10 Most Beloved Bad Movies, Ranked (2024)

Some movies are irredeemably bad, and make for what feels like naturally bad viewing experiences. You're unlikely to find many people defending something like Disaster Movie or Movie 43, for example, because there’s something extra painful about poorly executed comedies. Similarly, bad dramatic films that fail because they're boring are also quite hard to find redeeming value in, even ironically.

But there is a certain kind of artistic misfire that wraps back around and becomes fun again, and this hard-to-explain phenomenon has led to certain legendary bad movies becoming beloved in their own strange ways. The following films, encompassing cult classics and some more modern titles, are all examples of this unique kind of movie. They might not succeed in the ways they were intended to succeed, but prove entertaining, fun, and even endearing in unexpected ways.

10 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' (1957)

Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.

It would be sacrilege to talk about iconic and beloved bad movies without at least a passing mention of Plan 9 from Outer Space. This is one of the earliest movies that found a certain amount of fame and even adoration despite – or because of – it not being very good. It’s a 1950s B-movie that makes others from the era look decidedly A-grade, with an especially muddled story about alien invaders all brought to “life” with the lowest of low production value.

Sure, Plan 9 from Outer Space is perhaps a little too clunky for its own good at times, and not always bad in a funny way, but it does have a certain energy and atmosphere to it that can be weirdly charming. It’s also worth watching just for its place in the history of bad movies and cult classics; a mid-century stinker that walked so later beautiful stinkers could run… or walk slower, or fall on their faces but in increasingly funny ways.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Not Rated

Sci-Fi

Horror

Release Date

July 22, 1959

Director

Edward D. Wood Jr.

Cast

Gregory Walcott , Mona McKinnon , Duke Moore , Tom Keene , Carl Anthony , Paul Marco , Tor Johnson , Dudley Manlove , Joanna Lee , John Breckinridge , Lyle Talbot , Conrad Brooks , Maila Nurmi , Bela Lugosi , Criswell , Edward D. Wood Jr. , David De Mering , Norma McCarty , Lynn Lemon

Runtime

79 Minutes

Watch on Tubi

9 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2' (2012)

Directed by Bill Condon

Did The Twilight Saga need to run for five movies? Probably not. There’s an argument to be made that it didn’t really contain enough actual story to sustain the runtime of one or two movies, but the series being drawn out did allow it to slowly build in ridiculousness, all culminating with the phenomenally dopey, chaotic, bizarre, and hyper-campy The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 in 2012.

Generally adapting the last half of the fourth and final book in The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 has creepy children, the protagonist developing vampire abilities, a plethora of hammy side characters, and a ludicrous final battle that has to be seen to be believed. One gets the sense that everyone involved with making this fifth Twilight movie was just having a bit of a laugh while doing so, and viewers who aren’t particularly invested in the series in a serious sense are likely to laugh just as much watching this one.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

PG-13

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Drama

Fantasy

Romance

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*Availability in US

Release Date

November 18, 2011

Director

Bill Condon

Cast

Kristen Stewart , Robert Pattinson , Taylor Lautner , Billy Burke , Peter Facinelli , Elizabeth Reaser , Kellan Lutz , Nikki Reed , Jackson Rathbone , Ashley Greene , Michael Sheen , Dakota Fanning

Runtime

117 Minutes

8 'Super Mario Bros.' (1993)

Directed by Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton

While the more recent animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie might be better/more competent, there is something about the bizarre 1990s live-action version that gives it a certain edge. Super Mario Bros. really does its own thing and feels only loosely connected to the game series of the same name, which is okay, considering there was even less material from the franchise to build upon or develop into a film back in 1993 compared to now.

In this film, the brothers share the surname Mario, so they're Luigi Mario and Mario Mario, and things get wilder from there. It’s to be expected, maybe, when you’ve got Dennis Hopper at his most over-the-top in a villainous role, and both Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo hamming it up as the titular brothers within a bizarre fantasy world.

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie

PG

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Release Date

May 28, 1993

Director

Rocky Morton , Annabel Jankel

Cast

Bob Hoskins , John Leguizamo , Dennis Hopper , Samantha Mathis , Fisher Stevens , Fiona Shaw , Richard Edson

Runtime

104 Minutes

Buy on Amazon

7 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror' (2010)

Directed by James Nguyen

Birdemic: Shock and Terror doesn’t seem to mind the fact that you'll be thinking about The Birds while watching it, but maybe it should, because it’s a horror/thriller movie that fails in just about every way that aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock movie succeeded. The plot concerns a group of people trying to survive a series of deadly bird attacks that are claiming the lives of many in a small town… basic stuff, but it’s all in the execution.

The execution in question is entirely incompetent, with Birdemic: Shock and Terror feeling like some kind of surreal fever dream, owing to how it’s shot, edited together, written, and acted. It might well be one of the worst movies to have been released in the past quarter of a century but, approached a certain way, it’s also one of the most enjoyable bad movies of the 21st century so far.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Not Rated

Horror

Thriller

Release Date

February 27, 2010

Director

James Nguyen

Cast

Alan Bagh , Whitney Moore , Tippi Hedren , Laura Cassidy

Runtime

105 minutes

Watch on Peacock

6 'Mommie Dearest' (1981)

Directed by Frank Perry

If Mommie Dearest was supposed to be a searing and dramatic biographical film, it largely misfired, but if it was supposed to be something of a campy comedy, then it can probably be seen as a success. The intention behind it can be difficult to discern, and it’s the sort of movie one should probably see and make up one’s own mind about. Words can kind of fail to describe this one.

Basically, it’s about the difficult relationship between famed actress Joan Crawford and her adopted daughter, exploring some heavy thematic material in a way that’s strangely over-the-top and almost funny. The story is dark, and it does feel like a drama, but Faye Dunaway gives such a gonzo performance as Crawford – and the script is so comically heavy on extreme melodrama – that attempting to appreciate Mommie Dearest as something serious is near-futile.

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Mommie Dearest

Release Date

September 25, 1981

Director

Frank Perry

Cast

Faye Dunaway , Diana Scarwid , Steve Forrest , Howard Da Silva , Mara Hobel , Rutanya Alda

Runtime

129 minutes

Rent on Apple TV

5 'Troll 2' (1990)

Directed by Claudio Fragasso

A sequel of sorts that’s both more famous and infamous than its predecessor, Troll 2 is another legendary bad movie, almost like a Plan 9 from Outer Space for the 1990s. It almost entirely fails as a work of horror, but succeeds in every conceivable way as an unintentional comedy, building a surreal atmosphere with strange characters saying strange things while difficult to explain things happen around them.

Many other bad horror movies might be funny for a little while, but then grow tiresome. Not Troll 2, which arguably saves its biggest and wildest surprise right until the very end. It’s packed with meme-worthy sequences and lines of dialogue, and stands as a cursed miracle of a film; one where nothing works yet, paradoxically, everything somehow does.

Troll 2

PG-13

Comedy

Fantasy

Horror

Release Date

October 12, 1990

Director

Claudio Fragasso

Cast

Michael Stephenson , George Hardy , Margo Prey , Connie Young , Robert Ormsby , Deborah Reed

Runtime

95 minutes

Watch on Tubi

4 'Samurai Cop' (1991)

Directed by Amir Shervan

It certainly doesn’t join the pantheon of great samurai movies, but Samurai Cop can count itself among the best bad movies of the 1990s, perhaps being even more enjoyable than the aforementioned Troll 2. It is indeed about a cop who possesses the abilities of a samurai warrior, following him as he fights a whole bunch of Yakuza members who are active in L.A.

It’s dopey stuff, and also highly incompetent, with a string of bizarre dialogue sequences leading to some clunky action, then back to weird dialogue, then there’s some sleaze, then more violence, and on and on for 90 minutes or so until the movie just sort of ends. And those who count themselves fans of Samurai Cop probably wouldn’t have it any other way, because this film’s a special (and wonderful) brand of awful.

Samurai Cop

R

Action

Crime

Comedy

Thriller

Release Date

November 30, 1991

Cast

Mathew Karedas , Mark Frazer , Cranston Komuro , Robert Z'Dar , Gerald Okamura , Melissa Moore , Joselito Rescober , Cameron Oppenheimer , Jannis Farley , Dale Cummings , Rick Garcia , Jimmy Williams , Warren Stevens

Runtime

96 minutes

Watch on Tubi

3 'Fateful Findings' (2013)

Directed by Neil Breen

For nearly 20 years now, Neil Breen has been making movies unlike anyone else. He stars in, writes, directs, and produces the stuff he makes, which feels wholly from his unique mind and no one else’s. Picking the best, worst, or most enjoyable Breen picture is a difficult task, but the one that has the most to offer – be it good, bad, or something in between – is probably Fateful Findings.

It has some similar narrative beats to other Neil Breen movies, seeing the man of the hour playing a uniquely gifted individual who knows how to fix the world, and stands up to comically powerful adversaries with little resistance. Fateful Findings is a power trip of a story, but is executed in such a magically gonzo manner, with some of the funniest scenes of the 21st century so far buried deep within its runtime.

Fateful Findings

Not Rated

Drama

Fantasy

Release Date

May 23, 2013

Director

Neil Breen

Cast

Klara Landrat , Neil Breen , Jennifer Autry , David Silva , Gloria Hoffman , Danielle Andrade , Victoria Viveiros , John Henry Hoffman , David Scott , Steven Nelson , Richard Hunsacker , JR Thompson , Ryan Collis , Jaime Reborn , Jack Batoni , Brianna Borden , Mark Bettencort , Jesse Mendez , Monique Batoni , Steve Silverstein , Greg Hobbs , Morgan Villanueva , Tim Duclos , Dasey Cameron , David Miranda

Runtime

100 minutes

Rent on Apple TV

2 'Miami Connection' (1987)

Directed by Y.K. Kim, Richard Park Wu-sang

Just as Samurai Cop was a fantastically stupid 1990s action/crime B-movie, so too is Miami Connection the cream of the crop as far as that niche goes, but for the 1980s instead of the ‘90s. Stopping the illegal drug trade becomes a mission undertaken by the members of a rock band, using the power of music, friendship, and deadly weaponry to defeat what they see as a corrupting force in the world.

Miami Connection is ridiculously violent and also seems like it wants to have an anti-violence message by the time it wraps up, and the contradiction is hilarious. So too are all the action scenes, musical numbers, and unusual characters, but it’s all done in such a hammy and oddly sincere way that it’s hard not to be at least a little won over by Miami Connection. You’ll want to laugh at it and with it at the same time, somehow.

Miami Connection

Not Rated

Action

Crime

Music

Release Date

August 18, 1987

Director

Richard Park Wu-sang , Y.K. Kim

Cast

Y.K. Kim , Vincent Hirsch , Joseph Diamand , Maurice Smith , Angelo Janotti , Kathy Collier , William Ergle , Si Y Jo , William P. Young , Joy Sharpe , Richard Park Wu-sang , William Whitacre , Robert G. Goodwin , Bubba Baker

Runtime

86 Minutes

Rent on Apple TV

1 'The Room' (2003)

Directed by Tommy Wiseau

Even though it’s relatively recent, as far as the history of bad movies is concerned, The Room still feels like the golden standard; the best of the best when it comes to beloved bad movies. It takes on a well-worn love triangle story and pushes it for maximum melodrama and exaggerated tragedy, with so much of what was supposed to be sincere and harrowing ending up hilarious instead.

Still, it’s easy to be thankful for The Room even existing, and even if Tommy Wiseau might've hoped his movie would’ve been received differently, at least it’s endured in one way, rather than being lost to history. Perhaps nothing will ever again be this perfect a storm of filmmaking gone wrong, with The Room being legendary, obscenely quotable, ridiculous, and endlessly rewatchable.

The Room

R

Release Date

June 27, 2003

Director

Tommy Wiseau

Cast

Tommy Wiseau , Juliette Danielle , Greg Sestero , Philip Haldiman , Carolyn Minnott , Robyn Paris

Runtime

99 minutes

Main Genre

Drama

Rent on Apple TV

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