There are tons of movies out there, and tons of good movies on top of that. Below that are the hundreds of movies that are passable, perhaps even good for an evening out, but they will likely be forgotten over time, and that’s alright. Below those films are bad movies not worth our time. Yet below even those films are the films that deserve to be watched simply because of how terrible they are. The films that make us ask how they got made or how on earth they got released in the first place. They are entertaining in their own right and making fun of them can make for a great evening with friends.
Whether you’re looking for something to watch for a bad movie night or just want to know what people don’t like, here are 15 movies that are so much fun to hate:
We must start here. You know what The Room is and we know what The Room is, but if we didn’t include it your first thought would be “where’s The Room”. The Room is always with us, readers. And if you’ve any interest in bad movies or getting together to watch them with friends, you’ve perhaps seen it a few times.
There is so much to dig into about this film. Everything feels like a meme because everything in it has been turned into a meme. From the pictures of spoons to Tommy Wiseau’s delivery of the script, it all feels like it's from another world, and it transcends both a simple explanation and any form of summary. However, it is a tale of love, betrayal, tragedy, and a few rooms for good measure. Just watch a few clips online and see if you’d want to watch a full movie of that. Doing so with friends or at a special screening is highly recommended.
Think about it: how many movies can you think of that had a movie made about their making because of how bad it was? Yet that is exactly what happened with The Room in the form of The Disaster Artist, which in turn is quite a good film and a great comedy.
The Room came out in 2003 and can easily be found online.
Another extremely famous bad movie, Birdemic: Shock and Terror is often talked about nearly as much as The Room. A slightly more recent piece, it has the opportunity to add digital effects to the film. Whether it was wise to do so is a matter of debate. It also had a very interesting production, with the director not talking to members of the cast for weeks for perceived personal slights and a fair amount of filming without a permit. These issues become readily apparent when you watch the movie.
The film features some of the budget issues most “bad” movies face, as well as some interesting writing and directing choices, to say the least. However, the true joy of watching this film comes the second the special effects are on the screen. It is so odd, even jarring to some viewers, that it’s the stuff of comedy legend. It is a love story, ostensibly, but in this love story, the residents of a small town are plagued by an ongoing bout of bird attacks, along with some strange signs such as wildfires and dead birds on the ground.
It somehow resembles Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, but this film does one thing that masterpiece cannot: make us laugh (at it). It’s one of those movies that is also worth watching but only with friends and can make for a nice evening at home.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror came out in 2010 and can be found on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video.
After a title like that, what more do we really need to say? This cult classic horror movie featuring a bed that eats people might seem a little slow to the casual onlooker, but believe us it’s something so strange that the average audience will not have the greatest time yet have a fun time trying to figure it out in the process. In the film, through interesting means, a demon brings a bed to life every ten years. Over generations, the bed brings terror to people. It’s a little hard to follow, but we doubt you’d be watching too intently for the plot.
In truth, it’s something of a surrealist horror and might be up against some people’s alleys, but it’s just too far gone for many of us. That’s why we think watching it can be a great time. Who doesn’t love to expand their horizons once in a while? And all the better if those horizons feature a bed that eats people. And a terribly odd plot that you have to piece together. We’re impressed if you get it on the first viewing, and why would you want to have a second?
Death Bed: The Bed that Eats came out in 1977 and can be found on Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, and Pluto TV.
In our opinion, with Foodfight! We’ve moved on from the amusingly bad or strange to the truly terrible. Foodfight! is a film that does not have much to redeem it, and perhaps any steps in that direction would only make it worse in a sense. It is a film that is somehow offensive to brands, which we thought couldn’t be offended, as well as good taste. Presumably, it is about what happens at night in a supermarket where the mascots for food products come to life. Yet Brand X (a generic store brand) is replacing many of the products, and it is up to a heroic cereal mascot to save the day.
On the premise alone there is a lot to hate and even be disturbed by. And we promise the plot doesn’t get all that much better. The entire film was some strange exercise in product placement that wasn’t explicitly product placement, yet the original marketing of the film was supposed to include a lot of cross-promotion. It’s all a story too wild for us to describe in this small section. Yet was truly brings this film to the forefront as opposed to another forgettable cash grab is the abominable animation. It’s filled with rough polygons that were created in the early 2000s, and yet the film was delayed and mostly forgotten until years later.
As for watching it, it can be great to mock with friends, if partially as a strange relic of a now bygone era of product placement and animation. It can be grueling, but it is a unique experience. Maybe watch some clips first to see how much you can stand.
Foodfight! came out in 2012 and can be found for rent on Vudu and Apple TV.
M. Night Shyamalan has created some fantastic movies with great plots and twists. While he’s not to everyone’s liking, there is no denying that some of his films will stand the test of time. The Last Airbender is not one of those films. In fact, it’s a film everyone, especially the fans of the original animated show, would like to forget exists.
The film has some strange casting decisions, hardly follows the plot of the show or showcases the martial arts or bending in any way the fans would appreciate, and generally doesn’t get the tone right. The plot is rambling and there is little character development, something fans loved about the show. It quite simply makes little sense and makes us wonder why it exists. It makes us worry about any future live-action adaptation of the property, and rightfully so.
Critically panned across the board and truly hated by the general public as opposed to just forgotten, this film will likely be an exercise in pain. You can watch it either as a comparison to what you know and love or as a learning experience of how not to adapt to a beloved property.
The Last Airbender came out in 2010 and can be found on Netflix.
There have been a fair number of movie adaptations of video games in the last few decades, with most of them failing miserably. No one can seem to get the formula right, leading to either a boring film or one that completely betrays the source material. Yet while most of these films go on to simply be forgettable, Super Mario Bros. has a place in history. A live-action adaptation of 8-bit characters, the film’s creators took some liberties, taking two middle-aged Italians and putting in in costumes to stop the threat of other people in obvious costumes. It is positively ridiculous and we can only encourage you to watch the trailer. What makes it even better is that the special effects driving this madness are surprisingly good.
And while there is an animated film starring Mario and company coming out soon, it will be entirely different from whatever this was. In truth, we expect fewer flamethrowers. There is a reason Nintendo was careful about licensing its IP after this movie was made, and it was the quality of this film. Nonetheless, whether you’re into video games or just want something bad to laugh at, you could do worse than Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. came out in 1993 and might be a little harder to track down than the other films on this list, but it is still online.
Like a choice few other bad movies, Troll 2 doesn’t need much of an introduction to those who have ever been to a few bad movie nights. It has the honor of getting special screenings and watching it has become a tradition for some. As for the production, problems with it, including budget issues and a language barrier, led to this being one of the worst films ever made. And the story doesn’t help.
As for the plot, Troll 2 is about a family going to the countryside to take up farming for a bit, but there are vegetarian goblins. These vegetarian goblins want to turn the family into plants so they can eat them. Yes, that’s the premise of the movie. No, explaining further will not really help.
By the way, there is no link to any film called Troll. As far as we can tell, Troll 2 is a sequel to nothing. There was a horror film called Troll that was marketed as a sequel, but the marketing is as far as it goes. We suspect nothing past or future will want to be connected to this.
Troll 2 came out in 1990 and can be found on Tubi and Pluto TV.
Believed by many to be the worst film of all time, and certainly one of the worst with a sizable budget, Battlefield Earth is something of a disasterpiece. It is based on the (extremely long) novel of the same name by L Ron Hubbard in which humanity fights against their alien oppressors. And starring John Travolta, who heavily funded the project and, in many ways, led its production, it can be seen as something of a passion project that didn’t reach its full potential.
Battlefield Earth has some of the strangest and most jarring directions we have ever seen in a film. The camera angles don’t make sense, the pacing and story structure are weak at best, and there is a sense that something is simply missing from the movie. It’s just hard to watch. Quite a few of those involved in the project will be hard-pressed to take responsibility for it.
Outside of itself, the film had some controversy as well, getting the production company in hot water after they greatly overstated the film's budget. While there were plans for a sequel, given that the film only covered one half of the book, this never came to fruition.
Battlefield Earth Came out in 2000 and can be found for rent on the usual platforms.
Neil Breen is something unique that is hard to replicate or explain. There is an auteur feel about his films, but while most such films have a strong artistic presence and a strong statement, his films seem to provide something different. Something a bit more focused on Neil Breen. Something that most people don’t want to see except in the context of a bad movie night.
And in truth, we could pick out any of his films for this list, but we think that Fateful Findings provides some of the best examples of his work and allows viewers to truly get what makes him so special. In the film, two kids find some stones in the woods. They vow to remain friends forever but don’t see each other again after one moves. The film then mostly concerns events that take place when one of them is an adult. And then the plot gets kind of fuzzy.
There are some oddities in the film, and things you’ll likely joke about with friends for years to come. For one, you’ll wonder where all those props came from and how something so uniquely bad could have been made. Much like someone sequestered from the world for a decade coming out and trying to understand the times, Neil Breen has his own ideas for filmmaking. And much like Birdemic and The Room, it’s something best enjoyed with friends.
Fateful Findings came out in 2013 and is available to buy from a variety of sites.
Catwoman had just about everything going for it, at least to be a relatively average movie. You had Halle Berry in the title role, you had a popular character (for one reason or another) that could translate well to film. Yet it turned out to be one of the biggest critical flops of all time. How so?
Well, according to those who watched it at the time and modern critics, it was a lack of involvement with Batman whatsoever, some interesting (read: questionable) plot decisions, and focusing too much on Halle Berry and not enough on filmmaking. Halle Berry is great, sure, but a model and talented actress in a catsuit does not necessarily a good movie make.
Now it’s a fun film to have on in the background and make jokes about. Sure, there is a story, but this is one you might want to break down shot for shot with some of your film-appreciating friends. You can see what the director and editors were focused on, and why it doesn’t hold up over time (as if it held up then).
Catwoman Came out in 2004 and can be found for streaming on HBO Max.
The most recent addition to this list, Cats is a musical film based on the famous musical, featuring some huge stars in key roles. It was the film musical event of the year, and it turned out to be a little bit of a disaster. However, the trailers didn’t give us much hope.
Yet while much of your enjoyment of the film is contingent on whether you enjoy the musical to begin it (or at least enjoy the music), the CGI and art direction leaves something to be desired for many. Others it simply horrifies. Anthropomorphic cats in human form that look vaguely like stars, often not wearing clothes, can be a bit off-putting. Even if everything else about the film was good (and we would hardly say that), you can’t get over what’s on the screen right in front of you. You never really expected Taylor Swift or Ian McKellan to look like that.
And just as amusing or horrifying as the film itself might be the production and press surrounding it, both before and after release. There is plenty of good content to read about it out there, and there are a few good scenes and renditions that might be worth watching a clip of.
Cats came out in 2019 and can be found on Hulu, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video.
Another cult classic that is loved by those who appreciate bad movies, Manos: The Hands of Fate is one of those films that you’ve probably heard of but have likely not seen unless you are interested in this sort of thing. It’s sci-fi pulp for sure, just put it on a screen instead of a page.
The film is about a vacationing family who runs into a cult and must escape. The characters are fun to watch and there is some tension and humor (intentional or not), but ultimately it’s a bit of its time and there isn’t too much to take in.
You will want to find a version with some decent visual fidelity and prepare for the effects of the time to best enjoy it. Alternatively, this film might be best known for getting the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 treatment, and as such you might want to seek that out instead. In fact, the film was hardly worth mentioning and obscure until then. But if you’re going to pick any bad movie, you could do worse than to pick one that is so well known.
Manos: The Hands of Fate came out in 1966 and can be found on Tubi.
Reefer Madness is the relic of another age and a warning against misinformation from a film that we can use today. However, to most of us, it is a term about overemphasizing the dangers of things we do not understand, particularly related to substances. It is regularly mocked, constantly referenced even by people who haven’t seen it, and is one of those things some people would rather forget exists.
More of a documentary or an educational film as opposed to a movie designed to entertain, Reefer Madness is now considered just as much of an exploitation film as anything else. Even at the time of its release it was lambasted and mocked for its poor portrayals, and misinformation. Whatever your opinions on marijuana then or now, it was something that couldn’t be used as a reliable source of information.
Yet today it still holds up as a great piece of entertainment, knowing what we do today. It’s an exercise in pointless panic, and something good to watch for a laugh.
Reefer Madness came out in 1936 and can be found easily online for free. Just make a quick search for it and you’ll find the whole film.
Adam Sandler makes a specific type of movie when he is the one effectively in charge, with a particular brand of humor. This is usually not well-liked, being basic and crude at best. Happy Gilmore productions make quite a few films, and they often feel like an excuse for Sandler to get together with his friends and have a good time (which he fully admits).
Of these films, however, Jack and Jill is considered by many to be one of his worst, for several reasons. Adam Sandler himself plays both titular roles, a twin brother and sister who are rude, annoying, and have few redeeming qualities. For most people, you will cringe with an ever-heightening sense of despair that this film exists in the first place, and then the tonal whiplash hits. Go see Al Pacino’s bit in this film and don’t look back. If you’re looking for a bad movie to hate, though, Jack and Jill fit the bill.
Jack and Jill came out in 2011 and can be found on Hulu.
We weren’t sure whether we wanted to just pick out a single movie from the Twilight franchise or the entire thing, we decided to let the first represent the whole. There is a lot to talk about and a lot in the franchise, but fundamentally the entire thing comes down to a certain level of teenage angst, questionable relationships, and little that’s worthwhile. The stars don’t exactly have the highest opinion of the films, and they haven’t held up in popularity compared to other famous franchises.
And sure, the films will still have their supporters, but one has to note that it’s all a bit silly if you think about it. And while perhaps there is a bit of unfairness towards the franchise overall, it also is one of the largest franchises to get such attention. It only stands to reason that it would get more negative press as a result. People must ask why anyone would like it in the first place.
Twilight came out in 2008 and is available for streaming on Netflix.
Before we wrap up, here are a few things that might better your experience:
Not all films have to be good for us to enjoy them, and we do not need to enjoy all films the same way. While there are too many films that are just bad, there are a select few movies that are so atrocious that hating and making fun of them is an art form. If you’re already into it we’re sure you’ve seen some of these films already, but we hope you found something new to try out and maybe enjoy. Happy watching and good luck making it through!
