Movies can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Some moviegoers may take everything they see on screen seriously. There is no room to joke; it's strictly business. The theater can be about being transported to a magical world of opportunity, no matter the subject. Others, however, like going to movies for the fun of it. They may not even have high hopes that their movie is going to be considered good, but that's okay as long as the experience is fun.
That’s the mentality that a lot of fans of good bad movies have. Even the worst films may have some merit behind them, whether it's in the cheesy dialogue and action, or the over-the-top explosions. These movies below are something every fan of fantastically bad movies should see. Some will look familiar, while some should be new, even to diehard fans. They are all beyond wild.
10 The Room
The Room is the first movie anyone should watch if they are trying to get into this class of film. The story is terrible, goes nowhere, and plot points are dropped constantly. The acting is also bad, but that’s where the charm comes in. It feels like these actors are giving it their all.
It’s like watching a train wreck. It’s hard to look away at something so earnest and yet so poorly made. It even got a Hollywood docu-drama made about it via The Disaster Artist, so clearly someone did something right.
9 Vampire’s Kiss
There are a lot of Nicolas Cage films that one could highlight as a bad-but-good movie. The Wicker Man gave the Internet fun memes like “Not the bees!” and “How did it get burned?” Face/Off is another good one that has non-stop action with acting thrown to the rafters. Vampire’s Kiss, however, is one of Cage’s earliest titles and may have his most bizarre performance to date.
It’s unclear if even Cage himself knows exactly what is going on. Does his character think he is turning into a vampire, or does Cage himself think he is turning into a vampire? It's a bit of a disaster, but a fun one to watch.
8 Mac And Me
It's not hard to argue that Mac and Me is in fact a better movie than ET. Watching ET as an adult, the movie is boring, but that's nog the case here. Mac and Me have the same concept, featuring a young alien befriending a bunch of kids.
The difference here is that the filmmakers knew they had to make something entertaining. Every second of this movie will have the audience either laughing uncontrollably or screaming “what?” at the top of their lungs. There’s a reason Paul Rudd pranked Conan with a clip of this on his show for decades.
7 Basket Case
Malignant might be the more relevant movie to offer now. It came out recently and has a similar story to Basket Case. Like the latter, it's also a wild ride, with a legitimately great action sequence at the end.
However, Basket Case is the original, and it is much stranger. It sees a young man tracking down doctors that separated his conjoined twin from his body. This growth should be dead but it lives. The puppet acting in this is a true beauty of horror that needs to be seen.
6 Hard Ticket To Hawaii
Hard Ticket To Hawaii is like a fan service film at its core. Why else would the lead actresses be dressed in bikinis even though they are supposed to be cops? It may seem silly on the surface, and some aspects haven't aged well — and yet, there are a lot of great scenes in this movie.
There’s a snake puppet in a toilet. A chase scene involving a drone. A bazooka takedown of something that did not need a bazooka takedown. It is truly unbelievable, and those examples are only the tip of the iceberg.
5 The Stuff
The Stuff opens with a random miner sticking his finger in a hole in the ground and sampling the titular "stuff" inside. That is already an odd start to a horror film. There has never been a more revolting opening in a movie.
The Stuff looks like yogurt and has taken the world by storm — because it’s some sort of alien entity or parasite. That’s the theory anyway, because the film doesn’t spend much time explaining what’s going on. It’s all about showcasing the ways in which the titular goo can kill in new and interesting ways.
4 Silver Bullet
Silver Bullet is an adaptation of a lesser-known Stephen King story about a werewolf who terrorizes a small town. There’s a young boy who knows what’s going on but, no one will believe him. He can’t investigate much on his own either because he is in a wheelchair.
That is, until his uncle, played by the always zany Gary Busey, turns his wheelchair into a legitimate motorcycle. That scene alone is enough reason to watch this film.
3 Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp is a cheap knockoff of Friday the 13th. However, like Mac and Me versus ET, this could be argued to be the better movie. The original Friday the 13th is pretty slow, but Sleepaway Camp ups the ante.
The kills alone in Sleepaway Camp are more entertaining, involving burns via a giant pot and a truly horrific scene with a curling iron. It is brutal stuff — plus, the twist at the end is something viewers will not see coming.
2 Society
Society, as the name might imply, is a satirical look at the 1%. How exactly are they so rich? Do they behave like other people? If that’s the case, then what are they hiding?
The truth comes together at the very end with some impressive practical effects that still look good. It’ll be hard not to sleep after this scary film, and it’s not even a full horror movie. It’s just about a kid who doesn’t fit in with high society, which turns out to be a good thing.
1 Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. gets a lot of flack for being a terrible adaptation of the popular gaming icon. That’s true. The movie virtually has nothing to do with the games. For a movie aimed at kids, it’s also very dark. It’s more of a post-apocalypse adventure than a cartoony romp through a colorful kingdom.
However, this lack of connection to the games is exactly why it’s so great. The directors went far off course on this one and made an original movie that is hard to believe exists at all. It is a bizarre triumph of absurdity that fans of wonderfully terrible movies need to see.