9 Bad Movies That are Actually Good

A look at 8 films dismissed as bad movies upon release that have since become cult favorites

“I urge you to look at bad films, they are so often sublime.”– Ado Kyrou

The above quote, from Greek writer, filmmaker and cineaste Ado Kyrou, is a vital dose of movie culture philosophy. Case in point, the recent release of Suicide Squad and the tumultuous, flaming internet apocalypse that has followed in its wake. Many critics and fans are calling the movie “bad.” But what does bad mean when it comes to assessing art, even bloated art-as-product like this?

What gives a film its value? Because someone loves it or hates it?

Who invented the rules in which we are to absorb cinema?

Because for every person that loudly derided Suicide Squad, there are handfuls of others that loved it.

Actress Barbara Crampton tweeted her passion for the picture recently. And transgressive film icon John Waters deemed it a masterpiece of camp and eccentricity.

And yet still, many insist – despite its defenders and staggering box office haul – that this film is a “bad” movie. A failure.

History has been filled with these sorts of pictures, movies that were maybe out of step with their times, that betrayed audience expectations, that were marketed wrong or that – by design or happy accident – were a bit…messy?

RELATED: Read Our Review of Suicide Squad

And in almost every instance, the film’s cited as trash today, become tomorrow’s cult treasures.

Because once the cultural zeitgeist evaporates, when the years pass and trends change, we can look at the films for what they are, not what we wanted them to be.

And then the fan-base grows. And grows. And then the film becomes immortal.

And the movies that the critics love now? By and large, sadly, time often forgets them.

But no one forgets the “bad” movies.

Today, we pluck out 8 films that were lazily dismissed as “bad” upon release but, upon deeper evaluation and gazed at via the distance of time, can now be appreciated anew.

Sure, these pictures are far from perfect. But all of them are ripe with energy and even vision. And perfection is an illusion, anyway.

See if you agree…

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