How did you come to love bad movies?

[316zombie]

Perfect timing on my part.

I was a kid during the 70s growing up in a tiny town in north Alabama. We had one of the few locally owned movie theaters around, ran by the wonderful Bill Harris and his wife. During the week they'd run a current 'A' movie For us that meant stuff like BILLY JACK and WALKING TALL. These would play for months, it seemed.

Saturday was 'Kiddie Movie' time. Yes, this meant the latest live action Disney nonsense like THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES, but was also got tons of PINK PANTHER and WOODY WOODPECKER cartoons. We also got many of the current horror movies like FROGS, DRACULA AD 1972, and NIGHT OF THE LEPUS mixed in with the Disney and the cartoons. Occasionally we'd get a classic like a GODZILLA movie or a Harryhausen SINBAD movie.

They also held several old fashioned 'Spook Shows' with old movies and people dressed like ghosts and monsters running around in the audience. A bonus was the theater was right across from the city jail. Yelling back and forth at the prisoners was a good way to pass the time when waiting for your mom to pick you up.

It was the PERFECT breeding ground for a bunch of Monster Kids and fans of weird movies.

i am SO jealous! i would have loved to see a spook show inreallife as a kid/teen...

[316zombie]

my dad left the air force and we moved to my massachusetts hometown in early '66. and my big brother discovered uhf channel 56...from then on in,we were doomed with a love of bad movies,especially horror/scifi/fantasy stuff.
  july of that year, my momma found a drivein the next town over, and that was seriously it for her too, doomed, i say!
  i was 4, my brother 8 at the time. and i am proud to say that we passed our doom on to our baby sister as well. and al also proud to say that we contributed to the doom of their children,my 4 nieces,and are ALL now contributing to the doom of my greatniece and greatnephews.

I'm a life-long Massachusetts resident and grew up watching lots of trash on channel 56 and channel 38. We had at least 6 or 8 drive-in theaters within a reasonable driving distance of where we lived. Good times.

really? i grew up in middleboro, bottom of the cape, the drivein was in lakeville. and you?

I grew up in Saugus. So, we had drive-ins in Saugus, Revere, Lynn, Medford . . . all around the area. I spent a lot of summers down the Cape. My aunt and uncle had a summer home in Wareham.

this is interesting.. you're 2 years younger than me, it's entirely possible we went to the same arcade in wareham during the summer, my da's best friend had a cottage we borrowed! it was on pine tree road, i think.

[The Burgomaster]

my dad left the air force and we moved to my massachusetts hometown in early '66. and my big brother discovered uhf channel 56...from then on in,we were doomed with a love of bad movies,especially horror/scifi/fantasy stuff.
  july of that year, my momma found a drivein the next town over, and that was seriously it for her too, doomed, i say!
  i was 4, my brother 8 at the time. and i am proud to say that we passed our doom on to our baby sister as well. and al also proud to say that we contributed to the doom of their children,my 4 nieces,and are ALL now contributing to the doom of my greatniece and greatnephews.

I'm a life-long Massachusetts resident and grew up watching lots of trash on channel 56 and channel 38. We had at least 6 or 8 drive-in theaters within a reasonable driving distance of where we lived. Good times.

really? i grew up in middleboro, bottom of the cape, the drivein was in lakeville. and you?

I grew up in Saugus. So, we had drive-ins in Saugus, Revere, Lynn, Medford . . . all around the area. I spent a lot of summers down the Cape. My aunt and uncle had a summer home in Wareham.

this is interesting.. you're 2 years younger than me, it's entirely possible we went to the same arcade in wareham during the summer, my da's best friend had a cottage we borrowed! it was on pine tree road, i think.

My aunt & uncle's place was on Overlook Road in Shangri-La Village.

[Rev. Powell]

Joe Bob Briggs definitely was a huge influence, but for me in his printed column, not his TV shows. I was in Dallas when he was just hitting his stride, 2 years into his career, and his column was like nothing else in the world---hilarious, with reviews of terrible movies. When I saw him on TV I was a little disappointed that he didn't match the picture in my head and that he was not as funny as he was in print.

He's campaigning to get a new show on Shudder. But he hasn't even been writing movies reviews for years. He still has a column but it's all politics and culture war stuff. 

[ER]

I kid around a lot about my ignorance of movies, which compared to the background in them so many of you have makes me a candidate for the special bus crowd, but I wanted to thank each of you because over the years you've taught me a lot about movies, just from having followed along as you've posted, but I especially made use of that list of suggested films most of you were kind enough to take a moment to contribute to last year. Since I looked every one of them up, then even in the cases where I may not see a particular movie itself, I came away expanding my appreciation of the cinematic art form. So this is as good a place as any to once more say thank you.

[316zombie]

my dad left the air force and we moved to my massachusetts hometown in early '66. and my big brother discovered uhf channel 56...from then on in,we were doomed with a love of bad movies,especially horror/scifi/fantasy stuff.
  july of that year, my momma found a drivein the next town over, and that was seriously it for her too, doomed, i say!
  i was 4, my brother 8 at the time. and i am proud to say that we passed our doom on to our baby sister as well. and al also proud to say that we contributed to the doom of their children,my 4 nieces,and are ALL now contributing to the doom of my greatniece and greatnephews.

I'm a life-long Massachusetts resident and grew up watching lots of trash on channel 56 and channel 38. We had at least 6 or 8 drive-in theaters within a reasonable driving distance of where we lived. Good times.

really? i grew up in middleboro, bottom of the cape, the drivein was in lakeville. and you?

I grew up in Saugus. So, we had drive-ins in Saugus, Revere, Lynn, Medford . . . all around the area. I spent a lot of summers down the Cape. My aunt and uncle had a summer home in Wareham.

this is interesting.. you're 2 years younger than me, it's entirely possible we went to the same arcade in wareham during the summer, my da's best friend had a cottage we borrowed! it was on pine tree road, i think.

My aunt & uncle's place was on Overlook Road in Shangri-La Village.

do you recall the arcade that was on the main drag down to the white beach? meaning white sand,not white people, lol! it was dead center on the block before the beach,there was an ice cream shop on the side closest to the beach, and on the far side was a "fried everything"  place? they had THE best french fries, and my momma loved their scallops. you had to go up a block to get a burger or hot dog...
  i haunted that arcade the summer i was 11, i was obsessed with pinball,and the gypsy fortune teller machine... smile..

[The Burgomaster]

my dad left the air force and we moved to my massachusetts hometown in early '66. and my big brother discovered uhf channel 56...from then on in,we were doomed with a love of bad movies,especially horror/scifi/fantasy stuff.
  july of that year, my momma found a drivein the next town over, and that was seriously it for her too, doomed, i say!
  i was 4, my brother 8 at the time. and i am proud to say that we passed our doom on to our baby sister as well. and al also proud to say that we contributed to the doom of their children,my 4 nieces,and are ALL now contributing to the doom of my greatniece and greatnephews.

I'm a life-long Massachusetts resident and grew up watching lots of trash on channel 56 and channel 38. We had at least 6 or 8 drive-in theaters within a reasonable driving distance of where we lived. Good times.

really? i grew up in middleboro, bottom of the cape, the drivein was in lakeville. and you?

I grew up in Saugus. So, we had drive-ins in Saugus, Revere, Lynn, Medford . . . all around the area. I spent a lot of summers down the Cape. My aunt and uncle had a summer home in Wareham.

this is interesting.. you're 2 years younger than me, it's entirely possible we went to the same arcade in wareham during the summer, my da's best friend had a cottage we borrowed! it was on pine tree road, i think.

My aunt & uncle's place was on Overlook Road in Shangri-La Village.

do you recall the arcade that was on the main drag down to the white beach? meaning white sand,not white people, lol! it was dead center on the block before the beach,there was an ice cream shop on the side closest to the beach, and on the far side was a "fried everything"  place? they had THE best french fries, and my momma loved their scallops. you had to go up a block to get a burger or hot dog...
  i haunted that arcade the summer i was 11, i was obsessed with pinball,and the gypsy fortune teller machine... smile..

I probably went to that arcade, but I really don't remember. We took day trips to Lincoln Park and Rocky Point Park every year and I definitely remember spending time in those arcades.

[316zombie]

i belong to a "hometown" group on facebook, there's a guy who is a historian and posts pictures for us. just recently he posted a bunch of pics of lincold park, i'll see if i can figure out how to get them here. most are from time we grew up and went there, late 60's to mid 70's. brought back some great memories!

[The Burgomaster]

i belong to a "hometown" group on facebook, there's a guy who is a historian and posts pictures for us. just recently he posted a bunch of pics of lincold park, i'll see if i can figure out how to get them here. most are from time we grew up and went there, late 60's to mid 70's. brought back some great memories!

Google images also has pictures of Lincoln Park.

[316zombie]

really? cool! thanks!

[zombie no.one]

After watching and making fun of Black Samurai (1977). My sister and me were in tears from laughing so hard. When renting tapes we then made it a point to pick at least one movie that looked really bad, so that we could make fun of it. Soon enough we discovered A Night to Dismember (1983) and it blew our mind, and I was totally hooked on bad movies.
We used to watch A Night to Dismember religiously and it got more hilarious with every viewing. 

hmm, think I need to see A Night To Dismember, always looking out for early 80s slashery horrory stuff I've not seen yet...


in the mid 90s me and one of my brothers bonded over  THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974) which randomly came on tv and we both fell about laughing...think we can both quote the entire movie and it crops up in pretty much every conversation we have to this day! that was possibly my bad-movie gateway, although I have always had an affection for anything that was endearingly crappy...music, video games, whatever.

[zombie no.one]

There used to be a film club at my university during my undergrad years (2011-2015). It would show different genres on a daily/evening basis. As I recall it was Wednesday evenings they had a "B-Movie Night" which was attributed to a book called "The Golden Turkey Awards" (Harry & Michael Medved).

I only went at the insistence of a couple of film-geek friends, but it was fortunate that on my first attendance they showed "Plan 9 from Outer Space", "The Swarm" and "Zardoz" - and that's when I realised what a B-Movie Bomb looked like.

nice...what uni were you at?  I was in a film club at my uni (Leeds) but they only showed 'good' ones. They screened A CLOCKWORK ORANGE the week Stanley Kubrick died, which iirc was the first time it had been unbanned here.

[Allhallowsday]

My own assessment of "bad movies" differs from much, if not all, of this forum.  I think movies may be classified as "bad" not just for poor production, bad acting, or dopey script.  I think some movies are "bad" because they are in bad taste, or perhaps bad for you. 

That being said, I think I have to chalk up my fondness for "bad" movies as beginning with a film that I think in many ways is GREAT:  CARNIVAL OF SOULS.  I love the soundtrack, the script is adequate, but the cinematography is exceptional.  It is, however, creaky (not just creepy) with crappy dubbing and low production values.  I first saw CARNIVAL OF SOULS in an afternoon broadcast one weekend around 1969.  I didn't understand anything about what I wrote above at the time, it was simply memorable and scared the bejeepers out of me.
In the subsequent decade, I was introduced to lots of Horror and SciFi films on late night TV, like DEATHDREAM, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES, CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CYBORG 2087, SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT, THE INNOCENTS... not all of which can be classified as "bad".  But a pattern should seem to emerge from liking - or loving - each of those films.   

[Pacman000]

My own assessment of "bad movies" differs from much, if not all, of this forum.  I think movies may be classified as "bad" not just for poor production, bad acting, or dopey script.  I think some movies are "bad" because they are in bad taste, or perhaps bad for you.     

I can agree with that definition, but I don't enjoy that sort of bad movie. (Usually.)

[lester1/2jr]

I really liked "Pigs in Space" on the Muppet Show and also the live action Spiderman on electric company. I was just born to appreciate heap stuff with ambition way beyond its means.