The Room (2003)
Tommy Wiseau in The Room
Often hailed as the best worst film ever made, Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 movie ‘The Room’ earned just $1,900 on its release in 2003. But it became a cultural phenomenon –– with it’s unintentional comedy and endless flaws creating an obsessive fan club who would pack cinemas at special midnight screenings many years later. And it even had an Oscar-nominated, more critically-acclaimed movie, ‘The Disaster Artist’, made about it’s shambolic production in 2017.
Howard The Duck (1996)
Howard The Duck // 📸: Universal Pictures
The first Marvel character made into a full-length feature was not Captain America, X-Men or Spider-Man, but Howard The Duck. With George Lucas as executive producer and starring Tim Robbins, it sounds like the recipe for a movie smash. But it bombed at the box office, while later gaining a cult following for it’s combination of bizarre humor, chaotic special effects and extremely weird will-they-or-won’t-they romance between the extraterrestrial duck and the film’s female lead, played by Lea Thompson.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Plan 9 from Outer Space
No list of brilliantly terrible movies would be complete without the work of American filmmaker Ed Wood. From his filmography of classic turkeys, ‘Planet 9 from Outer Space’ stands out for its poor dialogue, wooden acting and disastrous production — all making for an accidentally hilarious viewing experience.
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Masters of the Universe // 📸: Warner Home Video
The TV show and merchandise of ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ were a 1980s phenomenon, so the 1987 movie version, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man alongside Frank Langella and Courtney Cox, was expected to be a money-making machine. Instead it failed to recoup it’s $22 million budget and was decimated by critics. But it was later lauded as a camp cult classic, with Langella claiming playing Skeletor was “one of his favorite parts” and helped prepare him for roles including his Oscar-nominated turn as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
Apartment Zero (1988)
Apartment Zero
Critics were split over whether this psychological thriller, starring Colin Firth and Hart Bochner, was brilliant, bad or brilliantly bad. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival and earned some positive reviews, yet Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it “hilariously awful.” We’re firmly with him in the brilliantly bad camp.
