Up For Discussion: What’s The Worst Kind Of Bad Movie?

While I was writing my review of the terrible Fright Night 3D I began to consider a question: what is the worst kind of a bad movie? We know that there are bad movies that are good, but what about plain old actual bad movies? There are so many ways to make a movie bad, and I wondered what the worst way is.

For Fright Night 3D I pondered the idea that a movie which starts strong but goes directly to shit might be the worst kind of a bad movie. After all, there’s nothing worse than seeing a spark of hope, getting engaged and then having the movie completely and totally fail you. That’s when you actually get angry - it’s a sense of palpable, strong disappointment.

But is that worse than a movie which never, at any point, lives up to its potential? Think of recent movies like Matrix Revolutions or Year One as films that, on paper, should have been gold, but are terrible from the opening minutes and never let up.

And is it worse than a movie where it’s obvious that nobody gave a shit? A movie where everybody, from the director to the actors to the behind the scenes crew, are simply picking up a paycheck and doing a piece of shit work because some number cruncher at the studio thought they could sell the film. Think of a movie like Eragon, which was created simply to cash in on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and which is almost utterly unwatchable, but you never for one minute thought it would be anything except absolute crap.

So what’s the worst kind of movie for you?