I'm glad I found this forum with like-minded bad movie fans. I'm curious how people got into them.
I'm UK based and really got started in the VHS 80's with the mass of mostly Italian cash-ins of Star Wars, Mad Max, Escape from New York. I think the first bad movie I saw at the cinema was 'End of the World' starring Christopher Lee. Certainly watched 'The Humanoid' and 'Supersonic Man' on the big screen. Home video became big and the video rental stores were full of 'Bronx Warriors', '2019 - After the Fall of New York', 'Starcrash' (not sure whether that got a UK cinema release), 'War of the Robots', 'Planet of Dinosaurs' and loads more. It was the video covers for the Italian films that really sold them.
The Italian war films can be included with 'Commando Leopard', 'Strike Commando', 'Tornado Strike Force' and the list goes on. I guess it comes from appreciating films that are trying for style.
First time I remember being introduced to "bad movies" as a thing was when PBS featured "Plan 9 from Outer Space" one New Years Eve when I was a teenager (too young to drink), advertising it as "the worst movie ever made." Lots of influences besides that, but that was the very first time I became aware of the concept. By my early 20s I was hooked on them.
Used to watch old horror films on a Friday and Saturday night on BBC or ITV growing up, which I think cememted a love of bad movies started by being taken to see films like The Humanoid in the cinema. Most weekends we'd travel from Glasgow to visit my gran and we'd rent three movies (normally a kids film, a comedy and a horror), so I got to watch a lot of good and bad movies. Indeed I pretty much had free reign on anything I wanted to watch up until the whole video nasty nonscense started up at which point I wasn't allowed to watch Evil Dead (although I was allowed to was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, go figure). I think Dr Who also had a big influence.
Growing up in Germany, there were only three TV channels back in the day. They got their American movies mostly from major film studios. I don't recall any of the channels broadcasting awfully bad movies.
Years later they would show selected bad movies on an art TV channel, like Plan 9 From Outer Space, in English with German subtitles. That's how Germany treated bad movies, as art!
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It was during VHS rental times that I was properly "introduced" to bad movies. One of the first was Don Dohler's Fiend (1980). We were actually offended at how awful it was. Fiend was an eyesore and had zero redeeming qualities, just a chore to sit through.
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2TkofUk3ddXNBkMnA0lVWw8IMGPxgWiTUBA&s)
Jim Kelly's Black Samurai (1977) was the first rental we made fun of, and had tears from laughing. Black Samurai became a bad movie night staple, joined by Red Sonja (1985) and No Retreat, No Surrender (1985).
(https://www.screenslate.com/sites/default/files/images/Night-To-Dismember-Original.jpg)
Then came Doris Wishman's A Night to Dismember (1989). That's when I truly appreciated bad movies. Still do to this day.
The first bad movie I ever saw was Charles Jarrott's LOST HORIZON (1973): I was 6 and I hated it.
I saw it on YouTube about six years ago and it was like polishing a piece of poo: no matter how much you polish it and no matter how much it shines, it's still a piece of poo 😳😆😆
Walking down memory lane now. A few of the really bad movies we watched
Evil Town 1985 - this was a hot mess, had two different movies spliced together or something. John Carradine is in it.
Vultures 1984 - My first Paul Leder experience. Great cast, awful film. How did this ever get funding?
The Sea Serpent 1985 - this might be unintentionally hilarious now.
Ghost Riders 1987 - boring AF
Satan's Princess 1989 - boring, had Robert Forster in it. Didn't make it any better.
Skullduggery 1983 - unappealing home made z-movie.
Torment 1986 - misleading crap.
Backwoods 1988 - should've been better. Had all the right ingredients, went downhill fast.
Terror on Tour 1980 - might be unintentionally hilarious now.
Teen Vamp 1989 - silly crap.
Appointment with Fear 1985 - cheap and weird, lousy production values. Why was Moustapha Akkad's name attached to this?
A Day of Judgment 1981 - misleading, weird and boring.
Igor and the Lunatics 1985 and Redneck Zombies 1987 - unwatchable Troma trash.
Midnight 1988 - silly crap.
Goodnight, God Bless 1987 - crap.
The Ripper 1985 - Fangoria did a big article, because it was one of the first shot-on-video and released direct-to-video "feature films". Crap, even though Tom Savini was in it as an actor. The shot-on-video footage didn't do the movie any favors.
Quote from: Alex on October 20, 2024, 09:11:37 AMUsed to watch old horror films on a Friday and Saturday night on BBC or ITV growing up, which I think cememted a love of bad movies started by being taken to see films like The Humanoid in the cinema. Most weekends we'd travel from Glasgow to visit my gran and we'd rent three movies (normally a kids film, a comedy and a horror), so I got to watch a lot of good and bad movies. Indeed I pretty much had free reign on anything I wanted to watch up until the whole video nasty nonscense started up at which point I wasn't allowed to watch Evil Dead (although I was allowed to was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, go figure). I think Dr Who also had a big influence.
I mention the Video Nasties moral panic in my book and I'm not surprised that almost none of them were screened in South Africa 😳
not entirely sure how I got into bad movies, but I know I like them - if it's the certain type of 'bad' I enjoy, that is... one man's bad is another man's poison.
I think possibly THE WRAITH, COBRA, and POLICE ACADEMY 5 might've been my unknowing initiation as a kid... and then DAY OF THE ANIMALS sealing the deal when I was a bit older and able to properly deal with the notion of something being 'so bad it's good'
I grew up watching classic horror movies on Sunday afternoon's FAMILY THEATER.
As they ran through all the staples (DRACULA, THE WOLF MAN, THE MUMMY and the like), they got into the knockoffs and B-movies, like ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
Then, in high school, I watched THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER - and, a couple of years later, I saw THE LOST EMPIRE.
At that point I was a B-movie fan for life!
I was reading about bad movies in books from a very early age, and bombarded w/ 'em via matinees on WPIX and WWOR out of NYC (iirc) and via Commander USA's Groovy Movies on USA, among other sources. Still my frame of reference was uncertain - I remained skeptical about critical consensus then as I do now.
The first movie I can remember thinking was inexcusable and unwatchable was one that I believe only I have mentioned on this site, and I don't recall ever reading condemnation of it (or actually anything about it) anywhere else, either. It was SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND (1982), starring Jerry Lewis, and even Lewis apostles never seem to speak of it. I'm confident that if I somehow saw it today, I'd still rank it near the bottom of my critical barrel....... w/ MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING et al. :smile:
As for "good" Bad Movies, I just grew up thinking they were normal movies until culture persisted in telling me otherwise. I still see little sense in distinguishing categorically between a good Ed Wood movie and a slightly above average Spielberg film. :teddyr:
My parents were commendable in their support. There was a rare screening of TERROR OF TINY TOWN in the early 80s on one of our local network affiliates. My Dad made sure we put it on the telly schedule and enjoyed it as a family. :cheers:
Quote from: zombie no.one on October 20, 2024, 03:51:04 PMPOLICE ACADEMY 5
Terrible film. We left the cinema before the end and did the same for Evolution starring Dan Aykroyd. For a big budget film there was something insultingly bad about it that made us walk out. Can't remember what as I've never watched it again. But I'll forgive the likes of Codename Wildgeese for being bad and watch the whole thing. Pretty sure that was shown in UK cinema's purely because Lewis Collins is in it.
Quote from: JaredSyn on October 21, 2024, 01:55:21 AMQuote from: zombie no.one on October 20, 2024, 03:51:04 PMPOLICE ACADEMY 5
Terrible film. We left the cinema before the end
haha, yeah all the entries are hard to take, but I have an unavoidable nostalgic fondness for that one... Part 7 is truly the most abysmal even by the franchise's own standards
Quote from: M.10rda on October 20, 2024, 05:28:06 PMAs for "good" Bad Movies, I just grew up thinking they were normal movies until culture persisted in telling me otherwise.
interesting one, is it learned or innate? maybe a bit of both? the concept of a 'guilty pleasure' is something which is in-built for most of us I reckon...
My first bad movie was JACK-O. Alongside my group of friends, during summer we used to gather every weekend and watch horror movies, so we rented this garbage thinking it was going to be awesome (in the cover it said something like it was a mixture between FRIDAY THE 13TH and HALLOWEEN), yet we never laughed so hard in our lives. Even to this day we remember and joke about it.
Over the years, I used to watch tons of bad movies in TCM channel with my dad, and also more horror crap in a local segment called TerrormanÃa, hosted by some movie guy back in the 90s. There I would discover stuff like PUPPET MASTER or some of the awful FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels; I have a vivid memory of laughing at the infamous sleeping bag kill during that show.
Believe or not, this site was the one that got me into watching bad movies just for pleasure, and eventually getting into MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. Today I'm a braver man and watch stuff like AFTER LAST SEASON out of sheer curiosity.
Welcome to our corner! :drink:
Quote from: zombie no.one on October 21, 2024, 03:50:22 AMI have an unavoidable nostalgic fondness for that one...
I have the same for The Humanoid. It's black stormtroopers are way cooler than the white Star Wars stormtroopers :bouncegiggle:
Quote from: Gabriel Knight on October 21, 2024, 01:17:02 PMWelcome to our corner! :drink:
Thank you :cheers:
Welcome!
My first "bad" movie I actually like that I realized was a piece of s**t but loved it anyway was DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (1971)-the one with Dracula with a Mike Brady perm. It was on a uhf channel in 1972. I had just bought the Famous Monsters mag with it on the cover, and had to see it! Even at 11, I knew thsi was baaaad.
I love this movie.
(https://i.imgur.com/p8mv95B.jpeg) (https://lunapic.com)
Quote from: Gabriel Knight on October 21, 2024, 01:17:02 PMMy first bad movie was JACK-O. Alongside my group of friends, during summer we used to gather every weekend and watch horror movies,
Methinks this is a whole sub-section of this topic altogether, if not an entirely distinct thread: "Organized Social Rituals Around Bad Movies in Adolescence/Young Adulthood".
I founded my own local Bad (or at least Weird) Movie Society waaaaaay back in the late 80s... it remained informal and nameless until about 1994, when I dubbed it FUMAC: the F*cked-Up Movie Association of Clarence (my hometown). At peak popularity we could pack in 15+ members a meeting. Of course if any parents asked what FUMAC meant we would claim it was the "Ferociously Unique" Movie Association of Clarence. It remained semi-functional after I graduated High School. Unfortunately it eventually splintered into a bastard sibling organization, PAC (you guess what kind of filmgoing Association of Clarence that was) and at last collapsed.
Any similar stories out there?
alas not really... me and the older kid who lived next door when I was growing up would watch movies in a vaguely 'riffing' (but more just flat out laughing) kind of way. Also one of my brothers and me connect on a few specific bad movies but I haven't watched a film with him in years.
I think there's even a 'bad movie' society in my town, but in all honesty I'm not really sociable enough to do that kinda thing these days. :bluesad: (and usually too tired anyway!)
Quote from: JaredSyn on October 21, 2024, 02:17:33 PMQuote from: zombie no.one on October 21, 2024, 03:50:22 AMI have an unavoidable nostalgic fondness for that one...
I have the same for The Humanoid. It's black stormtroopers are way cooler than the white Star Wars stormtroopers :bouncegiggle:
don't think I've actually seen that... confusing it with HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP probably. It's on youtube, will add it on the watch list
There's no such thing, or that I was ever aware of, a bad movie club/society in our town. Not many of my friends really enjoyed bad movies the way I did.
Our bad movie night viewings were restricted to family members. We used to watch on a regular basis, but haven't for a couple of years now.
Even though there are plenty of bad ones, finding really entertaining modern bad movies is kind of hard. Golden age bad movies are usually fun to watch by default because of the time they were made.
I wonder if gen-z watch and enjoy modern bad movies.
I couldn't tell you what my first "bad" movie was. I grew up near an independent owned video rental place with a selection that put Blockbuster and Hollywood video to shame and dollar rentals on Wednesdays. I watched a lot of bad movies before even realizing they were "bad."
I don't think I really understood my tastes were unusual until I got into the military and picked up a reputation for enjoying weird movies.
When I was about 13 circa 1983, I was a Star Wars crazed kid who would watch just about anything sci-fi related at the time. One fateful Sunday afternoon I watched Star Crash on TV. It was terrible, but in a totally awesome way. That was my introduction to the wild, wacky world of knock-off European B-Movies.
Quote from: claws on October 22, 2024, 05:14:59 AMEven though there are plenty of bad ones, finding really entertaining modern bad movies is kind of hard. Golden age bad movies are usually fun to watch by default because of the time they were made.
I wonder if gen-z watch and enjoy modern bad movies.
well along similar lines I read a youtube comment on a trailer for some early 2000s film (can't remember what) the other day, which said:
"the only thing better than early 2000s cheesiness is 90s cheesiness!"
I was thinking hang on, the early 90s was like the very tail end of awesome cheesiness being a thing... (for me anyway) . The early 2000s was just a depressing time for movies in general, can't think of any vintage cheese going on then?
so maybe diff generations do have different ideas of good cheese :smile:
^ the ROOM (2003) was pretty dam bad...
Quote from: claws on October 22, 2024, 05:14:59 AMI wonder if gen-z watch and enjoy modern bad movies.
From what I gather, there's still public for that, but more in an "intentional" kind of way. Like, the movies are bad on purpose so you can laugh at it, kinda like
VELOCIPASTOR, or
COCAINE BEAR to a certain degree. The last time I heard something similar to Ed Wood was Neil Breen or James Nguyen with
BIRDEMIC, but even he understood the whole concept and is now cashing in by making intentionally terrible sequels.
I think that the naivety of those black and white awful sci-fi movies of old is gone, alas.
Quote from: RCMerchant on October 22, 2024, 07:56:50 AM^ the ROOM (2003) was pretty dam bad...
It was so bad I downloaded it from YouTube, watched it and burnt the USB it was on 😳😉😉😉
Quote from: RCMerchant on October 22, 2024, 07:56:50 AM^ the ROOM (2003) was pretty dam bad...
an absolute monumental bad-fest, but that's basically an anomaly, ditto BIRDEMIC...
the vast majority of suppsedly 'so bad it's good' movies from the early 2000s (such as for example GIGLI) don't have the charm of the 70s/80s stuff... to me
I don't think films like the HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND, the BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER as "Bad", per se.
Low budget and inept perhaps, but not BAD. I find them entertaining and worthwhile. Garbage such as AVATAR and the countless Star Wars are awful, stupid films. Or mindnumbing s**t like the FAST AND THE FURIOUS . Ugh.
I had a weekly movie night with friends when young. We'd take turns choosing the film. Others tended to bring half decent films while I'd bring things like Bronx Warriors.
RCMerchant makes a good point about high budget films that are basically awful, apart from the effects. Most are conveyor belt written stuff and seen as 'product' by the execs rather than films to stretch imaginations etc.
The Asylum make intentionally bad movies so there's certainly a market for them. But I think most of the 70's and 80's Italian films tried for style, which I can appreciate more than what the Asylum do.
It's interesting to see so many of the Italian films coming out on Blu-Ray and looking way better than I could ever imagine. Widescreen - not grainy, blurred and zoomed in 4:3. Starcrash looks fantastic with the Christmas light stars.
Quote from: FatFreddysCat on October 22, 2024, 06:08:24 AMIt was terrible, but in a totally awesome way. That was my introduction to the wild, wacky world of knock-off European B-Movies.
Couldn't agree more :teddyr:
Quote from: JaredSyn on October 22, 2024, 03:39:19 PMIt's interesting to see so many of the Italian films coming out on Blu-Ray and looking way better than I could ever imagine. Widescreen - not grainy, blurred and zoomed in 4:3. Starcrash looks fantastic with the Christmas light stars.
yeah some of these look amazingly crisp! almost feel sorry the original crowds didn't get to see them in such quality... (2 that stand out particularly for me in this regard are LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN, and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?. - both more kind of straight giallos than knock-off / exploitation though)
Quote from: claws on October 22, 2024, 05:14:59 AMI wonder if gen-z watch and enjoy modern bad movies.
Whatever the current generation is - they barely watch ANYTHING besides 10 second videos on TikTok or whatevs. :thumbdown:
Quote from: claws on October 22, 2024, 05:14:59 AMI wonder if gen-z watch and enjoy modern bad movies.
A couple of YT channels I watch would suggest some do. And I wonder what the age demographic for Asylum movies is.
Quote from: JaredSyn on October 20, 2024, 08:51:52 AMI'm curious how people got into them.
I've always liked sci-fi stuff. A lot of old sci-fi films were B-films, done with limited budgets. Limited budgets often resulted in lower-quality films, but I still liked the imagination, so here I am.
There used to be a ton of Bad & B-Movie sites; if you looked up "Star Wars Ripoff", "dinosaur films", "Monster Movies" or other similar terms, because you
wanted something sci-fi-ish, you wound up on them. Today, Google favors larger sites; if you tried those terms today you'd probably wind up on IMDb or Letterboxed or Rotten Tomatoes today.
Bob Burns' book,
It Came from Bob's Basement also helped; it's a history of AIP's early years, told from the perspective of a collector who knew knew Paul Blaisdell, the guy who made/played a bunch of their monsters.
Quote from: pacman000 on October 24, 2024, 08:09:33 AMQuote from: JaredSyn on October 20, 2024, 08:51:52 AMI'm curious how people got into them.
I've always liked sci-fi stuff. A lot of old sci-fi films were B-films, done with limited budgets. Limited budgets often resulted in lower-quality films, but I still liked the imagination, so here I am.
There used to be a ton of Bad & B-Movie sites; if you looked up "Star Wars Ripoff", "dinosaur films", "Monster Movies" or other similar terms, because you wanted something sci-fi-ish, you wound up on them. Today, Google favors larger sites; if you tried those terms today you'd probably wind up on IMDb or Letterboxed or Rotten Tomatoes today.
Bob Burns' book, It Came from Bob's Basement also helped; it's a history of AIP's early years, told from the perspective of a collector who knew knew Paul Blaisdell, the guy who made/played a bunch of their monsters.
Yes the 50's was flooded with B-movies and I agree about the imagination whatever the decade. I remember watching the 1930's and 40's serials on TV in the 80's and still really enjoying them.
Searching for "Star Wars Ripoff" still brings up some interesting results on the first pages. Not that I'm defending Google.
I liked the Golden Turkey Awards book and that was part of my introduction to bad films. But when it went onto TV I was disapponted with the pantomime presentation of it.
I've always been a great SF/Fantasy/Monster fan, and it sort of grew out of watching Dr. Who (the Tom Baker years), Space 1999, Blake's 7, together with reruns of Star Trek TOS and the Addams Family. Watching just about anything that had a spaceship or a monster in it, you sort of naturally drifted into B-movie territory.
Hearing Cheepnis by Frank Zappa helped me to articulate what I liked about these things. So, here I am.
Quote from: Dr. Whom on October 25, 2024, 02:13:36 PMI've always been a great SF/Fantasy/Monster fan, and it sort of grew out of watching Dr. Who (the Tom Baker years), Space 1999, Blake's 7, together with reruns of Star Trek TOS and the Addams Family. Watching just about anything that had a spaceship or a monster in it
I grew up the same.
Quote from: Dr. Whom on October 25, 2024, 02:13:36 PMyou sort of naturally drifted into B-movie territory.
Particularly when home video came out. Distributors were probably looking for anything to put out so there were some real gems available that we'd probably never see otherwise. Especially the Italian movies.
Quote from: JaredSyn on October 25, 2024, 01:20:41 PMQuote from: pacman000 on October 24, 2024, 08:09:33 AMQuote from: JaredSyn on October 20, 2024, 08:51:52 AMI'm curious how people got into them.
There used to be a ton of Bad & B-Movie sites; if you looked up "Star Wars Ripoff", "dinosaur films", "Monster Movies" or other similar terms, because you wanted something sci-fi-ish, you wound up on them. Today, Google favors larger sites; if you tried those terms today you'd probably wind up on IMDb or Letterboxed or Rotten Tomatoes today.
Bob Burns' book, It Came from Bob's Basement also helped; it's a history of AIP's early years, told from the perspective of a collector who knew knew Paul Blaisdell, the guy who made/played a bunch of their monsters.
I liked the Golden Turkey Awards book and that was part of my introduction to bad films. But when it went onto TV I was disapponted with the pantomime presentation of it.
I never liked that book or it's authors. It seemed way to condescending and glib. And it would be nice if the authors actually watched some of the films they panned.
Quote from: RCMerchant on November 02, 2024, 03:28:12 AMI never liked that book or it's authors. It seemed way to condescending and glib. And it would be nice if the authors actually watched some of the films they panned.
You said it. The Medveds were early adopters of the "Decide on a position and then figure out how to justify it without doing much or any research" style of media punditry. Also the "Punch down on easy targets" style. Michael continued doing that for many decades and continued those bad habits beyond just movies. Maybe he's still doing it if he's unfortunately alive somewhere...
Yeah, the Medveds were, in a lot of ways, terrible. (They were early trolls, listing the beloved arthousse classic "Last Year at Marienbad" as one of the worst movies ever made.) We still owe them a debt for basically inventing the "so-bad-its-good" genre; or at least, being the first ones to codify it.
Quote from: RCMerchant on November 02, 2024, 03:28:12 AMIt seemed way to condescending and glib.
That's exactly how I found the TV shows looking back and I lost interest in the Medveds activities. The films were something to take the mickey out of without showing any respect it seemed. I haven't read the book for decades but I don't remember it being as bad.
I'm not sure whether we can name YouTube channels on here but the ones I watch show far more respect and understanding of the bad films they review.