Introduction to bad movies

[LordGraal]

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.

[Rev. Powell]

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.

[Alex]

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.

[claws]

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!




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.



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).



Then came Doris Wishman's A Night to Dismember (1989). That's when I truly appreciated bad movies. Still do to this day.

[Trevor]

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 😳😆😆

[claws]

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.

[Trevor]

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.

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 😳

[zombie no.one]

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'

[indianasmith]

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!

[M.10rda]

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. 

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. 

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. 

[LordGraal]

POLICE 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.

[zombie no.one]

POLICE 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

As 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...

[Gabriel Knight]

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 Terrormanía, 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!

[LordGraal]

I 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 

Welcome to our corner!

Thank you 

[RCMerchant]

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.