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film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
s listed below have been cited by a variety of notable critics in varying media sources as being among the worst films ever made. Examples of such sources include
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
,
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
's list of most-hated films, ''
The Golden Turkey Awards ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry. About The book awards "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to have created a ...
'', ''
Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...
'',
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
,
pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...
writer Nathan Rabin's '' My World of Flops'', the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the cult TV series ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'' (alongside spinoffs ''
Cinematic Titanic Cinematic Titanic was a project by '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') creator and original host, Joel Hodgson. The project involved " riffing" B-movies, in a manner similar to that of ''MST3K''. Joining Hodgson were some of the original ...
'' and '' RiffTrax'') and the
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
(aka the "Razzies"). Films on these lists are generally feature-length films that are
commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
/
artistic Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...
in nature (intended to turn a profit, express personal statements or both), professionally or independently produced (as opposed to
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History ...
productions), and released in theaters, then on television, or more recently through
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
or
streaming services An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of ...
.


1930s


''Maniac'' (1934)

''Maniac'', also known as ''Sex Maniac'', is an exploitation-
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...
directed by Dwain Esper. The story is a loose adaptation of the
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
story " The Black Cat" and follows a
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
impersonator who becomes an assistant to a
mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly am ...
. Promoted as a documentary on
mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
, ''Maniac'' was criticized for its gratuitous footage of women undressing and for taking horror sequences from the 1922 silent film ''
Häxan ''Häxan'' (, "The Witch"; Danish: ''Heksen''; English: ''The Witches''; released in the US in 1968 as ''Witchcraft Through the Ages'') is a 1922 silent horror essay film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Consisting partly of d ...
''. Danny Peary believes that ''Maniac'' is the worst film ever made, Charlie Jane Anders of
Gawker Media Gawker Media LLC (formerly Blogwire, Inc. and Gawker Media, Inc.) was an American online media company and blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was based in New York City. Incorporated in the Cayman Isla ...
s io9 described it as "possibly the worst movie in history" and ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' critic Michael Wilmington wrote that it may be the worst film he had ever seen, writing: "There are some voyages into ineptitude, like Dwain Esper's anti-classic ''Maniac,'' that defy all reason."
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
placed ''Maniac'' on its list of movies "So Bad They're Unmissable", ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'' included the film on its list of the 20 worst movies ever and it is featured in John J. B. Wilson's book '' The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst''.


''Reefer Madness'' (1936)

''Reefer Madness'' (originally released as ''Tell Your Children'' and sometimes titled or subtitled as ''The Burning Question'', ''Dope Addict'', ''Doped Youth'', and ''Love Madness'') is a 1936 American
exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
and propaganda work revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...
— and become addicted and involved in various crimes such as a hit and run accident,
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
,
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
, attempted rape, and descent into madness, association with organized crime and suicide. ''
Pacific Standard ''Pacific Standard'' was an American online magazine that reported on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 2008, the magazine was published in print and online for its first ten years until production of the print edition cease ...
'' wrote that ''Reefer Madness'' was "one of the first films ever to be considered transcendentally bad" and
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
has called it "the grand-daddy of all 'Worst' movies". '' Las Vegas CityLife'' named it the "worst ever" runner-up to ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'', and
News.com.au news.com.au is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance, and sport. Staff The organiza ...
considered it a "disastrous flop turned cult classic" due to its "terrible acting and exaggerated drug-addicted stereotypes". Natalli Amato of ''
The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometo ...
'' included ''Reefer Madness'' on her list of the best worst movies, writing that it "may be one of the worst movies of all time for the fact that it accomplished the exact opposite of its intended goal" by becoming a cult classic among stoners. ''
Leafly Leafly is a website focused on cannabis use and education. The company says it has more than 120 million annual visitors and over 10 million monthly active users. Leafly provides a wide range of information on cannabis, including 1.5 million con ...
''s Danté Jordan also wrote that it may be "the worst movie of all time", criticizing its many inaccuracies regarding marijuana use and calling it "easily one of the most uncreative and tone-deaf pieces of anti-cannabis propaganda". For the ''
Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of t ...
'', Joe Schwarz called it "undoubtedly one of the worst movies ever made", describing its acting as "stilted" and its plot as "seem ngcomedic but...meant to be taken seriously".


''The Terror of Tiny Town'' (1938)

''The Terror of Tiny Town'', directed by
Sam Newfield Sam Newfield, born Samuel Neufeld, (December 6, 1899 - November 10, 1964), also known as Sherman Scott or Peter Stewart, was an American B-movie director, one of the most prolific in American film history—he is credited with directing over 2 ...
and produced by
Jed Buell Jed Buell (May 21, 1897 - September 29, 1961) was an American film producer, director, and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget B pictures in a variety of subjects including singing cowboy films featuring midgets and black actors. Career ...
, remains the only
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...
Western with an all-
dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...
cast. The film was pulled from obscurity as a camp classic after appearing in college and midnight screenings in the early 1970s. In 1978, it was included in
Michael Medved Michael Saul Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is syndicated via G ...
's book, '' The Fifty Worst Films of All Time'', and has since been listed as one of the worst films ever made, by ''
Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' is a New York City-based online culture magazine. The site includes original feature articles, interviews, reviews, as well as content recycled from other sources. ''Flavorwire'' describes themselves as "a network of culturally co ...
'', Rotten Tomatoes, and ''
The Golden Turkey Awards ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry. About The book awards "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to have created a ...
''.
Melvin Defleur Melvin Lawrence DeFleur (April 27, 1923 – February 13, 2017) was a professor and scholar in the field of communications. His initial field of study was social sciences. Biography Melvin Lawrence DeFleur was born in Portland, Oregon on April 27, ...
referred to it as "Perhaps the worst film of all time", and critic Gabriel Ricard listed it as the worst film ever made; stating, "not only is it pretty terrible, but ''Tiny Town'' is also pretty endearing." In 1986, ''The Terror of Tiny Town'' was the first film featured on '' Canned Film Festival'', a
late night television Late night television is one of the dayparts in television broadcast programming. It follows prime time and precedes the overnight television show graveyard slot. The slot generally runs from about 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. ET, with variations ...
show featuring the worst movies ever made.


1940s


''The Babe Ruth Story'' (1948)

''The Babe Ruth Story'' is a 1948 baseball film biography of
Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
, starring William Bendix,
Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...
and
Sam Levene Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and dr ...
. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' describes it as "the ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'' of baseball biopics". It was rushed into release while Ruth was still alive. One infamous scene features Ruth promising a dying child that he will hit two
home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
s. The child is subsequently cured of his ailments after Ruth delivers on the promise.
Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
r
Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 193 ...
believed it to be the worst movie he had ever seen. ''
The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
'' stated that it "stands as possibly the worst movie ever made". ''
The Spokesman-Review ''The Spokesman-Review'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base i ...
'' included the film on their list of the worst films of all time, while Paul Newberry of the ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
'' wrote that the film's place on "nearly every list of the worst movies ever made" was "with good reason". ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...
''s Jack Mathews similarly wrote that ''The Babe Ruth Story'' was "what many people consider to be the worst sports movie of all time". It also was called one of the worst sports films ever each by ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...
'' and '' The A.V. Club'', and called one of the worst biopics by
Moviefone Moviefone is an American-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users ...
and Spike. Entertainment writer Michael Sauter included the film in his book, ''The Worst Movies of All Time'', and Leonard Maltin called it "perfectly dreadful".


''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' (1948)

''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'', a British gangster film adapted from the 1939
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
by
James Hadley Chase James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985) was an English writer. While his birth name was René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well known by his various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond ...
, received a very hostile reception from the press. This was mainly due to the film's high (for the time) level of sexual and violent content, but also because its attempt to portray Americans using a largely British cast (including an early role for Sid James) was seen as unconvincing. The British film journal ''
Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...
'' called it "the most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen". The '' Sunday Express'' film reviewer called ''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' "the worst film I have ever seen". The Australian newspaper ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' also gave a harsh review: "''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' is not only a disgrace to the studio that made it, but it also reflects on the British industry as a whole ... the entire production is unpardonable." Cliff Goodwin, discussing ''No Orchids For Miss Blandish's'' initial reception, notes it was "unanimously dubbed 'the worst film ever made. Later reviews of the film were equally antipathetic. ''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' was described by British film reviewer Leslie Halliwell as a "hilariously awful gangster film ... one of the worst films ever made". '' Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide'' states that ''No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' "aspires to be a Hollywood
film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...
and misses by a mile."


1950s


''Glen or Glenda'' (1953)

''Glen or Glenda'' starred
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
as Glen, a transvestite who cross-dresses as Glenda. Wood also directed the film. After a
dream sequence A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other ...
, Glen undergoes psychotherapy to help "cure" him of his transvestism.
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
wrote that ''Glen or Glenda'' was worse than Wood's later ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'' and considered it "possibly the worst movie ever made". Julien Allen of '' Reverse Shot'' similarly wrote that it was "widely considered to be an atrocity" and "the most catastrophic failure of ood'ssingularly bad career". Richard Barrios described ''Glen or Glenda'' as "one of the funniest and worst movies ever made".


''Robot Monster'' (1953)

''Robot Monster'' is a science-fiction film produced and directed by Phil Tucker and originally shot and exhibited in 3D. Its title character, which is "a man in a gorilla suit wearing what looks like a diving helmet sprouting TV antennae", was given the Most Ridiculous Monster in Screen History award in ''The Golden Turkey Awards''. It is also featured in ''
The Book of Lists The ''Book of Lists'' refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. Each book contains hundreds of lists (many accompanied by textual explanations) on unusual or obs ...
'' 10 worst movies list, ''The Fifty Worst Films of All Time'' and Michael Sauter's book ''The Worst Movies of All Time''. ''Robot Monster'' was featured in an episode of the movie-mocking television show ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'', as well as ''Canned Film Festival''. The film is remembered fondly by horror novelist
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, who quotes, and agrees with, a review in '' Castle of Frankenstein'' magazine ("certainly among the finest terrible movies ever made", "one of the most laughable
poverty row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...
quickies"). Chris Barsanti in ''The Sci-Fi Movie Guide'' writes: " 'Robot Monster''gives ''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' a run as the worst movie of all time."


''The Conqueror'' (1956)

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in t ...
funded '' The Conqueror'', an
epic film Epic films are a style of filmmaking with large-scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre and at other times simply synonymous with big-budget filmmaking. Like epics in ...
featuring
John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...
as
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
n chieftain
Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; ; xng, Temüjin, script=Latn; ., name=Temujin – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in history a ...
and the redheaded
Susan Hayward Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an American film actress, best known for her film portrayals of women that were based on true stories. After working as a fashion model for the Walter Thornton Model A ...
as a
Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary
is an umbrella term for different
princess. The movie was filmed near St. George, Utah, downwind from a nuclear testing range in
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, and is often blamed for the
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
deaths of many of the cast and crew, including Hayward, Wayne,
Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...
,
Pedro Armendáriz Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings (May 9, 1912 – June 18, 1963) was a Mexican film actor who made films in both Mexico and the United States. With Dolores del Río and María Félix, he was one of the best-known Latin American movie stars ...
, and director
Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...
. In addition to filming near the testing range, truckloads of the red sands were transported back to the studios for interior scenes and by 1980, 91 of the 220 (over 41%) cast and crew members had been diagnosed with cancer. The film made the ten-worst list in ''The Book of Lists'', appears in Michael Sauter's ''The Worst Movies of All Time'', and was among those listed in ''The Fifty Worst Films of All Time''. Additionally, the '' Aldergrove Star'' described ''The Conqueror'' as the worst ever made and '' Complex'' listed it as the worst biopic ever made. Originally written for
Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' called the choice of Wayne for Khan "one of the worst casting decisions of all time". Wayne lamented taking the role, stating, "Don’t make an ass of yourself trying to play parts you are not suited for." ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' writes: "by absolutely every conceivable metric - financially, critically, historically, ethnically, and even body count – it would come to be known as one of the biggest disasters in cinematic history." Hughes, one of the world's wealthiest people at the time, had previously produced the successful dramatic films '' Hell's Angels'', '' Scarface'', and '' The Outlaw''. After seeing ''The Conqueror'' himself, Hughes bought every existing print for $12 million and refused to let the film be seen on television until 1974, reportedly out of guilt over the decision to shoot at such a hazardous location. This was the last film Hughes produced.


''Fire Maidens from Outer Space'' (1956)

''Fire Maidens from Outer Space'', a low-budget British
space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soc ...
film (known in the US as ''Fire Maidens of Outer Space''), is about a group of astronauts visiting an all-female society on a moon of
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
. This film developed a negative reputation for its poor special effects (including a scene on the alien planet in which an automobile is visible driving past).Fire Maidens Of Outer Space
''DVD Talk'', August 13, 2013. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
Leslie Halliwell described ''Fire Maidens from Outer Space'' as "a strong contender for the title of the worst movie ever made, with diaphanously clad English gals striking embarrassed poses against cardboard sets". British film historian I.Q. Hunter included it in his list of candidates for "the worst British film ever made".I. Q Hunter, "From Window Cleaner to Potato Man" in ''British Comedy Cinema'', edited by I.Q. Hunter and Laraine Porter. Routledge, 2012. . (p.154) The
DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
website's review claimed it "may be among the worst-ever professionally produced science fiction films". Paul Welsh of the '' Borehamwood & Elstree Times'' wrote that it was "probably the worst
ilm Ilm or ILM may refer to: Acronyms * Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product * '' I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1 * Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets * Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion ...
ever produced". In his book ''Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies'', David L. Robb wrote that the film's director
Cy Roth ''Fire Maidens from Outer Space'' (US: ''Fire Maidens of Outer Space'') is a 1956 British independent black-and-white science fiction feature film. It was written, produced and directed by American filmmaker Cy Roth as a collaboration between C ...
is "widely regarded as one of the worst filmmakers of all time", adding that, out of the three films he made, "the worst was ''Fire Maidens from Outer Space''...which is often cited as one of the ten worst movies ever made".


''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' (1957)

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
's ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', a
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
film about aliens resurrecting the dead, was labeled the "Worst Film Ever" by ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' in 1980. Wood shot only a small amount of unrelated footage featuring top-billed star
Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
before his death. Wood incorporated the footage into the film and cast Tom Mason as Lugosi's stand-in; Mason, the
chiropractor Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudosci ...
of Wood's wife, bore little resemblance to Lugosi and played his scenes holding the character's cape in front of his face. Although ''Golden Turkey Awards'' author Michael Medved credits Lugosi's top billing with its enduring legacy, ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' listed various other shortcomings: "A
UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...
dangling in the sky has been variously said to be either a car hubcap or a paper plate. Actors read from scripts on their lap; sound microphones wobble in and out of shot. Fake trees and cemetery headstones wobble as the actors brush past them. Characters go into scenes when it's night time and leave five minutes later into daylight. ... the plot itself appears to be the product of insanity." Emanuel Levy notes the film has been dubbed "the epitome of so-bad-it’s-good cinema" and has gained a
cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
since appearing in ''The Golden Turkey Awards''. '' My Year of Flops'' author Nathan Rabin wrote that: "It’s hard to overstate the role ''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' and its eccentric creator have played in the birth and evolution of bad movie culture... ''Plan 9'' was the original best worst movie." BBC writer Nicholas Barber wrote that "it stands as the epitome of cinematic awfulness. And that's why so many people love it." Glenn Kenny of ''
RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...
'' and ''The
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...
Guide to Films'' each described it as the worst movie ever made, and IGN wrote: "''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' was the undisputed best worst movie ever made for decades until films like '' Troll 2'' and '' The Room'' got notorious, and it’s still a legitimate contender". It holds a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 38 reviews, with the consensus stating that it is "justly celebrated for its staggering ineptitude". Phil Hall of ''
Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...
'' contends that the film is "far too entertaining to be considered as the very worst film ever made", and
Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...
states that, "The worst thing you can say about a film is that it's boring, and ''Plan 9'' is a fairly entertaining movie." Although ''Flavorwire'' included it on its list of the 50 worst movies ever made (in the 50th spot), writer Jason Bailey described ''The Golden Turkey Awards''s assessment of it as "a label that stuck" and opined that he did not think it was even Wood's worst film. Likewise, John Wirt of ''The Advocate'' goes as far as to call it "the ultimate cult flick", and ''Videohound's Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics'' states, "In fact, the film has become so famous for its own badness that it's now beyond criticism." Barber credits ''Plan 9''s cult following to the film having some "halfway decent" elements, such as the film's title and screen presence of actors Tor Johnson and
Maila Nurmi Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi (December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008), known professionally as Maila Nurmi, was an American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira. She was raised in Astoria, Oregon, where she worked in tuna and s ...
, while film historian Rodney F. Hill considers the film to be a "campy, cult masterpiece" with a "minimalist avant-garde aesthetic".


1960s


''The Creeping Terror'' (1964)

The science-fiction/horror film ''The Creeping Terror'' was directed, produced, and edited by Vic Savage (under the pseudonym A.J. Nelson or Arthur Nelson, but kept his name when credited as an actor). The movie is about a large slug-like alien that lands on Earth and terrorizes a small town in California. The film is memorable for its use of some bargain-basement effects: stock footage of a rocket launch played in reverse to depict the landing of an alien spacecraft, and the "monster" appears to be composed of a length of shag carpet draped over several actors. Notably, the creature's victims inexplicably stand perfectly still as the slow-moving monster approaches them. ''
ComingSoon.net Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male ...
'' declared it "widely considered the worst picture ever made", calling ''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' "a bona fide magnum opus" compared to ''The Creeping Terror''. ''
Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of t ...
'' and
Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website ...
also report that it has a reputation as being one of the worst films ever made. The film was featured in ''The Golden Turkey Awards'', and its follow-up book, ''Son of Golden Turkey Awards''. ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' featured ''The Creeping Terror'' during their sixth season and British film magazine '' Total Film'' included it on their list of the 66 worst films ever made. A documentary directed by Pete Schuermann about the making of the film, ''The Creep Behind The Camera'', was released in 2014.


''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' (1964)

The sci-fi movie ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' was the creation of television director Nicholas Webster. Because
Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pr ...
children only get to see
Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...
on TV signals beamed from Earth, their parents decide to abduct Santa to make them happy. The film was criticized for its oddity and poor special effects. It is also known for starring a very young Pia Zadora. BBC critic Nick Cramp described it as "possibly the worst film ever made". The film is cited on a 10-worst list in ''The Book of Lists'' and in ''The Fifty Worst Films of All Time''. It has been featured in ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', ''Canned Film Festival'', ''Rifftrax'' and ''
Cinematic Titanic Cinematic Titanic was a project by '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') creator and original host, Joel Hodgson. The project involved " riffing" B-movies, in a manner similar to that of ''MST3K''. Joining Hodgson were some of the original ...
'' (another spin-off of ''MST3K'' that revisited the film in 2008).


''The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies'' (1964)

'' The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies'' (sometimes billed as ''The Incredibly Strange Creatures'') is a 1964 American monster movie written and directed by
Ray Dennis Steckler Ray Dennis Steckler (January 25, 1938 – January 7, 2009), also known by the pseudonym Cash Flagg, was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor best known as the low-budget auteur of such cult films as '' The Incredibly St ...
. Steckler also starred in the film, billed under the pseudonym "Cash Flagg". In the film, three friends visit a carnival and stumble onto a group of occultists and disfigured monsters. Produced on a $38,000 budget, much of it takes place at
The Pike ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
amusement park in
Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
, which resembles
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
's
Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
. The film was billed as the first "monster musical", beating out ''
The Horror of Party Beach ''The Horror of Party Beach'' is a 1964 American horror film in the beach party genre, directed and co-produced by Del Tenney. The film, described as "a take-off on beach parties and musicals," is considered to be one of the worst films of all ...
'' by a mere month in release date. The 2004 DVD ''The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made'' listed this film as the worst film of all time. The rock critic
Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, critic, author, and musician. He wrote for '' Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock music ...
wrote an appreciative 1973
essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
about ''Incredibly Strange Creatures'' in which he tries to explain and justify the movie's value: "This flick doesn't just rebel against, or even disregard, standards of taste and art. In the universe inhabited by ''The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies'', such things as standards and responsibility have never been heard of. It is this lunar purity which largely imparts to the film its classic stature. Like ''
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls ''Beyond the Valley of the Dolls'' is a 1970 American satirical musical melodrama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, Phyllis Davis, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett, and David Gurian. The film was directed by Russ Meyer and ...
'' and a very few others, it will remain as an artifact in years to come to which scholars and searchers for truth can turn and say, ''This'' was trash!


''Monster a Go-Go!'' (1965)

''Monster a Go-Go!'' began as ''Terror at Halfday'' by
Bill Rebane Bill Rebane (born February 8, 1937) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for low budget movies such as ''Monster a Go-Go'' and '' The Giant Spider Invasion''. Rebane also ran for the governor of Wisconsin in ...
. The production ran out of money and the film was abandoned. Herschell Gordon Lewis, who reportedly needed a second feature to comprise a double bill, purchased and completed it for a minimal amount of money. Several of the film's actors were unable to return, so Lewis simply replaced their parts with new characters who mysteriously appear and fill the roles of the missing characters. One of the actors Lewis managed to rehire had gained weight, gone bald, and grown a goatee, so Lewis recast him as the brother of the original character. The picture consists mostly of lengthy dialogue sequences concerning the apparent mutation of an astronaut into a monster portrayed by the 231 cm (7 ft 6¾ in) tall Henry Hite. Poor audio quality makes much of the dialogue unintelligible, and when the film is overexposed, several characters' faces appear as bright white, glowing circles. During the climax of the movie, as soldiers prepare to confront the mutated astronaut, he abruptly vanishes and the narrator informs the audience, "there was no monster", and that the astronaut has, in fact, been in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
the entire time.
All Movie Guide AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cul ...
calls the film a "surreal anti-masterpiece". It was also featured on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', where writer Paul Chaplin called the dialogue "garbled beyond recognition". The entire cast of the show later stated it was officially the worst movie they had ever seen.


''Manos: The Hands of Fate'' (1966)

The low-budget horror film ''Manos: The Hands of Fate'', made by El Paso insurance and fertilizer salesman Hal P. Warren, concerns a vacationing family kidnapped by a
polygamous cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. ...
of
pagans Pagans may refer to: * Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire * Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices * Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series * Pagan's M ...
. The film was conceived after Warren bet Academy Award-winning screenwriter
Stirling Silliphant Stirling Dale Silliphant (January 16, 1918 – April 26, 1996) was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for '' In the Heat of the Night'', for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating ...
that anyone could make a horror movie. Warren was convinced by the film's cinematographer and stunt coordinator that most of its glaring mistakes could be fixed in a
Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
post-production studio, when in reality the two wanted to quickly wrap the production because they were not being paid. Several technical gaffes made it into the film, including scenes filmed out of focus, a marking slate being seen in one shot, the scarf on the female lead's head disappearing and reappearing, and an insect bumping the camera lens. The film was shot with a camera that could not record sound and had a 32-second maximum shot length. All dialogue was later dubbed by Warren and four others, including a grown woman who dubbed the voice for a seven-year-old girl. It opens with a nine-minute driving scene that the filmmakers intended to use for cast and crew credits, but failed to do so. The movie includes dialogue spoken while all characters are facing away from the camera, a character complaining about it getting dark while the sun is brightly shining, and the character Torgo, a
satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, ex ...
with overly large thighs, that three women attempt to massage to death. The film gained notoriety and cult popularity by being featured on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', and was the show's most popular episode. The film has a rare 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...
'' says the movie is "widely regarded as, quite simply, the worst movie ever made". Even Warren himself would later admit his film was one of the worst ever, suggesting it might make a passable comedy if redubbed. The film was later restored and released on Blu-ray in 2015.


''A Place for Lovers'' (1968)

''A Place for Lovers'' is a French-Italian
romantic film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...
directed by
Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the Italian neorealism, neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Shoeshine (film), Sciuscià ...
(a filmmaker known for acclaimed neorealist works such as ''
Umberto D ''Umberto D.'' () is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti who plays the title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a poor elderly man in Rome who is despe ...
'' and ''
The Bicycle Thieves ''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-World Wa ...
''), starring
Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
as a terminally ill American fashion designer in
Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isl ...
, and
Marcello Mastroianni Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
as a race car driver who has a whirlwind affair with her.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' called it the "most godawful piece of pseudo-romantic slop I've ever seen!" and
Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' referred to it as "the worst movie I have seen all year and possibly since 1926". Leonard Maltin noted Ebert's comments in his review and offered that the film was "low points for all concerned". ''A Place for Lovers'' was included as one of the choices in ''The Fifty Worst Films of All Time'' and ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'' listed it as one of the 20 worst movies ever made.


''They Saved Hitler's Brain'' (1968)

''They Saved Hitler's Brain'' is a
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstel ...
directed by David Bradley. It was adapted for television from a shorter 1963 theatrical
feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
, ''Madmen of Mandoras'', and was lengthened by about 20 minutes with additional footage shot by
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
students at the request of the distributor. In the film,
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
's head was severed from his body at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the head plans to rule over a new Third Reich from
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
. It has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews from critics, with an average rating of 1.3/10. ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...
'' called it "One of the all-time worst", while Danny Peary said it was "A legitimate candidate for Worst Film Ever Made title." In 1979, it won the World's Worst Film Festival in
Ottawa, Canada Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, which reportedly delighted Bradley. It has been featured in ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' and ''Canned Film Festival'', and has been spoofed on ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' multiple times.


1970s


''Myra Breckinridge'' (1970)

The 1970 comedy film ''Myra Breckinridge'', based on the book of the same name by
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
, directed by
Michael Sarne Michael Sarne (born Michael Scheuer; 6 August 1940) is a British actor, writer, producer and director, who also had a brief career as a pop singer in the 1960s. Sarne directed the films ''Joanna'' (1968) and ''Myra Breckinridge'' (1970). He h ...
and starring
Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in '' Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hamm ...
, Rex Reed,
Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
,
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
and
Farrah Fawcett Farrah Leni Fawcett (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett; February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she played ...
, provoked controversy due to a scene in which Welch forcibly sodomizes a bound man while clips from various classic films play onscreen. The film was initially
rated X An X rating is a rating used in various countries to classify films that have content deemed suitable only for adults. It is used when the violent or sexual content of a film is considered to be potentially disturbing to general audiences. Aust ...
before edits and an appeal to the
MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...
brought it down to an R. It also used the technique of inserting clips from
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
movies in such a way that the dialogue took on sexual undertones. Several stars whose films were featured objected to the gimmick such as Loretta Young who sued to remove the footage from the 1939 film ''
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell ''The Story of Alexander Graham Bell'' is a somewhat fictionalized 1939 biographical film of the famous inventor. It was filmed in black-and-white and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. The film stars Don Ameche as Bell and Loretta Young as Mab ...
''. The film was a critical failure, with ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine saying "''Myra Breckinridge'' is about as funny as a child molester". Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB (the lowest score possible) and stated that it was "as bad as any movie ever made". ''
The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the '' Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...
'' critic Herb Kelly nominated ''Myra Breckinridge'' as the worst film ever made. It was also included in ''The Book of Lists'' worst movies of all time, which claimed that there was something in it to offend absolutely everyone. Likewise, ''The Fifty Worst Films of All Time'' and ''Vanity Fair'' also listed it as one of the worst movies ever made. Gore Vidal disowned it, calling it "an awful joke", and blamed the movie for a decade-long drought in the sale of the original book.


''Zaat'' (1971)

Directed by Don Barton, ''Zaat'' was also known under various titles including ''Hydra'', ''Attack of the Swamp Creatures'', ''Legend of the Zaat Monster'', and ''The Blood Waters of Dr. Z'' (the name under which it was lampooned on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''). The film follows a Nazi
mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly am ...
who injects himself with a formula that turns him into a mutated catfish. ''
Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...
'' critic Matt Soergel quipped that ''Zaat'' "could very well be the best film ever made about a mutated catfish". Critic Jeffrey Kauffman said, "this is the sort of film Ed Wood, Jr. might have made—on a bad day" and added, "Lovers of fantastically bad films rate ''Zaat'' one of the worst". Patrick Naugle of
DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revie ...
stated, "The acting in ''Zaat'' is below subpar. Actors seem to be whispering their lines and trying hard not to fully comprehend that they're in one of the worst films ever made", while Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict also claimed, "''Zaat'' may be one of the worst films ever created". NPR called it a "sci-fi fiasco" when it became "the winner — er, loser —" on IMDb's Bottom 100. ''Zaat'' appeared on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', which gave it significant exposure, and was also featured on
RedLetterMedia Red Letter Media, LLC is an American film and video production company operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa (formerly of GMP Pictures) and Jay Bauman (formerly of Blanc Screen Cinema). It was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while he was li ...
's show ''Half in the Bag'' where the hosts called it one of their favorite " so bad it's good" films. ''Total Film'' included it in their list of the 66 worst films of all time.


''An American Hippie in Israel'' (1972)

The 1972 Israeli film ''An American Hippie in Israel'' is about an American
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
traveling to
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
after being involved with the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, befriending Israeli
flower child Flower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially among the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and the surrounding area during the Summer of Love in 1967. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribut ...
ren, and encountering "menacing" mimes along the way. The film was presumed
lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
, but after resurfacing 38 years after its production, it became a "midnight sensation" in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
and developed a cult following akin to ''
The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 Musical film, musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White (producer), Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman an ...
''. It was then released internationally on home video by Grindhouse Releasing. Gil Shefler of '' The Jewish Daily Forward'' described it as "perfectly awful", offering that it "probably is the worst Israeli movie ever made, and a serious candidate for the worst movie of all time". Its description as "a serious candidate for the worst movie of all time" was echoed by Josh Olson in ''
IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
''. Ben Hartman of ''
The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the pap ...
'' stated the film was "surely one of the worst films ever made in Israel, or beyond". ''
Nana 10 Nana 10 ( he, נענע 10), previously Nana (lit. mint), was an Israeli Web portal. The website was owned by Israeli web and communication company 013 Netvision Cellcom ( he, סלקום) () is an Israeli telecommunications company. Founded in ...
'' said it claims the title of "worst Israeli film and most amusing".


''At Long Last Love'' (theatrical version, 1975)

''At Long Last Love'' was renowned director
Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...
's musical homage to great 1930s Hollywood musicals. It features songs by
Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...
and stars
Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress and former model. Her film debut and breakthrough role came as Jacy Farrow in Peter Bogdanovich's coming-of-age drama ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971) alongside Jeff Bridges. ...
and
Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
. ''
Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...
'' wrote that it received "the most withering reviews any film ever received", while ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' reported that it was "savaged by critics at the time and viewed as one of the worst films ever".
Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' compared it to the later critical failures of '' Heaven's Gate'' and ''
Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...
'', writing: "critics of the time heaven’s-gated 'At Long Last Love'' leaving Bogdanovich ishtarred and feathered". Such reviews included Hollis Alpert's, in which he said that "This failure is so dismal that it goes beyond failure", and ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' critic John Simon's, who said that "it may be the worst movie musical of this – or any – decade". Meanwhile, ''
Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by ...
'' film critic Jeff Simon wrote, "About 45 minutes in, it became apparent to one and all that this was one of the worst and most embarrassing major-talent turkeys of all time." Bogdanovich, who was also the screenwriter, sent press releases to newspapers across the country apologizing for this film. CNN later noted that it had attained a legacy as being "the worst musical extravaganza in Hollywood history", and
Jay Cocks John C. "Jay" Cocks Jr. (born January 12, 1944) is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is a graduate of Kenyon College.white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
catastrophe of its time". Lester J. Keyser wrote that it was "justly included on most lists of the ten worst films ever made", as it was included in Michael Sauter's ''The Worst Films of All Time'', ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' and ''Vanity Fairs worst film list. Bogdanovich lamented being influenced by studio previews to cut the film before its theatrical release. Unbeknownst to Bogdanovich, a studio editor who preferred the director's first cut constructed his own based on the test screening version that he once had access to. This version subsequently aired on cable television and streamed on
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
in place of the theatrical cut. When news of this reached Bogdanovich, he contacted Fox and made a few finishing touches, resulting in a better received director's cut that debuted on
home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
in 2013.


''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977)

''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' is the sequel to William Friedkin's Oscar-winning
1973 film Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
, this time directed by
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as '' Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), '' Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977 ...
. While British film critic
Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine '' Sight & Sound'', pr ...
called the original film his favourite film of all time, he believes the sequel to be the worst film ever made. The ''Golden Turkey Awards'' named it the second-worst film ever made, after ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''. Critic Bill Chambers stated it was "Possibly the worst film ever made and surely the worst sequel ever made." It also appeared in ''The Official Razzie Movie Guide'' book. Friedkin believes the sequel diminished the value of the original film and called it "the worst piece of shit I've ever seen" and "a fucking disgrace." Eventually, the film garnered so much hate that Boorman disowned it. In an interview with Bob McCabe for the book ''The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows'', he confessed, "The sin I committed was not giving the audience what it wanted in terms of horror."


''The Swarm'' (1978)

''The Swarm'' is a 1978 horror film about a killer bee invasion of
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, directed and produced by
Irwin Allen Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen, June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genr ...
. Despite its all-star cast (including Michael Caine,
Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and ra ...
,
Richard Widmark Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, ''Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...
and
Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...
), it was a box-office failure and was excoriated by reviewers.''Halliwell's film and video guide 2002'' edited by John Walker. London. HarperCollins Entertainment, 2001. (p. 804). On its UK release, ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' described ''The Swarm'' as "simply the worst film ever made". Leslie Halliwell described it as a "very obvious disaster movie with risible dialogue". ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' article on ''The Swarm'' stated, "You could pass it all off as a sick joke, except it cost twelve million dollars, twenty-two million bees, and several years of someone's life." Barry Took, reviewing it for ''
Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pu ...
'', stated, "the story is of a banality matched only by the woodenness of the acting". ''
Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...
'' magazine called ''The Swarm'' a "risibly inadequate disaster movie". ''The Swarm'' is included in several "worst movie" books, including the Medved brothers' ''The Golden Turkey Awards'', and ''The Official Razzie Movie Guide''. It soon gained a
cult status A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
(enough so that
Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inten ...
released the extended version on
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
).


''I Spit on Your Grave'' (1978)

''I Spit on Your Grave'' became controversial for its graphic violence and lengthy depictions of gang rape. It was initially unable to find a distributor until 1980, when it received a wider release. Luke Y. Thompson of the '' New Times'' stated, "Defenders of the film have argued that it's actually pro-woman, due to the fact that the female lead wins in the end, which is sort of like saying that cockfights are pro-rooster because there's always one left standing". Critic David Keyes named ''I Spit on Your Grave'' the worst film of the 1980s and James Livingston wrote in ''The World Turned Inside Out'' that it was "a terrifically bad movie". Scott Tobias of ''The A.V. Club'' called it "one of the era's most abhorrent pieces of exploitation trash" and Patrick Naugle of DVD Verdict stated, "It's one of the most soulless, vile, and morally reprehensible things I've ever had to sit through." Roger Ebert gave the film no stars, referring to it as "A vile bag of garbage ... without a shred of artistic distinction," adding, "Attending it was one of the most depressing experiences of my life" and considered it the worst movie ever made.
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...
also considered it one of the worst films ever made. ''Film Racket'' featured it as their first entry in to their "Worst Movie Ever?" series, while ''Vanity Fair'' and ''Flavorwire'' included it in their worst film lists. Despite the intense negative reception from some critics, the film has a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with '' IGN'' critic R.L. Shaffer arguing that whether the film is repulsive and exploitative or ingenious depends on what the viewer wants from the movie: "Admittedly, ''I Spit on Your Grave'' is a gruesome, deplorable little exploitation picture that, on the surface, seems to enjoy its rape sequences just as much, if not more, than the vengeance-filled finale. But on a more subtle level, the film is a surprisingly well-executed revenge story that plays like a brutally raw nerve – a terrifyingly stark view of the real horror of rape, painted by bizarre, skewed cinematography, gory violence, and a keen sense of creeping atmosphere and dread."


''Caligula'' (1979)

The 1979 erotic/historical drama ''Caligula'', directed by
Tinto Brass Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the er ...
about the infamous Roman Emperor
Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...
, was in part financed by '' Penthouse'' founder
Bob Guccione Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine '' Penthouse'' in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's ''Playboy' ...
. The film, featuring a prestigious cast (
Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised i ...
,
Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom ...
,
Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old V ...
, and
John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Brit ...
) has explicit scenes of sex and violence, including six minutes of hardcore porn footage filmed by Guccione and another editor. ''Caligula'' earned some prerelease controversy after
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
, who had written the script, distanced himself from the film, and actress Maria Schneider, who objected to the nude scenes, walked off the set and was replaced with then-unknown
Teresa Ann Savoy Teresa Ann Savoy, FRSA (18 July 1955 – 9 January 2017) was a British actress who appeared in a number of Italian films. Biography Savoy was 18 years old when she appeared in the Italian adult magazine '' Playmen'' (October 1973), using an a ...
. Upon its release, Vidal stated that it was "easily one of the worst films ever made". ''Caligula'' also received strongly hostile reviews from critics, who denounced its extreme scenes of sex and violence and lack of narrative coherence. Roger Ebert gave ''Caligula'' a zero stars rating, dubbing it "sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash", accusing it of being artistically vulgar in its depiction of sex and violence, and of having technically incompetent direction and structure. It was one of the few films Ebert ever walked out on (two hours into its 170-minute running time), after describing himself as feeling "disgusted and unspeakably depressed". Ebert also placed it on his "Most Hated" list and Michael Sauter selected it for ''The Worst Movies of All Time''. Australian newspaper ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' stated that ''Caligula'' was being "billed by critics everywhere as one of the worst films ever made". ''
The Hamilton Spectator ''The Hamilton Spectator'', founded in 1846, is a newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation,''The Hamilton Spectator'' is owned by Torstar. History ''The ...
'' later referred to ''Caligula'' as "possibly the worst movie ever made". Joe Holleman, in an article in the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' discussing historical films set in Ancient Rome, argued, "two of the worst movies made in the 20th century were ancient Rome pieces ... ''
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
'' and ''Caligula''". Christopher Armstead, reviewing ''Caligula'' for the website Film Critics United, stated, "Dollar for dollar, this could very well be the worst movie ever made." In 2011, Sean Bell of ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television ...
'' wrote of its enduring legacy: "in the same way much of our attention-deficit civilisation may go through life vaguely aware that ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' is a masterpiece without ever seeing it, ... we know that ''Caligula'' is awful, usually without ever finding out for ourselves."


1980s


''Heaven's Gate'' (theatrical version, 1980)

The Western epic '' Heaven's Gate'', loosely based on the Johnson County War in 1890s
Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
, was plagued by massive cost and time overruns, largely due to director Michael Cimino's extreme attention to detail. He demanded 50 takes of at least one scene and refused to start shooting for another until a cloud he liked rolled across the sky. It cost over $44 million, but brought in only $3.5 million at the
box office A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is fre ...
. The original version ran at nearly four hours, but was yanked from release after only one week due to scathing reviews. It later resurfaced in a 149-minute version, but by then the damage was done.
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
called it "an unqualified disaster", among other things. Roger Ebert called it "the most scandalous cinematic waste I've ever seen". After word of his grandiose spending and defiant nature toward studio
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
got out (detailed in ''Final Cut'' by
Steven Bach Steven Bach (April 29, 1938 – March 25, 2009) was an American writer and lecturer on film and a former senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios. Career Starting out at Pantheon Films he worked on ''The P ...
, a studio executive involved with the film from the beginning), Cimino was awarded the 1980 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, and the film was nominated for four more Razzies, including Worst Picture. In 1999, ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' placed the film on a list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century. In 2008, Joe Queenan of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' called it the worst film ever made, saying that it "defies belief". Readers of film magazine ''
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' later voted ''Heaven's Gate'' the sixth-worst film of all time, and ''Vanity Fair'' included it in its list of the worst films ever made. Cimino was initially considered a director on the rise after directing ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'' (which won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director), but his reputation never recovered after ''Heaven's Gate''. The production is also notorious for the cruelty to animals that occurred both on screen and on site, including deliberately killing a horse with explosives. The film effectively ended not only the existence of
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
as an independent Hollywood studio (its parent firm sold the company to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
, where it still operates), but also, largely, Cimino's career; he would not direct again until 1985's '' Year of the Dragon''. Despite the vicious reviews, the film's reputation improved over time. In fall 2012, the
New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...
, the venue for its infamous opening, premiered the restored director's cut. In stark contrast, ''The Times'' (London) called the restored version "a modern masterpiece" and its 1980 cut "one of the greatest injustices of cinematic history". The film has also been released on Blu-ray and DVD by the
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...
.
Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said that the film "has been called a disaster and a disgrace, yet also anointed a masterpiece."


''The Apple'' (1980)

''The Apple'' (also called ''Star Rock'') is a 1980
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
written and directed by
Menahem Golan Menahem Golan ( he, מנחם גולן; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He was best known for co-owning The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon ...
. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart as a young singer named Bibi, who, in a futuristic 1994, signs to an evil label named Boogalow International Music. It deals with themes of conformity versus rebellion, and makes use of Biblical allegory, including that of
Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
and the
rapture The rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an Eschatology, end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurre ...
. Common criticism from both reviews that appeared in trade publications and major news outlets and the audience were a lack of originality, a weak script, uninspired music, poor execution, and Golan's inexperienced take on the 1960s hippie movement. During the 1980 Montreal World Film Festival, some members of the audience threw
vinyl records A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...
of music from the film at the screen. At the
1980 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards The 3rd Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 1981 to honour the worst films the film industry had to offer in 1980. The ballot was later revisited and the expanded version was released in 2006. Listed as foll ...
, the film received seven nominations (including Worst Picture) and won two awards: Worst Director (Golan) and Least "Special" Special Effects. Stinkers co-founder Mike Lancaster later selected ''The Apple'' as the worst film he had ever seen. ''
The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...
'' listed it as the worst movie musical ever, and critic Tim Brayton described it as "A completely unadulterated bundle of the worst of cinema all spun up into one ball of madness. It cannot be described, and it can barely be experienced." Sean Burns in ''
Philadelphia Weekly ''Philadelphia Weekly'' (''PW'') is a website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, a ...
'' wrote: "''The Apple'' isn't just the worst disco musical ever made; it could very well be the worst movie ever made, period." ''The Apple'' was included in '' Paste''s ''Bad Movie Diaries'' column, where critic Kenneth Lowe described it as "without a doubt the most cringe-inducing, the most mortifying, the absolutely most embarrassing feature we’ve ever watched." It has also been covered by the '' How Did This Get Made?'' podcast and ''
Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' is a New York City-based online culture magazine. The site includes original feature articles, interviews, reviews, as well as content recycled from other sources. ''Flavorwire'' describes themselves as "a network of culturally co ...
''s ''Bad Movie Night'' column and ''
Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss ...
'' listed it as one of the "Ten Really Bad Movies that Define 'Bad Movies'".


''Inchon'' (1981)

The
war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
''Inchon'', directed by Terence Young and starring
Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage ...
as General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...
, was meant to depict the
Battle of Inchon The Battle of Incheon (), also spelled Battle of Inchon, was an amphibious invasion and a battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations Command (UN). The operation involved s ...
during the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
. Producer Mitsuharu Ishii was a senior member of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, whose leader,
Sun Myung Moon Sun Myung Moon (; born Yong Myung Moon; 6 January 1920 – 3 September 2012) was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Un ...
, claimed he had the film made to show MacArthur's spirituality and connection to God and the Japanese people. Its eventual production cost of $46 million resulted in a $5 million box-office gross, and ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' review written by
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
calls the movie "the most expensive B-movie ever". ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' described ''Inchon'' as "one of the biggest commercial disasters in film history". Every conceivable kind of problem plagued production, including labor issues, the U.S. military withdrawing support due to the film's Unification Church connection, weather and natural disasters, customs difficulties, expensive directorial blunders, and the original director ( Andrew McLaglen) quitting before the start of production. Olivier's performance was criticised, and he was awarded the 1982 Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actor. The film itself took the 1982 Razzies for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, and Young's direction earned him a tie for Worst Director of 1982. A number of reviewers at various media outlets described ''Inchon'' as the worst film ever made, including ''The Washington Post'', ''Newsweek'', ''TV Guide'', and the
Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...
. ''Inchon'' was later profiled in multiple books on worst in film, including ''
The Hollywood Hall of Shame ''The Hollywood Hall of Shame'' is a 1984 book by brothers Harry and Michael Medved. The authors had previously written or been involved in the creation of similar books exploring "bad movies" or "cinematic mistakes": ''The Fifty Worst Films of All ...
'' by Harry and Michael Medved, and ''The Worst Movies of All Time'' by Michael Sauter. To date, ''Inchon'' has never been released on home video in the United States although it was aired on the church's Good Life TV Network.


''Tarzan, the Ape Man'' (1981)

The
adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, ani ...
''Tarzan, the Ape Man'', loosely based on the novel ''
Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine ''The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released as a novel in June 1 ...
'' by
Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...
, stars
Miles O'Keeffe Miles O'Keeffe (born June 20, 1954) is an American film and television actor. O'Keeffe got his first big break playing the title role in the 1981 version of '' Tarzan, the Ape Man''. Youth O'Keeffe was born in Ripley, Tennessee. A star foot ...
(who would later become famous in the 1984 ''
Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including '' Conan the Barbarian'' and ''Conan the Destroyer''), ...
'' knock-off '' Ator the Invincible'' alongside its sequel featured in two episodes of the TV series ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'') in the
title role The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...
and Bo Derek as his partner Jane Parker, and is told from Jane's point of view. Despite being a box-office success, it was poorly received by critics upon its release, due to its poor screenplay, bad acting, and unintentional humor.
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
, writing for his ''Movie Guide'', stated that the film "lacks action, humor and charm", and considered it so bad that it "nearly forced editors of this book to devise a rating lower than BOMB". Leslie Halliwell was equally harsh; he described ''Tarzan, the Ape Man'' as "certainly the worst of the Tarzan movies and possibly the most banal film so far made; even the animals give poor performances". Writer Thomas S. Hischak described it thus: "Produced and directed without a shred of talent by
John Derek John Derek (born Derek Delevan Harris; August 12, 1926 – May 22, 1998) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer and photographer.Creative Loafing Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of a monthly arts and culture newspaper/magazine. The company publishes a 60,000 circulation monthly publication which is distributed to in-town locations and neighborhoods on the first Thursday of ...
'' wrote, "this cinematic atrocity truly is one of the all-time worsts". ''Tarzan, the Ape Man'' was nominated for six awards at the 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards, winning one for Worst Actress (Bo Derek). It holds a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews.


''Mommie Dearest'' (1981)

''Mommie Dearest'' was based on the memoir of the same name by Christina Crawford about her upbringing by
Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
. It was the first film to sweep the Golden Raspberry Awards nominations, winning a total of five Razzies out of the nine nominations, including "Worst Picture" and Worst Actress (
Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
, shared with Bo Derek). The same organization also named it "Worst Picture of the Decade" in 1989/90, and was nominated for "Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years" in 2004/05. The film is part of the "100 most awful" in ''The Official Razzie Movie Guide'' and Michael Sauter's ''The Worst Movies of All Time''. It earned, as film critic and television host Richard Crouse put it, "some of the nastiest reviews ever". Eric Henderson of ''
CBS Minneapolis WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios o ...
'' named it at the top of his "Best 'Worst Movies Ever list. Roger Ebert wrote of this film, "I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie. 'Mommie Dearest' is a painful experience that drones on endlessly, as Joan Crawford's relationship with her daughter, Christina, disintegrates from cruelty through jealousy into pathos." Of the performance of Faye Dunaway, ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' said "Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, co-stars and all." ''Vanity Fair'' and Rotten Tomatoes subsequently included ''Mommie Dearest'' on their worst film lists. Despite the reviews at the time, the film was a box-office success, grossing $39 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. It has a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 46 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "''Mommie Dearest'' certainly doesn't lack for conviction, and neither does Faye Dunaway's legendary performance as a wire-wielding monster; unfortunately, the movie is too campy and undisciplined to transcend guilty pleasure".


''Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'' (''The Man Who Saved the World'') (1982)

The Turkish science-fiction adventure ''Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'' (also commonly known as ''Turkish Star Wars'') was directed by Çetin İnanç and starred
Cüneyt Arkın Fahrettin Cüreklibatır (8 September 1937 – 28 June 2022), better known by his stage name Cüneyt Arkın, was a Turkish film actor, director, producer and martial artist. Having starred in somewhere around 300 movies and TV series, he is wid ...
. It is notorious for illegally using footage from well-known science fiction films and shows, most notably ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
'', along with stealing the music score from films such as '' Moonraker'' and ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ro ...
''. The film is also criticized for its nonsensical plot, badly written dialogue, and crude special effects. It is also a fantasy
martial arts film Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature numerous martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expres ...
, heavily influenced by 1970s
Hong Kong martial arts films Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Ko ...
from Golden Harvest. Jos Kirps of
ArticlesBase ArticlesBase was an article syndication website based in Ramat Gan, Israel. Overview ArticlesBase was an online directory of syndicated articles on 26 core topics, including health, finance, business, home improvement and education. Authors were ...
called it "The Worst Movie Ever", and stated, "There are many bad sci-fi movies, and for many years movie addicts even considered Ed Wood's ''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' the worst movie of all times. But ''Plan 9'' is still a pretty good movie when compared to ''Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam''." ''
Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...
'' called it the "world's worst film". ''
Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...
'' described the film as "sitting on the throne of the king" when compared to other "so bad it's good"
cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...
s. ''Toronto Standard'' called it a "dollar-store Star Wars" and compared it to the works of Ed Wood. When it became apparent that the film had inspired an enthusiastic international cult, a sequel, ''The Son of the Man Who Saved the World'' ( ''Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'ın Oğlu''), was shot in 2006 and featured many returning members of the original cast and crew.


''Howard the Duck'' (1986)

Produced by
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...
and based on the
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...
character of the same name, ''Howard the Duck'' received overwhelmingly negative reviews from film critics. ''
Orange Coast Magazine ''Orange Coast'' is an American lifestyle magazine published for the Orange County, California region. Established in February 1974, ''Orange Coast'' is the oldest continuously published lifestyle magazine in the region. ''Orange Coast'' inclu ...
'' writer Marc Weinberg and Leonard Maltin criticized the decision to shoot the film in live action. The appearance of Howard was criticized as being unconvincing due to his poorly functioning mouth and expressionless face. Reviewers also criticized the acting and humor and found the film boring.
Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the '' Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' said the movie's "crude, often embarrassing, sex jokes" seemed "out of place" with the more innocent aspects of the film. Jay Carr of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' claimed that "They Don't Get Much Worse Than ''Howard'', Glenn Heath Jr. of ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yo ...
'' wrote that it "has a rightful place in the canon of worst films ever", and ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...
'' states it is "one of the worst big-budget movies ever made". Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 15% based on 48 reviews, making it the lowest-rated
Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...
production of those reviewed on the site. The site's consensus states: "While it has its moments, ''Howard the Duck'' suffers from an uneven tone and mediocre performances." It received seven
Golden Raspberry Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy ...
nominations in 1987 including Worst Supporting Actor (
Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his rol ...
), Worst Director ( Willard Huyck) and Worst Original Song ("Howard the Duck"). It won four trophies for Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star ("the six guys and gals in the duck suit"), Worst Visual Effects, and Worst Picture, tied with '' Under the Cherry Moon''. The movie also won a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture. It was featured in ''Empire''s poll of the 50 worst films ever made, and ''
Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and film theories. ''Screen Rant'' was launched by Vic Holtreman in 2003, and originally had its primary office in Ogden, Utah. ''Scr ...
'' and ''Vanity Fair'' have included it on their worst film lists. The negative reaction to the film took its toll on the cast, who found themselves unable to work on other projects as a result. Over time, the film has remained a source of fascination and developed "a small, but loyal fanbase." Howard the Duck has appeared in several
Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published ...
movies and series beginning in 2014's '' Guardians of the Galaxy'', in which he was voiced by
Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supportin ...
.


''Ishtar'' (1987)

''Ishtar'' was written and directed by
Elaine May Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with he ...
and starred Oscar-winning duo
Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
and
Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...
as an ode to the '' Road to...'' film series featuring
Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
and
Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with ...
. Beatty and Hoffman star as Rogers and Clarke, two untalented lounge singers who travel to
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
in hopes of finding a gig. Due to unanticipated problems with filming in the desert—which resulted in numerous reshoots—the film ran over budget by $30 million. While its final budget cost was $55 million, ''Ishtar'' earned only $14,375,181 at the North American box office, leading ''Ishtar'' to become synonymous with " box-office flop". It was also subject to harsh reviews from critics. The film was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay in the 8th Golden Raspberry Awards, winning one for Worst Director. ''The
San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' claimed that "Time has not improved this film's reputation as being one of the worst ever made." ''
Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...
'' suggested it was "so bad it could have been deliberate", and called it "one of the worst films ever made", while Ed Morrissey referred to it as "The ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' of big-budget, A-list vehicular homicides." It was included in Michael Sauter's ''The Worst Movies of All Time'' book, Rotten Tomatoes placed it amongst "25 Moves So Bad They're Unmissable" and
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
included it on his list of the 40 worst films he had seen.Richard Roeper, 10 Sure Signs a Movie Character is Doomed and Other Surprising Movie Lists, New York: Hyperion Books, 2003, pp. 66–67 In 1999, ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' placed the film on a list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century. However, the film has since become a cult classic, and it has also seen a recent minor critical re-evaluation from some critics, such as
Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
, and with directors
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
,
Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a ...
and
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...
praising it in interviews.
Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...
, who initially lampooned the movie in ''
The Far Side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealist ...
'', said he regrets writing that cartoon because he based it solely off of ''Ishtars reputation, and that he enjoyed it when he watched it. To date it is the only cartoon he has publicly admitted to regreting. Defenders argue that the studio did not back May, resulting in a
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
disaster before it was released in theaters. Joe Queenan compared the film to another comedy film considered the worst, '' Gigli'', and wrote that although it was considered one of the worst films ever made at the time of its release, it "has several comic moments" and does not get worse on subsequent viewings, unlike ''Gigli''.


''Leonard Part 6'' (1987)

''Leonard Part 6'', starring (as well as written and produced by)
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
, was intended as a parody of spy movies. Leonard Parker, a former
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
spy, is brought out of retirement to save the world from an evil vegetarian who brainwashes animals to kill people. Rita Kempley at ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' noted the large number of Coca-Cola product placements and said "The only good thing about Bill Cosby's ''Leonard Part 6'' is that we didn't have to see Parts 1 through 5." Scott Weinberg at DVD Talk noted the film as "truly one of the worst movies you'll ever see ... movies this bad should be handled with Teflon gloves and a pair of tongs". By 1990, Dennis King of the ''
Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 20 ...
'' wrote that the film had "become synonymous with 'bomb.'" ''Total Film'' and ''Vanity Fair'' subsequently included ''Leonard Part 6'' on their respective worst film lists. Cosby himself disowned the film, and when it was released to theaters he publicly advised people not to see it. It earned
Golden Raspberry The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
s for Worst Actor (Cosby), Worst Picture, and Worst Screenplay. It was also nominated for two more Razzie Awards, for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Director. Cosby became the first person to accept a Golden Raspberry Award, and said "It was the worst movie I ever made - the worst movie anyone ever made".


''The Garbage Pail Kids Movie'' (1987)

Based on the children's trading card series of the same name, which were popular at the time, this family film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and viewers alike, with criticism primarily geared towards the film's over-reliance on crude humor, the improbable plot, and its message. The film was a
box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, grossing only $1.6 million on a $1 million budget. It bears a 0% approval rating on ''
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
'' and was nominated for three
Razzie The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
awards. Caryn James, writing for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', chastised the film as "too repulsive for children or adults of any age".


''Hobgoblins'' (1988)

''Hobgoblins'', by
Rick Sloane Rick Sloane (born August 22, 1961) is an American cult filmmaker. He is credited as writer, director, producer, Film editor and cinematographer of much of his own work. He directed the B-movie film ''Hobgoblins,'' which was featured on an episo ...
, is widely considered a low-budget
knock-off Counterfeit consumer goods (or counterfeit and fraudulent, suspect items - CFSI) are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another's brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Sellers of such goods may infringe on eith ...
that capitalizes on the popularity of the 1984 film ''
Gremlins ''Gremlins'' is a 1984 American black comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus, and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, and Frances Lee McCain, with Howie Mandel providing the voice ...
.'' It gained popularity in 1998 after being featured on an episode of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
''. ''MST3K'' writer Paul Chaplin later commented on ''Hobgoblins'', saying, "Oh, man. You have no idea the torture it was to watch this movie several times in the space of a week. It shoots right to the top of the list of the worst movies we've ever done." Specific points of the film that were lampooned were the extreme misogyny and atrocious treatment of women; the film's technical incompetence and repetitive scenes; its asinine, poorly conceived plot; its dreadful acting; and its ugly look and gratuitous vulgarity, particularly in regards to its characters and subject matter. David Cornelius of DVD Talk stated, "There's not one aspect of this movie that isn't the Worst Thing Ever." After seeing the ''MST3K'' episode himself, Sloane was inspired to direct a sequel, which was released in 2009.


''Mac and Me'' (1988)

''Mac and Me'' is about a young boy in a wheelchair who meets and befriends an alien who has crash-landed on Earth. A box-office failure, the film grossed $6,424,112 in the United States on a $13 million budget. It used to have a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, whose critical consensus notes that it is "duly infamous" as both an imitation of ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, d ...
'' (1982), and a marketing vehicle for
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
and
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...
(the filmmakers had admitted a profit-sharing arrangement with the former).
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
described the film as being "more like a TV commercial than a movie", and Marjorie Baumgarten of the ''
Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...
'' called it a "shameless ''E.T.'' knockoff". ''Mac and Me'' is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, with ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' reporting that it is "frequently pulled out in 'worst film of all time' arguments". Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (responsible for the 2004 Oscar-nominated '' Super Size Me'') declared it the "worst thing you'll ever see in your entire life", as well as the most egregious example of
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
in cinema history. The film was also named the worst ever in the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'', as well as by broadcaster
Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...
and writer/producer
Damon Lindelof Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...
. Michael Hayden of ''
GQ India ''GQ'' is the Indian edition of the American monthly men's magazine called '' GQ''. It is the 15th international edition of ''GQ'' and is published by Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% owned subsidiary of Condé Nast International. Condé Nas ...
'' referred to it as "hands down the worst family movie in Hollywood history". The film was nominated for four Razzie Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, and won two trophies: Worst Director for Stewart Raffill (tied with
Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...
for ''
Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spr ...
'') and Worst New Star for Ronald McDonald in a cameo. ''Mac and Me'' has however gained a cult following and was featured on the second season of the ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'' revival (the only Razzie-winning film ever to be riffed in the history of the show).


''Things'' (1989)

''Things'', a 1989 Canadian
low budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...
,
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...
, horror
exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
, was written and produced by Andrew Jordan & Barry J. Gillis. It cost approximately $35,000 in total to make and marked the mainstream film debut of porn star Amber Lynn. It was ostensibly made as
homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
to horror icons and films, such as
George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
and his ''
Night of the Living Dead ''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven pe ...
'' franchise. Adam Symchuk of ''Screen Rant'' writes: "While films like '' The Room'' and '' Birdemic'' seem to be constant contenders for the best 'so bad it's good' movie, 'Things''is the true unheralded champion among many cinephiles." Likewise, Jeff Kirschner of
Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website ...
nominated it as the worst movie ever made and Will Pfeifer opined that "It's so terrible I can’t think of another movie that even comes close." In 2022, RiffTrax concluded that ''Things'' was the worst movie that they had ever spoofed.


1990s


''Troll 2'' (1990)

Despite its title, ''Troll 2'' does not feature any trolls (the antagonists are actually goblins) and has no relation to the original 1986 film, which was also poorly reviewed. NPR reports that it is "known as the worst movie of all time" while '' The A.V. Club'' calls it "a popular candidate for the worst film ever made". Rumsey Taylor of '' Not Coming to a Theater Near You'' opined that it was "one of the worst films I've ever seen". Ken Hanke of '' Mountain Xpress'' gave it one-half star out of five, and stated in his review, "There are movies that are bad. There are movies that are so-bad-they're-good. And then there's ''Troll 2''—a movie that's so bad that it defies comprehension." In addition, ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...
'' proclaimed that "''Troll 2'' is really as bad as they come." Nearly twenty years after its release, the movie's child star, Michael Stephenson, made a documentary about its production and fanbase titled ''
Best Worst Movie ''Best Worst Movie'' is a 2009 American documentary film about the making of the infamous 1990 horror film '' Troll 2'' and its subsequent resurgence as a cult film. Directed by Michael Stephenson, the child star of ''Troll 2'', the film was dis ...
'', released to critical success in 2009. The bad acting and dialogue have become notorious for their camp value; the scene in which Darren Ewing's character states that he will be eaten next has become an
Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
.


''Highlander II: The Quickening'' (theatrical version, 1991)

The French-British film ''Highlander II: The Quickening'' is a sequel to the 1986 cult film ''
Highlander Highlander may refer to: Regional cultures * Gorals (lit. ''Highlanders''), a culture in southern Poland and northern Slovakia * Hill people, who live in hills and mountains * Merina people, an ethnic group from the central plateau of Madagasca ...
,'' which transitions the
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
of the original film into
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, and
retcons Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
the mystical warriors of the first film into
aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
. It received a harsh reception from both critics and audiences. Common criticisms included the lack of motivation for the characters, blatant disregard for backstory from the first film (such as the new and seemingly incongruent origin for the Immortals and the unexplained resurrection of Ramirez), glaring plot holes, a messy and nonsensical story structure, the filmmaker's inability to balance unrelated plots and subplots, and obvious contradictions in the film's internal logic. In selecting it as the worst movie sequel of all time,
Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...
also wrote that "it is typically considered one of the worst films of all time." Roger Ebert named it the worst film of 1991, stating: "If there is a planet somewhere whose civilization is based on the worst movies of all time, ''Highlander 2: The Quickening'' deserves a sacred place among their most treasured artifacts." An IGN review said: "How bad is this movie? Well, imagine if
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
were alive today, and someone gave him a multi-million dollar budget. See his imagination running rampant, bringing in aliens from outer space with immensely powerful firearms, immortals who bring each other back to life by calling out their names, epic duels on flying skateboards, and a blatant disregard for anything logical or previously established—now you are starting to get closer to the vision of ''Highlander II''." ''Screen Rant'' has since included it on its list of the 25 worst films of all time. In 1995, the film's director
Russell Mulcahy Russell Mulcahy ( ; born 23 June 1953) is an Australian film director. Mulcahy's work is recognisable by the use of fast cuts, tracking shots and use of glowing lights, neo-noir lighting, windblown drapery, and fans. He directed music videos ...
made a
director's cut A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...
version known as ''Highlander 2: Renegade Version'' and then later released another version simply known as ''Highlander 2: The Special Edition'' for its 2004 DVD release. The film was reconstructed on both occasions largely from existing material, with certain scenes removed and others added back in, and the entire sequence of events changed. The reconstructed film's reception was far better than the original's; it was elevated to a mixed reception.


''Super Mario Bros.'' (1993)

The first feature-length live-action film based on a video game, ''Super Mario Bros.'' was directed by the husband-and-wife team of
Rocky Morton Rocky Morton (born 1955) is an English director. He is the co-creator of the TV series ''Max Headroom'' and co-director of the 1993 Hollywood Pictures film ''Super Mario Bros''. Various music videos by Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads, Gravity Kills, ...
and
Annabel Jankel Annabel Jankel (born 1 June 1955), also known as AJ Jankel, is a British film and TV director who first came to prominence as a music video director and the co-creator of the pioneering cyber-character Max Headroom and as co-director of the film ...
(known for their work on '' Max Headroom''). It follows the brothers
Mario is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
(
Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...
) and Luigi (
John Leguizamo John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (; ; born July 22, 196013:04) is an American actor, comedian, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced ...
), plumbers who venture into a parallel universe to rescue
Princess Daisy is a fictional character in the ''Mario'' series of video games. She debuted in 1989's ''Super Mario Land'' as the ruler of Sarasaland. Described as a tomboy, she used to be rumored to be Luigi's love interest, similarly to Princess Peach ...
(
Samantha Mathis Samantha Mathis (born May 12, 1970) is an American actress and trade union leader who served as the Vice President, Actors/Performers of SAG-AFTRA from 2015 to 2019. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in '' Pump Up t ...
) from the villainous King Koopa (
Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in '' Giant'' (1956). In the next ten year ...
). The ''
Super Mario (also known as and ) is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every major Nintendo vide ...
'' series' publisher,
Nintendo is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...
, believed the ''Mario'' franchise was strong enough for experimentation and gave the filmmakers free creative license. As a result, the film bears little resemblance to the games, trading their colorful
Mushroom Kingdom The is a fictional principality in Nintendo's ''Mario'' series. It is the setting of most main-series ''Mario'' games with an inconsistent presentation. There is no established canon regarding the topography of the ''Mario'' universe, and many ...
for a dystopic world populated by humanoid dinosaurs. '' SyFy Wire'' wrote: "Some movies are so bad that they're secretly good. 'Super Mario Bros.''is so bad it crushes your spirit. It's unfathomably terrible." The film was criticized for its inconsistent tone, complex narrative, and lack of faithfulness to the source material. It was voted the sixth worst film of all time by RiffTrax in 2012, and '' IGN'' ranked it among the "best worst movies ever made" in 2021. Author
David Bodanis David Bodanis is an American speaker, business advisor and writer of bestselling nonfiction books, notably ''E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation'', which was translated into 26 languages. Originally from Chicago, he received ...
, in his 2020 book ''The Art of Fairness'', called ''Super Mario Bros.'' "the worst movie ever made". In addition to scathing reviews, ''Super Mario Bros.'' was a
box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, and Morton and Jankel were "
blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...
" as directors in Hollywood. In a 2007 interview, Hoskins said: "The worst thing I ever did? ''Super Mario Bros.'' It was a fuckin' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin' nightmare. Fuckin' idiots." In a 2011 interview, he was asked, "What is the worst job you've done?", "What has been your biggest disappointment?", and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?" His answer to all three was ''Super Mario Bros.'' The film made Nintendo wary of licensing its intellectual properties to film studios, and it did not license the ''
Mario is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
'' franchise again to film studios until 30 years later, where they collaborated with Illumination for '' The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' in 2023.


''North'' (1994)

The
Rob Reiner Robert Norman Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitcom '' All in the Family'' (1971–1979), a performa ...
film ''
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
'' is an adaptation of the novel ''North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents'' by
Alan Zweibel Alan Zweibel (born May 20, 1950) is an American television writer, author, playwright, and screenwriter whom ''The'' ''New York Times'' says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original ''Saturday Night Live'' ...
, who also wrote the screenplay and has a minor role in the film. ''North'', which was also
Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...
's film debut, was a critical and commercial failure, earning only $7,138,449 worldwide despite its budget of over $40 million. It was widely criticized for its plot, its all-star cast of insensitive characters, lack of humor and portrayal of numerous ethnic stereotypes (especially Alaskan Inuit). It has a 14% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave it zero stars and, in his review, infamously wrote, "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it." He continued saying ""North" is a bad film – one of the worst movies ever made", and it is also on his list of most hated films. Both Ebert and
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...
named ''North'' as the worst film of 1994.
Mick LaSalle Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...
of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' said in his review that "''North'' is director Rob Reiner's first flat-out failure, a sincerely wrought, energetically made picture that all the same crashes on takeoff. It's strange and oddly distasteful, at its best managing to be bad in some original and unexpected ways."
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
named ''North'' as one of the 40 worst movies he has ever seen, saying that, "Of all the films on this list, ''North'' may be the most difficult to watch from start to finish." The film was nominated for the following awards at the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (
Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...
, also for '' Color of Night''), Worst Supporting Actress ( Kathy Bates), Worst Supporting Actor (
Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...
, also for ''
Exit to Eden ''Exit to Eden'' is a 1985 novel by Anne Rice, initially published under the pen name Anne Rampling, but subsequently under Rice's name. The novel explores the subject of BDSM in romance novel form. The novel also brought attention to Rice's pub ...
''), Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay ( Andrew Scheinman and
Alan Zweibel Alan Zweibel (born May 20, 1950) is an American television writer, author, playwright, and screenwriter whom ''The'' ''New York Times'' says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original ''Saturday Night Live'' ...
).


''Dis – en historie om kjærlighet'' (''A Story About Love'') (1995)

The Norwegian
romantic film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...
''Dis – en historie om kjærlighet'' was directed by Aune Sand. The film follows different couples and their love stories around the world, in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...
,
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
,
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
and
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. ''Dis'' received universally poor reviews by critics, and has been called the most poorly reviewed Norwegian film in history. Critic Harald Kolstad of ''
Dagsavisen ''Dagsavisen'' is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. ...
'' gave it a score of zero, refused to acknowledge ''Dis'' as a film, and claimed to have never seen anything worse. ''
Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 milli ...
'' referred to the film as "the largest turkey" and "the most reviled film", and ''Total Film'' included it on its list of the 66 worst films ever made. Despite being a critical disaster it became a commercial success, gaining
cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...
status with a following akin to ''
The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 Musical film, musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White (producer), Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman an ...
'', with fans embracing its "so bad it's good" qualities. Director Aune Sand insists that ''Dis'' is a masterpiece.


''Showgirls'' (1995)

Hype for
Paul Verhoeven Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director, producer and screenwriter, active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire is a trademark of both his dram ...
's
erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scu ...
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
''Showgirls'' focused on the sex and nudity in this NC-17 French-American film with a $45 million budget, but the final result was critically derided. Much hype revolved around the film's star,
Elizabeth Berkley Elizabeth Berkley (born July 28, 1974) is an American actress. She played Jessie Spano in the television series '' Saved by the Bell'' and Nomi Malone/Polly Ann Costello in the 1995 Paul Verhoeven film ''Showgirls''. She voiced the title role ...
, who only two years before had starred in the lighthearted and chaste teen
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
''
Saved by the Bell ''Saved by the Bell'' is an American television sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in primetime, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, ''Saved by the Bell'' was broadcast in the United States ...
''. The film won seven
Razzie Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
, a record at that time, and received 13 nominations, a record that still stands. It received an additional award at the
20th Golden Raspberry Awards The 20th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 25, 2000 at the Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica, California to recognize the worst the film industry had to offer in 1999. Included with the normal Golden Raspberry categories to mark the dawn ...
, where it was awarded Worst Picture of the Decade. Kenneth Turan of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' called it, "a film of thunderous oafishness that gives adult subject matter the kind of bad name it does not need or deserve". Michael Dequina of TheMovieReport.com also criticized the film, claiming that it was "the best bad filmmaking Hollywood has to offer". Adam White wrote in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' that it was "the worst movie ever made" but also a masterpiece. Stephen Lynch of the '' Knight Ridder/Tribune'' similarly named it the worst movie ever made, calling it "so bad it may be brilliant". Various sources have since included ''Showgirls'' in their respective lists of the worst films ever made, including: Rotten Tomatoes, ''Empire'', ''Screen Rant'', ''Vanity Fair'', and ''Flavorwire''. ''Showgirls'' was also featured in Michael Sauter's ''The Worst Movies of All Time'' as well as ''The Official Razzie Movie Guide''. Despite being a critical failure and failing at the box office initially, ''Showgirls'' found success as a
camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...
, particularly among the
LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and so ...
, but whether the film was intended to be satirical remains subject to debate. On the
home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
market, the film was MGM's most profitable release for years.


''The Scarlet Letter'' (1995)

A "freely adapted" version of the 1850 romantic novel by
Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
, directed by Roland Joffé and starring
Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...
and
Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy F ...
. The film met with universally negative reviews and was a
box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, grossing $10.4 million against a production budget of $46 million. Multiple critics named the film the worst of 1995. Chris Hicks of the ''
Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...
'' argued that its deviation from the source material represents "Hollywood's arrogance in its purest form". ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''s Amy E. Schwartz reported that the "nutty" film was described by numerous reviewers as the worst they had ever seen. Kevin Williamson of ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...
'' observed a "combination of awfulness and inexplicability", and claimed that "any objective and authoritative analysis will reveal that the worst film ever made is Demi Moore's version of ''The Scarlet Letter''". Sadie Trombetta of '' Bustle'' wrote that it "has earned an almost permanent spot on every 'Worst Movie of All Time' list", while author
Libby Fischer Hellmann Libby Fischer Hellmann is an American crime fiction writer who currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. Most of her novels and stories are set in Chicago; the Chicago Sun-Times notes that she "grew up in Washington, D.C., but she has embraced her ...
noted that it is "widely cited as the worst film adaptation ever made". The film was nominated for seven
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
, winning "Worst Remake or Sequel". Furthermore, Roger Ebert placed the film on his "most hated" list.


''Bio-Dome'' (1996)

The 1996 comedy film ''Bio-Dome'' focuses on two moronic stoner best friends, played by Pauly Shore and
Stephen Baldwin Stephen Andrew Baldwin (born May 12, 1966) is an American actor, producer and director. He has appeared in the films '' Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989), '' Posse'' (1993), '' 8 Seconds'' (1994), ''Threesome'' (1994), ''The Usual Suspects'' ...
, who accidentally get trapped inside of the Bio-Dome, a hermetically sealed ecological system, after mistaking it for a mall while looking for a bathroom. For
MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...
, Eric Snider wrote in 2008 that "nothing can account for...the movie ''Bio-Dome'', which is–and I do not make this assertion lightly–the worst crime ever perpetrated against humanity throughout all of recorded history". Snider went on to call it "quite bad" and "certainly one of the worst comedies" he had ever seen, criticizing Pauly Shore's performance as unfunny and the film's writing as stupid. Syfy Wires Cassidy Ward described ''Bio-Dome'' as "one of the best-worst movies of all time", stating that its plot "strains credulity", while Jon O'Brien of ''
Inverse Inverse or invert may refer to: Science and mathematics * Inverse (logic), a type of conditional sentence which is an immediate inference made from another conditional sentence * Additive inverse (negation), the inverse of a number that, when a ...
'' called it "one of the worst movies ever made" and wrote that it "has nothing to offer but unconvincing pratfalls...tumbleweed one-liners...and some unashamed sexism, too". It was described as "almost unwatchably awful" and "a baffling piece of work" by Charles Bramesco of ''
Uproxx ''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...
'', who wrote that it was a "perennial contender in the battle for the title of Worst Movie Ever". '' The A.V. Club''s Nathan Rabin wrote, "Critics and audiences alike found the ''Bio-Dome'' to be an abomination unto the Lord, an affront to the gods of cinema, and also a very bad movie, bad enough to be considered the gold standard of crapitude in Shore's oeuvre," noting that it had the lowest Metacritic score of any movie, with 1 out of 100. ''Bio-Dome'' was named one of the worst movies of the 1990s in a poll conducted by RiffTrax.
Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...
, who starred in the film as oceanographer Petra von Kant, called appearing in the film the worst decision of her career. For his performance in the movie, Shore won the
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor The Razzie Award for Worst Actor is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst actor of the previous year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, along with the film(s) for which they were nomi ...
at the 17th Golden Raspberry Awards, tying with
Tom Arnold Tom Arnold may refer to: * Tom Arnold (actor) (born 1959), American actor * Tom Arnold (economist) (born 1948), Irish CEO of Concern Worldwide * Tom Arnold (footballer) (1878–?), English footballer * Tom Arnold (literary scholar) (1823–1900), B ...
for his performance in '' Big Bully''.


''Striptease'' (1996)

A comedy-drama directed by
Andrew Bergman Andrew Bergman (born February 20, 1945) is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. His best-known films include ''Blazing Saddles'', '' The In-Laws'', '' The Freshman'' and '' Striptease''. Early life Born to a Jewish family, Ber ...
, based on a
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
by Carl Hiaasen, ''Striptease'' centers on a woman (
Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...
) who becomes a stripper in order to fund an appeal for custody of her daughter. The film was criticized as boring and humourless, and was also accused of being a vanity project for Moore.Brian D. Johnson, "A Demi-talented actor bares all", ''
Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian pers ...
'' 7/08/96, Vol. 109 Issue 28, page 49.
Daniel P. Franklin, discussing ''Striptease'' in his book ''Politics and Film: The Political Culture of Film in the United States'' stated "This is the worst film ever made." Joe Queenan cited ''Striptease'' as an example of what he considered the poor quality of contemporary Hollywood cinema: "One thing that I admire about films like ''Striptease'' is that they serve as powerful reminders that on any given day, Hollywood has the potential to release the worst film in history."
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
stated that ''Striptease'' was "Not funny enough, or dramatic enough, or sexy enough, or bad enough, to qualify as entertainment in ''any'' category." Brian D. Johnson of ''
Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian pers ...
'' stated "While ''
Showgirls ''Showgirls'' is a 1995 erotic drama pulp noir film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. The film stars Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera. Produ ...
'' was honestly sleazy, ''Striptease'' is tacky, pretentious – and boring. Trying to be a comedy, a morality tale and a titillating sideshow, ''Striptease'' fails on all counts." ''Striptease'' was awarded six
Golden Raspberry The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
awards, for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actress (Moore), Worst Original Song ("(Pussy Pussy Pussy) Whose Kitty Cat Are You?"), and Worst Screen Couple (Moore and
Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
).


''Batman & Robin'' (1997)

''Batman & Robin'' is a
superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature action, advent ...
based on the DC character
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
and is the fourth and final installment of the Burton/Schumacher Batman film series. It is directed by
Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...
and stars
George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards, one for his acting and the ot ...
as
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
/
Bruce Wayne Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
,
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
as Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, Chris O'Donnell as
Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest r ...
/
Dick Grayson Richard John "Dick" Grayson is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman and Teen Titans. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, he first appeared in ''Detective Comics ...
,
Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller '' The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence at age 16 as a ...
as
Batgirl Batgirl is the name of several superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, depicted as female counterparts and allies to the superhero Batman. Although the character Betty Kane was introduced into publication in ...
/ Barbara Wilson and
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
as
Alfred Pennyworth Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, most commonly in association with the superhero Batman. Pennyworth is depicted as Bruce Wayne's loyal and tire ...
. This film was largely criticized for its
toyetic Toyetic is a term referring to the suitability of a media property, such as a cartoon or movie, for merchandising tie-in lines of licensed toys, games and novelties. The term is attributed to Bernard Loomis, a toy development executive for Kenne ...
and
camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
approach, and Mr. Freeze's approach and one-line jokes. ,
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 11% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 89 reviews, certifying it "Rotten" with an average rating of 3.7/10, and the critics consensus: "Joel Schumacher's tongue-in-cheek attitude hits an unbearable limit in ''Batman & Robin'', resulting in a frantic and mindless movie that's too jokey to care much for." By comparison
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
collected an average score of 28/100, based on 21 reviews.
Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origin ...
, of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' fame, wrote of the movie in his book, ''Movie Megacheese'', "''Batman & Robin'' is not the worst movie ever. No, indeed. It's the worst thing ever. Yes, it's the single worst thing that we as human beings have ever produced in recorded history." ''Batman & Robin'' also came in first in an ''Empire'' poll of the 50 worst films ever. Joel Schumacher apologized to disappointed fans on the 2005 DVD release of ''Batman & Robin''.


''The Avengers'' (1998)

An adaptation of the popular 1960s The Avengers (TV series), British series of the same name, ''The Avengers'' starred Ralph Fiennes as John Steed and Uma Thurman as Emma Peel, with Sean Connery as their antagonist, Sir August de Wynter. It was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. ''The Avengers'' began to receive negative publicity after Warner Bros., the film's distributor, refused to allow any early press-screenings for movie reviewers. After early test screenings, ''The Avengers'' was heavily edited by the studio. On its release, ''The Avengers'' was savaged by film critics, with the ''Birmingham Post'' stating "''The Avengers'' is being slated by critics as the worst film ever made" and adding that one reviewer had joked the film was such a "turkey" that the makers should have handed distribution to the poultry chain Bernard Matthews Farms, Bernard Matthews. Several reviewers disparaged ''The Avengers'' for lacking the wit and excitement of its source material. Janet Maslin strongly criticised ''The Avengers'': "With pseudo-suave repartee that would make Austin Powers (character), Austin Powers blush and with so many shades of ''Howard the Duck (film), Howard the Duck'' that one scene depicts man-size pastel teddy bears sitting around a conference table, it's a film to gall fans of the old television series and perplex anyone else. I can't remember another Friday morning show where I heard actual cries of "Ugh!" on the way out the door" and finished her review with, "At a pared-down, barely rational 100 minutes, ''The Avengers'' is short but not short enough." David Bianculli said, "This ''Avengers'' film is so horrendously, painfully and thoroughly awful, it gives other cinematic clunkers like ''
Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...
'' and ''Howard the Duck'' a good name." Alan Jones in ''The Radio Times'' stated "The cult 1960s TV series gets royally shafted by Hollywood in this stunningly designed blockbuster that's stunningly awful in every other department ... Terrible special effects and zero chemistry between Fiennes and Thurman make this notorious disaster a total waste of everyone's time and energy." ''The Avengers'' also shared a Razzie Award for "Worst Remake or Sequel" with the 1998 adaptations of ''Psycho (1998 film), Psycho'' and ''Godzilla (1998 film), Godzilla'' at the 19th Golden Raspberry Awards. ''Total Film'' magazine later voted Fiennes and Thurman in ''The Avengers'' as "The Worst Movie Double Act Of All Time". The film also appeared on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films.


''Fatal Deviation'' (1998)

''Fatal Deviation'' is often credited as being the first
martial arts film Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature numerous martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expres ...
to be filmed in Ireland. It stars martial artist James Bennett and Michael Graham (singer), Michael Graham, who is best known for being a member of the boy band Boyzone. ''The Irish Post'' and ''Den of Geek'' write that it is a mainstay of worst film lists. Luke McKinney of Cracked.com called it the worst film ever made, writing: "There are so many things about making a movie that Jimmy doesn't know, that you could replace film school with this movie alone--just screening it once for students and asking them to list all the things it did wrong. Anyone who doesn't write 'everything' instantly fails." ''The Irish Post'' named it the worst Irish film of all time, the ''Irish Independent'' wrote that it is "regarded as one of the worst films ever made" and
Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...
called it " one of the worst commercial movies ever made". Entertainment.ie placed it on its list of "10 So Bad They're Good Movies You Need To See Before You Die" and it was covered in '' Paste''s ''Bad Movie Diaries'' column.


''Parting Shots'' (1999)

The British black comedy ''Parting Shots'' was the last film directed by Michael Winner. It starred rock musician Chris Rea as a man who, told he has only six months to live, begins murdering people who have wronged him. Andrew Collins (broadcaster), Andrew Collins took a very negative view of the film: "''Parting Shots'' ... is going to set the course of British film-making back 20 years. It is not only the worst British film produced in this country since ''Carry On Emmannuelle'' (quite a feat in itself), it is a thoroughbred contender for the crown of Worst Film Ever Made." In an interview about the film, Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Independent, the ''Independent'''s film editor, claimed ''Parting Shots'' was "the worst film I've ever seen". O'Sullivan also criticised it for glorifying vigilantism: "It's Michael Winner and you know, he doesn't have any sense of irony. He seems to be saying it is okay to go and kill people." The journalist Miles Kington later claimed "''Parting Shots'' ... was directed by Michael Winner and despite the glittering cast, was possibly the worst film ever made." I. Q. Hunter listed ''Parting Shots'' as one of the candidates for "the Worst British film ever made". ''Parting Shots'' was also featured in a poll of ''Empire'' magazine readers' "50 Worst Movies Ever" poll.


''The Underground Comedy Movie'' (1999)

''The Underground Comedy Movie'' is based on a cable access show from 1988. Director and lead actor Vince Offer constructed the film out of a series of tasteless, low culture, lowbrow skits (including Gena Lee Nolin loudly using the restroom and a superhero named ''Dickman'' who dresses in a giant human penis, penis costume and defeats his enemies by squirting them with semen). In 1999, Offer filed a suit against 20th Century Fox and the co-directors of ''There's Something About Mary'', Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, claiming that 14 scenes in ''Mary'' were stolen from his film. The Farrellys released this statement: "We've never heard of him, we've never heard of his movie, and it's all a bunch of baloney." Lawrence Van Gelder of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' referred to it as a "wretched film" and stated that "'The Underground Comedy Movie' stands as a monument to ineptitude and self-delusion." Rod Dreher of the ''New York Post'' said it "may be the least amusing comedy ever made". Dave Shulman of ''L.A. Weekly'' described it as a "serious contender for the single worst movie ever made", while Stinkers Bad Movie Awards co-founder Mike Lancaster said that it was the worst film that he had ever paid to see. Nathan Rabin covered the film in his column detailing terrible films and stated that: "nothing I’ve covered for this column was quite as soul-crushingly, brain-meltingly terrible as ... ''The Underground Comedy Movie''." Thom Bennett at ''Film Journal International'', wrote "Anyone offended by unbearably bad films, jokes that are not funny and wasting 90 minutes of their lives is, as promised, guaranteed to be offended. In fact, to even call this mess a comedy is giving it far too much credit", and "''The Underground Comedy Movie'' may well be the worst film I have ever seen." Writing in ''Central Western Daily'', Peter Young said, "I am pretty sure that I can declare this The Worst Film I Have Ever Seen."


2000s


''Battlefield Earth'' (2000)

''Battlefield Earth'' is based on the first half of L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth (novel), novel of the same name, and stars John Travolta, Barry Pepper and Forest Whitaker. Although a sequel covering the second half of the book was planned, the panning from critics, poor box-office performance, and financial ruin of Franchise Pictures killed off such plans. It was criticized for a poor script, hammy acting, overuse of Dutch angles, repetitive dialogue, and several inconsistencies and plot holes. The movie's producer, Franchise Pictures, was later forced out of business after it emerged that it had fraudulently overstated the film's budget by $31 million. It has a 3% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and it was included in their Top 100 worst-reviewed movies of the 2000s. Roger Ebert predicted that the film, "for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies". Ebert also wrote, "The director, Roger Christian (filmmaker), Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why". It is also on his "most hated" list. Nathan Rabin covered the film as part of his ''My World of Flops'' column for '' The A.V. Club'', calling it "a fiasco that occupies a distinguished place high atop the pantheon of widely reviled crap" and said, "A legendary disaster well before it finished completion, ''Battlefield Earth'' hit theaters with a "Kick Me" sign on it so massive it could be detected from outer space." It won seven
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
, including Worst Picture and Worst Screen Couple (John Travolta and "anyone on the screen with him"). In 2005, an eighth Razzie (for Worst "Drama" of Our First 25 Years) was awarded to the film, and in 2010 it won a ninth Razzie at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards for ''Worst Picture of the Decade'', the most of any film in the history of the awards at the time, before ''Jack and Jill (2011 film), Jack and Jill'' surpassed its record with ten wins in 2012. The movie appeared on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, and is on the Movie Review Query Engine's (MRQE) 50 Worst Movies list, as well as worst film lists from ''Screen Rant'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Flavorwire'', ''Digital Trends'' and the ''New York Daily News''. ''Empire'' named it the second worst movie ever made after ''Batman & Robin (film), Batman & Robin'' and ''The Register'' listed it as the worst movie ever made. Pepper and Whitaker both expressed regret for their involvement in ''Battlefield Earth'', while film screenwriter J. David Shapiro later apologized for making "the suckiest movie ever".


''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'' (2000)

''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'' (Also known as ''Titanic, mille e una storia'', ''Titanic: La leggenda continua'' and ''Titanic: The Animated Movie'') is an Italian animated mockbuster about Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the . It features a similar romantic storyline to James Cameron's 1997 ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'' film, but also has a number of talking animals (most notably, a rapping dog). Reviews condemned the quality of the animation and criticized the plot for being insensitive to the memory of the victims of the ''Titanic'' . ''Total Film'' named ''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'' as "officially the worst film ever made", after it topped a list of the 66 worst films ever. Critic Trim Brayton said that "It is one of the most surreally bad films I have ever encountered", adding: "For sheer mesmerising grotesqueness, there's almost nothing I can name that beats it, and no fan of bad movies can say that their life is complete till they've been exposed to it." ''Total Film'' also included the film on a list of the worst kid's movies, describing it as being "widely considered one of the worst animated films ever made", while Spanish film magazine ''Fotogramas'' selected it as one of the 20 worst films ever made. ''Screen Rant'' included it on a list of the twelve worst animated films of all time and it topped a ''Showbiz Cheat Sheet'' list of the top ten worst animated films ever, with author Will Roberts commenting that "[any] list of the worst animated films of all time begins with ... ''Titanic: The Legend Goes On''". In 2012, ''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'' became the lowest rated film on IMDb's Bottom 100 list.


''Freddy Got Fingered'' (2001)

The comedy film ''Freddy Got Fingered'' stars Tom Green, who also wrote and directed it, featuring largely gross-out comedy, gross-out and shock humor similar to that featured in ''The Tom Green Show''. In the film, Green stars as a 28-year-old slacker and cartoonist who falsely accuses his father of child molestation when he questions his son's life goals. ''Freddy Got Fingered'' received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with CNN critic Paul Clinton declaring it "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history." Warren Epstein of ''The Gazette (Colorado Springs), The Gazette'' described ''Freddy Got Fingered'' as "the worst movie ever made". A review in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' said: "If ever a movie testified to the utter creative bankruptcy of the Hollywood film industry, it is the abomination known as ''Freddy Got Fingered''." Robert Koehler of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it, "One of the most brutally awful comedies ever to emerge from a major studio." Roger Ebert included the film on his "most hated" list, gave it zero out of four stars, and wrote: "This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels." ''Freddy Got Fingered'' was nominated for eight awards at the 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards, 2001 Razzies, and won for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst On-Screen Couple. Razzies founder John J. B. Wilson called it "offensive, stupid and obnoxious" and said it had "no redeeming value". Green accepted his awards in person, traveling to the ceremony in a white Cadillac, wearing a tuxedo and rolling out his own red carpet to the presentation. The movie has an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2010, the film was nominated at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture of the Decade, though it lost to ''Battlefield Earth''. ''Freddy Got Fingered'' also appeared on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, was featured in ''Empire'' list of the "50 Worst Movies Ever" poll, and is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list.


''Glitter'' (2001)

Starring Mariah Carey10 Movies That Are A Negative 10 Out Of 10, According To Reddit - Screen Rant
/ref> in the lead role as an aspiring singer in 1980s
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the romantic musical drama ''Glitter'' was intended to be her breakthrough role but was a critical failure and a box-office bomb. ''Hindustan Times'' claimed that ''Glitter'' "was slammed by almost all critics for being the worst film ever". ''Fade In (magazine), Fade In'' stated that "''Glitter'' isn't just one of the worst music-themed films ever — it's one of the worst films ever made, period." Author Bob McCann wrote in ''Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television'' that it's "rightfully in the running as one of the worst films ever made".
News.com.au news.com.au is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance, and sport. Staff The organiza ...
, ''Hi (magazine), Hi'', ''Flavorwire'', ''Screen Rant'', ''Vanity Fair'', Metacritic, and ''Empire'' are amongst those who have listed it as one of the worst films ever made. ''Glitter'' received six Razzie nominations, and Carey won for Worst Actress. It was also featured in ''The Official Razzie Movie Guide'', and in 2005, it was nominated for "Worst Musical of Our First 25 Years", but lost to ''From Justin to Kelly''. In an interview in 2010, Carey stated that she believed that the film's failure at the box office was largely due to the Glitter (soundtrack), soundtrack being released the same day as the September 11 attacks. It has a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 87 reviews.


''Swept Away'' (2002)

A remake of Swept Away (1974 film), a 1974 Italian film of the same name, the romantic comedy film ''Swept Away'' was directed by Guy Ritchie and starred his then-wife Madonna and Adriano Giannini. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with most of the criticism going towards Madonna's bad acting, the original film being considered superior and the remake being considered just a star vehicle for Madonna. Rex Reed of ''The Observer'' said: "If there is one thing worse than a Guy Ritchie movie, it's a Guy Ritchie movie with Madonna in it." ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...
'' critic John Anderson said, "New ways of describing badness need to be invented to describe exactly how bad it is." Joe Queenan of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' discussed the movie in an article on what makes a movie the worst of all time and said, "[...] ''
Showgirls ''Showgirls'' is a 1995 erotic drama pulp noir film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. The film stars Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera. Produ ...
'' has a certain campy allure that grows a bit each time I see it. Madonna's ''Swept Away'' doesn't; it seems more amateurish on each viewing, like a morass that starts out as a quagmire, then morphs into a cesspool and finally turns into a slime pit on the road to its ultimate destination in the bowels of Hell." Julie Burchill, also from ''The Guardian'', selected it as her pick for the worst film ever made. ''Swept Away'' was also a box office bomb, box-office bomb; against a $10 million budget, it grossed $598,645 in the United States and around $437,875 from foreign territories for a worldwide total gross of $1,036,520. It received five awards at the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards and became the first film to win both Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel. At the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards, it was nominated for Worst "Drama" of Our First 25 Years, and at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards, it was nominated for Worst Picture of the Decade, but 'lost' to ''Battlefield Earth'' at both ceremonies. ''Empire'' ranked it #20 in its list of "The 50 Worst Movies Ever", and AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com, After Ellen ranked it #7 in its list of "The worst movies ever to grace the screen".


''The Master of Disguise'' (2002)

The comedy film ''The Master of Disguise'' was produced in part by Adam Sandler and stars Dana Carvey as Pistachio Disguisey, an undercover Italian waiter who must save his father Fabbrizio (James Brolin) from the evil Devlin Bowman (Brent Spiner) by using his inherent skills in disguise. Although the film was a box office success, it received scathing reviews from critics upon its release, many of which pointed out its sophomoric plot, unfunny humor (in particular, its flatulence gags) and disguises that would clearly not be recognized by children (such as Tony Montana from ''Scarface (1983 film), Scarface''). Many critics also pointed out the short running time, consisting of 72 minutes of the film itself and over ten minutes of end credits juxtaposed with outtakes. Roger Ebert gave it one star out of four, claiming, "The movie is a desperate miscalculation. It gives poor Dana Carvey nothing to do that is really funny, and then expects us to laugh because he acts so goofy all the time." Alan Morrison, writing for ''Empire'', proclaimed that ''The Master of Disguise'' was "the worst film ever made: a film about idiots, made by idiots, for idiots", while Matthew Turner of ''ViewLondon'' remarked, "This is a serious contender for the title of The worst Film Ever Made." The film holds a 1% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 104 reviews, and was featured on the site's list of the top 100 worst-reviewed films of the 2000s. It also appears on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, and is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list. A cameo appearance by Bo Derek landed her a nomination for Worst Supporting Actress at the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards, but she lost to Madonna for ''Die Another Day''.


''Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever'' (2002)

The action film ''Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever'' stars Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu as opposing secret agents. Critics panned it, generally regarding it as having no redeeming features, not even the unintentional comedic value normally associated with bad films. They variously described the film as "A picture for idiots", "Boring to an amazing degree", "A fine achievement in stupidity and dullness", "Dreadful", "[Giving] new meaning to the word incoherent", and "bad on just about every level". One critic suggested an alternative title as "''Simplistic: Bullets Vs. Humans''". Stephen Hunter of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' wrote, "You could run this film backward, soundtrack included, and it would make no less sense." Roger Ebert, who included the film in his "most hated list", called the movie "a chaotic mess, overloaded with special effects and explosions, light on continuity, sanity and coherence." In addition to being lambasted by critics, it was a disaster financially, recouping just over $19.9 million of its $70 million budget. In March 2007, Rotten Tomatoes ranked it #1 among "The Worst of the Worst" movie list, with 108 "rotten" reviews and no "fresh" ones. ''
Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss ...
'' also listed it as the worst movie ever made.


''Ben and Arthur'' (2002)

A low-budget 2002 American romantic drama film about the titular gay couple who come into conflict with Arthur's religious brother, ''Ben and Arthur'' was written, directed, produced, edited, and scored by Sam Mraovich, who also played the character Arthur. ''Ben and Arthur'' received strong criticism (especially from the LGBT community) for its low budget and poor plotting. BuzzFeed described it as the "worst gay movie of all time". The gay popular culture site Queerty described ''Ben and Arthur'' as "unintelligible" and ended its review by calling it the "Worst. Movie. Ever." The gay movie review site Cinemaqueer likewise stated: "''Ben and Arthur'' is so terrible that it has awoken the dormant Bette Davis in me. It is so painfully bad that it wouldn't even make good fodder on ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
''. This just might possibly be the worst movie I have ever seen ... Unless you get a kick out of mocking bad films, avoid this one at all costs." Michael Adams, reviewing the film for his book ''Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies'', describes it thus: "''Ben & Arthur'' is as over-the-top insane as it is ludicrously executed ... the production values, from biscuits on plates comprising the main course of a candlelit dinner to a church literally having a cardboard cross and a cartoon Jesus on the wall, are as bad as anything I've seen." A Rotten Tomatoes article placed ''Ben and Arthur'' on their list of "Films So Bad They're Unmissable", saying "If Tommy Wiseau's ''The Room (2003 film), The Room'' is the over-wrought, melodramatic and self-pitying heterosexual camp classic of choice, then Sam Mraovich's ''Ben & Arthur'' is its gay equivalent." Rotten Tomatoes also stated "Every scene, every line, every hissy fit is simultaneously hilariously amateur and hysterically fever-pitched." ''Total Film'' ranked ''Ben and Arthur'' at #58 in their list of the 66 worst films of all time. Mraovich finds ''Ben and Arthur''s placement among the canon of worst films to be a blessing as the film has received more attention than he ever anticipated.


''From Justin to Kelly'' (2003)

The romantic-comedy musical ''From Justin to Kelly'' stars Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini, the winner and runner-up, respectively, of the American Idol (season 1), first season of ''American Idol''. The film was a critical and commercial disaster, earning only $4.9 million at the North American box office and achieving a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 63 reviews. Josh Tyrangiel of ''Time Magazine'' described ''From Justin to Kelly'' as "a monstrous ''Idol'' movie musical that in the most generous light is the worst film so far this century","Miss Independent"
Josh Tyrangiel. ''Time Magazine'' February 5, 2006 (Subscription Required).
while ''The Free Lance–Star'' referred to it as "the world's worst movie". Nathan Rabin, reviewing the film for his "My Year of Flops" series, stated, "All films require suspension of disbelief. ''From Justin To Kelly'' requires something more like a temporary lobotomy. Nothing about the main characters or their relationships makes sense."Contest-Winning Case File #150: From Justin To Kelly
Nathan Rabin, '' The A.V. Club'', November 11, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
It won a special Razzie—"Governor's Award – Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography"—at the 24th Golden Raspberry Awards. It was nominated for eight additional Razzies (including a second special award, "Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie"), and a year later it won for 25th Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst "Musical" of Our First 25 Years. ''Total Film'', ''Screen Rant'' and ''Digital Trends'' included ''From Justin to Kelly'' on their worst film lists. In a later interview, Clarkson expressed regret over ''From Justin to Kelly'', stating she only did it because she was contractually obligated to do so: "I knew when I read the script it was going to be real, real bad, but when I won, I signed that piece of paper, and I could not get out of it."


''The Room'' (2003)

The independently produced ''The Room'', about an amiable banker whose friends betray him one by one, has been called "the ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' of bad movies" by some critics. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
, Vox (website), Vox,
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC Australia'' and ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' called it the worst film ever made. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of '' The A.V. Club'' called it "the greatest bad movie of our time" and said, "''The Room'' is nearly an anti-film—an inane and unintentionally surreal soap opera, filled with non sequiturs, confused characters, and gratuitous, anatomically incorrect sex." Though the film's star, writer, producer, and director Tommy Wiseau has claimed it is a black comedy and its numerous flaws are intentional, other actors involved in the production have denied this, saying that Wiseau intended it as a melodramatic romance. ''The Room'' has been noted for its bizarre and non-sequiturial dialogue, protracted sex scenes, various subplots that are inadequately resolved or simply disappear altogether (most notably, a character announces that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but this is never mentioned again throughout the entire film), and infamous use of chroma key, green-screen for "outdoor" rooftop scenes. It made its broadcast premiere as an April Fools' Day special in 2009 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, edited down from its original R rating to a TV-14/DSLV rating. The day after its appearance, its DVD became the top-selling independent film on Amazon.com. In June 2010, ''The Room'' started playing at the American Film Institute AFI Silver, Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland. ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'' alumni
Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origin ...
, Kevin Murphy (actor), Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett produced an audio commentary track to accompany the movie through their site RiffTrax.com. In 2013, the book ''The Disaster Artist'', written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, was published; the book is Sestero's memoir of his involvement in the production of the movie. The book was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film The Disaster Artist (film), of the same name, directed by and starring James Franco as Wiseau (winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Best Actor Golden Globe Award for his performance) and his brother Dave Franco as Sestero.


''Gigli'' (2003)

The Martin Brest movie ''Gigli'' features Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, with appearances by Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. ''Gigli'' was originally a black comedy with no romantic subplot, but the producers demanded script rewrites throughout filming, hoping to cash in on the Ben Affleck#Relationship with Jennifer Lopez, Lopez–Affleck romance that was then big news in celebrity-watching publications such as ''Us Weekly, Us'' and ''People (magazine), People''. This film cost $54 million to make but grossed only $6 million, making it one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time. ''The Times'' gave the film a zero, making ''Gigli'' the lowest-scored film review in the publication's history at that time. ''The Wall Street Journal'' stated that it was "[t]he worst movie—all right, the worst allegedly major movie—of our admittedly young century", while Roger Friedman of Fox News claimed it was "[t]he worst movie ever made". It was also the winner of seven Golden Raspberry Award, Razzies (including 2005's Worst "Comedy" of Our First 25 Years), and in 2010 the film was nominated at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards for "Worst Picture of the Decade". It is in Rotten Tomatoes' Top 100 worst-reviewed movies of the 2000s, where it has a 6% rating. ''AfterEllen'' ranked ''Gigli'' #1 in its list of the worst films of all time. ''Empire'', ''Screen Rant'', and ''Digital Trends'' also listed it as one of the worst films ever made.


''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' (2004)

The 2004 British sex comedy ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' is about a group of potato delivery men. The film received strongly hostile reviews from the British media. Reviews claimed ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' was unfunny, disgusting, and depressing.Critics Pan "Worst Film Ever"
Sky News, February 23, 2004. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
Writing in the ''Daily Mirror'', film critic Kevin O'Sullivan called ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' "one of the worst films ever made". Novelist Will Self, in his review for ''The Evening Standard'', called ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' "mirthless, worthless, toothless, useless". ''The Times'' reviewer James Christopher dubbed ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' "one of the two most nauseous films ever made ... a masterclass in film-making ineptitude". The '' Sunday Express'' film critic, Henry Fitzherbert, also strongly condemned the film: "''Sex Lives'' is so awful it left me slack-jawed in disbelief ... it must be one of the worst British comedies." Catherine Shoard, in a critique in ''The Sunday Telegraph'', stated "It's hard to know what to say to this – it's like finding the right words at a nasty accident ... ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' is probably the lewdest Brit-com since ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'', and certainly the worst." Shoard also described the film as "Less a film than an appetite suppressant." Alan Morrison in the Scottish ''Daily Record (Scotland), Daily Record'' described it as "puerile smut of the very worst kind ... ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' should never have been made". ''The Irish Times'' later noted that "''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' attracted some of the worst reviews in living memory." ''The Birmingham Post'' described ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'' as "quite possibly the worst film ever made", while ''The Independent on Sunday'' stated that the film was "a strong contender for the title of worst film of all time". It was also featured in ''Empire''s ''50 Worst Movies Ever'' poll. The film has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews.


''Catwoman'' (2004)

Nominally based on Catwoman, the DC Comics character, ''Catwoman'' stars Halle Berry as the title character. The film was the result of various rewrites by a total of 28 different screenwriters, though only four were credited after arbitration with the Writers Guild of America. It has a 9% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and was declared "arguably the worst superhero film ever made" by the ''Orlando Sentinel''. Jean Lowerison of the ''San Diego Metropolitan'' said in her review that ''Catwoman'' "goes on my 'worst' list for the year, and quite possibly for all time". Sadaf Ahsan of the ''National Post'' went further, calling it the worst movie ever made. ''The Village Voice'' summed up reviews of the film under the title "Me-Ouch". The movie was the winner of four 25th Golden Raspberry Awards, Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director (Pitof) and Worst Screenplay. Berry arrived at the ceremony to accept her Razzie in person (with her Best Actress Oscar for ''Monster's Ball'' in hand), saying: "First of all, I want to thank Warner Bros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, god-awful movie ... It was just what my career needed." Roger Ebert included it in his "most hated" list, being joined by ''Screen Rant'' and ''Flavorwire'', who also included it in their worst film lists.


''Daniel – Der Zauberer'' (''Daniel – The Wizard'') (2004)

The German film ''Daniel – Der Zauberer'' was directed by Ulli Lommel and stars pop singer and ex-''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'' contestant Daniel Küblböck, who appeared as a fictionalized version of himself.''
The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometo ...
'' wrote that it is considered to be the worst German film, while n-tv said it was "possibly the worst movie ever made". The website ''filmstarts.de'' states that ''Daniel – Der Zauberer'' was "unbearable for non-fans of Küblböck", adding that "the performances of the actors were some of the worst in the history of German cinema", and alleging that Ulli Lommel and producer Peter Schamoni had "damaged their reputation". The film also Box-office bomb, performed extremely poorly at the box office, having only 13,834 viewers altogether, which led to it being withdrawn from screening at most cinemas within the first week, with ''Rheinische Post, RP Online'' referring to it as a "super-flop". It is consistently listed at IMDb's Bottom 100 list and became the lowest rated film at one point. ''Total Film'' listed it as the third worst film of all time, after ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' and the direct-to-video animated mockbuster ''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'', and ''New York Daily News'' listed it among the seven worst films ever made. In an interview conducted several years after its release, Daniel Küblböck admitted that, in retrospect, "[Y]ou have to say this is the worst movie of all time really". ''Filmstarts.de'' ranked it #4 in its list of the 25 worst movies ever made, and on the German movie rating site ''Moviepilot.de'', it is the lowest-rated film with an average rating of 0.4/10.


''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' (2004)

The family-oriented comedy ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' was the last film directed by Bob Clark (of ''A Christmas Story'' fame) before his death. It is a sequel to the 1999 film ''Baby Geniuses'' and like its predecessor, it received negative reviews from film critics, becoming the 6th worst reviewed film of the decade on Rotten Tomatoes with a 0% rating. Following the plot of the first film, four babies can communicate with each other using 'baby talk', and have knowledge of many secrets. The "baby geniuses" become involved in a scheme by media mogul Bill Biscane (Jon Voight), a notorious kidnapper of children, who intends to use a satellite system to brainwash the world's population and force them to watch television for the rest of their lives. The film was a box-office bomb, only receiving $9 million from its $20 million budget. ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...
'' writer Joshua Rivera stated that it was the worst movie he had ever sat through, and Tom Long of ''The Deseret News'' said "It is perhaps the most incompetent and least funny comic film ever made." It was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Director (Bob Clark), Worst Supporting Actor (Jon Voight) and Worst Screenplay (Steven Paul (story) & Gregory Poppen). ''Total Film'' named it the runner-up to ''Titanic: The Legend Goes On'' in its list of the worst films ever made, and ''Mental Floss'' selected it as the second worst movie ever made after ''Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever''. It also briefly unseated ''Manos: The Hands of Fate'' from the top spot on IMDb's Bottom 100 list and was ranked as the worst sequel of all time by Rotten Tomatoes.


''Alone in the Dark'' (2005)

Loosely based on a Alone in the Dark, series of video games by Infogrames and directed by Uwe Boll, the German-Canadian-American film ''Alone in the Dark'' was panned by critics for a multitude of reasons, including poor script and production values, quick cuts to optimize the gory content, almost no connection to the game, and bad acting. The movie received a 1% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and was included in their Top 100 worst reviewed movies of the 2000s at number two. It appeared on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, which they gave a 9/100 to, is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list, and is one of the few films to have received an CinemaScore#List of F films, F rating on CinemaScore. Roger Moore of ''The Orlando Sentinel'' stated: "''Alone in the Dark'' shows just how tenuous ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'''s hold on that 'worst movie ever' title really is." Likewise, Peter Hartlaub, the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'' pop culture critic, called the film "the best Ed Wood movie ever made ... a film so mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality". In 2009, he named it the worst film of the decade. Jeffrey Lyles of ''The Gazette'' considered it so bad that "other legendary bad films ... await a film of this magnitude because it gets awfully lonely on the island of misfit movies", while Scott Nash of ''Three Movie Buffs'' dubbed it "one of the worst movies ever made". Screenwriter Blair Erickson wrote about his experience dealing with Boll and his original script, which was closer to the actual game itself, and Boll's script change demands on the comedy website ''Something Awful''. It received two 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards nominations for Worst Director (Uwe Boll) and Worst Actress (Tara Reid), and won three 2005 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Stinkers Awards, for Worst Picture, Worst Director, and Worst Special Effects. ''Empire'', ''Flavorwire'' and ''Screen Rant'' would all later included the film on their respective lists for the worst films ever made.


''Aag'' (2007)

''Aag'' is a remake of one of the most successful Bollywood films, ''Sholay'', directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Rajeev Masand gave it a zero out of five. ''Times of India'' stated that ''Aag'' "destroyed Bollywood's greatest film" and acknowledged that some "consider it the world's worst film". ''Hindustan Times'' awarded it the "Lifetime's Worst Ever Movie Award". It came in first in a ''FHM (India), FHM India'' list of the 57 worst movies ever made. ''Total Film'' included it in their list of the 66 worst films of all time. Amitabh Bachchan, who appeared in the original film and returned for the remake, later admitted that the film was "a mistake".


''Epic Movie'' (2007)

''Epic Movie'' is a parody film by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer that mainly parodies Epic film, epic and Fantasy film, fantasy movies, most notably ''The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' and the ''Harry Potter (film series), Harry Potter'' films, but also contains references to all kinds of other then-popular films. Like most works of Friedberg and Seltzer, it received extremely negative reviews, holding an approval rating of 2% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
score of 17/100, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Harry Fletcher of the ''Evening Standard, Standard'' said: "Filmmakers and trash-peddlers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have been responsible for some of the most pointless, lazy and unforgivable movies of the past decade and frankly, they need to be stopped. ''Disaster Movie'', ''300 (film), 300'' spoof ''Meet the Spartans'' and awful ''The Hunger Games (film), Hunger Games'' mickey-take ''The Starving Games'' could easily have made this list of the worst movies ever made, but ''Epic Movie'' might be the worst of the lot. It offers the most uninspired, unfunny film pastiches imaginable, sometimes repeating entire sections of dialogue verbatim from the movies they're supposedly satirising. Nathan Rabin gave it an F score and said, "''Epic Movie'' [...] strays so far from the solid fundamentals of filmmaking that it calls the very foundation of humor into question." Josh Rosenblatt of ''The Austin Chronicle'' said: "I’ve rarely seen a movie as hostile as this one, both to its audience and to its protagonists, and I don't think I realized before just how mean-spirited comedy can get (and I was raised on the Three Stooges)." Jamie Russell of the BBC called it "the most excruciating, unfunny film you'll see this year... if not your entire lifetime." At the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards, it received three nominations, for ''Worst Remake or Rip-off'', ''Worst Screenplay'' and ''Worst Supporting Actress'' (Carmen Electra). It is included in ''Empire'''s and ''Flavorwire'''s lists of the 50 worst movies ever made, ''Evening Standard, Standard'''s list of the 12 worst films ever made, MRQE's 50 worst movies list and ''Newsweek'''s list of the 50 worst comedy movies of all time.


''I Know Who Killed Me'' (2007)

''I Know Who Killed Me'' is a psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson and starring Lindsay Lohan as identical twins, one of whom insists her identity is that of another woman after being abducted by a serial killer. At the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards, it set a record for most awards won in a single year by winning eight awards and it received two further nominations at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards. The '' How Did This Get Made?'' podcast questioned, "Is this the worst movie Lindsay Lohan has ever been in or flat out the worst movie ever?"
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
selected the film as the worst of the 2000s. Gabe Delahaye of ''Stereogum'' reviewed ''I Know Who Killed Me'' as part of his search for the worst movie ever made, writing that: "Out of all the possible Worst Movies of All Time so far, none has been as painful to actually watch as I Know Who Killed Me". It was named the 34th worst movie ever made in ''Empire''s ''50 Worst Movies Ever'' poll and ''After Ellen'' named it the second worst ever made, after ''Gigli''. MRQE includes it on its 50 Worst Movies list, and it has a rare F rating on CinemaScore.


''Meet the Spartans'' (2008)

Another 2008 parody movie by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, ''Meet the Spartans'' mainly parodied the movie ''300 (film), 300'', but references to numerous other films as well. Like most Friedberg and Seltzer projects, it received extremely negative reviews, holding an approval rating of 2% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus reading: "A tired, unfunny, offensive waste of time, ''Meet the Spartans'' scrapes the bottom of the cinematic barrel.", and a Metacritic score of 9/100, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Josh Levin of ''Slate (magazine), Slate'' called it the worst movie he had ever seen. It is included in ''Empire'''s and ''Flavorwires lists of the 50 worst movies ever made, ''
News.com.au news.com.au is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance, and sport. Staff The organiza ...
'''s list of the 15 worst films of all time, Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films and MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list. At the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards, it received five nominations, including Worst Picture.


''Disaster Movie'' (2008)

''Disaster Movie'' is a parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, spoofing films in the Disaster films, disaster film genre. The film, like most films by Friedberg and Seltzer, received extremely negative reviews, and has a 1% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 73 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Returning to their seemingly bottomless well of flatulence humor, racial stereotypes, and stale pop culture gags, Friedberg and Seltzer have produced what is arguably their worst ''Movie'' yet". It was ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as one of the worst reviewed films of the 2000s. Jason Solomons of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' stated that "Nothing can convey the grimness of ''Disaster Movie'', which would be the Worst Movie Ever Made were it actually a movie at all." Adam Tobias of ''Watertown Daily Times'' claimed that "I just don't see how anyone could not find ''Disaster Movie'' one of the worst films of all time." Tobias went on to write that the title was appropriate because the film is "a disaster". It was featured in Empire's ''50 Worst Movies Ever'' poll, Total Film's ''66 Worst Movies Ever'' list Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, and the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list (where it holds a score of 17, the lowest score on the site). ''Disaster Movie'' became the lowest ranked film on IMDb's Bottom 100 list days after its premiere and it received a rare F rating on CinemaScore. The film is also notable for being the motion picture debut of Kim Kardashian, whose performance garnered a nomination for Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Supporting Actress at the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards alongside five additional nominations.


''The Hottie and the Nottie'' (2008)

The romantic comedy ''The Hottie and the Nottie'' starring Paris Hilton, Joel Moore, Christine Lakin, and The Greg Wilson opened to poor box-office takings and strongly negative reviews with a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The British newspaper ''The Sunday People, The People'', reviewing ''The Hottie and the Nottie'', claimed "Paris Hilton is the world's worst actress and she's starring in the worst movie ever made." Nathan Lee of ''The Village Voice'' called it "crass, shrill, disingenuous, tawdry, mean-spirited, vulgar, idiotic, boring, slapdash, half-assed, and very, very unfunny". Online film critic James Berardinelli described the film's comedy as "about as funny as the anal rape scene in ''The War Zone''".
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
called it "excruciatingly, painfully, horribly, terribly awful", and argued that "nobody in this movie really should have a career in movies". Connie Ogle in the ''Miami Herald'' described ''The Hottie and the Nottie'' thus: "Imagine the worst movie you've ever seen. Got it? Now try to think of something worse. That something is this movie – wretched, embarrassing and a waste of the time and energy of everyone involved." The film appears on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, and the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list. The U.K. failure of the movie along with the U.S. failure of ''Doogal (film), Doogal'' led to its UK distributor of the movie Pathé giving up UK distribution rights in 2009 and having Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox distribute Pathe's films theatrically in the UK, with two of their films ''Chatroom (film), Chatroom'' and ''Dead Man Running'' being transferred to the now defunct Revolver Entertainment and ''The Illusionist (2010 film), The Illusionist'' in 2010 being their last standalone distributor film to date.


''Álom.net'' (2009)

''Álom.net'' (also known as ''Dream Well'' or ''Dream.net'') is a Hungarian film which emulates tropes found in American teen films. '':hu:444.hu, 444.hu'' wrote that it is "the worst movie of all time, and that's why it became a
cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...
". Furthermore, '':hu:24.hu, 24.hu'' and ''Index.hu'' each named it the worst Hungarian film ever made, and it gained international notoriety by becoming the lowest rated film on IMDb's Bottom 100 list in 2011. ''Total Film'' named it the fourth worst film ever made and ''FMC.hu'' included it on their list of the ten worst films ever made.


2010s


''Birdemic: Shock and Terror'' (2010)

An independently produced film that is an apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock's ''The Birds (film), The Birds'', ''Birdemic: Shock and Terror'' tells the story of a romance between the two leading characters, played by Alan Bagh and Whitney Moore, as their small town is attacked by birds (which do not appear until 47 minutes into the film). Written, directed, and produced by James Nguyen, it was intended as a "romantic thriller" but is notable due to its poor quality, with reviewers calling out its wooden acting, bad dialogue, amateurish sound and editing, nonsensical plot and, in particular, its special effects, consisting primarily of poorly rendered computer generated eagles and vultures that perform physically awkward aerial maneuvers and explode upon impact with the ground. The film, which cost $10,000 to make, was called by the ''Huffington Post'' "truly, one of the worst films ever made" and by ''The Village Voice'' as "one more in the pantheon of beloved trash-terpieces". ''
Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' is a New York City-based online culture magazine. The site includes original feature articles, interviews, reviews, as well as content recycled from other sources. ''Flavorwire'' describes themselves as "a network of culturally co ...
'' ranked it #1 in its list of the 50 worst films ever made. ''Slate (magazine), Slate'' deemed it among the worst movies ever made, while ''Salon (magazine), Salon'' referred to it as "a cult hit among bad-movie fans" and ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' stated that the film displayed "all the revered hallmarks of hilariously bad filmmaking". Following the home media release of ''Birdemic'',
Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origin ...
, Kevin Murphy (actor), Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'' fame produced an audio commentary track to accompany the movie through Rifftrax. They later riffed upon the film again theatrically. In response to the cult status of the first film, a sequel—''Birdemic 2: The Resurrection''—was released in 2013, and included many returning members of the cast and crew.


''The Last Airbender'' (2010)

''The Last Airbender'' is a fantasy/adventure film written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and is based on the acclaimed Nickelodeon animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Upon release, the film received extremely negative reviews, with critics panning the bad acting, numerous plot holes, screenplay, poor special effects (despite its reported $150 million budget), and especially Shyamalan's directing. It was also ridiculed for the poor quality of its 2D to 3D conversion, post-converted 3-D, and the casting of white and Indian actors to portray characters who were East Asian or Inuit in the source material triggered accusations of racism and whitewashing in film, whitewashing. Further criticism came from fans of the original cartoon series, who said the film differed tremendously from its critically acclaimed source material. David Onda of Comcast wrote that it "has been called one of the worst ever made. The movie was universally panned by critics and failed to make back its production budget domestically." It garnered nine nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards, and won five, including Worst Picture and Worst Director. Roger Ebert wrote, "''The Last Airbender'' is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that." When asked if ''Last Airbender'' had been the worst film he has ever seen, Mike Ryan of ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'' answered, "Yes". ''Hi (magazine), Hi'' highlighted the film in their "Worst Films Ever" series, and ''Screen Rant'' and ''Digital Trends'' included it in their worst film lists. Dev Patel would later express regret and dislike for his role and his experience with the film. He described his performance as Prince Zuko as being as though he “saw a stranger on the screen that I couldn't relate to.”


''Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star'' (2011)

''Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star'' was produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and featured Nick Swardson in the titular role as a small-town manchild who pursues a career in the pornographic film industry after learning that his parents were Pornographic film actor, porn stars in the 1970s. On Rotten Tomatoes, ''Bucky Larson'' has a 3% rating, based on 36 reviews. Linda Cook of the ''Quad-City Times'' described the film as "the worst of the worst", while ''hollywoodchicago.com'' called it "one of the worst comedies of all time". Jim Vorel of ''Pastes ''Bad Movie Diaries'' column suggested that ''Bucky Larson'' was the worst film covered by the column. In listing it as one of the ten worst comedies ever, Michael Musto stated that ''Bucky Larson'' was "a badness the world had forgotten was capable of existing". ''Screen Rant'' included it in its list of the 25 worst movies in film history and ''Mental Floss'' named it the fifth worst movie ever. ''Bucky Larson'' also appears on MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list, and Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films. The film earned six nominations at the 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards, but lost in every category to ''Jack and Jill (2011 film), Jack and Jill'', which was also produced by Happy Madison Productions.


''Jack and Jill'' (2011)

''Jack and Jill'' is a comedy film starring Adam Sandler as Jack, a commercial director, who is visited by his "identical" twin sister, Jill (played by Sandler, in drag (clothing), drag), during the holidays. ''Salon (magazine), Salon'' stated that ''Jack and Jill'' "received some of the worst reviews of any movie ever" upon its release. In the film, Jill is wooed by Al Pacino, whom Jack wants to be in his Dunkin' Donuts commercial.
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' noted the irony of Pacino's presence, as the actor is best known for playing Michael Corleone in ''The Godfather'', which is widely considered list of films considered the best, one of the best films ever made, in this film, which he called "one of the worst movies in the history of cinema!" Ramin Setoodeh of ''The Daily Beast'' and Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' reviewed it together in an article entitled "Adam Sandler's 'Jack and Jill' Is the Worst Movie Ever Made". After an hour-long critique,
RedLetterMedia Red Letter Media, LLC is an American film and video production company operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa (formerly of GMP Pictures) and Jay Bauman (formerly of Blanc Screen Cinema). It was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while he was li ...
claimed that it was "so egregious that it ceased to be a film", and the site also later called it "the worst thing in the world". Mike McGranaghan wrote, on his website ''The Aisle Seat'': "''Howard the Duck (film), Howard the Duck'', '' Gigli'', ''
Showgirls ''Showgirls'' is a 1995 erotic drama pulp noir film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. The film stars Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera. Produ ...
'', ''From Justin to Kelly''. What do they all have in common? They're all widely considered among the worst big studio movies ever made. You know what else they have in common? They're all better than ''Jack and Jill''." ''Jack and Jill'' won a record 10 awards at the 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards, sweeping every category. It broke the record previously held by ''Battlefield Earth (film), Battlefield Earth'' for having the most Razzies earned by a single film and is the only film to win every possible award. The film holds a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 110 reviews. ''Vanity Fair'' and ''Screen Rant'' subsequently included it on their respective worst film lists.


''That's My Boy'' (2012)

Another comedy film starring Adam Sandler, ''That's My Boy'' concerns a middle school student named Donny Berger who has sex with his teacher, gets her pregnant, and in turn, earns a lifestyle of a minor celebrity, something he never intended to happen. Years later, Donny (played by Sandler) crashes his now-adult son's (Andy Samberg) wedding and bachelor party to get his money so he can pay his taxes, therefore avoiding prison. The film has been widely panned due to its comedic portrayal of incest, hebephilia, statutory rape, and gerontophilia, with film critic Andrew O'Hehir of ''Salon'' stating, "[Sandler's] new movie about a rape survivor and his estranged son is supposed to be funny, but radiates pain and rage."
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' proclaimed, "To say ''That's My Boy'' is one of the worst movies of the year is to insult 2012. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen", while Richard Haridly of ''Quickflix'' called it "one of the saddest and most exhausting" films he has ever seen. MaryAnn Johanson of ''Flick Filosopher'' outright panned the film for its inability to generate laughs as well as its depraved content, calling it "a disgusting excuse for a comedy" and possibly "the most repulsive movie I've ever seen", and Jonathan Lack of ''We Got This Covered'' declared, "''That's My Boy'' isn't just the worst film of 2012, it's one of the most morally reprehensible comedies of all time, a disgusting movie you should stay far, far away from." Furthermore, Ed Whitfield of ''The Ooh Tray'' stated, "It may be the worst film, in any genre, ever made". In addition to the movie's overwhelmingly negative reviews, ''That's My Boy'' earned eight nominations at the 33rd Golden Raspberry Awards, such as Worst Picture and Worst Director, and won the awards for Worst Actor (Sandler) and Worst Screenplay. It holds a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 115 reviews.


''Foodfight!'' (2012)

The animated comedy ''Foodfight!'' was directed by Larry Kasanoff and features a cast of celebrity voice actors, including Charlie Sheen, Wayne Brady, Hilary Duff, and Eva Longoria. The film revolves around brand mascots, known as "Ikes", who come to life in a supermarket after closing time, and their struggles against the forces of Brand X. Several actual corporate mascots make cameos in the movie, such as Mrs. Butterworth, Charlie the Tuna, and the California Raisins. Development for the movie began as early as 1999, but troubled production (including an incident where the hard drives had been stolen) and financial difficulties delayed its release several times. Upon the film's eventual theatrical release in 2012, it became a
box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, earning just $74,000 against its reported $65 million budget. ''Foodfight!'' was also critically panned for its animation, humor, use of
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
as a central theme (and being aimed towards children), and content inappropriate for its target audience, such as sexual innuendo and references to Nazism. It subsequently garnered a reputation for being one of the worst films ever made. A ''New York Times'' article condemned the film, saying: "The animation appears unfinished ... And the plot ... is impenetrable and even offensive." The article also reported that ''Foodfight!'' had been "seized upon by Internet purveyors of bad cinema". One such Internet critic was Nathan Rabin of ''The A.V. Club'', who included the film in his ''My World of Flops'' column, describing it as "one of those fall-of-civilization moments" and "This is the kind of movie so unbelievably, surreally and exquisitely terrible that you want to share it with the rest of the world. I was put on earth to suffer through abominations like ''Foodfight!'' so that society as a whole might benefit from my Christ-like sacrifice." Meanwhile, a review in ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' described it as "''The Room'', rendered in horribly sharp polygons" and ''Hollywood News'' called it "by far the crappiest piece of crap I have ever had the misfortune to watch". Likewise, critic Tim Brayton described it as "the absolute ugliest animated feature that has ever been released by something resembling an actual animation studio ... one of the very worst movies I have ever seen." ''Digital Trends'', ''Mental Floss'' and MSN have since included ''Foodfight!'' in their worst film lists. Rebecca Hawkes of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' described ''Foodfight!'' as "the worst animated children's film ever made", while ''
IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'',
Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...
and ''Screen Rant'' have each described it as being one of the worst animated films ever made.


''Run for Your Wife'' (2012)

A British comedy film based on the Run for Your Wife (play), stage farce of the same name, ''Run for Your Wife'' starred Danny Dyer as John Smith, a bigamist, and Denise van Outen and Sarah Harding as his wives. ''Run for Your Wife'' was directed by the author of the play, Ray Cooney (who also makes an uncredited cameo appearance). Upon release, ''Run for Your Wife'' was savaged by film critics, with the South African newspaper ''Daily News'' saying "''Run for Your Wife'' could be the worst film in history", the Studio Briefing website reporting that "Some writers are making the case that the British comedy may be 'the worst film ever,The Worst Film in History?
''Studio Briefing'', February 21, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
and ''The Daily Mirror'' claiming ''Run For Your Wife'' "was branded the worst British film ever". ''Run for Your Wife'' met with such overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release that the reviews themselves were widely reported in the UK media. The film was variously described as "a catastrophe", "as funny as leprosy" and "30 years past its sell-by-date", with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' reviewer Peter Bradshaw saying that it "makes ''The Dick Emery Show'' look edgy and contemporary". ''The Independent (London), The Independent's'' Anthony Quinn wrote, "The stage play ran for nine years – it [the film] will be lucky to run for nine days. Perhaps never in the field of light entertainment have so many actors sacrificed so much dignity in the cause of so few jokes ... From the look of it, Cooney hasn't been in a cinema for about 30 years". The cast featured numerous British celebrities in cameo roles, which was commented upon by several reviewers. The ''Metro (British newspaper), Metro'' commented that "no one emerges unscathed among the cameo-packed cast that reads largely like a roll-call for Brit TV legends you'd previously suspected deceased". The ''Daily Record (Scotland), Daily Record'' described the film as "an exasperating farce containing not one single, solitary laugh. people losing their trousers and falling over, the film looks like a pilot for a (mercifully) never-commissioned 70s sitcom". An article in the ''Independent'' described ''Run for Your Wife'' (along with the similarly panned ''Movie 43'') as contenders for the title of the "worst film in history". ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette, The Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette'' reported "critics have being queuing up to batter recent release ''Run for Your Wife'', with general agreement that it ranks among the worst British comedies of all time". ''Run for Your Wife'' was also a box office bomb, earning only £602 in its opening weekend at the British box office to its £900,000 budget. ''Run for Your Wife'' has a 0% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
based on 15 reviews.


''Movie 43'' (2013)

Produced and co-directed by Peter Farrelly among others, ''Movie 43'' is a gross out sex comedy film consisting of several vignettes each by a different director and a sizable cast of recognizable actors and actresses including Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gerard Butler, Halle Berry, Stephen Merchant, Kristen Bell, Terrence Howard, Elizabeth Banks, Kate Bosworth, Johnny Knoxville, Justin Long, Chris Pratt, Josh Duhamel, and Jason Sudeikis. Several critics have called it one of the worst films ever made, including Peter Howell of the ''Toronto Star'', who said, "There's just one use for ''Movie 43'', apart from it being ground into the landfill that it deserves to become sooner rather than later. It provides me with a handy new answer to a question I'm often asked: 'What's the worst film you've ever seen? Elizabeth Weitzman of the Daily News (New York), New York ''Daily News'' also considered it the worst movie she ever saw. Brady Murphy of Murphy Reviews wrote, "A world where a film like this can exist only reminds me of the other contemptible acts performed by human kind since the dawn of time, and is rather eye-opening in that respect. That probably wasn't intentional, though"; he went on to say that "The idea that anyone could think that this would be in any way humorous is simply unbelievable." He concluded his review by saying the movie "had no heart" and gave it the site's first zero out of ten rating.
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' voiced similar hatred, calling it "aggressively tasteless" and "the ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' of awful". Lou Lumenick of the ''New York Post'' stated, "If you mashed-up the worst parts of the infamous ''Howard the Duck'', ''Gigli'', ''Ishtar'' and every other awful movie I've seen since I started reviewing professionally in 1981, it wouldn't begin to approach the sheer soul-sucking badness of the cringe-inducing ''Movie 43''." ''Movie 43'' is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list. It holds a 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews, averaging out at a 2.7/10 rating. It won three awards at the 34th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay. In the Worst Director category, all 13 directors won the award.


''Fateful Findings'' (2013)

''Fateful Findings'' is a 2013 independent techno-thriller written, directed and produced by Neil Breen. Breen also starred in the film and took on most of the crew roles, including film editor, sound editor, accountant, caterer, set designer, wardrobe, makeup and casting. The film follows an author-turned-hacker with supernatural powers who uses his abilities to reveal government and corporate secrets while struggling with his wife's drug addiction and the flirtations of his teenage neighbor, ending with an extended sequence at a press conference where politicians and business people confess to corruption and kill themselves before an applauding crowd. Writing for ''
Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...
'', reviewer Mike Hodges described it as "the worst movie ever made", comparing it unfavorably to ''#Troll 2 (1990), Troll 2'' and ''#The Room (2003), The Room''. Nathan Rabin, writing for Rotten Tomatoes, said ''Fateful Findings'' threatens ''The Room''s position as "best worst movie", while reviewers of the podcast ''The Flop House'' said "Move over ''The Room'', move over ''#Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010), Birdemic''" and ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' head writer Elliott Kalan described it as the "good-est bad movie, maybe, I've ever seen". ''Screen Rant'' and the ''New York Daily News'' later listed it as one of the worst films of all time.


''Humshakals'' (2014)

A Bollywood comedy film directed by Sajid Khan (director), Sajid Khan, ''Humshakals'' featured Indian actors Saif Ali Khan, Ram Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 0% rating, based on six reviews, with an average rating of 2/10. Mihir Fadnavis wrote in his ''Firstpost'' review, "sexual tomfoolery, shrieking and hamming aside, there's much more to hate about this 'family movie'. It's disturbing to see such an atrocious, regressive, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic cinematic product force-fed to paying audiences. I can understand that a comedy need not be 'safe', but what goes on in ''Humshakals'' is simply too horrifying to bear." Saurabh Dwivedi of ''India Today'' stated "I can only say that ''Humshakals'' will be listed in one of the worst films of the century." Writing in ''Emirates 24/7'', Sneha May Francis said that it succeeded Khan's previous endeavor, ''Himmatwala (2013 film), Himmatwala'', in becoming the worst Bollywood film ever. Fadnavis went further, writing that it displaced ''Himmatwala'' as the "worst possible product any film industry in the world can offer". Itrath Syed of ''The Georgia Straight'' stated that ''Humshakals'' was "the absolute bottom of the cinematic barrel". The film received five Golden Kela Awards, Golden Kela Award nominations, and won the “award” for Worst Film. It also won two Ghanta Awards; the film won Worst Picture and Ram Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh shared the Worst Actor award. Several of the cast members also lamented their involvement in the film. Despite being the film's leading actress, Bipasha Basu did not participate in the film's promotions because she was "extremely disturbed by the end result" and stated that "''Humshakals'' was the worst experience of my life". Another cast member, actress Esha Gupta, warned her family to not watch the film. After the release of the film, leading actor Saif Ali Khan lamented that "I've been introspecting a lot and will never repeat a mistake that was ''Humshakals''."


''Saving Christmas'' (2014)

''Saving Christmas'' is a Christian film industry, faith-based List of Christmas films, Christmas
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
starring Kirk Cameron, who plays a fictionalized version of himself attempting to convince his brother-in-law (played by the film's director, Darren Doane) that Christmas is still a Christian holiday. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a List of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 0% rating, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 2.40/10. Critic David Keyes described ''Saving Christmas'' as "The worst holiday movie ever made", ''Billings Gazette'' selected the film as the worst Christmas movie of all time, and Will Nicol of ''Digital Trends'' included it on his list of the ten worst movies ever made. Christy Lemire picked ''Saving Christmas'' as the worst film she has ever reviewed and called it "The Room (2003 film), ''The Room'' of Christmas movies" (while adding that she found ''The Room'' to be more enjoyable) and gave it a score of zero stars out of four. Bill Zwecker of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' said: "This may be one of the least artful holiday films ever made." In response to the criticism, Cameron asked fans to give the film positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. This resulted in a backlash in which Internet users traveled to the Rotten Tomatoes page and condemned the film. Three weeks after its release, ''Saving Christmas'' became the lowest-rated film on IMDb's bottom 100 list. Cameron blamed the low rating on a Reddit campaign by "haters and Atheism, atheists" to purposely lower the film's ratings. The film won four awards, including Worst Picture, at the 35th Golden Raspberry Awards.


''United Passions'' (2014)

A 2014 English-language French Drama (film and television), drama film about the origins of the football world governing body FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), ''United Passions'' starred Tim Roth (as FIFA President Sepp Blatter), Gérard Depardieu and Sam Neill and was directed by Frédéric Auburtin. ''United Passions'' release in the U.S. occurred simultaneously with the 2015 FIFA corruption case, in which several current and former members of FIFA's executive committee were arrested on charges of corruption, and Blatter himself resigned following repeated accusations of corruption at FIFA under his leadership. ''United Passions'' was accused of ignoring these long-running claims. ''London Evening Standard''s Des Kelly wrote that ''United Passions'' was "the worst movie ever made" and "the most extraordinary vanity exercise; a vile, self-aggrandizing, sugar-coated pile of manure". Sean Mahoney of ''Inquisitr'' called it the "worst movie ever". Daniel Gold of ''The New York Times'' claimed ''United Passions'' is "one of the most unwatchable films in recent memory, a dishonest bit of corporate-suite sanitizing that's no good even for laughs", later stating it would make the top three of his list of all time bad films. Several critics noted the irony of the film's depiction of Blatter as an anti-corruption campaigner. Paul Field of the ''Daily Mirror'' said that this created "unintentional comedy gold", while Sara Stewart of the ''New York Post'' described it as "hilariously ill-timed". On Rotten Tomatoes, ''United Passions'' has an approval rating of 0% based on 16 reviews, while on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds a score of 1 out of 100, based on 9 critics, and is tied for the lowest scoring film on the site. ''Screen Rant'' subsequently included it on its list of the 25 worst movies of all time. ''United Passions'' was also a box office bomb, box-office bomb, becoming the lowest-grossing film ever in American history, with a total take of $918, which surpassed the previous record held by ''I Kissed a Vampire'' ($1,380) in 2012. The film additionally went Direct-to-video, directly to DVD in France and was not distributed in a number of other European countries. Several of the people involved in ''United Passions'' later expressed regret over the film. Director Auburtin called ''United Passions'' "a disaster" and added: "Now I'm seen as bad as the guy who brought AIDS to Africa or the guy who caused the financial crisis ... apparently I am a propaganda guy making films for corrupt people." Tim Roth apologized for taking part in the film and admitted that he took the job in ''United Passions'' for the money. It also received the first Barry L. Bumstead Award during the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards, a special category for critical and financial failures that were not given an eligible release.


''Dirty Grandpa'' (2016)

''Dirty Grandpa'', a 2016 comedy film starring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron as a grandfather and grandson going to Florida during spring break, received negative reviews for its Off-color humor, gross-out and Shock humour, shock humor that was also considered as Sexism, sexist, Homophobia, homophobic and Racism, racist. Mike Ryan of
Uproxx ''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...
said: "''Dirty Grandpa'' is the worst movie I’ve ever seen in a movie theater. Burn it." He later also picked it as the worst film he had ever both reviewed and seen. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood said: "... ''Dirty Grandpa,'' is not just the worst movie [De Niro] has ever been in, but it may be the worst movie ''anyone'' has ever been in." Glenn McDonald of Indy Week said: "The awful, ugly ''Dirty Grandpa'' is the comedy equivalent of torture porn ... In fact, in the dizzying moments after being bludgeoned by this miserable specimen, I was convinced it's among the worst movies ever made."
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
gave the film zero stars, writing, "If ''Dirty Grandpa'' isn't the worst movie of 2016, I have some serious cinematic torture in my near future." On his YouTube channel, Roeper also said: "I'm not ready to say ''Dirty Grandpa'' is the worst movie I've ever seen, but I'm also not ready to say it's ''not'' the worst movie I've ever seen."
Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine '' Sight & Sound'', pr ...
, on his BBC Radio 5 Live show (''Kermode and Mayo's Film Review''), said that he found the film "truly, genuinely horrible" and went on to say, "after ''Dirty Grandpa'' I did feel genuinely unclean, I wanted to go and have a shower, because it's just so revolting. Somewhere in hell there is a multiplex playing this on a double bill, with ''Movie 43'' and ''Entourage (film), Entourage''." He would later go on to brand it his least favorite film of 2016. Glenn Kenny of ''
RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...
'' said: "The actor
Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
appeared in some landmark, perhaps even great, films at the beginning of his Hollywood career in the 1930s. ... Lugosi's final film was 1957's ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'', frequently cited as the worst film ever made. The cinematic landmarks of De Niro's career include films such as Francis Ford Coppola, Coppola's ''The Godfather Part II'' and Martin Scorsese, Scorsese's ''Raging Bull''. He has been featured in a good number of very bad films in the years since. But this? This might just be his own ''Plan 9''". The film has an approval rating of 11% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 3.1/10, while on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
it has a score of 21 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". At the 37th Golden Raspberry Awards it received five nominations, for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (De Niro), Worst Screenplay, and two nominations for Worst Supporting Actress (Julianne Hough and Aubrey Plaza), but did not win in any category.


''Guardians'' (2017)

''Guardians'' is a 2017 Russian
superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature action, advent ...
about a team of Soviet superheroes created during the Cold War. It was criticized for having a derivative plot, bad acting and direction, cheap CGI, plot holes and overall low quality. ''Kg-portal.ru'' wrote that "''Guardians'' is a film from which Russian cinema should be protected. It's like a sequel to ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', filmed by Uwe Boll, with the screenplay by Tommy Wiseau and with him in the lead role". ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'' commented that the film was "Worse than you can imagine." ''Meduza'' compared the film's director, Sarik Andreasyan, to ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''s director,
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
, and said that ''Guardians'' "is a convincing answer to the eternal question of why we can never catch up with Hollywood even in our own box office". ''Afisha'' said that it was the Russian answer to ''Howard the Duck (film), Howard the Duck'', and Ivi, Inc. commented that "a more talentless film is hard to imagine". RIA Novosti placed it at the top of their worst film list, and it appears on Kritikanstvo's all-time lowest-scoring films. Critics outside of Russia generally panned the film but were not as harsh, as it has a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews. A sequel was planned, but the film was a box-office bomb, which resulted in the film's production company, Enjoy Movies, subsequently filing for bankruptcy, and the Cinema Foundation of Russia, which provided part of the budget, suing the company and demanding a return of the investment.


''Loqueesha'' (2019)

The 2019 comedy film ''Loqueesha'' stars Jeremy Saville, who also independently wrote, directed, and produced the film, as Joe, who needs money to pay for his son's private school education and, after getting rejected for a job as a radio host, the listing for which encourages women and minorities to apply, gets the job by pretending to be a sassy black woman named Loqueesha who gives out advice on air. The film's trailer and poster were panned online as racist and stereotypical upon their release, with ''Entertainment.ie''s Brian Lloyd writing that it was "one the [''sic''] worst fucking things we have ever seen, and we still can't believe it's actually real". Upon seeing the actual film, Nathan Rabin said that the film was "somehow much worse" than the trailer led people to believe. The film received universally negative reception from critics, as it garnered a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Joel Golby of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' called the plot "one of the more offensive in history", also criticizing its lighting, sound design, and acting, among other aspects of the film, and writing, "The worst film ever made. Worse than ''The Room'', in every way. The one-star rating it currently has on IMDb is actively generous. I cannot believe this film got made." Dan Kahan of ''Popdust'' called it "genuinely the worst movie [he had] ever watched", calling Saville an "unbelievable racist" and deeming the movie "grotesque", "abhorrent", and "criminal". For ''Decider (website), Decider'', Kay-B wrote that she "wouldn't recommend this film to anyone, living or dead" as it was "painfully hard to watch" while also dubbing it "the year's most reviled movie".


''Cats'' (2019)

''Cats (2019 film), Cats'' is an American film adaptation of the Cats (musical), popular musical penned by Andrew Lloyd Webber (based on the works of T. S. Eliot) and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Tom Hooper (''The King's Speech''). The film is about a tribe of cats called the jellicle cats, Jellicles as they hold their Jellicle Ball, an annual ceremony where the cats compete for the chance to enter Heaviside Layer (Cats), the Heaviside Layer, where the chosen Jellicle will Reincarnation, be granted a new life as a god. Lloyd Webber condemned the film as "ridiculous" stating, "The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn't want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show." It was criticized for computer-generated imagery, CGI "digital fur technology", which turned the film's actors into bipedal cats. An updated version of the film, with a refined CGI patch, was sent to theaters after its premiere. Critics also panned the performances of some of the actors, with James Corden and Rebel Wilson (who parodied themselves at the 92nd Academy Awards) receiving the most criticism. , ''Cats'' sits at a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won six
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
out of 9 nominations, including Worst Director for Hooper, Worst Supporting Actress for Wilson, Worst Supporting Actor for Corden, and Worst Picture overall. Early reviews for ''Cats'' were embargoed.
Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
from ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' commented that "[a] doctoral thesis could be written about how this misfire sputtered into existence". British newspaper ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' called the film an "all-time disaster" with reviewer Tom Robey giving the film "zero stars" in his review. Critics from ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', ''Rolling Stone'' and ''The Detroit News'' wrote that it was a candidate for the worst film of the 2010s, with ''The Detroit News'' reviewer Adam Graham writing: "''Cats'' is the biggest disaster of the decade, and possibly thus far in the millennium. It's ''Battlefield Earth'' with whiskers." Wade Major of ''CineGods.com'' slammed it as "''Showgirls'' with fur", while ''Battlefield Earth'' screenwriter J. David Shapiro (who previously won Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay, the Razzie for Worst Screenplay) said ''Cats'' had usurped his film as the worst ever made.


2020s


''365 Days'' (2020)

''365 Days'' (Polish language, Polish: ''365 Dni'') is a 2020 Cinema of Poland, Polish Erotic film, erotic romantic drama film directed by Barbara Białowąs and Tomasz Mandes. It is based on the first novel of a trilogy by Blanka Lipińska. The plot follows a young woman from Warsaw in a spiritless relationship falling for a dominant Sicily, Sicilian man, who imprisons and imposes on her a period of 365 days for which to fall in love with him. It stars Michele Morrone as Don Massimo Torricelli and Anna-Maria Sieklucka as Laura Biel. The film was released theatrically in Poland on February 7, 2020, and was later made available on
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
on June 7, 2020, where, despite extremely negative critical response, it became one of the most watched films, for a time being the fourth most-watched thing on Netflix UK and the third most-watched on Netflix US, and gained global attention. It was also a box-office success at Polish cinemas, grossing an estimated $8,964,000. The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, who heavily criticized its Softcore pornography, softcore themes, Rape, sexual violence and Mafia glorification. Rotten Tomatoes collected 16 reviews and identified List of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of them as positive, with an average rating of 1.9/10. Polish English-language news website ''Polish Press Agency, The First News'' says that it has been dubbed one of the worst films ever. Taylor Andrews of ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' called it the worst thing he had ever seen. Kevin Maher of ''The Times'' said "There haven't been line readings this poor since the third act of '' The Room''" and "It makes the bonking puppets in ''Team America: World Police'' look like straight-faced documentary". Maddy Mussen of ''The Tab'' called it "the worst thing Netflix has ever produced" and said "If you have watched ''365 Days'' on Netflix, there will not be a doubt in your mind that it's the worst thing you've ever seen." Jessica Kiang of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "a thoroughly terrible, politically objectionable, occasionally hilarious Polish humpathon". In March 2021, the film was nominated for six 41st Golden Raspberry Awards, Golden Raspberry Awards, for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Michele Morrone), Worst Actress (Anna-Maria Sieklucka), Worst Screenplay and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, becoming the second foreign-language film to be nominated for Worst Picture after Italy's ''Pinocchio (2002 film), Pinocchio'' (2002; albeit the dubbed version), and won only one for Worst Screenplay.


See also

* List of films considered the best * Box office bomb, Box-office bomb * List of box office bombs, List of box-office bombs * List of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes * CinemaScore#List of "F" films, CinemaScore § List of "F" films * ''The Incredibly Strange Film Show'' * Z movie


References


Works cited

* * * * * * *


External links


Rotten Tomatoes

Ebert's Most Hated

Golden Raspberry Awards

Metacritic: Worst-Reviewed Movies

Movie Review Query Engine's 50 Worst

IMDb Bottom 100
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