, Satanic mumbo jumbo, bad acting and hilarious special effects.

https://youtu.be/2utB1RDV4gc?si=XotqaNy5uG8bONOM

loyatemu · 25-08-2023 10:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024196#Comment_121024196

Wood's earlier movie "Glenn or Glenda" is more watchable IMO. Plan 9 is very boring in places.

I don't know if it's too well known and successful to count, but I watched "Highlander" with my son the other night and laughed my ass off the whole way through - it has not stood the test of time at all and is relentlessly stupid despite taking itself fairly seriously.

You have Lambert playing a medieval Scot with a thick French accent; actual Scot Sean Connery playing a Spaniard, a villain who is so over the top he's practically going "mwahahaha" in every scene, terrible dialogue, a plot that makes no sense, and so on. The special effects are like something from 15 years earlier as well.

In the scene where McCloud's wife is supposed to be dying of old age, literally all they've done to age her is put some flour in her hair. Later the female love interest goes into an underground car park to search for sword fragments with a metal detector, embedded in a reinforced concrete pillar, in a room full of twisted metal. Everything about it is stupid.

Jackiebt · 25-08-2023 10:35am

Maniac Cop...All 4 films

The Nal · 25-08-2023 10:39am

Rawhead Rex

Heres the whole movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzUZJEh8-KQ&ab_channel=VHSRips

silverharp · 25-08-2023 11:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024560#Comment_121024560

A bit unfair to Highlander, it was a cool AF 80's movie at the time with a great soundtrack

loyatemu · 25-08-2023 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024791#Comment_121024791

as I said, it hasn't stood the test of time. But it's just, like, my opinion, man.

Homelander · 25-08-2023 11:20am

The Room, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Miami Connection and Troll 2 would be my top recommendations.

All films made somewhat earnestly but so hilariously and entertainingly awful.

Some of Steven Seagal's movies in recent years also fit into this category. Awful scripts, hilariously obvious stunt doubles, dismal action scenes, women swooning over this bloated zepplin in his giant trenchcoat, etc.

There's a ton of movies that get mentioned a lot but were that way by deliberate design, like Dude Bro Party Massacre, For your Height Only, Sharknado, Zombeavers, Leprechaun in Space, etc.

edgecutter · 25-08-2023 11:21am

Fatal Deviation

Isthisthingon? · 25-08-2023 11:29am

Cosmic Sin , a movie 'starring' ( an extended cameo for I'd imagine 95% of the films budget) none other than Bruce Willis.

Undoubtedly the worst film I've ever seen in my life.

2smiggy · 25-08-2023 11:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024911#Comment_121024911

Poor Bruce was 'starring' in anything that was offered to him before his retirement.

Never heard of Cosmic Sin, but it's rare to get a 2.5 score on IMDB, it must be horrific

StevenToast · 25-08-2023 11:38am

Samurai Cop..

https://youtu.be/y0IBhUoPlfM?si=cmZvN30h2TXthP7w

This is acting of the highest calibre.

o1s1n · 25-08-2023 1:04pm

How about Kung Fury? Okay so it's playing with the notion of 'so-bad-its-good' rather than actually being a genuinely serious film, but I think they nailed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_DIwuGBnA&ab_channel=KiberpankaNet

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 1:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121025479#Comment_121025479

Trying too hard.

johnny_ultimate · 25-08-2023 1:10pm

There are not many, because most uniquely 'bad' films are immensely boring for much of their run time. I've watched The Room with a crowd, and while it's good fun, there are vast stretches of its running time where it's immensely boring and turgid. Ditto others like Manos: The Hands of Fate or Plan 9 - yes, there are moments of morbid fascination and laugh out loud silliness to enjoy, but the films themselves are often an annoying slog.

On a slightly different take on the question, Carnival of Souls is clearly an amateurish production. The acting is dodgy, the production values low, and the whole film has an oddness to it which doesn't always seem intentional. But I do think there is some genuinely clever directorial intent to this one, as opposed to films that are compelling just because they're so incompetent. There is some genuinely haunting images and ideas in it, even if the execution is obviously very limited. But even the limitations ultimately help make it a film that rises above its individual elements.

https://youtu.be/YQfOJ4ZKP3Y?si=PIHFI7cP-PbZMprv

Hangdogroad · 25-08-2023 1:29pm

What was that Rambo knockoff where a guy is beaten to death with his own severed arm?

Found it. Deadly Prey. Maybe its a bit too polished for so bad but good movie but that arm scene, which isn't shown fully here is one of the most demented things I've seen in an action movie and it doesn't seem to be have been tongue in cheek. One of the supporting actors, Cameron Mitchell, was once a pretty big star but by the 70s and 80s he'd been reduced to B movie film. He was in one of the absolute worst movies I've ever seen, a 1981 South African slasher called the Demon. Its not even bad in a good way, just unwatchable garbage.

https://youtu.be/vrQbBULQT3s?si=lj_le6LMS3bj0Nmh

foxsake · 25-08-2023 1:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024873#Comment_121024873

no list is legit without fatal deviation.

Best so-bad-its-good films

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