Why are Bad movies so good?

[Doc Daneeka]

Watching a old 80s horror flick? is it boring the hell at you but your eyeing that hot blond?

I am still not watching Return to Horror High again (until I have tech to get screengrabs, when I will be tempted)

Here's another reason, DVD features! Especially commentary, nice to see what those people think of such films they made now that they're older

[Poogie]

The titles alone are entertaining....  

[James Bailey]

Hey

Thanks for your replies people, real help.  Basically I'm doing a paper for my final year at University all the way over here in the UK and wanted to get a bigger picture of the fan and why they love their really bad (but absolutley amazing) movies.

I gotta admit I don't know half the movies you do but I do love Evil Dead and any of the Halloween sequels and more.

And also if you got time or you can be bothered I got some questions...
In being a fan of B-movies do you like the sense of community sites like this give you?
what does it mean to be a TRUE fan of this movies?
Do you like the fact that it's unusual and all the fuss is made over the big blockbusters and you can go home, whack on a film and love it cos of what it is?

Thanks for your repleis and help.  take it easy...

[Oldskool138]

Hey

Thanks for your replies people, real help.  Basically I'm doing a paper for my final year at University all the way over here in the UK and wanted to get a bigger picture of the fan and why they love their really bad (but absolutley amazing) movies.

I gotta admit I don't know half the movies you do but I do love Evil Dead and any of the Halloween sequels and more.

And also if you got time or you can be bothered I got some questions...
In being a fan of B-movies do you like the sense of community sites like this give you?
what does it mean to be a TRUE fan of this movies?
Do you like the fact that it's unusual and all the fuss is made over the big blockbusters and you can go home, whack on a film and love it cos of what it is?

Thanks for your repleis and help.  take it easy...

I always find myself quoting lines from B-movies when I'm with friends.  It becomes sort of a fun in-joke.  When we get together and watch crap movies and see grade Z "special effects" we always yell out "Chair-on-a-rope!".  When we were all a lot younger, we watched a bad movie called "Cthulhu Mansion" and, in said movie, pieces of furniture flew around the room but were clearly attached to strings.  So, I like the sense of community I get from watching B-Movies with friends or people who are brave enough to join us. 

I also find that I catch a lot of in-jokes and homages in A grade horror movies.  Your fellow countrymen did a wonderful job with "Shaun of the Dead" and "The Decent".  "House of 1,000 Corpses", "Slither" and "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera" accomplished the same thing to great effect.  I'm a big fan of the old punk rock band the Misfits who's songs are all about B-movies.  I love White Zombie for the same reason.  You gain a new love for the music when you know the inspiration for the songs.

I love to watch the big blockbusters, too.  Occasionally, I like to watch Michael Bay make things go "BOOM!" or watch the latest Spielberg opus.  I also like the greats like Kubrick and Hitchcock.  However, I love B-movies because some inexperienced or washed-up director has this great idea for a movie but fails due to ineptitude or budget, like Ed Wood, Roger Corman, or Rick Sloane.  It's enteraining to see someone try something and fail.  It's as simple as that.

Good luck on your paper and I hope I've been of some help.

[raj]

And also if you got time or you can be bothered I got some questions...
In being a fan of B-movies do you like the sense of community sites like this give you?
what does it mean to be a TRUE fan of this movies?
Do you like the fact that it's unusual and all the fuss is made over the big blockbusters and you can go home, whack on a film and love it cos of what it is?

Thanks for your repleis and help.  take it easy...

Sense of community -- yes, but I think an awful lot of the credit must go to Andrew, for creating the site and giving us a "living room" where we can get together to discuss, laugh and argue.

True fan?  I don't know what a "true fan" is, all you need to do is like certain kinds of movies.  I'm not big on horror movies, sci-fi ones are more my genre, but that doesn't make me less of a B-movie fan.

Blockbusters -- yes.  Big studio films may have better actors & special effects, but those movies are not "better" -- lots of times they're worse.

[Jack]

I have to agree with Rich, the best thing about B movies is the boobs.  There's always one or two hot babes running around in ridiculously sexy outfits and they'll probably lose the sexy outfit somewhere along the line. 

Other than that, they're just entertaining.  Watching stock footage not-so-seamlessly integrated into a picture, seeing goofy CGI explosions, watching unknown actors seriously trying their best when everything around them is completely laughable...that's entertainment.  What I don't like about big budget Hollywood movies is, well, the list is long.  The characters are quite often unlikable, the humor is incredibly lame, the subject matter isn't interesting, the big name actors take me out of the movie and make me think "Hey, isn't that Maverick running from those Aliens?  She's lost, that looooving feeling".  And the acting in big budget stuff is quite often lousy in comparison to low budget stuff - I'll take Lexa Doig in Jason X any day over Angelina Jolie in those Tomb Raider movies.  They're also quite often sanctimonious and politically correct as well, they just throw that crap in for no reason other than that they're from Hollywood and that's just the way they are.  Nothing I love more than watching an actor with a $1,000 a day cocaine addiction and a ninth grade education lecturing me on how the world should be run. 

I guess I feel somewhat of a sense of community watching B movies.  Mainly because when you listen to the commentary tracks on some of those films, the people involved are just like me - they don't take themselves too seriously and, oh, look at the hooters!  I feel much more connected to those folks than some Hollywood people talking about how their annoying pile of crap is the greatest thing since Gone With The Wind.

[James Bailey]

Hi

thanks for all the comments, They are really haklpeing me out.  Please keep them coming because I need all the info I can get on really bad movies!

Check out the questions I posted and add any comments you want.

Thanks again ...

[BTB]

I used Evil dead 2 in University to demonstrate Slapstick and the professor in the class talked  about the concept of the nonorganic body developed by Jill Deleuze and Felix Guattari put in context with the hand trying to kill its body. ( To be honest my professor is not only a lover of bad movies but a bad movie himself).

Bad Movies are sometimes avant-garde because they dare to break taboos or find new creative ways to express with less money what a so-called good film could never do with the tenfold amount of money.

A bad film cannot dictate over you like a so-called good one could.  And you can judge it by yourself and not by the general consent how this movie is to be judged.

[raj]

Almost forgot, the combination of deep frying and creamy center make them delicious.

[peter johnson]

Good Lord . . .
You are in a British University, in YOUR FINAL YEAR, and you spell like that?  "hakelping" for "helping', etc.? 
Please, would you take the time to be articulate, if you are indeed collecting data for your research, as you claim?
* * *
I am not only a B-movie fan, but have acted in numerous B-movies.
I was a fan of the genre long before I even knew this site existed, and that others shared my depraved tastes.
See me here on this website as Gimp, The Satan's Onion, in the ROBO-C.H.I.C. review:  Click on my name, and I pop up, holding a shotgun.
* * *
I like B films because of their unique vision.  Many of these films would never, ever, be considered for production by a mainstream studio.  The low budgets of these films sometime produce effects and performances that are not only startling, riotously funny, and bad, but genuinely interesting as well.
     Peter F. Johnson/My mother came from Hamble Village, near Southampton, and would never let me get away with such twaddle . . . Esq.

[James Bailey]

Alright how's it going?

All your comments have really been hakelping me out so thanks very much.  I've almost finihed the paper but I need one more thing if you could help me out...

If you could some up the perfect Bad Movie in 3 words what would they be?

thanks a lot.

James

[raj]

If you could some up the perfect Bad Movie in 3 words what would they be?
thanks a lot.
James

Lots of boobs.
or
Boobs, zombies, spaceships.

(Three words ain't much to run with)

[BeyondTheGrave]

The 3 B's make a B-movie: Boobs, Blood and Brutality.

[RCMerchant]

If the plot even hints  at slowing down you need
!.A rampaging monster,if it's a giant monster or cannibalistic one...even better.A giant cannibalistic one is better yet!
2.A nekkid girl(or more)! If sh'es firing a machine gun or weilding a chainsaw...YEAH!!!
3. Blood and Gore! Decapitions,gut pulling,vein spurting out of neckholes,brain eating,eye gouging,heads exploding,power tools,...yeah!!!

[fortunato]

There seem to be two questions here that need to be answered, so I'll give my take.

Bad Taste, Braindead, both of the first two Evil Dead movies and several other "bad" movies, as you say, are unique in that people sincerely enjoy them. I think this is the case because they are merely Low-Budget affairs, which is different from straight-up bad films. Low budget films like Memento, Brick, Reservoir Dogs, and Clerks don't qualify as "bad" movies for the same reason:  They all show talent and promise that is severely lacking in truly bad movies.

Secondly, I personally enjoy bad films because I think that it's easier to recognize good films when I have a firm grasp on badly made films. For example, my sister and cousin enjoyed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I didn't because 1) I had read the miniseries and 2) because I could recognize a terrible waste of the talent involved in the film.