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Welcome back to Myths & Mischief ! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about scary movies that are so bad they are great comedies.

 

I am not a big horror movie fan. I never have been. In part, I never really saw them as real or possible. I am, however, a fan of movies that are so terrible that they are funny. I have attempted to watch various movies that others have claimed to be “So bad that they are good.”

 

 

In order to qualify, they have to meet the same criteria as other movies that are not intended to be comedies, but are so laughable that they are thoroughly entertaining. For example, there is a feature-length  picture that is a ninety-minute  advertisement for McDonalds called Mac and Me. The acting is horrible, the special effects are even worse, and the aliens are odd, but crave McDonald’s in this ET rip off feature. Oddly enough, Jennifer Aniston  got a non-credited  role in  the film as she sat outside a McDonald’s  where people were dancing. I do recommend it;  it is awful, which makes it great.

 

 

Another movie along this line is The Adventures of Foodboy. It is a coming-of-age  story where the protagonist has to come to terms with his newly found ability to produce food from his hands. The best/worst moment of the film is when you can hear the sound of bread appearing out of Foodboy’s hand. You will have to see the film, or at least the trailer, to understand what I am describing. It has it all: bad acting, a horribly disjointed plotline, inconsistent backstory, and a great experience. 

 

 

To be fair, all of Ed Wood’s movies have the “So bad that they are good” labels… and justifiably so. I am a big fan. Personally, I view them like they were done by my brother who really got into filming little videos on our family’s 8mm film camera in the 80s. Ed Wood’s most popular film was probably Plan 9 from Outer Space. For those of you who  don’t know, Ed Wood was an odd person who  made inexpensive, odd movies. They show the joy of filmmaking without all of the fuss of quality sets, and quality plots. The characters he provided were memorable. You can’t help but laugh at some of the set failures, or how absurd some of the creatures appear.

 

 

With all that said, and not counting Ed Wood, I have watched numerous movies that claimed they were so bad that they were good, but what I found was that they were just bad movies. A horror movie that I would recommend if you are looking for something that is so absolutely horrible that it is amazing is Birdemic Shock and Terror. 

 

 

The movie is intended to be an environmental flick that makes the audience think about our role in global warming and catastrophic events that may ensue if people don’t change their dependence on burning fossil fuels. The acting was so terrible that it looked as if I was in the movie delivering lines, as I overemphasized the wrong words, and overacted the entire time. The special effect, and I call it one because they use the same effect numerous times, was that of a bird flying. The bird doesn’t move while in the frame unless it is shot, where it falls. The rest of the time, the bird hangs in the air and flaps its wings. They are supposed to be eagles, but they look more like vultures. They dive bomb gas stations and attack the people in vehicles that burn fossil fuels. The people try to get away by driving, with a break for a picnic in an open area. Fantastic.

 

 

Frankenhooker was a pretty bad movie. They tried desperately not to get hung up on the guy killing a bunch of women to bring his love back to life. The bizarre ending put it in the category of “so bad it is amusing.” The plot is troublesome;  in a very strange accident, the bride-to-be  is chopped up and her lover, who is into the whole mad science thing, takes her head. He then kills a bunch of prostitutes and assembles a mix-and-match  of parts that are left to form his wife, but the consciousness of all the victims and his wife are in the new life that is created. I won’t spoil the ending, but it does make the movie worth watching if you can get through the rest of the film.

 

 

Maximum Overdrive was based off of a Stephen King novel with the soundtrack of AC/DC, what could go wrong? Even big (big for then) stars like Emilio Estevez couldn’t deliver on the adaptation to the big screen. The premise is simple, the machines rise up against people (this was before AI was thought possible). The main antagonist is a big rig that has a goblin face mounted on the front of it. The book was good. I liked the soundtrack. The movie was entertaining, but not for the reason that was intended. Keep in mind that it is all machines, not just the electrical ones that rise up, and a good chunk of the movie doesn’t make sense. The dialogue is awful, which in this case, was a plus.

 

 

Gingerdead Man v. Evil Bong falls in between horrible and maybe entertaining if you are in the mood to not care about characters, or the plot. It appears that the target audience is teenage males, as this film has  lots of nudity and drug references. I have not seen the originals from either franchise, but they are nice enough to give a recap during the movie. For a slasher film, you only see the slashed after the fact since the character doing the killing is a cookie. I suppose a cookie killing people with a knife would look silly. I am not sure why they thought it was good enough to make a movie, let alone a sequel. It was made with a vague unity between the two protagonists that have the chemistry of oil and water. The movie makes the audience feel that it was inspired by a different evil bong that told the creators that this was a worthwhile project. 

 

 

There are also movies like Sharknado. The special effects are bad, so there is no real cathartic pleasure. The dialogue and acting are poor. The premise is awful. One might assume that since there were so many sequels, it might fit this list. However, it wasn’t so bad it was funny; it was just a bad movie.

 

 

Another movie that predated this was the 1970s film, The Car. It was also a bad movie. To be fair, it is hard to make a demon car scary when all you have to do is stay away from roads. Again, it was a bad movie, but it wasn’t so bad that it would fit in here.

 

Your tastes may differ from mine about what is a movie so bad that it is good, but this is what I am searching for. If you can think of a movie that is worth watching because it falls in this category, please write in the comment section. I am always looking for the horribly great movies out there. Just remember, they shouldn’t be so bad that nobody should watch them. Most people’s lists have those kinds of movies on them. We are looking for movies that are awful, but can be redeemed through a different perspective. They should make you laugh, then question yourself for being entertained. That is what makes a bad movie great! 

 

Don’t forget to add your suggestions in the comment section if you know of a scary movie that is so bad that it is great!

 

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Until next time, this is your Lovable Lord of Lore.