Why bad movies?

[ds21]

I just wondered... why do YOU like bad movies?  Is it for the comedy, the gratuitous-ness...what is it that draws you specifically?

EDIT: For me, it's the cheese/unintentional comedy.  Also, the over-the-top-ness.

[WingedSerpent]

pretty much for all the reasons you mentioned.  I also like a good monster story.  And most monster movies fall into the "bad" movie category.

[Doggett]

I just wondered... why do YOU like bad movies?  Is it for the comedy, the gratuitous-ness...what is it that draws you specifically?

EDIT: For me, it's the cheese/unintentional comedy.  Also, the over-the-top-ness.

All the above 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

All of the above, and I get so tired of the soullessness of many of our current bockbusters.  Gimme a rubber suit over a CGI one any day. 

[Jack]

A)  I used to smoke a lot of pot.  Bad movies are fascinating when your stoned    Although I don't think weed causes any permanent damage, my taste in movies never seemed to recover.
B)  I like boobies.  Well built girls in tight tank tops too.  Huh, that's kind of the same thing I guess.  Oh well.  It's all good.

I think B should actually be A.

[Doc Daneeka]

I watch bad movies because sooo many of them are actually good movies, that uptight and/or close-minded people either outright hate or dismiss as "silly".

But yes, when it's something that actually IS bad, I watch it to laugh; unintentional comedies are those that last longer.

[InformationGeek]

Because I like trying to expand my horizon and try watching lesser known films.  Also, because I never know when I'm going to find a hidden gem in the sea of b-movies/bad movies, like It Happened At Lakewood Manor/Ants.  However, most of my attempts to find bad movies I like end up with me finding a real bad movie that brings me grief and pain, like Frogs.

[The Burgomaster]

I think I like them mostly for the atmosphere.  Bad movies have their own atmosphere.  Sort of like your favorite bar or favorite restaurant.  The decor, the people that hang out there, the bartenders and wait staff . . .

I especially love the atmosphere of bad 1960s and 70s movies . . . companies like Box Office International and Independent International come to mind.  Lots of interior scenes where the rooms are very small and claustrophobic and have cheap paneling on the walls.  Guys with big sideburns.  Sometimes the boom mike drops into the shot for a few seconds.  There's some cheesy stock music playing in the background.  John Carradine shows up for a cameo (or maybe they just insert scenes from a different John Carradine movie).  Everyone is smoking (often unfiltered cigarettes).  Characters say, "Cool" and "far out" and "that's heavy, man."  One of the characters plays the bongos.  There's an exterior scene in a parking lot and local residents keep walking by in the background looking at the camera and pointing.  The sound isn't synched properly.  You struggle to understand the dialogue in interior scenes because there is a significant echo in the room.  You struggle to understand the dialogue in exterior scenes because the wind is blowing against the microphone.  People listen to transistor radios or watch console televisions with rabbit ear antennas.  These things, my friends, add up to great bad movie atmosphere.  I love it. 

[Javakoala]

I watch them for two main reasons:

1.  My oldest brother, whom I idolized as a kid, would sit up and watch scary movies on the local channel. I wanted to be like him, so, as much as they scared the crap out of me, I would sit up and watch them with him, if I could stay awake. And ALL of them were bad movies. They grew on me like fungus.

2.  I've found that watching bad movies has two main assets. The first is that you intentionally watch a movie that you have no expectations of or for, and if you get ANYTHING good out of it, you are ahead of the game. That to me is value and then some. The second asset is that, until I started watching a lot of crappy movies, I couldn't tell you why I didn't like some big budget movie; I just knew I didn't like it. After seeing so many bare-bones and broken-down crap movies, I now understand plot, characterization, pacing, flow, story, continuity, lighting, acting, tone and all those other things that come together to make a film. Now I can tell you EXACTLY why "Hancock" sucks like a crack whore needing a fix.

Well, that and they are fun.

[JaseSF]

FUN is the key word for me. Watching a classic bad movie like STARCRASH or HORROR OF PARTY BEACH or TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE for me tends to be a lot of fun. There's monsters! And I always love a movie with monsters. And like others I prefer them non-CGI. Granted in the B-movie classics, often the monsters are pulled off in the cheapest way possible but man there's so much gusto often put into it I don't mind. Often I laugh but it's a laugh of appreciation in a way. Most classic baddies too have at least one or two talented actors and one or two gorgeous scream queens to add spice to the proceedings.

[Eyesore]

In short, genetics. I'm 43, and I grew up in a fractioned home with parents and siblings that loved B movies. I grew up with these films and never thought of them as bad or anything like that, and still don't. My folks would go to see a monster movie, and before my mom would getinto bed, my dad had to turn on all the lights and prove to her that nothing was in the closet, bathroom, or under the bed.

During the holidays in L.A., one channel or another would run monster-marathons, and I still remember watching The Wolfman with my cousins in their game room/den, filled with trophy mounts. My cousin put a wolf rug with the head and teeth in it over his head and walked toward me out of the dark when I walked out of the bathroom. I looked over my shoulder and started running, but was wearing socks on the tile floor. I guess when I finally got traction I launched off the steps, into a chair, and ripped down the drapes on the way down. We put them back up the best we could, and as far as I know the adults never found out.

I'm still looking for jumps like that in movies today, but I can still feel the chills in the old ones best.

[jimmybob]

I can't stand Hollywood.

-Jimmybob

[Mr. DS]

My love of the genre, similar to something Java said above, started with my brother.  He introduced me to horror films at a young age.  I wasn't one of those kids who got nightmares from scary movies.  Rather, I loved them and found them much more entertaining than standard kids films.  I'd say I started loving these film in the single digit years of my life to be honest.

Another reason is the satirist in me.  I enjoy the WTF moments in these films and laughing at them.  Of course most of these films are loaded with WTF moments so theres simply more to enjoy.  I'm a bit of a cinema sadist too and laugh at gory deaths a lot. 

Lastly, I'd say that a lot of mainstrem cinema bores the hell out of me.  I REALLY hate most dramas, most of the comedies today aren't worth a laugh and quite frankly I've had had it with washed up plot lines.  Give me aliens, zombies and gore and I'm a happy man. 

[elDuendeVerde]

I like the unpretentiousness of them.  There's a simple naivete involved in many of them.

Also, I like the absurd stories and the gratuitous violence.

And giant monsters.

[meQal]

I love to mock them. Was doing it before MST3K ever existed. These days it's became a family event with my kids joining me in watching the worst films the industry has to offer. Some family's have game nights or family outings, mine has bad movie weekends which we spend saying things out loud about the film.